10/17/2009 – NYLA Conference – Niagara Falls, NY

LISHost – another Blake Carver site (He does LIS News)

Retro future blog – shows predictions from the 1950s

Top 5 things for 2009 (from Read, Write Web):

1. Structured data – XML tags define and describe the data – not OS or device dependent. Tags are created in English. Most website today are made in XHTML. Data is in XML and style is in CSS. Such things as APA and MARC records are structured data – not really a new thing to librarians. Structured data makes it that the whole web could eventually be treated as a database.

2. Real Time Web – Running a search and finding results from last 5 seconds, etc. (Check out Google flu: http://www.google.org/flutrends/).

3. Personalization – Syracuse University just made “Mybrary” (https://library.syr.edu/mybrary/). APML – take your interests and code. (Attention Profiling Markup Language http://apml.areyoupayingattention.com/).

4. Augmented Reality – GPS, Direction you are facing, picture recognition – tells you what that place is. (check out layar website: http://layar.com/) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b64_16K2e08&feature=player_embedded ) A tour guide is analog augmented reality.

5. Internet of things – Identifying image (such as a bar code) and bring back information about the thing. iPhone has an application that you can pick up a book at Barnes and Noble and take a picture of the cover and find out the different prices of the book at competitors. (Explanation of “Internet of Things”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things)

On July 27, 2009, I attended Library Day at the Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, NY.  The main speaker for that day was Elie Wiesel.  I have admired this gentleman since I was in middle school.  This was an awesome honor for me to attend lectures by him and to meet him in person.  Bus loads of people came from all around (e.g. Cleveland) to hear Elie Wiesel speak.  Here are my notes from the day at Chautauqua.

In 1986 Mr. Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr. Wiesel’s lecture focused on the question of “what makes us moral?”

• God has no explanations to give.  God gives the law – man tries to explain.
• What makes us immoral?  When I see someone hungry and do not feed them.  To be indifferent to someone else’s hunger (hunger is a metaphor).

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, is the number one Holocaust denier.  He states that the Holocaust never happened but said he wants it to happen with nuclear weapons.  He wants to wipe out Israel.

People suffer not only from what is inflicted on them but the feeling that they are alone.

Anti-semitism is the oldest group prejudice in history.  It preceded the Exile.  Roman philosophers have anti-semitic outbursts.

The world has not learned from Auschwitz.  If it had, there would have been no Cambodia, Bosnia, or Darfur.

Many Einzatsgruppen (SS Special units) had college degrees and some even had doctoral degrees in things such as Theology and Arts.

Ancient times when an Emperor was killed/died – all laws that Emperor enacted were abolished.  Jewish tradition that does not exist – the Law is the law.  The Law is above politics – the Law is above everything else.

Nazi Germany believed what they were doing was moral.  Doing what they were doing for the sake of humanity – not just Germany.

You need to always remain true to yourself.

President G.W. Bush asked Elie if he thought invading Iraq was moral before the invasion.  He told Bush it would not be a just war that negotiations and sanctions should be used.

To Mr. Wiesel the only just war was on the side of the Allies during World War II (this is something I always said when I studied just war theory).

A moral society takes care of its children and its elderly.  In the US we do not care enough for the elderly.  In other parts of the world children are the first victims.

In an immoral society the government rewrites history.

“Romeo & Juliet” is not a book about love.  It is about HATRED.  Two families hated each other so much that the children paid.

In an immoral society – your right to question is taken away.

Whatever you do in life, think higher and feel deeper.

Elie Wiesel and I

This is a retelling of the myth of Penelope and Odysseus from Penelope’s point of view.  Atwood draws on other material (other than the Odyssey) to fill in the details of Penelope’s life we do not hear from Homer.  Atwood also includes a second story line regarding the 12 hanged maids and what lead to their hangings.

When this book opens we are joined by Penelope who is now in the realm of the dead.  She recounts what “really happened” while Odysseyus was gone – dispelling the rumors that have been spread for years.  She also tells how the twelve maids who were killed were in fact her co conspirators in warding off potential suitors. 

