Connecting Librarian

I was reading an article not so long ago – How Google is making us smarter – which in turn was almost looking to counter a previous article – Is Google making us stupid? You can check out either or both at your leisure, but the former got me thinking.

In How Google is making us smarter, the author Carl Zimmer talks about the extended mind. This concept was first raised in 1998 by two philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers (an Aussie).  In their essay “The Extended Mind” they posed the question “Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin?” In it they posited that someone who keeps something in their memory and someone who keeps the information stored elsewhere, but at hand, (eg. on computer, in a notebook etc), are the same.  The external source that the individual uses to hold information is part of their extended mind.  Interesting viewpoint right?

So how does that relate to Librarians and evolution?  Librarians are phenomenal miners of information. We can find information on a vast array of topics and when we do, we somehow take note of the content itself or where it can be found.  Librarians have already taken the idea of the extended mind way beyond the boundary of where I am sure Clark and Chalmers imagined it would be.  How many times have friends and family been amazed at you knowing some amazing details, or being able to find out something in a very short time and with minimal difficulty. (I am notorious for finding the answers to retrospective questions – born curious and therefore a born reference librarian)

The article goes on further to comment about how humans are proving to be very good at merging mind and machine.  Look at how we drive cars – our perception of distance adjusts to the edge of the car, as it becomes an extension of ourselves.  Clark and Chalmers also argue that there is further evidence, in the form of study results that prove that our minds are constantly seeking to extend themselves.

If that is the case, then aren’t librarians at the forefront of that extension? And if that’s how humanity will continue to grow and develop, then as we are already out there on the cutting edge, doesn’t that make the librarian the next step for many on the evolutionary road?

Can you imagine it?  Evolution leads to a superhuman being – the librarian!  Gotta love the image.

No, this is not another post about the conference, but it has been inspired by it, particularly inspired by the wonderful Stephen Abrams, who always manages to inspire.

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Basically, he told us that we need to be dreaming, about our current positions and about the future – our future careers and the future of libraries.  He told some amazing stories about how librarians have had a major impact in law, medicine, engineering, health and much more.  For example, hospitals with libraries have a 20% lower mortality rate!

It was a bit daunting to think of my being a librarian making such a momentous difference, but he had a point about having something to aim for, both now and into the future.

So its being mulling around in the back of my mind whilst we had a family holiday around the Alice Springs and surrounds after the conference.  It still is, because I don’t have a definite dream, just vague ideas of what I want to be doing in my profession, both now and into the future.  And I’m going to share some of those now!

So for now – I want to really push for my library to start doing podcasting.  That means that I will need to push for equipment and then do some training with staff. I’m happy to edit and upload the files, but I can’t be at every event that we wish to podcast.  It may not happen overnight, but I plan to make it happen.

Our website redevelopment has been postponed for a while, so now I’ll get back to working with our team on what we really want our website to include in terms of functionality as well as content, so will start pushing that process too.

Thats not to say that my workplace is not supportive of these things, they are – but like elsewhere, we all got sidetracked or distracted by other things.

For my own professional development, I want to keep presenting, writing papers and doing some more journal articles.  I like being able to contribute to my profession beyond this blog. And I seem to be much better at doing so these days.  This blog is still my focus, although there was a time in recent months when I wondered if I would continue with it, but I got over it and I’m here to stay.

As for the future, as with some things in the present, I’m still mulling over that.  Eventually, I’ll get back into full time work and some sort of more senior management position, although whether I will be looking at more technical services, or more customer services, I don’t yet know.  My passion is virtual services and it neatly straddles both those areas.  Maybe the job I want doesn’t exist yet.  I am pretty sure I want to stay in public libraries, although if the right job came along, I would definitely consider the change.

So that’s where my dreams are hopefully taking me at present.  Rejuvenating my focus in my current job and giving me some sort of direction for the future.  I think its important that we continue to dream and give ourselves a focus, both for the benefit of our libraries and users and for our own professional development.  To quote Kathryn Greenhill – Librarians Matter – as does the work we do and the people we serve.

