There were a few things in this issue that really caught my eye or struck a chord with me. Here are some highlights from the American Libraries June/July 2008 issue.
One of the first articles that caught my eye was the economic crisis that is hitting libraries across the nation. This article takes a look at the funding crises that are happening around the nation that is raising the prospects of cutbacks in public library services. In cities such as Los Angeles and New York, libraries are looking at shortening their weekend hours. In some systems, such as the library in Clearwater, Florida, the library could be closed weekends and most evenings. The article also points out that in other systems, some branches may be closed because of budget cuts.
On a lighter note, Storyville was highlighted in this issue of American Libraries. Storyville is a child-sized village that was specially designed and built inside the Rosedale branch of Baltimore County Public Library. The idea behind Storyville is that it is there to help parents and caregivers a place to help prepare your children for school. The townscape is 2,240-squre-foot are that is “loaded with hands-on play stations for babies and preschoolers” (39). The village officially opened on February 7 and has impacted the library’s business levels and staffing, which shares responsibility for operating Storyville.
Now on to the Technology section. One of the columns, one by Joseph Janes, “Internet Librarian”, caught my eye this month. His article calls for expanding ones idea of the library being bigger than the building. He started by describing his use of the libraries within his vicinity. He holds library cards from three systems. While he may visit the building, much of his “use” of the libraries are from his office, his home, or while he is travelling, with his heaviest use of each system is using their digital collections. I think this is one way of looking at expanding the notion of “library”. He says “the idea of the library has always been bigger than the building itself, which is necessary and convenient place for storing things. It also makes a great meeting place, touchstone for the community, and symbol for values we share and uphold. That building stands for something, and we should be proud of the places it occupies in the minds of our clienteles” (49). Some of the ways that he points out of libraries “trying to leak out of their shells” are having “branches, bookmobiles, interlibrary loan, outreach programs, and telephone reference” (49). Even with the digital world, he points out that even with digital access to a library’s collection and the building itself that “neither alone will suffice in meeting the varied and expanding needs of our communities, and neither along expresses the true nature and usefulness of what a ‘library’ is and can be (and ought to be and has to be0 in the 21st century” (49).
So now to one of the main focuses of this issue, wellness. The article begins by giving examples of librarians who started out as being physically unfit and started their journey to being fit. The article goes on to explain “Join the Circle of Wellness @ Your Library”, which is a website developed by ALA as part of an initiative of ALA President Loriene Roy. With creating an initiative of “Wellness in the Workplace” in mind as well as a way of assisting librarian in creating and maintaining health initiatives at work, a task force was created and composed of public, medical, and special librarians to create an action plan to help with this initiative. This task force had the following goals: “the launch of the ‘Wellness’ website, the development of a personal health ‘passport’ for ALA members, the creation of a workplace inventory that could be used by and at libraries to review working conditions that might impact worker health, and a Wellness Fair to be held at the 2008 ALA Annual Conference this summer in Anaheim” (54). Available online is Workplace Wellness Inventory and Wellness Passport through the website. Physical wellness was not the only aspect covered; they also covered social, environmental, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and occupational wellness. To see the information on this program, see the website www.ala-apa.org/wellness .
One of the articles that really struck a chord in this issue is the article on library student fieldwork. I did fieldwork as a master’s student in library and information science and remember my fieldwork experience well, as well as enjoyed the experience. So what is fieldwork you might ask? Well the author describes is as thus “fieldwork, sometimes called practicum or internship, is either required or available in most ALA-accredited masters programs. The course is intended to allow students to see how theory is applied to practice by spending a specified number of hours working in a real-world setting” (56). Experience is not the only integral part of the successful fieldwork, but so is the worksite supervisor. The article then focuses on what it means to be a worksite supervisor and what it can mean for your library. As a supervisor, a librarian gets the chance to help build the future of the profession. The fieldwork student can also give the library a fresh new perspective and bring new ideas into the library. As most fieldwork experiences are unpaid, it also gives the library an extra pair of hands for the length of the fieldwork. So what does it take to be an outstanding worksite supervisor? Here is what the article says: understand that the student is there to learn, communicate with the faculty supervisor, assign a variety of activities, maintain a real-world schedule, plan to evaluate the student, and support without hovering. The article concludes by telling you how you can find out about if the school in your area offers a fieldwork course as well as also finding out about any distance education programs that might have students in your area.
I hope you have found these articles as interesting as I have. That’s all for now.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
E-books, Creating Computer Games, What to Appreciate in our Careers as Librarians
Here I am again with a look at American Libraries. May is again filled with lots of interesting news from the library world. So without much further ado, here is what is happening in the library world.
One of the first interesting articles in this month’s issue was news about the unveiling of the ALA study on library service to new Americans. The article starts off by starting that “about 21 million people in the United States speak limited or no English, 50% more than a decade ago” (12). The ALA released the results of this study in response to the trend of public libraries who continue to make the effort to meet the service needs of non-English users. The study focused on “the range of specialized library services for non-English speakers” (12). This study was the first national study to consider the range of library services and programs developed for non-English speakers by looking at the services that public libraries provide to this population, such as effectiveness of services, barriers to library use, most frequently used services, and most successful library programs by language served, and by analyzing library service area population and patron proximity to local libraries that odder specialized services. Some interesting facts from this article about the study are that the most frequently used services by non-English speakers were special language collections (68.9%) and special programming (39.6%)[includes language-specific story hours and cultural programming], Spanish is the most supported non-English language at 78% being most reported as a priority, followed by Asian languages at 27% priority, and Indo-European languages in third at 17.6%. Barriers found for non-English speaking library users are reading and library habits at 76%, being unaware of the services offered by the library came in second at 74.7 %, and lack of discretionary time as the third most common barrier at 73.1%. To view the complete report and find more information on this study, you can visit www.ala.org/nonenglishspeakers/
Other interesting news includes Booklist begins its new online effort to ease the complexity of ordering selected online materials. Booklist Online and Title Source 3 from Baker & Taylor added this new functionality where Title Source customers can now place their orders of selected titles directly into Title Source 3 without navigating out of Booklist Online.
