Connecting Librarian

I have finally caught up on all my reading, amongst which was a very thought provoking post by John Blyberg entitled “Library 2.0 Debased“, which in turn was inspired by Kate Sheehan’s post “Are librarians culturally self-aware“. I recommend you check out both posts as well as the comments, there is some interesting reading there.

Anyway, the biblioblogosphere was buzzing over John’s post and I had read quite a few posts about it before I actually read the original. Normally I wouldn’t necessarily blog about the same thing, especially when there are so many others who have already done so, but after reading the post for a second time, then on reading some indirectly related content and mulling over it a bit more, I felt I had something more to contribute to the discussion.

Just as I was getting started, more came in that added to the mix - The essence of Library 2.0 from Meredith Farkas at Information Wants to be Free, Web 2.0 and Library 2.0: Its’ all about the stuff from Philip Bradley at Phil Bradley’s Weblog and Nobody ever said from Walt Crawford at Walt at Random. Again, I recommend you check them all out.

As a result, I am rethinking my whole attitude to Library 2.0. There has been a lot of difficulty in defining it, mainly because the term and the attitude it is supposed to define (user-centric, meeting them where they are at, etc) has come at the same time as the tools and many have been unable to separate the two or see that there has been any distinction between them. My overriding thought is whose fault is it that the message got lost? I know that I have been leading that bandwagon from my small perch and so I have some responsibility in that blame.

It has become cool, hip, its cutting edge, so if you are a happening library, you are doing Library 2.0. Understandable. The tools are ubiquitous, easy to use, are being used by our users and are mostly free. How can you not want to be all over them?

A lot of talk in the above mentioned blog posts is about vendors jumping on the bandwagon - which is understandable from their viewpoint - they’re giving libraries what they are asking for, whether they really know what they want or not. Is this a bad thing?

John Blyberg talked about how SOPAC hasn’t worked as he planned, but that’s part of being in libraries and in cutting edge stuff. As he says, we have to take risks and try things, some will work, some won’t and we will learn and move on to other things. Doesn’t mean we stop experimenting. As Meredith points out, just because it doesn’t work in one library, doesn’t mean it won’t work in another. Unfortunately, it usually takes time and resources which are in short supply in most libraries, making them reluctant to allocate them to things that may not work. Which makes me think that is why library vendors have such interest in their new Library 2.0 services - pay someone else to do all the work, cheaper and quicker. (questionable, but I am sure there are people out there who would think that way).

Which brings me back to the heading of this post. Ryan Deschamps at The Other Librarian posted We asked for Library 2. 0 and got Librarians 2.0. At the time I posted on it - Library 2.0 - its far from over, but now I think Ryan was right, to a certain extent it is, even here in Australia where it is still relatively new. If we want to stop the bandwagon leading our libraries astray and see them focussed on users and services, then maybe as individuals we need to drop the Library 2.0 and focus on being Librarian 2.0’s - at work and outside of it and just help our libraries to utilise and adapt the Web 2.0 tools that are appropriate for our users and our services. Our libraries should always have that focus anyway - regardless of what tools are available - its not one size fits all.

So my part will be to drop Library 2.0, but continue to be a Librarian 2.0, instituting Web 2.0 tools in my library as our users needs are assessed and I find that Web 2.0 is the best option. If Web 2.0 tools are not the best option, then we wont’ go there - at least I will try to make sure that doesn’t happen. As Phil Bradley said, they’re just stuff.

These are exciting times, with exciting new tools to play with. So I will continue having fun with them, inside and outside of work. However, I will also keep my focus on our users and do my best as a public librarian to provide them with best service possible - whatever means that will require - Web 2.0 or not.

There’s more in this discussion, but can’t get my head around it all at this time. Would love to hear your thoughts on it. For those of you going to VALA, hope to see you there!

There has been a lot of discussion lately around the biblioblogosphere on Library 2.0 and whether its over, whether it should ever have been, what it is, whether its new or not and much more. If you want to follow the discussions, I suggest you check out Annoyed Librarian, David Lee King, Information Wants to be Free and many more.

