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Does your library do the roving librarians thing? Is it true that the literature shows that they have outlived their usefulness and that most university libraries have abandoned this approach?
Huh. Hadn't seen that in the literature though I guess I haven't looked too in-depth on that side of things. We haven't kept up our mini bookmobile (going to student cafes) this year but really that was down to insufficient staffing.
- Deborah Fitchett
My library has never done any official roving, but I'd be interested in seeing the literature on that.
- lris
Well I did a quick look couldn't find anything in the literature that says so either (though perhaps the topic isn't so 'hot' anymore), but wasn't expecting so anyway. You seldom see negative results (I did X, but X failed) published. Still it could be true that most libraries have abandoned the approach for practical reasons such as staffing as mentioned.
- aarontay
We're supposed to do it, but it doesn't happen often, nor is it enforced.
- Cecily
Most of the librarians I follow here, on Twitter, and through RSS are librarians who write about tech. That's fine, but who are some librarians who write about libraries and librarianship as a profession?
Richard Akerman and Flitcraft liked this
I'm not entirely sure what you are looking for. It seems like most librarians write a lot of stuff about practical concerns. Are you interested in people writing about non-tech practical stuff? Or more for people who are writing "big picture" stuff? Do you read In the Library With the Lead Pipe? Iris Jastram? Jenica Rogers-Urbanek? Catherine Pellegrino? (All LSW folks, those.)
- Steve Incandenza
Another place to look for stuff about librarianship as a profession would be http://acrlog.org/ - admittedly, primarily about academic libraries, but it's a starting point. Also, Steven Bell, who writes apparently everywhere, writes about tech ("blended librarianship") but also about larger professional issues. (Thanks for the shout-out, Steve! *blushes*)
- Catherine Pellegrino
Steve, even though I have an LIS degree, I spent my first four years out of library school in usability/information architecture in corporations. I've not kept up with librarianship as a profession (other than the library 2.0 stuff), and realize I'm probably missing out on some good thinking. Almost all of the librarians I read on a regular basis focus on Library 2.0. I'm looking to broaden my horizons.
- Cecily
And also, if you have links, please share them. :)
- Cecily
It's not librarians' blogs, but if you don't already know about it Library Success Wiki is a collection of best practices, not just tech: http://www.libsuccess.org/index.... And Lyrasis has the Library Leadership Network wiki: http://pln.lyrasis.org/wiki....
- Flitcraft
Thanks for the links!
- Cecily
That Iris Jastram, man, she's an inconsistent blogger... (NTS: Write more often. Also, thanks Steve.)
- lris
Random thought for libs- can you have too many different ways for clients to interact? Eg is 8 diff online request a service forms too many? (via http://friendfeed.com/suelibr...)
yes
- Richard Akerman
Absolutely.
- LLL
most likely
- Christina Pikas
Thanks for the concise thoughts. :) For clarification we have a different form for each type of service (eg doc del, purchase, training req) plus a general "ask a librarian" form. Still thinking whether is good or bad thing.
- suelibrarian
If a) the info from the client really needs to be in a specific format, and more importantly b) the distinction between different services is intuitively obvious to even the most stressed client, then I think different forms is okay. <thinks> The form should ideally be making life easier for the client, not forcing the client to make life easier for the library.
- Deborah Fitchett
Cognitive load is the key concept here, I think. How easy is it for the patron to find the right form? How many patrons, confronted with a list of forms, will back off? How hard would it be to combine these forms into one? Would the resulting form be a Rube Goldberg monstrosity?
- D0r0th34
Just had an interesting talk with a librarian. Meebome doesn't give you transcripts, so how do libraries using it handle this? Why not as a librarian i chatted with suggest we use either AIM's widget + Pidgin, or Digsby + digsby's widget?
If you use a client like Pidgin or Adium, that is compatible with MeeboMe, the client can record the chats I think.
- Ken Fujiuchi
Does anyone know of any instructions for creating PDF/A-compliant PDFs from standard software such as TeX, Word, Adobe Acrobat, Apple Preview?
I use PDF Creator a print plugin that works for me in Word 2k3 If you use word 2k7 I think they print/convert to pdf automatically.
- ♫Geek in the 410♫
PDF, yes. PDF/A?
- D0r0th34
My bad..I should have realized that PDF/A was slightly different from PDF's
- ♫Geek in the 410♫
the Wikipedia page for PDF/A says that Word 2007 has an option for for creating PDF/A. TeX will be a bit harder, probably. Geek: PDF/A is a subset of PDF, rather than being "different" from it.