First Lady Laura Bush was interviewed about her post-White House agenda. Laura Bush talked about how she is looking forward to playing a role in the establishment of the presidential library at Southern Methodist University for her husband. She also talked about how her profession as a librarian has influenced her own initiatives and how it will continue to do so after the end of her husband’s term on January 20, 2009. Her initiatives currently have been “focused on helping America’s youth, education, Gulf Coast school rebuilding, women’s health and wellness, books and authors, and other issues central to librarianship” (18). She talks about the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries, which helps provide funding to help school districts with inadequate funding for library materials. In addition to helping with funding for these school districts, the foundation also has helped in aiding schools destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The rest of the article talks about the children’s book that she wrote with her daughter Jenna.
In the world of technology, Skype, a free of charge downloadable program that is used to make free long distance calls over the Internet, is being used by librarians as a videoconferencing tool. The program has visual, aural, and typed communication capabilities. Skype was proved “spectacularly successful as a videoconferencing tool for the more than 200 attendees who saw it in action at the ‘Future of Libraries, Part III: Embracing the Invisible Customer’ conference held at San Francisco Public Library last year” (32). The participants were able to see and hear Librarian Char Booth live from Ohio University Libraries. The article goes on to explain that to use Skype for conferences, the presenters just have to download Yugma, a free piece of software associated with Skype, to control their PowerPoint presentations from remote locations, and with these two programs along with a webcam, the presenter can be heard by the audience in a conference or presentation and are able to interact through a moderator. The article continues to talk about how a presenter can use this software and work out the kinks before using it to present.
Now that we have looked at some highlights of news in the library world, let’s take a look at the featured articles, or the “meat” of this month’s issue. What is the main focus of this issue’s feature you ask? Well let’s now take a look at “The Elusive E-book”. The article first takes a look at e-books. They point out that there are two types of e-books, those that are computer-based, which are used by a fixed or semimobile device such as a laptop and those that are portable, which can be used by a dedicated reader, such as the Amazon Kindle or a mobile device such as a PDA or cell phone. There are also a couple ways that e-books are sold: individual books and through subscriptions. Along with e-books comes a few problems when reading them associated with CRT and LCD screens, such as resolution, contrast, flicker, and glare. LCD screens has eliminated flicker, contrast is not so much of a major problem, and glare can be dealt with. Even with these problems dealt with, resolution is still a problem. While many would think that the resolution issue would be the reason that computer-based e-books don’t work, it more comes with the fact that the screens are immovable and are not ergonomical. It is the ergonomics that keep these computer-based e-books from being successfully circulated. The article goes on to explain a study on visual ergonomics and how it affects reading on a computer. Because of the nature of visual ergonomics and how it applies to reading a computer screen, computer users try to keep their eyes at the center of the screen and only skim information on the screen rather than reading it. While one would think that this would mean that specialized readers, such as the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, would be the answer to this problem. This is not the case because the question becomes why would someone want to spend $300-$400 on a device dedicated to reading books, when the resolution quality is 100 percent less than a regular printed book? The article also points out that paper books can be sold, traded, or given away, but an e-book is leased and therefore tied to the particular reader device. The article ends on the note that the potential for these books are enormous, but to be popular it is still a future dream.
So we’ve taken a look at the e-book, now let us turn our attention to another form of technology that are seeing in our libraries, gaming. We have all seen the information on studies dealing with kids and gaming when it comes to them playing games. This article takes a different approach by looking at studies that deal with kids creating the games themselves. These studies “suggest that kids’ best learning experiences come when they are engaged not simply in interacting with materials but in experimenting and inventing with them” (55). The author looks at what Mitchel Resnick, professor of learning research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. Resnick states “In the process of designing and creating—making sculptures out of clay or castles out of cardboard—children try out their ideas…If their creations don’t turn out as they’d expected or hoped, they can revise their ideas and try something new. It’s an iterative cycle: new ideas, new creations, new ideas, new creations… In design activities, as in play…children test the boundaries, experiment with ideas, explore what’s possible.’ Digital design activities…’facilitate learning by combining many of the 21st-century skills that will be critical to success in the future: thinking creatively, analyzing systematically, collaborating effectively, communicating clearly, designing iteratively, learning continuously” (55). An example of how this is being put into effect is a program that was developed in Wilmette Public Library in Illinois. They created a program that allows teens to design and create their own computer games using a program tool called Scratch that was developed by Resnick’s research group at the MIT Media Lab and also the tool Game Maker. Both programs are available as free downloads. They developed this program with the idea in mind to support these skills as well as “to develop fun and innovative teen-oriented programs, to broaden our existing gaming programs, to support teens’ use of new participatory technologies, and to promote 21st-century literacies by embedding learning activities within a highly motivating context” (55). The article goes on to talk about how each program was used within the program. The article concludes with explaining that with this program and others like it, libraries can become places that promote and enhance not just the traditional role of literacy education, but a place that promotes other competencies, such as integrating storytelling, art, digital media, logic, and other elements, by using these kinds of programs.
