Yet Another E-Reader

Plastic Logic has produced an 8.5 x 11 e-reader. Might be good for the textbook market. I know I'd prefer to carry around one of those instead of 4 huge textbooks.

Netflix for Online Catalogs?

We read Publisher's Weekly at work, which reviews books several months before their release. In addition to looking for books to add to my library's collection, I also keep a very lengthy list of books to read. If it's a book by a popular author, or something that has gotten a lot of press, I check to see if the public library has it in their catalog as "On Order". If they do, I put it on hold.

Inevitably, 6 books come in at once. And I don't have time to read them all. So I have to return them and reorder them. Ad nauseum.

I really wish there was a more sophisticated mechanism for limiting the number of books waiting for me at one time. Like a Netflix for books. But free through the public library and more advanced, because it would need an override option for books you want to get as soon as they come in. Like the latest book by your favorite author. Or the slew of Halloween music CDs and Halloween decoration books I just ordered from the public library (I'm sure they love me right now).

Anyone know of anything like this in the works? How about you, Innovative Interfaces? Or you, all you open source catalogs out there? I'd love to see this option, but have no idea how difficult it is to implement from a technical perspective.

Diversity

ALA Presentation: PR Forum: Diversity @ Your Library: Broadening Your Audience and Engaging Communities
Speakers: Eric Friedenwald-Fishman and Maria Elena Campisteguy from the Metropolitan Group

This presentation addressed the 8 Principles of Multicultural Communication, which are:

1. Leave your assumptions at the door: They recommended that you get the facts about other cultures and recognize that you often think you know what you actually do not. You can get facts by scanning news media for articles about trends, challenges, and opportunities.

2. Understand the cultural context of your audience: You need to be aware of the norms, traditions, dialects, and other cultural nuances that are unique to the audience. Be as specific as possible when defining the desired audience. It is also important to understand historical experiences and attitudes that may impact communication with that audience. Then, identify and build on the cultural strengths and assets.

3. Invest before you request: Create community-centered partnerships: This was a good point - to treat community members as partners with whom you wish to engage, not as a tool for you to use. Get them involved early on. Don't try things out on them, ask them what they want instead. And then maintain that communication.

4. Build authentic relationships: Maintain a long-term perspective: Go to the community and work with trusted allies. Don't become a one-hit wonder - keep at it.

5. Build shared ownership: Engage people, don't just involve them! Make sure there are seats at the table for members of your audience to have input.

6. Walk your talk - Lead by example: Examine your organization and be honest in your examination. Do what you say you believe others should do and deliver on your promises.

7. Relate, don't translate: This one really stuck with me. You have to do more than just translate existing ads into another language. The values you may be drawing on may not be highly valued in the culture you are translating the ad for. Make sure the ad appeals to that culture.

8. Anticipate change: Be prepared to succeed: Recognize that your process and approach to the work may change. Continue to build infrastructure to support multi-cultural success.

In addition, for more PR information, check out the PR blog Visibility @ your Library or join the discussion list prtalk@ala.org.

Cats in Libraries?

While I like the idea of cats in libraries (I like cats, I like libraries, why shouldn't they go together?), I always wonder about the wisdom of such a decision. Cat allergies are very common.

Perhaps one cat in a large library doesn't have much of an impact on allergies, but watch out for the cat's favorite chair or shelf of books. I know my cat finds it rather entertaining to climb on top of the books on one of the bottom rows of my book shelves.

For a map of libraries with cats (both alive and statue/stuffed animal), check out Iron Frog Productions' Library Cat Map.

Google Librarian Newsletter is back!

The Google Librarian Newsletter is back after a one year hiatus (you can subscribe at the bottom of that page). The corresponding Librarian Central blog, however, will not be returning.

This particular issue of the newsletter covers the following:

• Improvements and Additions to Google Book Search: Books showing up in regular Google search results, the ability to report bad scans, and the Dynamic Links API which allows libraries to link to specific books in Google Books from records within the catalog.
• Google Sky: Now available through your browser, in addition to it's inclusion in the downloadable Google Earth.
• Google Health: Allows patients to store, manage, and share their health information with medical providers. This would have been quite useful in determining what shots I have and have not received that are important for my upcoming trip to China.
  