- DJF
I know that, DJF. My question is, how can I help someone write ETD production guidelines such that students produce PDF/A-compliant documents rather than whatever hash their pet tool turns out?
- D0r0th34
From PDF/A website. http://www.pdfa.org/doku...
- ♫Geek in the 410♫
AWESOME. Thank you!
- D0r0th34
fwiw, an earlier version of PDF Creator required manual Regedits to remove - it was a p.i.t.a. - not sure how well newer versions uninstall. Also, it installed a custom Yahoo toolbar which also needed manual regedits to remove. (also, I don't see where PDF creator does PDF/A?)
- Sisyphus the Librarian
Get your geek on. Support the library. | geekthelibrary.org - http://geekthelibrary.org/# (via http://friendfeed.com/hollysu...)
Darko liked this
Libraries, eBooks, and the Mobile Web: A Long Ways to Go - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Mathew A. Koeneker liked this
While some libraries are often conservative when it comes to adopting new technologies, we would think that starting to adopt some of these technologies like eBooks and better mobile services now would help these institutions to remain relevant in a future where those large buildings in the middle of campus are already turning more into places for study groups to meet up and grab a cup of coffee than centers of academic research.
- Cecily
http://www.ferguson.lib.mo.us/ Yep, even my lil one. :-)
- Mathew A. Koeneker
Money meant for library benefits paying Detroit's bills | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press - http://www.freep.com/apps...
Tracy Benham, Brent:Too Cool for School, Jason Toney and Maria Niles liked this
"The City of Detroit has been spending property tax money intended for Detroit Public Library employees' benefits on city operations instead, a library official said Friday. The library is a separate municipal corporation from the city with a dedicated millage that provides most of its $48-million annual budget. On Friday, Library Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch said library staff learned this week that the city spent $6.2 million in property tax money that was supposed to go to the library, dating back to July 1. The money was to cover employee benefits and contributions to the library workers' pension fund. The city still owes the library the money."
- Cecily
via Bookmarklet
Detroit. Stuck on stupid since before I was born.
- Jason Toney
School’s out! « Pique of the Week - http://piqueoftheweek.wordpress.com/2009...
from my library's local history blog
- Sia Stewart
via Bookmarklet
please help me w/ another ? re: libraries (esp. those w/ multiple branches) that tweet: how much time on avg does maintaining the twitter account take per wk or even per day (collecting posts form other branches, scheduleing posts, etc.) thanks!!!!
LLL and John Dupuis liked this
Right now, only one of our branches (the Central branch) is on Twitter, and there are about three or four of us who are responsible for the account. We keep an eye on the calendar (I usually check first thing each morning) to see if there are any branch events coming up, and if there are, I post them to our feed. In all, I'd have to say I spend less than 5 minutes per day collecting posts/information from the 21 other branches in our system.
- Cecily
thanks! that's what i thought...but mpow is under the impression it would take too much staff time.
- αnnα vαȵ scoyoç
We are in the exploratory phase, and I think 3 libraries have accounts so far (maintained by different people. No consistent policy, and with different agendas. So far it takes about 5 minutes a week because we are just tweeting news type things, and not actually trying to have conversations with patrons. Hard to say what it will evolve into
- JSNFLMNG
Anna, I manage twitter for one library, academic. And it takes an awful lot of time, but that has everything to do with how we use it. Luckily, the tweeting is a shared responsibility and so that reduces the burden on each person. Details on what we do are at http://deepening.wordpress.com/2009.... It will take more and less time in the Fall as we automate some elements and ramp up interactivity....
- RudĩϐЯaЯïaȵ
thank you! all so very very helpfu!
- αnnα vαȵ scoyoç
British Library publishes online archive of 19th-century newspapers | Media | The Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media...
αnnα vαȵ scoyoç, lris, Steve Incandenza and 3 other people liked this
19th century news online
- Sia Stewart
via Bookmarklet
I wonder if any librarian has used twitter, audience polling and/or other social media tools to carry out information literacy lessons?
Related: Last year we printed out 15-question "Do you know how to..." surveys for 650 first-year engineering students with option to sign up for tutorial. They were done in lab sessions so we had 128 responses; 53 said they wanted tutorials but only a couple/few turned up (too near mid-year exams). This year we tried an online poll with the link emailed to students and on our subject guide, but not in lab sessions so only had 6 responses.