One of the first interesting articles in this month’s issue was news about the unveiling of the ALA study on library service to new Americans. The article starts off by starting that “about 21 million people in the United States speak limited or no English, 50% more than a decade ago” (12). The ALA released the results of this study in response to the trend of public libraries who continue to make the effort to meet the service needs of non-English users. The study focused on “the range of specialized library services for non-English speakers” (12). This study was the first national study to consider the range of library services and programs developed for non-English speakers by looking at the services that public libraries provide to this population, such as effectiveness of services, barriers to library use, most frequently used services, and most successful library programs by language served, and by analyzing library service area population and patron proximity to local libraries that odder specialized services. Some interesting facts from this article about the study are that the most frequently used services by non-English speakers were special language collections (68.9%) and special programming (39.6%)[includes language-specific story hours and cultural programming], Spanish is the most supported non-English language at 78% being most reported as a priority, followed by Asian languages at 27% priority, and Indo-European languages in third at 17.6%. Barriers found for non-English speaking library users are reading and library habits at 76%, being unaware of the services offered by the library came in second at 74.7 %, and lack of discretionary time as the third most common barrier at 73.1%. To view the complete report and find more information on this study, you can visit www.ala.org/nonenglishspeakers/
Other interesting news includes Booklist begins its new online effort to ease the complexity of ordering selected online materials. Booklist Online and Title Source 3 from Baker & Taylor added this new functionality where Title Source customers can now place their orders of selected titles directly into Title Source 3 without navigating out of Booklist Online.
First Lady Laura Bush was interviewed about her post-White House agenda. Laura Bush talked about how she is looking forward to playing a role in the establishment of the presidential library at Southern Methodist University for her husband. She also talked about how her profession as a librarian has influenced her own initiatives and how it will continue to do so after the end of her husband’s term on January 20, 2009. Her initiatives currently have been “focused on helping America’s youth, education, Gulf Coast school rebuilding, women’s health and wellness, books and authors, and other issues central to librarianship” (18). She talks about the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries, which helps provide funding to help school districts with inadequate funding for library materials. In addition to helping with funding for these school districts, the foundation also has helped in aiding schools destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The rest of the article talks about the children’s book that she wrote with her daughter Jenna.
In the world of technology, Skype, a free of charge downloadable program that is used to make free long distance calls over the Internet, is being used by librarians as a videoconferencing tool. The program has visual, aural, and typed communication capabilities. Skype was proved “spectacularly successful as a videoconferencing tool for the more than 200 attendees who saw it in action at the ‘Future of Libraries, Part III: Embracing the Invisible Customer’ conference held at San Francisco Public Library last year” (32). The participants were able to see and hear Librarian Char Booth live from Ohio University Libraries. The article goes on to explain that to use Skype for conferences, the presenters just have to download Yugma, a free piece of software associated with Skype, to control their PowerPoint presentations from remote locations, and with these two programs along with a webcam, the presenter can be heard by the audience in a conference or presentation and are able to interact through a moderator. The article continues to talk about how a presenter can use this software and work out the kinks before using it to present.
Now that we have looked at some highlights of news in the library world, let’s take a look at the featured articles, or the “meat” of this month’s issue. What is the main focus of this issue’s feature you ask? Well let’s now take a look at “The Elusive E-book”. The article first takes a look at e-books. They point out that there are two types of e-books, those that are computer-based, which are used by a fixed or semimobile device such as a laptop and those that are portable, which can be used by a dedicated reader, such as the Amazon Kindle or a mobile device such as a PDA or cell phone. There are also a couple ways that e-books are sold: individual books and through subscriptions. Along with e-books comes a few problems when reading them associated with CRT and LCD screens, such as resolution, contrast, flicker, and glare. LCD screens has eliminated flicker, contrast is not so much of a major problem, and glare can be dealt with. Even with these problems dealt with, resolution is still a problem. While many would think that the resolution issue would be the reason that computer-based e-books don’t work, it more comes with the fact that the screens are immovable and are not ergonomical. It is the ergonomics that keep these computer-based e-books from being successfully circulated. The article goes on to explain a study on visual ergonomics and how it affects reading on a computer. Because of the nature of visual ergonomics and how it applies to reading a computer screen, computer users try to keep their eyes at the center of the screen and only skim information on the screen rather than reading it. While one would think that this would mean that specialized readers, such as the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, would be the answer to this problem. This is not the case because the question becomes why would someone want to spend $300-$400 on a device dedicated to reading books, when the resolution quality is 100 percent less than a regular printed book? The article also points out that paper books can be sold, traded, or given away, but an e-book is leased and therefore tied to the particular reader device. The article ends on the note that the potential for these books are enormous, but to be popular it is still a future dream.
