Mentat

May 3, 2008

LibBook - Facebook for Libraries

I've been enjoying playing around with Facebook the last few weeks and one of the things I really like about it is the control I have over who I connect with, information I share with different groups of people, what applications I can install and how I organize them on my public site and my internal site.

And those applications - there are tons of them because anyone can write one. Facebook provides great tools for potential Facebook developers. And each app is a breeze to install. I can click to install it, then play around with it to see what it does. If I don't like it, I just delete it and poof its gone. It's sooooper easy to experiment...and play!

So, I thought to myself, wouldn't it be cool if the library website worked like this? I could make connections with other library people, share book lists, install and play silly games, send little notes and pokes to people, publish my own personal news feed that others who thought I was interesting could subscribe to. I could share pictures and videos and poetry and excerpts from my favorite books and perhaps even create my own applications to share.

I encourage you to get on Facebook if you aren't already using it and while you're playing around, networking, and doing whatever you end up doing with your Facebook account....imagine it being provided by your local library --- LibBook. LibBook would have a focus on local events and bookish things rather than dating, and gossip. Instead of being fans of musical groups and TV shows, users might be be fans of books and authors. Instead of finding long lost classmates, users would be finding people with shared interests who are just across town or up the road.

Any LibBook developers out there?

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April 18, 2008

Sarah Long and Lori Ayre talk about Library Delivery

I recently did a delivery evaluation for the North Suburban Library System and had the opportunity to meet Sarah Long, Director of NSLS. I admire Sarah and the work she's done for libraries so it was especially rewarding to have her request an interview.

In case you find library delivery and materials handling as fascinating as I do, now you can get in on the action by listening to this little chat between Sarah and me for her Longshots Podcast series.

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February 21, 2008

Cloudbook for Laptop Loaner

The new Cloudbook is an ultralight PC (2 lbs) with all open source software installed including Open Office which provides a very nice substitute to the oh so pricey Microsoft Office suite.

At a cost of only $399, this might be a very nice option for libraries thinking about making laptops available to their users.

Not only is the OS (gOS Rocket) and the applications Open Source (Mozilla Firefox, gMail, Meebo, Skype, Wikipedia, GIMP, Blogger, YouTube, Xing Movie Player, RythemBox, Faqly, Facebook and OpenOffice.org 2.3 (includes WRITER, IMPRESS, DRAW, CALC, BASE)), but the units are also based on an "ultra-low power design" and are "whisper quiet."

I don't know about you but all that matters. In fact, the quiet part is one of the most important features in my selfish book because the buzz, hum and gurgle of most computers drives me mad!

Though the Cloudbook sounds interesting, you may want to sit tight while people like Meredith Farkas work out the kinks for you. It sounds like it isn't ready right out of the box for your library users but between the price, size, greenness and open sourceness.....it just might be the right fit down the road.

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December 5, 2007

MeeboMe when search fails in library catalog

I found this via the LibrarianInBlack's FeedBlitz (which is the only reason I manage to keep up with her postings) and it is so cool, I had to pass it along. She says:
David Lee King wrote about adding the MeeboMe Widget to his library's catalog. It shows up whenever there is an unsuccessful keyword search. This way your users have on-screen access to live help from library staff when and where they often need it--while using our confusing and multi-layered catalogs.

LiB points out that the the catalog is the primary point of contact for our customers/users so this little widget ensures that they have access to a real human being whenever they need it. I love it.

The only glitch I found with how it has been implemented at Topeka & Shawnee is that very few searches result in 0 hits because they convert your query to a browse query and display titles that are maybe close to what you were going for. I had a hard time coming up with a search that gave me nada so I could see the MeeboMe widget pop up. With such a resource at the ready, maybe it isn't necessary to convert all the searches to browse mode....

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October 8, 2007

Redefine "Circulating Library

I was reading about some of the great things people are doing with LibraryThing for Libraries recently (check out this Christian Science Monitor article about Library Thing - note the closing line, "What other amusements have librarians been keeping to themselves?") and I had this wild idea....why not allow individual patrons to circulate items from their collections too?

The idea of extending circulation capabilities to patron holdings evolves from my belief that the search tool we present to our users must always *find* the thing they are looking for. Whether the item is available at the local library is part of a transparent Step Two. The most important first step is to locate a reference and metadata for the item sought.

Once the metadata is available, then the user will be able to decide if they need the physical item because they will be able to see the book cover, read the table of contents, "look inside the book," read reviews from their peer group, and utilize all that other cataloging information we provide.