- Deborah Fitchett
Libraries can be contacted in person, phone, email, IM, SMS, twitter, skype, remote screen sharing/casting (skype+plugins or Unyte/Yuuguu/dimdim etc) and Google wave! Also blogs, social networking tools. How many does your library have?
suelibrarian and LLL liked this
hmm... person, phone, email, IM, twitter I think. We tend to use Jing rather than remote screensharing apps.
- D0r0th34
person, phone, email, IM, blog/libguide comments (though I don't think many of us have received libguide comments), suggestion box comments. Occasionally people reply to our SMS overdue messages though that's not an intended or major mode of reaching us. Facebook coming soon.
- Deborah Fitchett
Person, phone, email for us. Probably adding IM soon.
- Rachel Walden
In person, phone, email, chat, Twitter, Get Satisfaction, Facebook.
- Cecily
If you were made University Librarian and had extra resources (be reasonable!) what one initiative would you carry out?
Jen (SquirrelGirl), LLL, Cecily and Baroness Von Cut-A-Bitch‽ liked this
Insist that everyone in a "professional" type position (let's not start a big debate over what that means - it means what it means at your institution) has time built into the structure of their work schedule on a weekly or monthly basis for professional development, reading, writing, etc. Promulgate this through all the middle management layers so everyone knows this time is sacred.
- Jenny Reiswig
librarians who have done pitches/explained twitter. any tips on what to cover? To clarify we talking about setting up twitter accounts for libraries.
Juergen Plieninger, Lambert Heller and Oliver Obst liked this
We are currently going from one twitter account of a special library, @wiwibib, (which is part of a bigger university library) to (at least one) more twitter account(s). I like to point colleagues to the simplicity and the multiple uses of twitter. As Anne Christensen (@xenzen on Twitter) pointed out at a german library conference two weeks ago, you can try Twitter "without anybody watching", you get instant feedback, you can interact, and you can count interactions/followers.
- Lambert Heller
General advice: Keep theory short; show them pictures and tell stories of good practice. Try (if not to risky) to start twittering without telling anyone at your institution and then share your experiences afterwards.
- Lambert Heller
I agree with Lambert's advice - maybe one more point: try to identify patrons of your library who twitter. In a university setting, this probably won't be hard. Sometimes there are even twitter groups for a university or a town. This is a point where librarians can clearly see the benefits of "joining the conversation" - especially if there are tweets about the library.
- Anne Christensen
And then you follow them that they follow you?
- Oliver Obst
No, I wouldn't do that. If appropriate, I reply to things they say and ask. And it helps to know some of your institution's twitterers personally.
- Anne Christensen
It'd be appropriate to follow institutional accounts I think - eg the uni twitter account, the computer science department's account, that kind of thing - but for personal ones, unless you know the person they might feel a bit stalked. OTOH if they follow you, then definitely follow them back.
- Deborah Fitchett
Hmmm, but users with public Twitter accounts expose themself to the public, and for being followed, don't they? Rule of thumb at my institutional Twitter account: Follow individuals at faculty as soon as they twitter about university topics. So far, nobody complained.
- Lambert Heller
I never understood why library accounts follow other institutional accounts. As an individual I can see why I would follow say my uni account (to keep track of news), but why would a library account do so? If I was truly interested in what it was saying, I would view it from my individual account not my library twitter account. One possible reason, follow "Reputable sources" to signal to users who to follow...
- aarontay
I think it's makes a lot more sense to follow users, because in theory if you see one of them tweet about "library" (even if not mentioning your institution) in your stream, you know they are talking about you... But this get's unwieldy if you have thousands of followers.
- aarontay
Okay, so my stuff from ALA doesn't say anything about being a one-day thing; it just has SPEAKER on it. How safe is it to assume I have a pass for the whole shindig? 'Cos that may change my plans, if so.
I'd guess it's good for the whole shindig, and if there's no date stamped on it, that's a 99%-certain guess. (And I'd guess that's SOP for non-member speakers--that is, a comped registration *for the conference.*) But I don't work for ALA and will shortly have no official role there, so...
- Walt Crawford
I expect that's good enough to get you into just about whatever you want to attend.
- Steve Incandenza
Coolio. Think I'll stay for the weekend, then. Anybody willing to split a room?
- D0r0th34
“The Public Bedammed” « Pique of the Week - http://piqueoftheweek.wordpress.com/2009...
