Connecting Librarian

Its been so long between posts, because its been busy. Between work, a conference paper, a journal article, school holidays and trying to organise our holiday to Central Australia, I haven’t had time to think.  But its all done or booked now.  So I’ll begin my catch up blogging by talking about what I’ve been reading of late.

Felipe Morin

I’ve been doing something that I have never really done before - reading a lot of non-fiction. I have always been a strictly fiction gal, with only the odd non-fiction title thrown in for good measure. They are very different styles to read.  For me, non-fiction takes a lot more work and is a lot drier reading, whereas I can get lost in a good fiction book.  On the otherhand, I will persist with a non-fiction book, but won’t with a fiction book if its not engaging me.

Anyway, after reading recommendations on blogs, websites, article and more, I decided to throw myself in to the world of popular culture and more, usually relating to the internet. Being a good librarian, I got them from my public library of course!  Either from their collection or from the collection of one of the 13 other public library services in our ILMS consortia.  So here’s what I’ve been reading, with a bit of a review and my thoughts on each title.

Purple cow: transform your business by being remarkable by Seth Godin

I have been following Seth Godin’s blog and although I don’t always find it interesting and relevant, there is the odd post which really catches my attention.  Its also a good way to keep in touch with what’s happening in popular culture.  So Purple cow talks about the things that businesses can go to make a real impact on customers - and its not about the right television ad or the best logo - its the things that you do that are really attention grabbing.

It was interesting to read it as a librarian, because we do remarkable things everyday - lend latest bestselling everything - FOR FREE!  So how do we add to that remarkableness and how do we get people’s attention in the first place.  Its short, full of great practical examples and it makes you think about marketing practices, so it was well worth the time invested in reading it.

Long tail: how endless choice is creating unlimited demand by Chris Anderson

The Long tail has been talked about around the blogosphere since it was published in 2006 and although I understood the concept of it, I wanted to know more of the details.  Although libraries aren’t true representatives of the long tail, as a library user reminded me the other day, we do lend items that they can’t get through the shops anymore, so we have more of the tail than retail does.  So it was interesting to read how the long tail works and to recognise libraries’ place on the graph.

Dancing barefoot : five short but true stories about life in the so-called space age and

Just a geek : unflinchingly honest tales of the search for life, love, and fulfillment beyond the Starship Enterprise by Wil Wheaton

Wil Wheaton, of Stand by Me and Welsey Crusher on the Enterprise (Star Trek) fame, has become a noted blogger and popular culture commentator, as well as actor and now author.  These books were stories from his life and were a hoot.  He is an excellent writer, engaging, amusing and captivating.  Both books were easy and enjoyable to read.  As a result, I now follow his blog and am looking forward to seeing him in guest spots on TV shows.

The cult of the amateur : how today’s internet is killing our culture and assaulting our economy by Andrew Keen.

There was a bit of controversy over this one, mainly that author Keen was sensationalising everything.  He does.  He takes every story of how the internet is being used by the average person and takes it to the extreme.  The only chapter I actually agreed with and got anything out of  was the last chapter, which looked forward with a measure of caution.  If you like getting frustrated, or need the background to be able to play devil’s advocate, then check it out.

Here comes everybody : the power of organisation without organisations by Clay Shirky

I’ve just finished with this one and its almost the opposite of Keen’s book.  Shirky looks at how the internet is being used, with a lot more objective eye than Keen does, although he focuses more on the positive outcomes from the net.  I got onto this one after seeing a short presentation of his on YouTube.  A good look at how the internet is changing the world.

So that’s whats been keeping me busy when I haven’t been so busy.  I still have a list of books I have on hold, so there will be more at another time.  Hopefully I have motivated you to do some reading along these lines.  Knowing what I’ve been reading, if there is any other titles you think should be on my must read list, please let me know. 