So we’ve taken a look at the e-book, now let us turn our attention to another form of technology that are seeing in our libraries, gaming. We have all seen the information on studies dealing with kids and gaming when it comes to them playing games. This article takes a different approach by looking at studies that deal with kids creating the games themselves. These studies “suggest that kids’ best learning experiences come when they are engaged not simply in interacting with materials but in experimenting and inventing with them” (55). The author looks at what Mitchel Resnick, professor of learning research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. Resnick states “In the process of designing and creating—making sculptures out of clay or castles out of cardboard—children try out their ideas…If their creations don’t turn out as they’d expected or hoped, they can revise their ideas and try something new. It’s an iterative cycle: new ideas, new creations, new ideas, new creations… In design activities, as in play…children test the boundaries, experiment with ideas, explore what’s possible.’ Digital design activities…’facilitate learning by combining many of the 21st-century skills that will be critical to success in the future: thinking creatively, analyzing systematically, collaborating effectively, communicating clearly, designing iteratively, learning continuously” (55). An example of how this is being put into effect is a program that was developed in Wilmette Public Library in Illinois. They created a program that allows teens to design and create their own computer games using a program tool called Scratch that was developed by Resnick’s research group at the MIT Media Lab and also the tool Game Maker. Both programs are available as free downloads. They developed this program with the idea in mind to support these skills as well as “to develop fun and innovative teen-oriented programs, to broaden our existing gaming programs, to support teens’ use of new participatory technologies, and to promote 21st-century literacies by embedding learning activities within a highly motivating context” (55). The article goes on to talk about how each program was used within the program. The article concludes with explaining that with this program and others like it, libraries can become places that promote and enhance not just the traditional role of literacy education, but a place that promotes other competencies, such as integrating storytelling, art, digital media, logic, and other elements, by using these kinds of programs.
Ok, so there have been lots of wonderful and interesting articles in this month’s issue of American Libraries and I have had the opportunity to highlight some of the ones that I found interesting. That being said, there is one more I would like to tell you all about before I call it a day. That is the little article called “Living the Dream”. This one page article talks about taking time to appreciate what we’ve got as librarians in our career. Have we really had the opportunity to look at what great things we have with being librarians? Well Mary Pergander gives us a few things to appreciate about our jobs:
- We get to work indoors regardless of weather, often in pleasant surroundings.
- The world’s knowledge surrounds us, and the entire world of information is at our fingertips.
- We work with interesting, intellectually stimulating people who generally share interests with us. We develop relationships with colleagues across the state and the nation, even around the world.
- We get to sleep at night without interruption from the workplace (unless you are one of the few on-call librarians).
- Our work brings us in contact with the edge of change in our society, enabling us to be early responders and adapt to what is coming—if we keep our minds open and flexible.
- Many of us have opportunities to read, to watch, or listen to bestsellers or newly minted, well-respected works, at no cost to ourselves except the hours devoted to devouring them. Others have the honor of reviewing priceless historical items on a daily basis.
- Whether serving patrons directly or in support services out of the public eye, the work we perform matters, and we make a difference in the lives of those served by our efforts (69).
So we can see that we have many things to be appreciate while being librarians and knowing that we are making a difference.
So that is it for me for the May issue of American Libraries. I hope you all have enjoyed reading this little snapshot of what is in this issue. This is Cathey, your American Libraries connection signing out.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
National Library Week, Going Green, and Take a Look at All the New Designs of Libraries!
Hello everyone,
Here I am with another look at American Libraries. First let me apologize for this being late. Unfortunately April’s issue of American Libraries was late in being sent out, so I did not receive my copy until mid-April. So with no further ado, here is what is going on in the library world according to the American Library Association.
Of course as many of you know, April is when National Library Week is celebrated. This year was the 50th anniversary of National Library Week and American Libraries started off with a lovely opening from Julie Andrews, 2008 Honorary Chair. She starts off by thanking everyone who works in the library world for all the hard work they do throughout the year. She then goes on to say how important our profession is and how our profession “represents and promotes the kind of independent learning and thinking that equips children to take their places in the world as productive and fulfilled adults” (8). Julie Andrews also says how “a library takes the gift [of the joy] of reading one step further by offering personalized learning opportunities second to none, a powerful antidote to the isolation of the Web” (8).
The news in the library world ranges from library closures being challenged to terrorists strikes in Israel and Gaza. An arbitrator rules against the EPA when it closed 7 of the agency’s ten regional libraries over the past two years, saying that the EPA “engaged in unfair labor practices and acted in bad faith” when it abruptly ordered the closing of these libraries. Other news announced was that Southern Methodist University was chosen as the site for the George W. Bush Library. The university was chosen over seven other competitors and will be a “three-part presidential center will comprise the presidential library, a museum with permanent and traveling exhibits, and an independents public policy institute. The first two components will be operated by the National Archives and Records Administration” (19). In February the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider whether plaintiffs who believed they had been spied on without a court order could challenge the legality of such surveillance without tangible proof, even if the proof is classified as a state secret. This rejection came two days after the Protect America Act expired. This act legalized warrantless eavesdropping on phone and internet communications to U.S. homes, workplaces, libraries, and elsewhere from foreign locations if the government suspects that the discussion involves support of terrorism from August 2007 till February 16. Harvard University’s faculty in the arts and sciences voted unanimously to publish their scholarly articles online, which makes them available to the public. Copyright of their articles is still retained by the faculty members. In the Middle East there were two separate incidents where terrorists targeted two different libraries. In Jerusalem a lone gunman killed eight students in an attack on a library at a religious school. A library at a YMCA was bombed by about a dozen men, who overpowered and tied up two security guards.
OCLC’s WorldCat is being challenged by a partnership between Inter Archive, Open Content Alliance, and entrepreneur Aaron Swartz by creating a free online book catalog called Open Library. Open Library is a free online book catalog that is designed to be maintained by the public. The idea is to have information on every book so people can find where they can order a book, read a digital copy, or check the book out from the library. The idea came about when Swartz found books on his local library’s bookshelves, but could not find any information about them on the Internet.