This book is good for those familiar with the Odyssey, but would be confusing for those who are not.

Jaclyn McKewan, MLS

Special Projects Libraran

• RSS – Really Simple Syndication – written in XML – just a format for the content.
• RSS can be used for anything that is frequently updated.
• Saves time – no need to check multiple sites.
• Ebay actually has a feed on your search results.
• Some sites, like Google News, will have an RSS feed on a certain topic.
• Online readers:  Google Reader & Bloglines.
• Desktop readers: Firefox Live Bookmarks, Thunderbird, FeedDemon.
• Use iGoogle or My Yahoo to get your RSS feeds.
• Applications on Facebook to incorporate RSS.
• Can import your blog postings to your Facebook page under Notes section.
• Can subscribe to Delicious feed as an RSS.
• Can also get updates for Flickr searches in RSS feed.
• Feeds for Webpages without RSS:  Page2RSS & Feedity – put a page in one of these and then past that feed into a reader.
• Mashups/Feedmixers – Yahoo Pipes & Feed Informer.

• Feed2JS – put RSS on your webpage.  Tell it what feed you want and it comes back with Javascript to paste into the webpage.
• Use Delicious account to update the recommended websites – then subscribe as an RSS feed.
• ???RSS feed from the catalog for new books and searches – Hennepin County Library example.
• Post the latest blog post on the library’s webpage through an RSS feed.  Use Feed2JS.
• Google calendars are capable of RSS feeds.  Go to calendar details, click on XML box next to calendar address.  Put “?orderby=starttime&sortorder=ascending&futureevents=true” at the end of the feed to show events in ascending order and all in the future.
• Desktop feedreader – Rainmeter from Google
• Podcast can be subscribed to with RSS feeders.  Right click on the source and save as an MP3 file.

• Barnes and Noble offers training for libraries on displays and merchandising.

• 10% off coupons at Barnes and Nobles for library fund raisers

• Mount Laurel New Jersey Extreme Library Makeover – article with pictures: http://library.ucsc.edu/~machlis/feltonlibraryfriends/designarticles/bernstein.pdf

• Marketing!!!! Change displays with the news.

• How do we connect our value to the funding? Must market ourselves and our value.

• Information Literacy to promote databases. Patrons tend not to use databases. They would rather not use it over Google.

• Use the word journal instead of online databases – less intimidating – “Journal article” more used term in homework assignments.

• How do we show our value to the public? What can we do to make public aware that the “free” services are not really free? And promote the value of the time we are saving them by being trained professionals who know how to search and locate things? Perception that the library is free – need to show the value or money the patron saved by using the library.

• Devil Advocate’s Thought (not mine): Drop the Electronic databases for the public and just give access to the librarians. Would this save us money?

• We as a profession need a better definition of what we do.

• Need to do outreach – go out to other places and show what we have.

• $2.5 million spent by NYS on the NOVEL database

• No one wants to know how to find things – they just want it.

• Biggest growing customer bases in Public Libraries according to a Pew survey is 18-25 year olds.

• Do we have a link on our OPAC to DVDs? Is there anywhere that shows that we have DVDs and CDs other than the material designation? Patrons should be able to find those materials easily.

• NYLA Organizational membership

• Friends Group Organizational Membership

• Votes are won every day at the Reference and Circ desks.

• Target audience has to become not just our public but the administrators, etc.

• Education is not the magic bullet

• Must act like professionals for people to know we are professionals. Must constantly let people know that we are professionals.

• People must repeat something 7 times in order to learn things.

• With OPAC – what attracts your eye – what makes you go to a display? Make that work for the library. Gen X and Millenials have a different perception as to what design should look from Baby Boomers. Boomers want something that looks like a print copy but Gen X and Younger are used to web design. They do not like a lot of white space.

• Send out a consistent message across the board.

• There needs to be a consciousness to let people know the value of what we have just done for them. You need to be consistent in the way you put it out there. Constant repetition to your constituents.

• Look at patron expectations over the past year and a half and anticipate what will be needed in the next 6 months.