IF, the user decides she wants the item, then we must do everything in our power to get it for her. This is part of that transparent Step Two. There's lots of ways to get the thing these days because we can not only borrow it from another library or buy it from our book distributor or Amazon or the local bookstroe. We can also digitize it, copy it, or create a book-on-demand. We can download it as an Ebook, or find it in an open access repository or link to it in an online book collection. So to this increasingly long list of ways we can fulfill the patron's request, I am, as of today, adding the idea that we borrow it from another patron.

I have lots of books on my shelf that may be of interest to just the right person but which may not make sense for my local library to make room for. For example, I did a paper on data mining so I have all these great academic and scientific books on data mining that probably wouldn't do much business in my small town library. But, in the spirit of the long tail, there are people out there who would are likely to want these books at some point and I'd be more than happy to lend them. I'm not quite prepared to sell them via Amazon or donate them to someone who will reject them (my library) but I'd love to lend them to other interested users.

Imagine, if our local collections were expanded to include items held by our patrons that they were willing to lend? Double the collection size without adding any more space? Sounds good to me. Of course, we'd have to come up with some rules and there would be some risk involved but so what! I think it would be worth trying.

Anyone out there interested in expanding their library collection to include circulatable items owned by their patrons/customers? Library users, are you interested in lending items from your personal collection?

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September 28, 2007

Is there a future for libraries?

I've been thinking a lot about whether there is a future for libraries. I think it is up in the air at this point. While I am confident there is a future for librarians (who will call themselves something besides Librarians someday), I think the future of the physical library is up for grabs. It depends on what we do to ensure that it endures. I hope we manage to keep them around.

As such, I've been giving a talk that focuses on this issue. This talk picked up steam first in Denver about a year ago at a conference on delivery and at that point I used the title "Delivery 2.0" which seems to have caught on. Since then, I've been asked to do my Delivery 2.0 speech at other ILL meetings. I agree. Then I go there and do my Future of Libraries talk.

So, here's the latest version for your enjoyment. Available as a podcast (90 minutes) with accompanying slides (PDF). Enjoy.

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August 21, 2007

Sorters and Self-Check -in Just Make Sense

I've been a very very bad girl. No postings for over a month. Turns out when I'm trying to get a report of some kind written, I can't post a blog entry. It feels like an adulterous act - like I'm cheating on my client. Writing....but not for them.

As always, in writing the report, I learned something. I learned that I could make a very conservative ROI estimate of 9-12 years for not just a a central sortation system for a medium sized library system but also for two or three individual library sorters. That's a lot of automation with a pretty good payback. And it doesn't take super high volume to make an economic argument in support of it.

In my ROI estimate, I ONLY counted the savings in time for the people in the library dealing with sorting items from the book drop bins and their internal delivery system and getting items to a "ready-to-shelve" state. There's lots more reasons to use a sorter. Lots more ways it is beneficial to the library (fewer RSI injuries, faster turnaround for customers, less boring tasks) but I didn't take any of that into account on my ROI calculations.

Oh, and in those calculations, I had automated check-in stations for the public. Not check-out. Check-in. Those were factored into my prices and figured into my ROI but the benefit for all concerned for automated check-in wasn't included either.

Sorters and automated check-ins are coming. Both take some of the mundane clerical work that is mind-numbing (or opportunities for Zen meditation depending on your point of view) away from library workers and gives them opportunities to do other tasks that require creative human beings. They are great for customers too. Items get in and out faster. People like to be able to check in their items right away to clear their accounts. And it clears the way for the library to focus more on providing innovative customer service and programs.

To treat myself for having completed that report, I flew up to King County Library System and took at look at Matilda, their beloved central sort system. Wow. The system is incredible. They sort 7000-9000 items per shift. Here's how it works. There's a tote drop off and pick up area right at the loading dock that the delivery personnel interface with. They bring in stacks of totes on a hand truck and drop them on a platform for Matilda. She unstacks the totes and queues up the bins at four locations where human operators take out individual items and place them on a large oval conveyor system that is moving VERY fast. As in fast enough that I couldn't do that job because I would feel sick to my stomach all the time. I couldn't work in a microfilm library for the same reason. Zipping ahead on a microfilm roll just makes me want to hurl. Anyhoooo, back to Matilda. So the people put the items on the conveyor and the items are taken around to the other side of the oval where they are whipped into the right sort location. That part is absolutely miraculous. But don't worry about damage, the items are whisked off the conveyor to a bin but it is a lateral whisk to a chute that then opens and drops them into the tote. Straight down, no manglation (new word).