In the article “Go, Team!,” Michelle Boule talks about how different tools on the internet can be used to help with team collaboration. She points out many benefits from using technology. One benefit is with document exchange. By putting a document on a wiki instead of using email, team members can make changes and keeps all other versions of the document separate, “ensuring that there is never any question of who changed what or which version is current” (30). By conducting discussion online, by using IM or on a message board, an instant discussion archive is created as well as saving time from face to face meetings along with providing an archive of completed work. These tools can also allow greater flexibility with team membership and participation because groups working online are not bound in the same building or geographic location. This also allows members to work on the project when the time is convenient to their schedule instead of waiting for a scheduled meeting. What is also helpful with using technology is that there are many free or cheap tools that can provide instant messaging, group chatting, group collaboration, project management, and even web conferencing available without having to spend lots of money. This gives you a chance to try out new technology and see what works best without the layout the hefty price tag, but also lets you find out what works best.
One of the main articles in this month’s issue is on libraries that have gone green, or are working their way on becoming green. The article begins about what the LEED Green Building Rating System provides as far as standards for environmentally sustainable construction by evaluating projects within six categories: site development, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials selection, indoor environmental quality, and innovation in design. In addition to these standards, the article goes on to explain that LEED certification is available in four levels- certified, silver, gold, and platinum. The article goes on to show how Durham County’s libraries have gone green. The article gives advice on how to get started on building a green library.
In continuing with this green theme, American Libraries showcases different library designs. The showcase shows pictures of different libraries that have built new buildings or have renovated their buildings, making them more green friendly. This is the place where our own Prince Frederick library is featured. It shows a picture looking up the staircase tower with the following description: “The new Prince Frederick Library building reflects the characteristics of Calvert County in a lighthouse-like stair tower connecting the two floors of the library with a café and a cast-stone fireplace, which includes fossils embedded in its face. Numerous study and tutoring rooms are featured as well as a meeting room that can be divided as needed” (48).
So here you go. This is just a smattering of the articles that can be found in April’s issue of American Libraries. Hope you enjoyed this quick run through and happy reading!
Here I am with another look at American Libraries. First let me apologize for this being late. Unfortunately April’s issue of American Libraries was late in being sent out, so I did not receive my copy until mid-April. So with no further ado, here is what is going on in the library world according to the American Library Association.
Of course as many of you know, April is when National Library Week is celebrated. This year was the 50th anniversary of National Library Week and American Libraries started off with a lovely opening from Julie Andrews, 2008 Honorary Chair. She starts off by thanking everyone who works in the library world for all the hard work they do throughout the year. She then goes on to say how important our profession is and how our profession “represents and promotes the kind of independent learning and thinking that equips children to take their places in the world as productive and fulfilled adults” (8). Julie Andrews also says how “a library takes the gift [of the joy] of reading one step further by offering personalized learning opportunities second to none, a powerful antidote to the isolation of the Web” (8).
The news in the library world ranges from library closures being challenged to terrorists strikes in Israel and Gaza. An arbitrator rules against the EPA when it closed 7 of the agency’s ten regional libraries over the past two years, saying that the EPA “engaged in unfair labor practices and acted in bad faith” when it abruptly ordered the closing of these libraries. Other news announced was that Southern Methodist University was chosen as the site for the George W. Bush Library. The university was chosen over seven other competitors and will be a “three-part presidential center will comprise the presidential library, a museum with permanent and traveling exhibits, and an independents public policy institute. The first two components will be operated by the National Archives and Records Administration” (19). In February the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider whether plaintiffs who believed they had been spied on without a court order could challenge the legality of such surveillance without tangible proof, even if the proof is classified as a state secret. This rejection came two days after the Protect America Act expired. This act legalized warrantless eavesdropping on phone and internet communications to U.S. homes, workplaces, libraries, and elsewhere from foreign locations if the government suspects that the discussion involves support of terrorism from August 2007 till February 16. Harvard University’s faculty in the arts and sciences voted unanimously to publish their scholarly articles online, which makes them available to the public. Copyright of their articles is still retained by the faculty members. In the Middle East there were two separate incidents where terrorists targeted two different libraries. In Jerusalem a lone gunman killed eight students in an attack on a library at a religious school. A library at a YMCA was bombed by about a dozen men, who overpowered and tied up two security guards.
OCLC’s WorldCat is being challenged by a partnership between Inter Archive, Open Content Alliance, and entrepreneur Aaron Swartz by creating a free online book catalog called Open Library. Open Library is a free online book catalog that is designed to be maintained by the public. The idea is to have information on every book so people can find where they can order a book, read a digital copy, or check the book out from the library. The idea came about when Swartz found books on his local library’s bookshelves, but could not find any information about them on the Internet.
In the article “Go, Team!,” Michelle Boule talks about how different tools on the internet can be used to help with team collaboration. She points out many benefits from using technology. One benefit is with document exchange. By putting a document on a wiki instead of using email, team members can make changes and keeps all other versions of the document separate, “ensuring that there is never any question of who changed what or which version is current” (30). By conducting discussion online, by using IM or on a message board, an instant discussion archive is created as well as saving time from face to face meetings along with providing an archive of completed work. These tools can also allow greater flexibility with team membership and participation because groups working online are not bound in the same building or geographic location. This also allows members to work on the project when the time is convenient to their schedule instead of waiting for a scheduled meeting. What is also helpful with using technology is that there are many free or cheap tools that can provide instant messaging, group chatting, group collaboration, project management, and even web conferencing available without having to spend lots of money. This gives you a chance to try out new technology and see what works best without the layout the hefty price tag, but also lets you find out what works best.
One of the main articles in this month’s issue is on libraries that have gone green, or are working their way on becoming green. The article begins about what the LEED Green Building Rating System provides as far as standards for environmentally sustainable construction by evaluating projects within six categories: site development, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials selection, indoor environmental quality, and innovation in design. In addition to these standards, the article goes on to explain that LEED certification is available in four levels- certified, silver, gold, and platinum. The article goes on to show how Durham County’s libraries have gone green. The article gives advice on how to get started on building a green library.