Re-imagining library services: a new collaborative vision by Alan Smith – NSLA

NSLA comprises the Australian state, territory, national libraries and the national library of New Zealand. They are working to build the next stage of libraries for our users. The 4 key points and 10 projects are making way and getting librarians out of the way.

One library, transforming our culture and accessible content are the core of what they are trying to achieve. 5 year plan with a central office to help push it forward.

Do it now – SLV – opening up services
Access now – NLA and NLNZ – one library card
Virtual reference – SLV – next generation of online reference – not looking at the next version of Ask Now
Delivery – SLWA – being able to deliver content into peoples hands, wherever they are
Community created content – SLQ and NLNZ – communities of geographic and interest, being able to create their own digital libraries
Creating culture – SLSA – organising and storing
Collaborative collections – SLNSW and SLQ – trying to limit duplication and improve resource sharing – consortial arrangements
Flexible cataloguing – improving access to content – reengineering cataloguing
Scaling up digitisation – industrialise it, working on business case for significant national investment
Connecting and discovering content – NLA – improve coverage and quality of data, partnerships to improve discovery – a common catalogue interface and a national metadata store.

Big Stuff – Library Challenges – Stephen Abram – Sirsi-Dynix Institute

We need to tell good stories – tell each other about the good things that happen, not the bad, which is what we usually do.

Stephen said that our stuff is awesome, we are in good standing amongst the libraries of the world. We need to let go of the nostalgia. Change has been really slow relatively speaking, especially compared to the baby busters. Big changes coming, which will be fun if you like riding a roller coaster.

What are we going to do to get good results for our users – how can we negate the skewed results of search engine optimisation – where anyone can make sure their content, true or not, lists high in results.

Some people have 40 year careers. Ensure it is 40 years of incrementally better years, not just the same thing year after year. Choose to make the difference. You need to put your meat in the game = professionals commit.

Libraries matter – the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grants is just one example. Stephen gave a long list of examples where librarians are making a real difference, doing things that get people connected to the net and to the information they need, saving money, saving lives, saving our culture and our history and so much more. We need to tell our government about the competitive edge that libraries give Australia. Who do you think built Yahoo – librarians were pulled in to make it work.

What is the competitive advantage we have in our environment? The difference between us the internet is us – sensitive, intelligent, helpful – we are not a list. Put ourselves out there, with photo and social networking profile. Show who we are as well as what we can do.

DREAM BIG – start small, but dream big.

We dont know every little moment of truth that happens in the library. We can be the human touch for people. We may never know the difference we make to each individual.

Democracies persist because of libraries. Its not coincidence that libraries are often the first casualty of war. Librarians protect freedom of information, giving access to all, regardless of what our opinion of it is – we are truly bipartisan.

We have to learn the things that are making a difference, improving service to our users. If you dont want to learn, then get out of the profession.

We are a global profession, a bottomless network. Every librarian has hundreds of moments of truth, where we fight for our freedom, save lives, cure disease, challenge poverty and ignorance. Not dreaming 08, but dreaming big. Say yes every chance you get, encourage others and dont get discouraged. Those who say it cant be done, get out of the way of those who are already doing the impossible.

We are about books, we dont have to advertise that, what we do need to advertise is that we have people who can help you with just about anything. Show who we are and what we can do.

Web 2.0 is about things you can do and people you know. When you go online do you see people you know. You need to be where your users are, otherwise you are on a march to irrelevance.

Stuff will change faster now – by 2020, all content ever created will fit on an iPod. Video games outsell most content combined, ringtones are huge! Pocket size devices will dominate, the devices coming out are about having ubiquitous access on your person.

New? Semantic web, the cloud, no choice search engines, GIS oriented search, virtually unlimited fulltext books, streaming media and spoken word search, personalisation 3.0, microblogging, registries and so much more.