• Need to develop a pit bull mentality toward the budgets in NY.

• Part of our job as librarians is lobbying.

• Need to ask for release time to go lobby in Albany.

• Libraries getting 11% below what they are suppose to be getting. CCDA money cut by 8%.

•NYLA  just contracted with NYSUT for lobbying.

In July of 2006, I was informed that my teaching position in a local parochial school was being cut. This event, while unfortunate, made me take a good look at my life. It was at this time that I started to assess what I liked and disliked about teaching and what I felt was in my future. After much assessment, I decided that a change of careers, although risky, might be the better path to take for my future happiness.

Why did I feel that a Master’s of Library and Information Science was part of my future? I felt that this degree was a good it for my interests, personality, and talents along with the skills and education I had already acquired. After reading the article entitled “Professional Character: The Personality of the Future Information Workforce” (Goulding 2000), I was convinced that I had made the right decision. I am intellectually curious, creative, and I love to learn. I also feel that I am an outgoing and service oriented person. I feel that I could excel at being a librarian because the opportunities presented me would feed my curiosity and allow my creativity to bloom. I enjoy helping others to learn new things and I believe that the freedom from grading would be liberating. As a librarian, I will be able to help people acquire the knowledge that they want and need without the traditional confines of classroom teaching.

One of the dimensions of teaching I liked was that every day was different. Unlike a factory job where I would know exactly what was going to be happening, there is always a sense of adventure in a job that brings new challenges and rewards each day. I felt that a job as a librarian would provide that same sense of adventure. I believe that libraries are very important. America today seems to be devaluing intellect and education. I value human knowledge and the advancement of society through that knowledge. I believe we must preserve that knowledge while researching new possibilities and embracing new ideas. We must also value opposing points of view, weighing each argument and making an informed decision on our own – not just following what popular opinion believes. I also believe in the First Amendment and protecting the freedoms provided by that amendment. In today’s society, I feel that these freedoms are being threatened and it is the responsibility of an educated public to fight against this and to also fight against the bigotry that comes along with opinions being given to us instead of making well-informed ones on our own. I feel that it is the librarian who should be the instrument by which people can connect to multiple viewpoints so the population can analyze these viewpoints for themselves.

The way that we look at libraries is changing. No longer is the library just the old building full of musty, dusty books. Current digital tools are enhancing the traditional modes of research and changing our ideas of libraries. I want to be a part of this change. Some critics say that these digital tools are going to make librarians obsolete. I disagree. In his article “10 Reasons Why the Internet is No Substitute for a Library,” Mark Herring (2001) makes some valid points that I agree with. He points out that the Internet is a vast wealth of information, but that information is “uncataloged” and people who are adept at sorting this information are still needed (Herring 2001). If one does not know how to look up the information on the Web correctly, one can become either discouraged or, I think even worse, misinformed about something because of the vast amount of information and opinions out there. Again, in his article, Herring points out that “quality control does not exist” on the Internet (2001). I would like to be one of the people who can help those doing research to use all of this technology to their benefit.

I feel that librarians not only need to embrace technology, but they should also start looking at libraries as though they were a traditional business. Much of the popularity of the internet is the fact that one can access it at any time. Barbara Baruth (2003) points out in her article “Missing Pieces that Fill in The Academic Library Puzzle: Cutting-Edge Technology Can Assure Our Place in the Big Picture,” librarians have to become more sensitive to the needs of the people they are serving. Most people’s schedules these days do not fit into the traditional hours that a library is open. Librarians need to recognize that and be more flexible in their hours. As Ms. Baruth states: “[Librarians] need to be more sensitive to the needs of young adult students, whose amazing biorhythms and underdeveloped project planning ability have always propelled them to crave reference help late at night or on the weekend (Baruth 2003).” She also goes on to point out the number of nontraditional students is on the increase and these students have unique needs between their job and family commitments (Baruth 2003). I feel that the years I have spent in various customer service oriented jobs will help me be responsive to patrons needs.