When the sort totes are full,a human operator simply pushes them forward to another conveyor that takes the totes back to a giant stack of totes that Matilde uses for staging. She keeps track of all the totes in the stack.

When a driver comes in to begin his route, he tells Matilde what route he's going to do and she gathers up all the totes the driver needs and brings them out, all nicely stacked in threes so the driver can pick up the stack with a hand truck without ever having to bend over to hoist a bin anywhere.

Any group of people who've bothered to name an automation system have done so because they have developed some kind of connection to the machine. Maybe you've named your car and you know what I mean. Well, the sorter is named Matilde and the folks that work with Matilde seem to have a very healthy and honest relationship with her. They have had to work hard to enjoy the efficiency of the system and they know about some of her idiosyncrasies. But they've figured out how to make it work for everyone. It takes a staff of 7 or so to do those 7000-9000 sorts each shift but they all seem to enjoy their time together. It's really a site (sight?) to behold. If you ever get a chance to see it in operation and meet the folks there, I strongly recommend it.

And that's the story of why I haven't blogged for a month. Well, that's part of the story anyway.

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July 11, 2007

RFID Tag Compliant with Emerging Data Model?

TAGSYS has announce a new RFID tag, the Folio 370L Tag. It has a password protected electronic article surveillance feature. This sounds good but I'm not sure what that means exactly. What is most interesting to me and most annoying is TAGSYS' claim that it "meets the emerging NISO (US National Information Standards Organization) data model standard for libraries.

If its an emerging standard, it means it ain't there yet. It's a standard-to-be. It's in development and subject to change. The point of a standard is that we all know what it is and comply with it. An emerging standard means we haven't quite worked that out yet but we're trying. So to claim a tag meets the emerging NISO data model standard is more marketing hype than anything else. Don't some of you other vendors have a tag that is equally "compliant" with the emerging standard?

I had the same reaction to reading that as I do when I read that an Internet filter is "CIPA-compliant." CIPA of course is the Children's Internet Protection Act which seeks to prevent kids from seeing Internet material that is "harmful to minors" which is a legal term that is so subjective as to be meaningless across communities. What is harmful to your minor may not be harmful to my minor. At any rate, who knows what a filter that claims to be "CIPA compliant" thinks is harmful to minors.

Similarly, what are the features of an RFID tag that meets an emerging standard? Still, I'll be keeping my eye on it just in case we get that standard someday!

[From Biblio-Tech Review]

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June 27, 2007

Transforming Your Library With Technology - ALA Presentation

I was part of the panel Transforming Your Library, and Your Library's Future, with Technology held at ALA this year. I spoke with Casey Bisson and Roy Tennant. I went first and approached the transformation issue from a big, physical technology point of view arguing that we need to use less of our library spaces for books and start using the library space to ensure our users have a productive experience. We have to do more than warehouse books in our libraries. They need to be vibrant community centers that appeal to a broad range of users. See more on this theme in my The Synaptic Library podcast.

I also argued that the days of the "accidental systems librarian" are over and we need to start taking our technology skills more seriously. All library workers need to be effective users of technology. Period. On top of that, we need strong technologists running our networks, administering our databases and, yes, designing our software.

Our panel was part of the larger Libraries Transform Communities theme.

If you'd like to hear my presentation, here's the 40 min podcast. Or if you'd rather just watch the slides, here's a Powerpoint Show of my presentation.

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June 11, 2007

What I Told Publishers at the SSP Conference

I recently spoke on a panel for the Society for Scholarly Publishing's Annual Meeting held in San Francisco. I was there to provide the public library perspective. Our panel title was The Extensible Library: Library 2.0 and Patron 2.0. My co-presenters were Matt Goldner of OCLC and Rick Anderson of the University of Nevada, Reno.

I don't have recordings or Powerpoint of my co-presenters...but here are mine:

Slides (PDF)
Audio Recording (MP3)

Enjoy.

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May 16, 2007

Berkeley Public Library's New Website - Nice!

Hooray, the Berkeley Public Library has launched their new website and it looks fantastic!

I'm proud to have had a hand in the project. My partner, Nicole Reinecker, and I worked with BPL to redevelop their site architecture and come up with the excellent design. After gettting the basic design and site architecture work done, the BPL folks took the project back in house and continued to fine-tune the website and develop an appropriate workflow.