Normal now is RSS, blogs, YouTube, social networks tagging, wikis, SEO and GIS. If libraries arent involved in that, then they are behind. Resist the library culture of poverty, victimisation, risk aversion and passive resistance. We have to pass the chasm of early adopters and into the space of early majority. We have a technology lifecycle, we have to get on the curve early and stay there.

If we dont get into social networking, then we are going to miss it when they progress to the next stage – this is just the tip of the iceberg.

So what should libraries be paying attention to? The user-centred universe, be more open to users paths. A few things to do right away – the time is now! Need to play, pilot, trial, experiment. Mobile is important, confirm your presence, be where your users are, how your presence appear – personal,, professional; get good at the cloud (where users are going), play at e-books, get serious at literacy (dont use that term for users) and check out XML, get serious about e-learning, care about our cultures, just expand, know that most physical objects are dead, get real about influence, the next generation content.

Humans are our competitive edge. Be open to lifelong learning, our careers have seasons, need to have reciprocal mentoring – peers, be important, we can invent the future and make a difference. Just have some fun! Dream big!

Have a big week coming up – attending and giving a short showcase at VALA in Melbourne. So before I start blogging that (hopefully live), I thought give my readers some interesting things to read.

Pew/Internet regularly produces reports related to online use. One of the latest was conducted with the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois on Information searches that solve problems: how people use the internet, libraries and government agencies when they need help.  Interesting results include high use of public libraries by Generation Y’ers for the scenarios surveyed, digital divide is still an issue and the expected result of the internet as a first stop.  Well worth a look at.

University College London has produced another in their series of Ciber briefing  papers, this one on the Information behaviour of the researcher of the future.   The study was commissioned by the British Library and JISC to “identify how the specialist researchers of the future, currently in their school or pre-school years, are likely to access and interact with digital resources in five to ten years’ time.”  Very eye opening with some interesting results.

The Horizon Report 2008 from the New Media Consortium is out.  It aims to “identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning or creative expression within learning-focused organizations’.  This is their 5th annual report.  Considering the link between libraries of any type and our learning organisations, this is a key document to be watching.  The key emerging technologies highlighted in this report include grassroots video, collaboration webs, mobile broadband, data mashups, collective intelligence and social operating systems.   You can get the gist of the report through the Executive Summary.  Definitely food for thought for our libraries.

Enjoy!

I have been swamped lately, instead of getting quieter towards Christmas, I seem to be getting busier. So as I have done before, here’s links to some great reading that I just don’t have the time to blog about at present.

Internet Librarian has been and gone in Monterey, California. For those of us who missed it, there is great coverage on quite a few blogs, including ALA TechSource, Library Bytes, David Lee King and The Shifted Librarian, just to name a few. The presentations are also now available at the Internet Librarian 2006 website. Thanks to all the bloggers who attend and give us the rundown, I am amongst many who appreciate your time and effort so that we can share the conference.

Stephen Abrams has written a fascinating 3 part paper, “Waiting for your cat to bark – competing with Google and its ilk“. You may or may not agree with what he has to say, but either way it is an interesting exploration of libraries and where they fit in this knowledge economy, very well worth the read.

One potential future of book publishing is explored in “The Book as place: The “Networked book” becomes the new “in” destination.” It discusses the different forms of networked book, where people are able to post comments, corrections, thoughts, disagreements, to the contents of a book in draft form online. Fascinating idea.

The Librarian in Black gives a great overview of the papers presented at a mini-conference, “The Future of Libraries Pt 2: Models that work“, in San Francisco.

My friend and coblogger CW at Ruminations did a great paper on blogs at the ALIA Click 06 conference in Perth. “Creating Community: the blog as a networking device” gives a great overview of blogs and their use in libraries and professional development. Many other conference papers are available from the ALIA Click 06 website. The team at Libraries Interact.info, also did a great job at summarising at “Blog the conf“. Thanks guys!

Read, discover, learn and enjoy!