There is also a Google for Educators resource center that might be worth checking out.

Also, I leave tomorrow for China and will not be returning until July 24th. I know my blog posting is sparse anyway, but don't expect to be reading any new posts for a while. :)

No Clear Standard for Liaison Duties

ALA Presentation: The Plowman and the Rancher Should be Friends: A Comparison and Discussion of Liaison Duties in Public and Academic Libraries
Speakers: Elisabeth Leonard, Peter Larsen, Ridie Wilson Ghezzi, Donna M. Colamatteo, Bruce Reid (moderator)

I attended my first ALA conference and am going to attempt to blog at least some of it. This was the first session I attended (well, after Greg Mortenson's presentation but that's slightly less job-related).

The speakers surveyed both public and academic libraries to determine if there is a standard for what liaison librarian duties should include. They discovered that there is no clear standard. However, some common liaison responsibilities include:

• Attending panels, conferences, meetings, etc., in that liaison area
• 79% of respondents provide subject-specific library instruction

Dartmouth College's effort to increase/improve their liaison program was mentioned. They provided a liaison training workshop in the summer for librarians. An outside person was brought in to conduct the training. They discussed:

• What all the liaisons were currently doing
• What challenges and strategies existed
• How to establish trust as a new liaison
• How liaison activities are perceived by the faculty
  
• How do liaison librarians feel about their duties
  

They also conducted focus groups with faculty through which they found there is no single right way for liaison librarians to do their work. However, faculty overall were very interested in assistance from liaison librarians. Faculty opinions on liaison work were deemed invaluable.

Faculty are short on time

I recently finished reading Faculty-Librarian Relationships by Paul O. Jenkins. The number one thing I took away from this book is that faculty are extremely busy people who cite lack of time as their number one stressor. They are expected to teach, research, publish, hold office hours, serve on committees, advise, and so much more - to the point where the whole idea of summers off really isn't the case. Their summers are full of all the work they had no time to do during the year. What does this mean for librarians? Anything we can do to make the lives of the faculty easier will make us look really good!

I hear (and admittedly am sometimes part of) the common complaint that it is hard to get faculty to make time for instruction in their classes. Often they probably just don't have time - to plan it, to fit it in, etc. Reaching out to them, and offering to provide however short or long an instruction session may prove more effective. I have often thought about offering to go into the classroom for 5-10 minutes, give a short intro to the library, and hand out a sheet containing a list of things librarians can help students with. But I worry that it's a slippery slope, and offering this option will result in an increase in short sessions and a decrease in 50 minute instruction sessions. I am still undecided.

Some other takeaways:
1. Often unreasonable requests come from faculty because they simply do not know library policies and procedures.
2. Let them know what we can do for them - they often don't know!

Jenkins interviewed 15 faculty members at the College of Mount Saint Joseph. Some things they mentioned:
1. One faculty member tries to tell students that librarians get excited about helping them.
2. A Ph.D. means you know a great deal about a very small area of study. People often think faculty know everything.
3. Several mentioned that students are less interested in learning and seem to be focused on doing the minimum to get the degree and the job.
4. Several also mentioned that students will not read.

The book also mentioned this great list of 100 Ways to Reach your Faculty by Terri L. Holtze. Lots of good ideas - a few of which I already do, and many which I hope to implement.

Unusual Bookmarks

An article from AbeBooks has some great examples of things that have been found in books, including:

• Forty $1,000 bills
• Piece of bacon
• Credit cards
• Valuable baseball cards
• A diamond ring

Moral of the story: Be careful what you use as a bookmark. And if you find yourself the lucky recipient of a bunch of old books, it may be worth your while to go through them before donating them.

TMI

There is just too much information out there, and with the Internet, the amount of information continues to grow exponentially. An article in the New York Times discusses the problem of information overload and what tech companies plan to do about it.