It's not easy to move from a centralized website to one where responsibility for the content is greatly distributed. This is how it should be, of course, but its a painful process to make the change. Kudos to everyone involved!

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May 15, 2007

Developing a Library Technology Plan, Part 1

I've been developing a lot of material for online courses lately and haven't had a chance to post to this blog. So, I thought I might capitalize on my efforts and rework some of the material for this venue. This is installment one from my four week course on Developing a Library Technology Plan. The course is going to be offered again starting in July 10, 2007. If you are interested in attending, go to this Infopeople page.

What is a Library Technology Plan
A library technology plan is a document that describes the library's use of technology, the strategy used by the library to make decisions about what technology to use and support, related activities planned for the next three years, and a budget. The technology plan also helps ensure that all aspects of the library technology infrastructure are properly supported.

Technology is defined as the hardware and software associated with the library's use of information technology such as servers, computers, printers, the wide area network (WAN), any local area networks (LANs), operating systems and application software. It also includes any telecommunications hardware such as phones, phone lines, T1 lines and associated circuits.

Technology plans generally include plans for technology activities in the coming three years. Technology activities are defined as the ongoing work of maintaining the existing infrastructure as well as projects that arise to implement new technology or introduce a new service. A three year view allows the technology plan to keep track of long term plans and plan for trends that are developing. The technology planners may not be able to respond to a new trend in the current year but by placing it in the plan for two or three years down the line, they are able to keep track of it and plan accordingly.

The technology plan brings all the maintenance and project activities together and helps managers and administrators make well-informed decisions. It incorporates all the projects and ongoing support for the library infrastructure that will require library resources and ensures that the library has set aside the necessary amount of money to accomplish them, has the expertise lined up to accomplish them and that the priorities are in line with the service goals of the library.

The technology plan should be reviewed annually to make sure it accounts for expected and unexpected changes. Each year certain technologies will need to be retired and new technologies will need to be introduced and sometimes changes come more quickly than expected. An annual review will ensure that the plan is modified as needed to account for internal library changes, new technology initiatives, and any other unexpected changes about the way technology is used in the library.

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Developing a Library Technology Plan, Part 2

Installment 2 from my four week course on Developing a Library Technology Plan. The course is going to be offered again starting in July 10, 2007. If you are interested in attending, go to this Infopeople page.

Supporting the Strategic Plan
The primary planning document for any library is the strategic plan. Therefore, to be a good management tool, the technology plan complements and builds upon the strategic plan (or some other planning document that specifies the library's service goals).

This kind of technology planning requires the cooperation of the Information Technology (IT) department because of their technology expertise, as well as administrators (who are responsible for establishing service goals) and public service staff (who are responsible for actually delivering the services).

The best technology plans are explicitly tied to the library's service goals to ensure that no technology is being supported that doesn’t have a direct connection to the library's strategic plan.

When we talk about service goals, we are talking about our library users. Service is provided to the user. It is the library user's experience that is used to measure the library's success. Even infrastructure improvements go back to the user experience. Stable networks, fast Internet connections, excellent computer support: these all improve the user experience in the library by keeping operations running smoothly and ensuring that resources are readily available. As much as possible, the user experience should always be expressed when stating service goals.

In addition to tying the technology activities to specific service goals, the technology plan should provide some indication of when these activities are expected to commence. The goals and activities support the goals should be stated in such a way as to make it easy to determine if the activities were accomplished as planned or not.

Sample excerpt from technology plan's Supporting the Strategic Plan section:

Strategic Plan Goal: Increase availability of library resources to online customers.

Add international newspapers to virtual library by November 2007
Add e-book selections to virtual library by Februrary 2008
Add anonymous chat option for providing online reference services by December 2007

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Developing a Library Technology Plan, Part 3

Installment 3 from my four week course on Developing a Library Technology Plan. The course is going to be offered again starting in July 10, 2007. If you are interested in attending, go to this Infopeople page.

Suggested Outline for the Technology Plan

It is possible to create a technology plan that serves three important purposes: promotes good technology management practices, can be used for E-Rate applications, and can be used for fundraising by showing how technology activities and costs are a necessary byproduct of fulfillling the library's service goals.

The template for such a technology plan includes the following sections:

Introduction
Library Mission
Technology Strategy
[Accomplishments from Previous Plan]
Technology Overview and Assessment
Professional Development Strategy
Supporting the Strategic Plan
Budget
Review and Updates
Conclusion

The Introduction provides the context for the library technology plan and includes information about the process used to develop it. It provides any necessary background information about the current year.