My career goal is to contribute to a literate worldwide society. I feel that the resources we are fortunate enough to have should be available to all, whether on the East Side of Buffalo or in East Timor. As stated in her article “Can Librarians Help to Overcome the Social Barriers to Access?” Barbara Hull (2001) states that the digitization of information is increasing the split between the upper and lower classes. I feel that it is the role of the modern librarian to help bridge this gap. I feel that today’s librarian must embrace technology in order to serve the public to the best of his or her ability. With the rising popularity of online degrees and research and the shrinking of the world through this same technology, I feel that it is the duty of the librarian to educate people in the resources available while providing services and resources for the public not only in the traditional library setting, but also in electronic form.

I believe that the librarian is an essential part of the future of the world and of the human race. I feel that I can bring passion, flexibility, and worldly experience to the librarian profession. I have traveled and experienced many different points of view. As a result of this, I fully understand the great gift that we have in our access to knowledge and our freedom to express ourselves and I want to protect this gift. I am excited about this new direction my life is taking and I am dedicated to being the best librarian I can be.

References

Baruth, B. (2003). Missing Pieces that Fill in the Academic Library Puzzle: Cutting-Edge Technology Can Assure Our Place in the Big Picture. American Libraries 33(6), 58-60, 62-63.

Goulding, A.; Bromham, B.; Hannabuss, S.; Cramer, D. (2000). Professional Characters: The Personality of the Future Information Workforce. Education for Information 18(1), 7-31.

Herring, M.Y. (2001). 10 Reasons the Internet is No Substitute for a Library. American Libraries 32(4), 76-78.

Hull, B. (2001). Can Librarians Help to Overcome the Social Barriers to Access? New Library World 102(10), 382-388.

So, I was searching for articles and pictures from the “Bunny Suicides” book.  There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this book.  I had picked it up when it originally came out and laughed my head off (I know I have a warped mind).  Today in my e-mail I received a newstory about the progress of a challenge to the book.  I decided to search tosee if I could find any more articles or images.

I used Google as my search engine and received the following result:

I have never seen that line about “In response to a complaint…”

So, being the good librarian I am, I went to ChillingEffects.org and found a complaint from the publisher addressed to Google.  Here is a link to the complaint: http://chillingeffects.org/dmca512/notice.cgi?NoticeID=1707

I have to say this is the first time I have ever seen the DCMA included in search results.  You see something new every day!

So, I received this link off the AutoCat listserv this morning.  It is a link to a document entitled “Issues deferred until after the first release of RDA.”  It is a 22 page pdf document with a lot of issues to be deferred.  This does not make sense – why not just defer the release of RDA until the issues are resolved?  Are we suppose to start using this and then go back and correct all the records after the issues have been resolved?  ???????????

Bennett, Cherie. (1998) Life in the Fat Lane. New York: Random House.

Blume, Judy. (1975). Forever. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Cofer, Judith Ortiz. (1995). An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio. New York: Penguin.

Crutcher, Chris. (1993). Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. New York: HarperCollins.

Elish, Dan. (2002). Born Too Short: the Confessions of an Eighth-Grade Basket Case. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Going, K.L. (2003). Fat Kids Rule the World. New York: Penguin.

Hautzig, Deborah. (1999). Second Star to the Right. New York: Penguin.

Kim, Derek Kirk. (2007). Good as Lily. New York: MINX.

Klien, Norma. (1977). It’s OK If You Don’t Love Me. New York: Fawcett Crest.

Mackler, Carolyn. (2003). The Earth, My Butt, and Other Round Things. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.

Porter, Connie. (1999). Imani All Mine. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Terris, Susan. (1997). Nell’s Quilt. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Warren, Adam. (2007). Empowered Series. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse.

Westerfield, Scott. (2005). Uglies Series. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Vaught, Susan. (2008). Big Fat Manifesto. New York: Bloomsburg.

Yamanaka, Lois-Ann. (1999). Name Me Nobody. New York: Hyperion.

Zephaniah, Benjamin. (2002). Face. New York: Bloomsbury.

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