Google, Intel, Microsoft, and IBM have gotten together and formed the Information Overload Research Group, which aims to study this problem, publish information, and find ways to solve it. Their focus is primarily around workers who are easily distracted by incoming emails. I must confess, I'm definitely one of them - Outlook's feature displaying snippets of each incoming email in the bottom corner of the screen is just so distracting, yet I can't make myself turn it off!

Some possible solutions, or at least steps in the right direction:
1. Check email less often
2. Send emails more frugally (I wish some of the listservs I am on would practice this)
3. Be sure to reply to only those who need to hear your response.

And some interesting statistics:
1. "A typical information worker who sits at a computer all day turns to his e-mail program more than 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times" (really? only 50 times?)
2. "In the United States, more than $650 billion a year in productivity is lost because of unnecessary interruptions"

Machine for Lending Books

An interesting article in the Contra Costa Times describes a new machine situated at a BART train station in California. The machine contains approximately 400 paperback library books - both fiction and non-fiction. Commuters can use their library cards to check out books to read on their train rides. The books are due back in 3 weeks.

What a neat idea for bringing books to the patrons!

New Blog

I have started a new blog. After a great deal of debate, I have reached the conclusion that Adventures in Library Land needs to be devoted solely to library-related information. Thus, I created Growing Green Cents, which will include information on personal finance, the Green movement, and growing plants.

I have also decided to change my post name from Kat to Kate. I was only very temporarily called Kat (at about the time I started this blog), and it did not stick. So Kate it is.

While I am uncertain about the wisdom of maintaining 2 and 1/5 blogs, I am interested in seeing how it goes. Wish me luck! :)

Open J-Gate

Also recently mentioned on a listserv is Open J-Gate, which bills itself as the "World's biggest Open Access English Language Journals Portal" and includes 4386 journals. I feel like I must have known about this at one time, but there is just so much information out there that I cannot keep track of it all. I am more familiar with the Directory of Open Access Journals, which contains 3365 journals.

For any of you out there not affiliated with an academic institution, these are both great resources when doing research.

Why Libraries Pay More for Journals

Just why exactly do libraries have to pay institutional prices for journals, which are often many times the prices of individual subscriptions? Why can't we just have professors/patrons who are already getting individual subscriptions donate them to us when they are finished?

There's been an interesting discussing on COLLIB about these very questions, and I have to confess that while I knew that this is what we did - pay institutional prices - I never knew exactly why. One of the posters on the listserv pointed out this great article about the reasons behind the institutional fees. Apparently journal publishers are using differential pricing to make up their necessary costs. That is, they cannot make enough money to sustain their business off individual subscription fees, so they make up the difference by also including institutional fees. So why don't libraries just try to pay the individual price? It would be considered fraud.

As to the question about professors/patrons donating journals, the article states that this is an acceptable practice. However, it's far less reliable - a professor make not have time to read each issue during busy semesters and may hold on to them for a while, issues may get lost before they can be donated to the library leaving the library with no recourse to obtain the issue, and so on.

So, good to know, but I'm still not sure the 10-15% increase we commonly see in journal subscription prices each year is necessary. And the higher the prices go, the more libraries will have to cut back on their subscriptions.. which will cause the prices to continue to skyrocket in a never-ending cycle. I know my library will be looking very seriously at its journal holdings this summer and making some significant cuts.

Keep your Faculty Up-To-Date!

Show Your Faculty Some Love #4: Keep them Up-To-Date

One of the difficult things to accomplish is keeping faculty up-to-date on all the resources and services the library has to offer. We send email notices, but when sent en masse, do they read them? We send around newsletters, but do those get read? How do we make the information relevant to each person, easily digestible, and quickly imparted?

At my previous institution, Andrew and I presented at the Fall Faculty Conferences two years in a row (and hopefully this will continue to be a yearly opportunity there). These sessions were less than an hour in length. They were part of a conference at the college that faculty were already required to attend. There were several sessions that ran concurrently, and the library's update session was one of those. And it worked. We quickly covered all the changes that had taken place in the library, mentioned some extremely useful services that do not get much use, tried to point out which disciplines (and therefore which faculty) would most benefit from new resources and services, and more. It was quick, it was part of a pre-existing requirement for the faculty, it was relevant, and, I hope, it was entertaining.