The Library Mission is simply a restatement of the library's mission statement.

The Technology Strategy is a short statement about the relationship between the library's mission and the technology plan. It should explain how the library intends to utilize technology to further its mission.

Accomplishments from the Previous Plan is a section that only becomes relevant in year two after the library has created a technology plan, implemented it, and comes back to review it the following year. Each time the technology plan is revised, a summary of what was accomplished in the previous period should be reported in the subsequent plan. This isn't the place to explain why objectives were not met: those should be included in the Introduction. This section is a summary of what did get done as planned.

Technology Overview and Assessment is a summary of the telecommunications equipment, servers, computers, printers, self-check machines, sorting systems, and all other technology currently in use at the library (and all branches). It describes important policies that affect technology and includes plans for significant upgrades, replacements, and migrations expected over the next three years.

Professional Development Strategy is where the plans for maintaining a workforce capable of supporting the library's technology plan are explained. This will include details about core competencies established for all library workers as well as training activities planned for staff to achieve the target competencies and to ensure that library technology can be properly supported by staff.

Supporting the Strategic Plan is where the library's service goals are explicitly tied to technology expenditures and activities. New projects, upgrades, migrations, training initiatives, infrastructure improvements, and standard maintenance activities are all tied to library service goals in this section.

The Budget section is a high level view of technology estimated expenditures. It is not an item by item accounting. Generally, planned expenses are separated out into less than 10 categories.

The Review and Updates section includes a description of how often the technology plan will be reviewed and who will be involved in the process.

The Conclusion is an opportunity to mention the library's recent achievements and emphasize the goals for the coming year.

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April 10, 2007

The Intersection of Library Technology and Privacy

The other day I did a webcast with Mary Minow on the intersection of privacy issues and technology. We spoke about holds, RSS feeds, Library Elf and public computing.

Have a listen to this 55 minute event via podcast (MP3) or watch the webcast.

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March 14, 2007

Thinking about Synapses

I'm doing a presentation in Ohio this summer and my topic is The Synaptic Library. I think of synapses as little explosions of energy. Like the explosion of energy that happens when someone learns how to read, or finds out about the availability of subscription databases (and how to actually find an article)! The Synaptic Library facilitates those explosions of energy.

But synapses are also about pathways. In the brain, we start with zillions of potential neural connections, or ways to get energy from nerve to muscle or gland, and back again. As we start doing and experiencing things, we set up patterns in our bodies. The patterns cause us to do things the same way and to think the same way. Because the same neural pathways keep getting used, many of the others eventually die from disuse. By forcing ourselves to do things differently, we force our bodies to create new neural pathways. We keep our brains vibrant and expansive. If we stick too much to our patterns, we lose options.

Some people are finding the whole Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 thing very difficult to comprehend because they can't figure out how to fit it into existing constructs. It's immediately overwhelming. I'm teaching an online class on Web 2.0 to librarians right now and I find myself always trying to connect it back to delivering traditional library services in new ways. We did reference in person, then on the phone, then via email and now via IM. See, that's easy to get! MySpace is for young people what hanging out at the local roller rink was for you when you were a teen. There's a pathway to use!

So, getting back to the Synaptic Library. I'm thinking the Synaptic Library is one that is open to new ways of doing things even as they struggle with the limitations of circuitry designed to do things the old way. The Synaptic Library is using old pathways but it is also creating new pathways. It knows that as soon as we stop building those neural connections, it's all over. The Synaptic Library is a survivor - it's extending and expanding those pathways rather than getting stuck in old patterns.

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February 28, 2007

Core Competencies or Why WebJunction drives me mad....

I'll be the first to admit that there are some great things stashed away in the deep dark recesses of the WebJunction quagmire. And I'll also give them some love for the improvements they've made lately with the interface. It is a lot better than it used to be. I can now tolerate the site for more than five minutes.

But....I just came across this useful sounding document entitled Developing Competencies Worksheet. It sounds so promising, doesn't it? And yet, it is so not useful. Why do they put stuff like this in WebJunction. So much of the stuff there is not worth the time it takes to pull it up on the screen (if you're lucky enough to find it in the first place).

The good news is that help is on the way if what you were hoping to find was some good information on developing core competencies for your library.

