Connecting Librarian

I’m so excited! I have just been presented with the Margery C. Ramsay award, by the Library Board of Victoria.

Stepping back a moment, a bit of background. The Library Board of Victoria, through the State Library of Victoria, offers 2 scholarships each year, in honour of Margery C. Ramsay and Barrett Reid, “two eminent librarians who contributed to public libraries in Victoria.”

The Ramsay Reid Scholarships for public librarians in Victoria, aim to support individual professional development, benefit the recipients home library service and then other libraries within the state of Victoria. They are applied for individually through an comprehensive application form, accompanied by suitable references and support from the applicants library service. These applications are assessed by a committee and the 2 awards are then made around this time of year.

The scholarship can be used for a range of activities, including further education, study tours, conference and forum attendance, interships or secondments and relevant private research projects. Most scholarship winners have undertaken study tours.

Last Wednesday night, I was awarded the Margery C. Ramsay scholarship at a presentation at the State Library of Victoria, hosted by State Librarian Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, with the award presented by the President of the Library Board of Victoria (and former Premier) the Honourable John Cain. Congratulations to Ann Boland from Hume Global Learning Village who received the Barrett Reid scholarship on the same night!

I applied to do a study of selected public libraries in the US, who are providing “cutting edge service to their virtual users.” As regular blog readers will know, this is an incredibly fast growing area and although Australian libraries are doing some great things, we aren’t as cutting edge as some in the US.

So where and when. Part of my application included attending the Computers in Libraries conference in Arlington, Virginia in April 2007, where I hope to make a brief presentation on some of the cutting edge things that are happening here in Australia. (for my Aussie readers, please let me know of any projects here that fill that description!). Therefore, the tour will revolve around those set dates.

My itinerary is far from finalised, but I have been so very well supported, with fantastic responses from the following libraries, who I will be visiting around that time. Many thanks to Darien Library (CT), Princeton Public Library (NJ), Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg Library (NC), Ann Arbor District Library (MI), Hennepin County Library (MN), St Joseph County Public Library (IN), Thomas Ford Memorial Library (IN) and Web Junction (in Ohio). Thank you to all the fantastic staff at these services, who have been so supportive and encouraging of my plans. I am also looking at squeezing in a few more visits, so I will keep my readers posted on plans as they develop. And of course I’ll be blogging the trip the whole time I am away, so look for increased postings in April 2007.

What do I hope to get from this trip? A focus for my passion for serving our current users and getting new, virtual users.

I am excited, bubbling over, a little apprehensive and I will miss my husband and my children terribly. (got to love Skype!) Still, I can’t wait. For my US readers, I hope I get the chance to meet you when I’m there, either at CIL or at one of the library services I visit. Let me know if its possible, as I would be honoured to meet you in person.

Roll on 2007!

This from CW at Ruminations and Kathryn, my co-conspirators at librariesinteract.info. Should be a fascinating time for all. Hope you can make it!

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The Australian libraries blog, librariesinteract.info, is hosting an end-of year party in Second Life on 13th December, 6pm to 8pm Western Australian time.

Second Life is a virtual world, with a population of over 1 million, in which large companies, schools and Universities (IBM, Dell, Harvard) have set up shop. Reuters newsagency has its own correspondent there. According to a September 2006 Popular Science article, Second Life, through currency trading, shopping and land sales, has a GDP of $64 Million. Recently, Australian Libraries were given a free building for a year on Cybrary City, courtesy of Talis and the Alliance Library System in return for 2 hours per week work on library services for SL residents.

The party will include a tour of Info Island and Info Island II by Lori Bell from Alliance Library Systems. We will follow the yellow brick road from the Oz library to the Kansas State Library Virtual Branch next door. Then, back to our building to hang out… dance on the dance floor, snare some cyber snacks, and go easy on the virtual alcoholic beverages.

You can join in virtually from your own PC, or come and look over our shoulders in real life. If you join in virtually, it would be a good idea to check out Second Life before the event. :
1. Go to the Second Life site
2. Check the systems requirements .
3. Go to the join up page and choose one of the family names offered..and make up your first name.
4. You will be asked for your credit card details, but do not have to give them.
5. Download the Second Life client to your PC.
6. Choose how you’d like your avatar (representation in SL) to look.
7. Enter…explore.
8. Teleport to just outside our building at: 207, 68, 23. (Often passersby can help you out to do this) Alternatively, we can teleport you to our building, if you send us a message.

For further details, please contact Con Wiebrands (flexnib@gmail.com) or Kathryn Greenhill (sirexkat@gmail.com). If you are already exploring Second Life and would like to meet up, our SL names are Paradoxa Kurrajong (Con) and Emerald Dumont (Kathryn) - feel free to IM us!