In continuing with this green theme, American Libraries showcases different library designs. The showcase shows pictures of different libraries that have built new buildings or have renovated their buildings, making them more green friendly. This is the place where our own Prince Frederick library is featured. It shows a picture looking up the staircase tower with the following description: “The new Prince Frederick Library building reflects the characteristics of Calvert County in a lighthouse-like stair tower connecting the two floors of the library with a café and a cast-stone fireplace, which includes fossils embedded in its face. Numerous study and tutoring rooms are featured as well as a meeting room that can be divided as needed” (48).
So here you go. This is just a smattering of the articles that can be found in April’s issue of American Libraries. Hope you enjoyed this quick run through and happy reading!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Raising Money for Kenya Libraries, Digitizing Photo Collections, and Let's See What Exciting Things Happened at the Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia!
Here I am again with another interesting look at American Libraries. The March issue had many different and interesting articles covering lifelong learning, additional information of library related events throughout the world, plus a report on the ALA Midwinter Meeting that took place in Philadelphia. While my goal was to tell you about one interesting article each month, I found that in this issue there were just too many interesting things just to pick one! So since a couple of the interesting information found in this issue a rather small, I decided to highlight the many articles I found interesting. Enjoy!
One of the first things to catch my eye in this month’s issue was a one page article about two 16 year old high school juniors from Tampa, Florida who raise money for libraries in Kenya. The article is “Girls Raise Cash for Kenya” and appears on page 28. Believing in Gandhi’s words “We must become the chance we want to see in the world”, these two teenagers, Danielle Rodriguez and Megan Adams, started Literacy Leads to Hope, which is a fundraising initiative that supports the American Friends of Kenya (AFK) organization. Their goal has been to raise enough money to build and set up a library in Thika. So far they have raised $40,000 from a benefit fundraiser and $35,000 from a Canadian Baptist church towards their $120,000 goal that they hope to raise, which is the estimated cost of construction. There are already desks, books, a computer, and shelves that are waiting in storage fort he building. Not only have they raised money for their cause, but they have met the mayor of Tampa, who declared “Literacy Leads to Hope Day” on November 13 in the city. They are also continuing their fundraising by reaching out to schools by trying to raise money through t-shirt sales and sales of Tumaini (Swahili for “hope”) dolls that the girls created themselves. The money they raise and will raise goes to the American Friends of Kenya organization, earmarked for the library. For more information, visit their website at www.literacyleadstohope.com.
Looking at the technology news in the library world, the Library of Congress is teaming up with Flickr “to broaden public access to the 14 million photographs and other visual items in LC’s collections” (30). The project will begin with 3,000 photos that will be posted in an area called The Commons (www.flickr.com/commons) that will contains photos from the library’s most popular collections, the George Grantham Bain Collection and Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information. Only images, which have no copyright restrictions know to exist, will be included in this project. There are hopes that the public will enhance the collections utility by helping with key caption information for the many photos that are missing this information.
The next interesting article I read called “Story Quilt: Poems of a Place.” It talks about the town of Galway, New York and the social history project of the Galway Public Library. The Galway Public Library received a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, which was administered through the Saratoga County Arts Council. With this grant and many volunteers, they gathered a collection of poems and little stories “comprising the symbolic quilt of the town’s collective history” (51). They collected poems that people wrote, or material to create a poem, dealing with the past through the present of the town. Instead of relegating these poems to paper or being archived somewhere, they decided to have the poems performed “for the entire community to share and celebrate” (51). After the first year was a success, they applied for a second grant to continue collected poems and stories to add to the collection, ending up with close to 300 poems by the end of 2006. Eventually by 2007 they published a book containing 122 of the poems and artwork from local artists called Story Quilt: Poems of a Place. The whole community got behind the project and showed its support by funding the publication of the book themselves through contributions from individuals, businesses, organizations in Galway. By doing this, they were able to allow all the proceeds from the sale of the books to be put back into the library’s arts and literary programming fund.
Last, but not least, there was a whole section of information about the events and presentations the occurred at the Midwinter Meeting that was held in Philadelphia in January. In addition to all the information and brief overviews of the main events from the meeting, there is also information about the candidates for ALA President in 2009. Each of the candidates had a page to tell about their experience and what they pledge to do if elected. There is also an article where each candidate answers questions from the different people in the audience. Voting began March 17, so if you are an ALA member take this opportunity to vote.
Well that is all for this month’s American Libraries. If you are an ALA member, you can access the magazine for free through the website.
One of the first things to catch my eye in this month’s issue was a one page article about two 16 year old high school juniors from Tampa, Florida who raise money for libraries in Kenya. The article is “Girls Raise Cash for Kenya” and appears on page 28. Believing in Gandhi’s words “We must become the chance we want to see in the world”, these two teenagers, Danielle Rodriguez and Megan Adams, started Literacy Leads to Hope, which is a fundraising initiative that supports the American Friends of Kenya (AFK) organization. Their goal has been to raise enough money to build and set up a library in Thika. So far they have raised $40,000 from a benefit fundraiser and $35,000 from a Canadian Baptist church towards their $120,000 goal that they hope to raise, which is the estimated cost of construction. There are already desks, books, a computer, and shelves that are waiting in storage fort he building. Not only have they raised money for their cause, but they have met the mayor of Tampa, who declared “Literacy Leads to Hope Day” on November 13 in the city. They are also continuing their fundraising by reaching out to schools by trying to raise money through t-shirt sales and sales of Tumaini (Swahili for “hope”) dolls that the girls created themselves. The money they raise and will raise goes to the American Friends of Kenya organization, earmarked for the library. For more information, visit their website at www.literacyleadstohope.com.