I started thinking about it more when Ryan Deschamps at The Other Librarian came out with “We asked for Library 2.0 and got 2.0 Librarians.” Although I agree with his premise, I wailed when I read the part that said that he sensed that the “prominence of the Library 2.0 moniker has plateaued”. Why did I wail? Because we had only just started! Our library blog is now a year old (had to stop to do a blogiversary post on that blog!), but it is just scratching the surface of what we hope to do.

Anyway, that got me thinking out what Ryan was saying and yes a lot of the changes at my library have been driven by me, a 2.0 librarian and initially I think my attitude was of the “cool tools, how can we use them” kind. Fortunately, that time passed quickly and I have been refocusing back on our users. Nicole at What I learned today took the words out of my mouth -
“I’m all for everyone learning everything they possibly can, but not all the tools are the right fit in all organisations….. I just want to bring every tool I can to your attention, because one might just be the one you were looking for to solve that one pesky problem you were having.”

At the same time, our users have been changing. Our library website use is just starting to skyrocket - we have seen an over 200% increase in virtual visitors to our website in the past year. Our website is a destination for our library users, more than ever before, I think partly because of our new library system, but also because of the development of our users as computer literate people. Apart from the catalogue, a few select webpages and the blog, our website is an online brochure, which is fine in itself. However, my aim now is to try and make the virtual experience of the library at least equal to the physical experience and an online brochure doesn’t do it. We don’t have programmers on our staff and there are only 2 staff here with html skills, so the only way to provide better service through our website is by using Web 2.0 tools. We have started with simple things like booklists linking directly to our catalogue (not web 2.0 I know), a Flickr account and a Google Maps mashup for our branches and mobile library stops.

I’m not alone in this either. A big group of our library staff have enthusiastically started the Learning 2.0 program, in a project driven by the State Library of Victoria, which I am very excited about. We will have staff knowledgeable about Web 2.0 tools which is great for them and our users, but hopefully some them will also be full of ideas for projects and the motivation to be the ones to drive it. I can’t do everything, much as I try, so it will be great to have others on board to contribute, especially in areas where I have neither the skill, interest or motivation.

There’s so much more I can say here, but it would go on forever if I let him. So for me and my library, Library 2.0 is just entering the building, so its far from over for us. We may not call it Library 2.0 and in a way its something we have been doing for forever, but its also a new frontier that we are going to explore and have fun doing it too!

For yet another perspective and well worth readings is Kathryn’s post at Librarians Matter - “What’s new about Library 2.0? Shift in power“. She makes some great points and it brings home to me that the definition of Library 2.0 is not only different to each library, but to each librarian, all depending where they are at, as institutions and individuals. You have to love something that is that flexible!

On a final note. There was a ton of feedback on Annoyed Librarian’s post - the “Cult of Twopointopia“. The post was fascinating, both in its biting wit and its ability to make me think. The numerous comments on the post were even more fascinating, for a couple of reasons. First - it was nice to see the passion of librarians on both sides of the argument. That’s one of the great things about our profession - we are generally very passionate about what we do. I guess it makes up only a bit for the less than professional level wages we generally earn. Second was that the arguments and flames were flying thick and fast and all I could think was that we are all supposed to be on the same side, so why are we turning on each other like this. We all have our interests and specialities, why aren’t we more grateful, accepting and understanding of the differing viewpoints that make us such a great profession?

That’s my 2 cents worth on the topic. Would love to hear what you think!

Am going to be visiting Charlotte in the last 2 days of this week, so introduced myself to Helen before the session - also managed to grab a quick chat with Meredith Farkas, Nicole Engard and Aaron Schmid - very exciting!

All feeling the technology surge, which is getting better. Like a wave, trying to stay on the rest of the wave, not fall in front or fall behind. Greater demand for services, high user expectations and more. New model for libraries is technology as a foundation on top of funding, providing highly skilled and trained staff, real and virtual connections, real and virtual services.