For those who haven’t heard - “To pay continuous partial attention is to pay partial attention — CONTINUOUSLY. It is motivated by a desire to be a LIVE node on the network. Another way of saying this is that we want to connect and be connected. We want to effectively scan for opportunity and optimize for the best opportunities, activities, and contacts, in any given moment. To be busy, to be connected, is to be alive, to be recognized, and to matter.” (from Linda Stone who coined the phrase)

I am definitely experiencing continuous partial attention, for which I hadn’t seen any problem, until recently.  In fact, I was quite enjoying the experiences!

I have always be a very efficient multi-tasker also, well able to do many things at the same time, being able to pick up and drop things at the drop of a hat, then pick them up again without losing any noticeable continuity. Not being a perfectionist helps with that, as long as all jobs are done adequately - I do not accept shoddy work. As long as the work is done and as efficiently as possible, I’m happy.

But I’m starting to notice some setbacks to this partial attention, especially when coupled with the information overload I also manage on a daily basis. Something has to give and it has been giving.

I can’t read a non-fiction book easily anymore.

Fiction is fine, that’s my escape from reality and I tend to only read things that engage my attention and that I truly enjoy, so I can get through one of those with no noticeable difficulty. Non-fiction however, which is more educational than purely enjoyable for me and which of course then takes more work, is a lot harder for me now.

I have some great books sitting on my bedside table, my favourite reading point, but not my only one.  Some are recently borrowed from my library and those I make a priority of because they have to go back.  I struggle with those, even with a time limit, with many having gone back to the library, mostly unstarted. Quite a few other books are personal copies and have been sitting there for up to a year, either unstarted or partially started and still awaiting their turn.

They are not boring books either, not by a mile.  But for some reason, I find my reading of non-fiction is changing to be more like snacking - small doses and very diverse content.  The majority of my non-fiction reading now is blog posts, journal articles, report summaries, conference papers etc.

I snack on this type of reading across my day - when I have a few moments to sit, when I am waiting for my kids at their regular activities, etc.  Maybe its the diversity of the reading, or the perceived urgency (won’t be current if I leave it too long), or because if I don’t take it in as soon as possible I’ll be missing out on something.  Or it could be the information overload and after reading so much professional stuff, I am full and can’t sit down to a full meal - those non-fiction books on my bedside table. I don’t know if its one of these or a combination of many, but I find myself wanting to know and caring more about it now.

I like knowing about things, it comes from being a born reference librarian, but I recognised a long time ago that there was no chance I could keep up with it all, so I have had to pick and choose.  I thought I had been doing pretty well, but maybe its time to have another look at the personal filters I have been using and adjust them a bit.

I want to read those books on my bedside table - they have excellent content, ideas and inspiration and come from authors I admire, but I believe its going to take a change of mindset and some pretty hefty willpower to make it happen in a more timely manner.

Am I the only one feeling or thinking like this?  Either way, feel free to share with me any strategies you think may help.

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!

The last sessions were the hardest,with everyone tired etc, but I still got something out of it before I raced out to catch my plane home.

Travis Harvey and Hans Zerr from NetReturn spoke on the “Australian Development Gateway” the Australian Government and AusAid initiative to provide a knowledge sharing website for aid workers in the Asia Pacific, across different sectors and geographic areas.

Built on open source software, it focuses on 10 key sectors: education, disaster management, water, agriculture, health, development, governance, ICT, infrastructure and enterprise development/microfinances. They are adding 2 new sectors each year. The aim is for sustainable poverty alleviation.

The site is a community of practice website, with content partners, user driven content, optimised for low bandwith, remote carrier locations, provides quality sectoral information and lessons learned, builds and expands professional networks and visibility and has a growing content partnership.

Core offerings of the site are quality information sources, tools for users to participate, 2 way feedback loops, info on tenders, jobs, people and organisations in the region. Achievements include having 24 partner organisations providing content, QA and over 2,000 free online resources. They have 35,000 visits monthly, 1300 people and organisations listed in their online directory and 2500+ newsletter subscriptions, all serviced by 2 FTE staff.

Challenges: need to keep current with ever changing content and working with content partners they have had to develop clear editorial guidelines so they get quality over quantity. Most importantly, they need to ensure the website continues to provide content that is relevant, current and practical.

So that was it for me at Information Online 2007, I went home!