Looking at the technology news in the library world, the Library of Congress is teaming up with Flickr “to broaden public access to the 14 million photographs and other visual items in LC’s collections” (30). The project will begin with 3,000 photos that will be posted in an area called The Commons (www.flickr.com/commons) that will contains photos from the library’s most popular collections, the George Grantham Bain Collection and Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information. Only images, which have no copyright restrictions know to exist, will be included in this project. There are hopes that the public will enhance the collections utility by helping with key caption information for the many photos that are missing this information.
The next interesting article I read called “Story Quilt: Poems of a Place.” It talks about the town of Galway, New York and the social history project of the Galway Public Library. The Galway Public Library received a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, which was administered through the Saratoga County Arts Council. With this grant and many volunteers, they gathered a collection of poems and little stories “comprising the symbolic quilt of the town’s collective history” (51). They collected poems that people wrote, or material to create a poem, dealing with the past through the present of the town. Instead of relegating these poems to paper or being archived somewhere, they decided to have the poems performed “for the entire community to share and celebrate” (51). After the first year was a success, they applied for a second grant to continue collected poems and stories to add to the collection, ending up with close to 300 poems by the end of 2006. Eventually by 2007 they published a book containing 122 of the poems and artwork from local artists called Story Quilt: Poems of a Place. The whole community got behind the project and showed its support by funding the publication of the book themselves through contributions from individuals, businesses, organizations in Galway. By doing this, they were able to allow all the proceeds from the sale of the books to be put back into the library’s arts and literary programming fund.
Last, but not least, there was a whole section of information about the events and presentations the occurred at the Midwinter Meeting that was held in Philadelphia in January. In addition to all the information and brief overviews of the main events from the meeting, there is also information about the candidates for ALA President in 2009. Each of the candidates had a page to tell about their experience and what they pledge to do if elected. There is also an article where each candidate answers questions from the different people in the audience. Voting began March 17, so if you are an ALA member take this opportunity to vote.
Well that is all for this month’s American Libraries. If you are an ALA member, you can access the magazine for free through the website.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Let's Hear It From The Jury and New Year's Resolutions for the Librarian Professional
The first issue for this year covers both January and February, so I will be telling you about 2 interesting articles I read. So here it goes and enjoy!
The first article I thought was interesting was “Librarians in the Jury Box” by Nancy Kalikow Maxwell. The author of this article talked with attorneys and did research on trial technique handbooks to find out if her hunch that librarians make highly desirable jurors was correct. When talking with the attorneys, the author found that they feel that librarians make excellent jurors and are preferred when selecting a jury. One reason is because “librarians are interested in the facts and not generally swayed by innuendo or subjective beliefs.” Other reasons are because librarians “listen to reason” and “librarians are organized, practical, conservative, and careful…conservative, I don’t mean politically, but rather they are the kind of people who pay their bills on time. They would focus on the facts and not be swayed by the big picture a plaintiff tries to paint.” Much of the research of the handbooks show that librarians are potential jurors because they are described as intelligent, are seen as literary people, and people who can empathize.
Of course this being said, the article goes on to say how not all librarians are created equal when it comes to being desirable as jurors. Catalogers could be seen as too requiring of “everything in a case to fit together too neatly” while school librarians are “reportedly make good jurors because they are accustomed to making do with available materials.” Public librarians are preferred as defense jurors in criminal cases because they are exposed to a “variety of aspects of life” and are “less likely to be shocked by the details of a crime.”
The last part of the article talks about looking like a librarian. One of the things materials counsel lawyers to consider when selecting jurors is physical characteristics. One reference cautions against selecting a person who is frowning over half-glasses, thin people, and people with thin lips, thin hair, and angular features. Other sources advise lawyers to choose people that are heavy, round-faced, jovial looking as the most desirable for the jury as well as smiling jurors. I found this article interesting because it gave an incite to how we can be perceived by other professions and other people.
The other article I found interesting is a short article on twelve resolutions for the New Year at your library. It is called “Be It Resolved…Twelve resolutions for the New Year at your library” by Mary Pergander. The article goes into some ideas/resolutions on making a difference in your professional career and your library. The resolutions on her list are:
The first article I thought was interesting was “Librarians in the Jury Box” by Nancy Kalikow Maxwell. The author of this article talked with attorneys and did research on trial technique handbooks to find out if her hunch that librarians make highly desirable jurors was correct. When talking with the attorneys, the author found that they feel that librarians make excellent jurors and are preferred when selecting a jury. One reason is because “librarians are interested in the facts and not generally swayed by innuendo or subjective beliefs.” Other reasons are because librarians “listen to reason” and “librarians are organized, practical, conservative, and careful…conservative, I don’t mean politically, but rather they are the kind of people who pay their bills on time. They would focus on the facts and not be swayed by the big picture a plaintiff tries to paint.” Much of the research of the handbooks show that librarians are potential jurors because they are described as intelligent, are seen as literary people, and people who can empathize.
Of course this being said, the article goes on to say how not all librarians are created equal when it comes to being desirable as jurors. Catalogers could be seen as too requiring of “everything in a case to fit together too neatly” while school librarians are “reportedly make good jurors because they are accustomed to making do with available materials.” Public librarians are preferred as defense jurors in criminal cases because they are exposed to a “variety of aspects of life” and are “less likely to be shocked by the details of a crime.”