PLCMC Information Technology Core Competencies are at 4 levels. Not providing service when it is someone elses job to support technology. Lori Reed is their core competencies trainer. Core I - every staff person should be able to do it, eg. access the intranet, enter timesheets, print, save files. (will have a link to all the core competency lists via Helene’s blog) . Pre-assessment showed that biggest need was in core troubleshooting. Core II includes patron support competencies such as searching the catalogue and using ILS (Horizon). Core III - envisionware & LPT for PC management and printing, One competencies. Core IV - more librarians and public trainers needed basic AV knowledge (ie. connecting laptop and projector), imaging and Public Technology training. The Core Competencies are aimed at supporting public service, so not management or administration. http://tinyurl.com/yo2zmh

Technology Competencies and Training for Libraries by Sarah Houghton-Jan recommended, as well as Web Junction - two tiered.

Core competencies support the changes that have already happened and are integrated into our everyday work. Different approach required for new changes, hence the Learning 2.0 program. How do we prepare and stay current in the information arena. Its all over the media.

Learning 2.0 started as Tech Bytes where they introduced RSS and blogging to staff. They came for 1 1/2 hr workshop, but after 3 months, they had reached 65 out of 540 staff. The info has to get out quick as it is all changing so quick. Had to do something different. Inspired by Stephen Abrams 43 things. Trimmed it back to 23 Things - Learning 2.0 was born. Learning program to encourage staff and expose them to Web 2.0 tools that are out there.

9 weeks of program, plus 1 month of extra exploration time. Mostly free, apart from time and the cost of a microphone (apart from the cost of the staff rewards for completing it). All done using freely available web 2.0 tools.

It was all about exposing staff to new tools, encouraging play, empowering individuals, expanding the knowledge toolbox and eliminating fear. Encouraging staff to learn and have fun.

Its also about staff controlling their life-long learning, not about having it all delivered to them. Learning 2.0 is a weapon of mass instruction.

Learning 2.0 best practices:

- don’t confuse learning with training

- building the program for late bloomers

- allow participants to blog anonymously

- communicate weekly using 1.0 methods

- focus on discovery and encourage challenges

- encourage staff to use each other and work together

- Remember that its not about acceptance or doing it right – its about exposure

- Practice transparency and radical trust

- And continually encourage staff to play!!!

Been duplicated by many different libraries. Its out there for free.

Instead of typing up more pages, here is an audio of my thoughts on the Learning 2.0 program. It goes for about 1 1/2 minutes. As I did it in only take, I hope you will please excuse my pauses and the few ums that are in there. It also somehow got cut off at the end (I’ll improve with practice I’m sure), so the bit that was missed was something along the lines of - if you have been thinking about doing the Learning 2.0 program, I would encourage you to do so, its well worth the time and effort.

So here it is - enjoy!

powered by ODEO

I know this is not blogging the Online Conference notes, but I had to take a break from my endless notes! So its back to Learning 2.0.

I had looked at Del.icio.us a while ago and although I have a lot of bookmarks, I didn’t want to share them. I use a lot of bookmarks, but they are all at home and link to things like banking, games etc. However, whilst I was distracted by other things recently (like a conference, organising a paper and a study tour etc), I was thinking about all the websites I come across (usually through RSS feeds) that I can’t use right now, but I know will be of use in the future.

Its been quite a few weeks since I did week 5 of this course, but I knew it was about del.icio.us, so finally those two pieces clicked in my mind and I thought why not use it to create a list of these useful websites, so that I don’t lose them. In discussing them with my computer programmer husband, we also talked about the possibilities of having topic bookmarks organised by topic and potentially private bookmarks in del.icio.us. So from here its explore and find out more!

As for Technorati, as a long term blogger I am well aware of this fabulous tool. But as with everything I have learnt from this Learning 2.0 program, there is always something new to learn, even from things you may already know.

Dr R David Lankes from the Information Institute of Syracuse delivered the afternoon keynote on the Changing face of service. We are integrated library services - youth, cataloguing, reference, preservation, IT, instruction etc. We don’t necessarily fit together well, but we know we are a profession.