Will I have the opportunity to do this at my current institution? Perhaps not. Which means I will just have to continue to find more ways to reach the faculty here.

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To read other articles in the Show Your Faculty Some Love series, click here.

We all love free stuff

Show Your Faculty Some Love #4: Free Stuff!

Let's face it, everyone loves free stuff. Even when they have no idea what they are going to do with it. At my previous institution, we had pens made with the Library's information on them. We sent the pens, along with OhioLINK sticky notes and a short memo, to all faculty. It was appreciated. We also gave them out to all the first year students, and to the students in many of our one-shot instruction sessions. We got at least one comment about the pens being everywhere on campus.

We also had mugs which we gave to new faculty. They seemed to like them, although I recall that they had received other free stuff the same day (it was during their orientation), so it was less exciting.

But free stuff. Always a good thing. We are hopefully going to get pens made at my current Library this summer to give out in the Fall.


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To read other articles in the Show Your Faculty Some Love series, click here.

I am YOUR Librarian

Show Your Faculty Some Love #3: I am YOUR Librarian

It's interesting what sticks with people. I made of point of telling the faculty in my liaison areas that I am their librarian. This is not my original idea. I read it somewhere, and I'd give credit, but I've long since forgotten where I read it.

These faculty now repeat this to newcomers - "She is our librarian." Perhaps they find it humorous, perhaps they really like the idea, the reason doesn't matter. The important part is they remember it, they repeat it, and they appear to believe it.

Works for me. :)

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To read other articles in the Show Your Faculty Some Love series, click here.

Way Sweet

To use lingo picked up from a library school friend, this is definitely "way sweet". The CONSORT Libraries (Denison University, Kenyon College, Ohio Wesleyan University, and the College of Wooster) catalog has the option to send yourself the location information of an item via a text message. For an example, see here. Click on the "?" for the disclaimer (i.e., based on your cell phone plan, you may get billed for the text message).

Don't want to write it down? Have it sent to your phone!

Is it a new feature from the catalog providers? Is it a hack? I don't know, but it sure is way sweet.

News in 100 words or less

About a week ago, someone sent an email about Brijit to a listserv I am on.

What Brijit does: Every time a new article is published in certain magazines or newspapers, it's offered up for summarization. The number of summarizers is fixed - to about 3. These summarizers then read the article and write a long description of the article that is 100 words or less. Only one summary is chosen for inclusion on Brijit. The writer of the chosen summary receives $5.

So basically, you can pop over to Brijit and get the news in a lot less time. No longer do you have to read lengthy articles. Brijit provides the short summaries for you.

An interesting concept. Read more about it in this National Post article.

Another Librarian Song

"See a librarian for a good time."

Check out this humorous librarian song on YouTube.

MeeboMe and Facebook

A coworker and I recently set up a fan page for our library in Facebook, MeeboMe, and Pidgin.

The fan page was a lot of fun to create, as well as quick and easy. We suggested to a number of student workers that they become fans. We are currently up to 11 fans. Our fan page includes a MeeboMe widget, as well as the usual discussion board, pictures, notes, events, general info, etc. I may have to peruse the list of apps to see if any others would be good additions. Also great about the Facebook fan page is that you can see statistics. People may become fans and never look at the page again. Stats allow us to see how often people actually visit.

We also put a MeeboMe widget on our subject guides (hooray for pbwiki's sidebar! I did not want to have to install it on each page. Plus, if you edit the page, it changes the widget code for some unknown reason. This makes the widget stop working until I re-paste in the correct code. Not sure why it does that, but it's quite annoying). We also intend to find out if it's possible to put the widget on our library page within the campus portal.

Trillian, our current IM client, only allows us to add AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo accounts in the free version (how silly). So we switched to Pidgin. Chad Boeninger at Library Voice has an excellent explanation of how to set up MeeboMe and Pidgin. We also added a Google Talk account just to cover all our bases. Not that students don't all just use AIM anyway.