Sisyphus the Librarian liked this
transportation issues from 1896
- Sia Stewart
via Bookmarklet
Googlewave is going to be disruptive, let's brainstorm ideas for library use now!
Laura Norvig, 芸窗 and Laura the Sea Cow liked this
Reference services can definitely use this for new email/chat/IM hybrid.
- Stephen Francoeur
Reference librarians collaborate on one branch, while librarians and patrons collaborate on another? Would existing wiki projects (for documentation, wikis) change cos of Googlewave?
- aarontay
I can't quite map it out yet, as I think I'd need to play with Google Wave for a while to figure out how to use it for reference, but it offers "email" and it offers "chat," so it clearly would allow a library to use it to communicate directly with patrons. I like the way that it allows you to embed waves in web pages so conversations can be made public and repurposed (would have to work out how and when it would be OK to share reference transactions of course...privacy still matters a lot).
- Stephen Francoeur
Virtual reference, especially if it's fairly simple to code a bot that can answer basic directional questions if a librarian's not there (eg it's 2am).
- Deborah Fitchett
My concern is with wikis. Will it make all our wiki projects pointless? My sense is that wikis will still be used, but instead of discussion pages, google wave would be used, but after thrashing it all out, it would still be done on wikis
- aarontay
Stupid question, I know, but why would Googlewave necessarily be disruptive rather than additive? (You know, lots of mail lists still do very well...as do loads of "groups" that are as antique as they come.)
- Walt Crawford
has anybody worked with the organization bookwormregistry.com? how has that worked out for you? (via http://friendfeed.com/siastew...)
question for those libraries w/ multiple branches that have a twitter account -- i'm looking for basic workflow/coordination ideas? how many staff do the twittering? do your co-workers submit tweets to the twitterer(s)? do you have a rep at each branch? etc.
aarontay, joanne quinn and suelibrarian liked this
Not that we have branches per se, but we debated having mutli ppl post to same acct & I pushed (& got) for having me as only twitterer so as to avoid duplication of messages, oversaturation, etc. If someone wants something posted they send to me. I often use FutureTweets to schedule posts (abt 1 /day on ave) as well (this tool is a must have for this kind of acct!).
- Dana Longley
The UWDigiCollec account has several Twitterers (including me). So far there's a gentleman's agreement that we shouldn't be pushing out more than two-three tweets a day, and that's working fine.
- D0r0th34
it's interesting, b/c i'm rolling around in my head whether 1) we should have all tweets coordinated via one person or 2) one person each from different "departments" (YS, IT, Adult Programs, etc.), or 3) one tweeter from each branch. But I think the point re: over-saturation is a good one, which both dana and d0r0th34 have touched on.
- αnnα vαȵ scoyoç
Collaboration 2.0 | ALA TechSource | Library Technology Reports Archive - http://www.alatechsource.org/ltr... (via http://friendfeed.com/yunchua...)
Ali Strachan on binding books | Money | guardian.co.uk - http://www.guardian.co.uk/money...
lovely video about bookbinding
- Sia Stewart
via Bookmarklet
Should taxpayer money be spent on novels, electronic books, movie DVDs and music CDs? | LISNews - http://lisnews.org/should_...
Andrew Leahey liked this
"The library is not an entertainment center, it is a place to convey knowledge" -Jeff Carlson, Commissioner of Highlands County YouTube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch...
- Gina
via Bookmarklet
I don't see who can say what is purely for entertainment and what has an educational value. Libraries should give people the tools to pursue their interests, whatever they may be. Limiting the purchases of certain types of books deemed not "educational" seems like it would alienate people more than make them read books deemed worthwhile by the library or other officials.
- Gina
So, librarians have finally moved on from the "Fiction Question" of the 19th/early 20th C, but the politicians haven't?
- DJF
Because you obviously can't learn anything from novels? *sigh*
- Abigail (Hε₫§εhσ§ ĺﺃβ)
Whenever someone talks about how the purpose of the library is always and only educational, I'm always sure it's someone who doesn't really like/use libraries.
- Steve Incandenza
Follow up: http://lisnews.org/librari...
- Gina
So Mr 9's intense interest in reading magic books would then be taken away... Because that is certainly fiction. Who cares if that spurs a life long love of something. Don't forget about the horrible Harry Potter series. That has done nothing to promote reading... Idiots.
- Joe Kraus
Pique of the Week - http://piqueoftheweek.wordpress.com/
from my library's local history blog
- Sia Stewart
via Bookmarklet
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