Service is more than reference and far from the only public service. Cataloguing is public, the website is the new branch and every part of the library must be customer focussed. The library is not the building and we are only half the library, the other half is our users - its a partnership. Most users see our systems, not necessarily us. Our websites are our newest branches and need to be staffed and resourced appropriately, providing the same services as the physical library.

Need to be a nimble and agile organisation, have to be innovative and do it quickly because information is changing so quickly. We need to be leading the information industry.

Amazon presents more useful data than our catalogues and they contain a lot more information on each item than our catalogues do. Their largest fields are pathfinders, open reviews, recommendations, disucssion tools, marketing and reviews. They have a finding aid, our catalogues are inventory systems. We need inventory systems, but thats not what we should be putting in front of our users. The new model for libraries needs to be as information collector and enhancer of the website (more relevant to academic than public libraries here).

Libraries need to be part of the conversations going on in our communities. Getting in the grassroots level of creating creating knowledge. Catalogues also need to be 2 ways, allowing comments, tagging, reviews etc. Need to build systems to access any data point. Don’t have a book? Let the user suggest pruchase, ask a question or link to another title. CHANGE INNOVATE PARTICIPATE. Our purpose should be as stewards, facilitators and guides. We need to experiment and if we fail, learn and move on, until we get it right.

Amanda Spinks spoke on Web search trends. She has been gathering search engine data since 99 many search engines, excepting the 3 giants - Google, Yahoo and MSN. However, when one of these released some of their data for research, it only confirmed her findings.

Challenges - search will soon outstrip email as primary use of the internet
- web search is a social issue, how many people know how to search effectively?
- this becomes a productivity issue - wasting work time.

Reminded that no search engine covers the entire web and with differing crawling policies etc, there is only a 3% overlap in results.

How people search - use slightly more terms now than in 99, average of 2.8 now against 1.9 then. Boolean use is still very low - 2.1% in 2006. 56.6% of users spend less than a minute on a search results page, 69% only view the first page. Once they do reach a site from a search, 14% stay for less than 30 seconds. Searching on sex related topics was only 4%, top uses were commerce/travel/employment/economy - 30.4%, people/places/things - 16%, computers/internet - 13%. Biggest increase is in searches for online games.
Advanced features on web sites are poorly used and bad spelling is still a major problem.

Search is still a long way from being perfect, even with easy to use search engines.

Christine MacKenzie gave an overview of Yarra Plenty’s use of the Learning 2.0 program from Charlotte Mecklenburg. It was incorporated as part of their strategic plan to find information, enable learning, create content and celebrate culture. This is what their 2007 training program is based on. The outcomes expected from this is informed, connected, inclusive communities.

Managers need to provide tools for staff to learn. They needed another way to facilitate that - inspired by Stephen Abrams 43 things, it became about learning, not training. YPRL went ahead with this program because libraries are changing - participating, interaction, content creation and social networking are becoming the norm. Technology is not the story, what people are doing with it is. YPRL are moving to RFID in July, staff will be moving out from the desk to be with the users, carrying Tablet PCs.

23 Things was encouraged by Helen Blowers from Charlotte. Motivation was a USB drive and into the draw for a laptop for all those who successfully completed the program. Fun and engaging, for the 90 staff who completed it. Opened them up to opportunities, shows they can be life long learners - they also learned much about themselves.

It is now the start and basis of a module based training system, which will take YPRL on from here. Very inspiring stuff.

I was going to take a break from this Learning 2.0 - intensive version, but in a moment of weakness, I decided to start the next lesson - image generators and got hooked! I should have known better - this learning 2.0 stuff is fun!

Here’s one - the ultimate search for me (nothing wrong with my self image!)
(from http://www.gooogie.co.uk/)

And another: (from http://www.ComicStripGenerator.com/)

This led to trying Library Thing, which I have been meaning to do for a while. I love idea of being able to see all my books with their covers and info beyond the title and author, like what Syndetics will do with our new ILMS (can’t wait!)