Hope to see you on Info Island!
Kathryn and Con
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About a month ago, there was a flurry of posts in the biblioblogosphere, related to an article in the Lawrence Journal-World. In response to a debate on whether Lawrence should get a brand new library building , triple its current size, Mark Hirsched wrote a piece “Libraries are limited, obsolete“. Wow, did it get a response.

I recommend you check out the original article, when I checked, there were over 60 comments.
You should also check out the following responses in the biblioblogosphere:

• Going to the boneyard - at blyberg.net
• Libraries=obsolete?? - at What I learned today (with a nice quote in the comments)
• Ten things I know about libraries in 2006 - at Tame the Web
• Libraries are obsolete — No sir, I beg to differ - at Librarian in Black

I got hot under the collar when I first read it, as did many other librarians. However, John Blyberg put an interesting spin on it, which got me thinking. Although his criticisms are unfounded (in soooo many ways), here is the voice of a non-user speaking loud and clear. What can we learn from it?

I was pleased to see that many of the comments on the article came from both sides of the argument, including users and librarians. It would be even better if a major article could appear in response to the original, with the same prominence - thereby offering both sides of the story in a major way, rather than just the response as a byline.

I don’t know the situation in Lawrence, but from reading the comments attached to the original article, it seems that some people believe its too much money and that rather than having a large central library, either the existing one could be overhauled or new smaller satellite libraries in outer areas could be built instead, taking the library to the public rather than expecting them to come in. More libraries at point of need - it may not be financially feasible, but it could be considered.

The usual concern about the public not knowing what libraries can do for them comes up everywhere throughout this process. They know we have computers but not the resources they can access (besides the internet), through them or from anywhere with their library card. That is an issue that I don’t think anyone has been able to resolve and unfortunately I don’t have the answers either, but we have to keep trying.

Mark Hirschey says he has devoted his life to education, does that mean he hasn’t noticed that students are using the Internet, with its often unreliable sources as their only source of information for research. Several librarian bloggers have posted recently on students who have used Wikipedia exclusively as their research tool - including a uni student preparing a theses proposal (See Ruminations). A recent C|New News.com article also expressed the need for libraries in this instant with the article “Most reliable search tool could be your librarian“.

I’ll let you read and think on the rest. Most of my concerns are addressed by the other blog entries I have referred to. In the meantime, I will re-read Mark Hirschey original post, to find out what else we can learn from our detractors and brainstorm about how we can adapt our services to meet the needs of each of our community’s and also to let all our public know, not just our current users, of the treasures available from and within their local library.

The title of this post comes from the post that inspired this stream of thought. In the September 15, 2006 Library Journal, Sophie Brookover talked about her profession as it fits with her family. Sophie blogs the well-known and well-regarded “Pop goes the Library” which talks about pop culture and libraries.

Sophie’s article “Priorities and Professionalism” discusses her change of life status, having married and now having a baby. From being a full on professional, with her fingers in many pies, she now finds herself wanting to slowly extricate a great number of those fingers, whilst still keeping her hand in. The article is well worth the read, I recommend you check it out.

I can relate to Sophie’s situation, but at the slightly other end of the scale. I never got involved in the profession like she did before I married and had children. I did a paper at the RAISS conference in 1999 and then was on the organising committee for the 2001 RAISS conference, but apart from that I was pretty much a lurker - to borrow a blogging term, watching it all from the outside.

However, I have my 2 children (and no more), the oldest at school, the youngest at kinder and I find I would like to be more involved in my profession, but I am still having the same battles that Sophie is having. I have worked half-time since my eldest was born and don’t think that will change for the foreseeable future. I work because I enjoy what I do, but the part-time for me is a balance between family and profession. When I am not at work, I get behind my children and husband in things they do - school library, kinder committee, church and my husband’s business. And on top of that I am still a wife and mum as well as a librarian.

How do I get involved, when the activities of my profession outside of my work are mainly in the city and I am on the outer edge and have 2 children and a husband to consider. You get the idea that I don’t get to go to them much, right! In fact, I can’t remember the last one I attended out of work time! I am fortunate that my workplace sends me to some first rate sessions that brings me in contact with others in my profession, but although it may be enough for some, its not for me.

So what can I do, to contribute to my profession, both mine and the wider one, whilst still maintaining my family as priority. Blogs have been my first step, reading them initially and then writing my own, for myself and for others. (thanks for being an other!) My next step is to post more frequently I hope, to go from monthly to weekly even if its only just a short post. Where to go from there, I am not quite sure.

Its small, but its a start. And I guess its going to be an ongoing challenge for a while too - this balancing act I want to manage. But for those who know me, if my plate wasn’t full, I wouldn’t be happy.

Any thoughts or suggestions you could offer on my next step would be much appreciated.