The last part of the article talks about looking like a librarian. One of the things materials counsel lawyers to consider when selecting jurors is physical characteristics. One reference cautions against selecting a person who is frowning over half-glasses, thin people, and people with thin lips, thin hair, and angular features. Other sources advise lawyers to choose people that are heavy, round-faced, jovial looking as the most desirable for the jury as well as smiling jurors. I found this article interesting because it gave an incite to how we can be perceived by other professions and other people.
The other article I found interesting is a short article on twelve resolutions for the New Year at your library. It is called “Be It Resolved…Twelve resolutions for the New Year at your library” by Mary Pergander. The article goes into some ideas/resolutions on making a difference in your professional career and your library. The resolutions on her list are:
- Can you name three librarians colleagues working in similar roles in nearby libraries?
- Is there at least one professional journal you read cover to cover each month?
- Attend a professional conference, if you can.
- Subscribe to at least on RSS feed on a library topic of interest.
- Are you a technology superuser?
- Share your librarianship ideas more broadly.
- Vote, not just in the political elections but your library organizations also.
- Take a local or web-based continuing education class related to your own information needs.
- Serve on a committee in your library, school, or professional organization.
- Nominate a librarian for an award.
- Apply for a grant.
- Take a vacation, and visit a library.
She encourages librarians to complete at least two or three completely.
I hope you have enjoyed learning about a couple interesting articles in the January/February 2008 issue of American Libraries, a publication of the American Library Association. If you like what you have seen and want to read more or you want to read more interesting articles on the library world, check out the January/February 2008 issues of American Libraries!
What is going on in the library world?: American Libraries Goal
As one of my goals this year, I am reading American Libraries magazine each month and then emailing everyone that works in my library system about an interesting article I read. I sat here getting ready to work on the March issue and a light bulb went off. Why not only email my summaries, but also post them on my blog! So here it goes and enjoy!
Thursday, August 23, 2007
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make: Week 9, Thing 23
Yea! I have reached the end of my 23 Things. It’s very exciting to have the end in sight. Now for a summary about my learning. When thinking of my favorite discoveries or exercises, I find it hard to pick one. I really enjoyed doing the avatar. Flickr was fun to work with and to find out about the different things you can use it for. I also really enjoyed YouTube and learning about podcasts. I have learned a lot about different technologies that are out there. This program has definitely opened my eyes to how the Internet has dramatically expanded since I was in college and graduate and that wasn’t all that long ago, only about 2 to 3 years. Scary to think about it really. It makes me realize how much I really need to keep up with what is going on out there and what people are using on the World Wide Web.
One unexpected outcome of 23 Things was giving me the idea of how to organize my list of reference websites as part of a project I was working on. While using Rollyo I thought it would be a great way to organize and access my list of reference websites and for staff and customers to use them. Well I had more than 25 websites on my list, but it did give me the idea to use Google’s similar service I had learned about at ALA. Now we have a great very own search engine with over 300+ websites and growing. Another great take-away was learning how to use a wiki and how to create one. I used this knowledge to set up a wiki for the Teen Team to use as a place to post book reviews on to help us discuss books that we could possibly use for our Teen Summer Book Discussions. I also even learned to be enthusiastic about podcasts. :)
I found the format for this program was very helpful. It was organized very well and if one truly explored the site for Thing 1, then one would know where all the information can be found about each activity to be explored. Any snags would be more from the implementation within each library system as far as getting things completed for this program. I enjoyed completing this program. If another was offered again, I would choose to participate. I use the Internet a lot and so do a lot of our customers. Whether we like it or not, the Internet is here to stay and is evolving at an ever increasing pace. We as librarians need to keep up with such technology. Even if we don’t personally use it on a regular basis, we need to be aware of what is out there and what our customers are using or could possibly use to help them access the information that they need and want.
How would I describe my learning experience? Fascinating at times, slow at times, dragging my feet at times, but overall it has opened my eyes to what is out there. Even as a 20-something adult who grew up using a computer and the Internet, there were still many things that I learned and I am glad I did. What doesn’t kill us, only makes us stronger. :)
One unexpected outcome of 23 Things was giving me the idea of how to organize my list of reference websites as part of a project I was working on. While using Rollyo I thought it would be a great way to organize and access my list of reference websites and for staff and customers to use them. Well I had more than 25 websites on my list, but it did give me the idea to use Google’s similar service I had learned about at ALA. Now we have a great very own search engine with over 300+ websites and growing. Another great take-away was learning how to use a wiki and how to create one. I used this knowledge to set up a wiki for the Teen Team to use as a place to post book reviews on to help us discuss books that we could possibly use for our Teen Summer Book Discussions. I also even learned to be enthusiastic about podcasts. :)
I found the format for this program was very helpful. It was organized very well and if one truly explored the site for Thing 1, then one would know where all the information can be found about each activity to be explored. Any snags would be more from the implementation within each library system as far as getting things completed for this program. I enjoyed completing this program. If another was offered again, I would choose to participate. I use the Internet a lot and so do a lot of our customers. Whether we like it or not, the Internet is here to stay and is evolving at an ever increasing pace. We as librarians need to keep up with such technology. Even if we don’t personally use it on a regular basis, we need to be aware of what is out there and what our customers are using or could possibly use to help them access the information that they need and want.
How would I describe my learning experience? Fascinating at times, slow at times, dragging my feet at times, but overall it has opened my eyes to what is out there. Even as a 20-something adult who grew up using a computer and the Internet, there were still many things that I learned and I am glad I did. What doesn’t kill us, only makes us stronger. :)
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