So it took me 2 seconds to join up and then another 10 seconds to add 10 books to my library. If only everything was so simple! Now I will keep adding to my library which will take some time, but in the meantime, I have subscribed to the RSS feed from the Library Thing blog so I can learn more about this great service, as I go. I am even planning to add a widget from Library Thing to my blog, as soon as my new additions list is not my complete library! If you want to see what I have added, go to my Library Thing account.

Finally, I have had one play with Rollyo a little while ago and also had a look at Google Co-op search, in the hope of getting a type of federated search happening on our library website. It worked OK with some of our databases, but due to the variations in validating users, it didn’t work with them all. However, now that I have been reminded, I will be getting back onto it at work. With both these products, its easy to do.

Wow - a lot to do in one week’s learning, but soooooo much fun!!!!

Yes I know its only been a day since I blogged on Week 3, but I’m fast and I’m trying to catch up!

I love RSS feeds. I already have feeds to about 50 blogs coming into Thunderbird, my email client (same guys did the Firefox browser, which I also love). I have also set up an RSS feed (with help) for my libraries blog, so I think its a wonderful invention.

This exercise required us to set up a Bloglines account. I know many bloggers who use Bloglines as their feed reader, but I hadn’t set up an account as I was happy using Thunderbird as my feed reader. However, I have set up an account with feeds from Flickr, which is new for me, as well as some other favourites. I will continue to use it, not only to stay familiar, but to help me out when I travel. I am going to Sydney in late Jan and then overseas in April for several weeks - at those times I will add my must read feeds to Bloglines so I can access them anywhere.

However, in general I will stick with Thunderbird. Its so easy to check your feeds and catch up when you are checking your email (and as I monitor 4 email accounts, that’s a regular task!).

Narre Desk
Originally uploaded by tang02.

So what happened to week 2? Well my previous post was week 1 and week 2 together. So here we are at week 3, exploring Flickr.

After reestablishing my Flickr account, which only held my Librarian Trading card, I did some quick uploading of photos from my computer - all related to my library service of course.

I chose this one of the desk at Narre Warren Library, because that’s where I work. Its not the best angle, but I only took it to test the photo uploading capabilities of our new public computers.

In the meantime, I had had lots of fun with Flickr. I used some of the mashups to create artworks and a movie poster using some of my photos. So easy to get distracted!

So I will be heading back to Flickr to do some more uploading, playing with mashups, getting a decent icon up for me etc. And I will be working with my manager to get a Flickr account started and bursting to the seams with images from my library. What fun!

Sometimes its useful to go back to basics, especially if you think you know more than you do.

Me being a case in point. I have been blogging for over a year, have used various Web 2.0 sites etc and got very excited about PLCMC’s Learning 2.0, but thought I knew enough and didn’t join in. Yarra Plenty has just started the program and same thing, I didn’t join in straight away.

I have now and am already seeing the benefits. PLCMC started with a video of 7 1/2 habits of effective learning - those being:

1. Begin with the end in mind
2. Accept responsibility for your learning
3. View problems as learning challenges
4. Have confidence in yourself as an effective learner
5. Create your own learning toolbox
6. Use technology to your advantage
7. Teach/mentor others

and 7.5 PLAY!

Part of this week’s lesson is to discuss these habits. I am pretty good with all of them - just ask anyone who knows me. In fact, I relish many of them. However, the one I have most difficulty with is PLAY. Who would think it would be hard to play. Well it is, for me anyway. I’m task oriented, so what I do has to be to a purpose, play isn’t necessarily achieving an ultimate goal. It might solve a problem - but you don’t know that at the time of playing.

So I started this program for a couple of reasons - I am going to PLCMC next year as part of my study tour, so I thought I should see how the program works and once we have our staff settled with our new ILMS, I would like to start this program in my workplace. What I have found however, is that there is still much for me to learn and this program will help to do that.

If you haven’t started the Learning 2.0 journey, either do so with Yarra Plenty or go back to Charlotte Mecklenburg - its all still there for you to follow at your own pace. You might be surprised at what you may learn, I am already!