Sarah Houghton-Jan did a program at the California Library Association last year called Tech Training for Staff: California Tech Core Competencies and she's made her PPT available which is inifinitely more useful than the link from WebJunction. Even better is that Sarah is authoring an issue of Library Technology Reports on the topic of creating and implementing them. Watch for it here.

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January 27, 2007

More on Home Delivery

I just came across a great post on David Lee King's blog entitled The Missing Piece of the Library Netflix Model in which David shares the fact that his library, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, mails all Hold requests to their customers automatically. If a customer wants to pick up their Holds, they have to enter their phone number in the comment box (when placing the Hold) and a staff person will call them when the item is available. Egggggs-cellent.

King reports that their library compared the costs of pulling Holds and placing them on the Holds Shelf, contacting the customer, following up on the Holds not picked up, pulling expired Holds, yada yada yada, and came up with an insignificant cost differential between just mailing the thing already. He does mention that it is a bit pricier than it used to be so maybe that differential is changing. But, let's factor in the cost of a square foot of library space before we decide it is too pricey to mail the item out directly. The amount of space being taken up with Holds Shelves is getting out of control. And depending on how the library decides to label each Hold item, it can sometimes be almost as labor intensive to hermetically seal the item for the Holds shelf (lest someone see the patron's name and the title of the book they've got on hold) as it is to throw it in an envelope and mail it out.

If the price of mailing via USPS seems too high, take a lesson from the folks at Orange County (Florida) who use their own courier service to take care of their home deliveries. They've gotten the cost of delivery down to $2.63 per item, including labor. Now, that's impressive. It's also within the range of what a person might be willing to pay to get an item delivered. My belief is that $3 is an amount most people would be willing to pay for such a convenience. So, theoretically, a library should be able to roll out fee-based home delivery at no cost to the library.

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January 26, 2007

Library Predict-o-matic 3000

If you haven't seen the Library Predict-o-matic 3000 presented by Dave Pattern (of self-plagiarism is style blog fame), please go there now and get your F5 key ready. Each refresh provides a new library prediction for 2007.

Just to get you started, here are a few of my favorites:

Innovative will release a new shelving robot named Virtula. It can vaporize patrons who ignore the "no cell phone" posters.

ExLibris will release a new automated shelving trolley named Horicorn. Unfortunately, it will ultimately be banned in 31 US States.

SirsiDynix will unveil a new virtual version of Stephen Abram named Barizon. It will be able to state up to 18 interesting facts per minute.

It's a crackup!

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January 4, 2007

What's on your "Hot Picks" shelf?

I was just reading the Washington Post article about the aggressive weeding campaigns of some libraries. One library generates a list of items that haven't circulated in 24 months and asks librarians to determine which of those should be weeded. Another library library sets a lifetime circulation goal (an item must have circulated at least 20 times during its [presumably] long lifespan at the library.

That's all well and good until the items being weeded are classics. Especially if the classics are being replaced by popular literature or DVDs.

Rather that weeding classics and having them sold by the Friends, libraries need to think about their long-term responsibilities and some of the options that make it possible to save those great classics. Here's some ideas:

1) Display some of the classics with your "Hot Picks."

One of the reasons people don't pick up those classics is because no one is marketing them. If they weren't just released or just made into a major motion picture, most people aren't going to know about them. Why not incorporate some of the old classics into your library's Hot Picks and see if they start circulating then! That's what Diane Kresh, Arlington County's library director (according to the article) is doing. It's unclear from the article whether Diane is slipping the classics in with the more recent books or if she's highlighting them as "forgotten classics." I recommend the former. Just slip them in there! They're classics, they won't be disappointed.

2) Use off-site storage for important but under-circulating items.

Library shelf space costs a fortune and not everything needs to be browsable. But that doesn't mean we should be tossing out the great stuff to make way for titles that will only be meaningful for six months. We have to find a balance. I urge libraries to work together to establish shared off-site storage for their system's classics or historical material. Combine the off-site storage with direct delivery service (UPS direct to your home) and you're golden! Take a lesson from the Tri-University Group of Libraries. They established off-site storage for low circulating items but don't keep any duplicates. Just one copy of each title. Perfect.

3) Use floating collections.

The better libraries are at moving materials between libraries and into the hands of customers, the less important it is to worry about ownership. Libraries that have shared catalogs and freely move materials around their system or consortium spend far too much money returning items only to have them go right back out due to a Hold Request. Stop that! When an item is returned to your library, check it in right there and make it ready to circulate again. There's a good chance that as soon as you check it in, you'll see that someone has put a Hold on it anyway. Save that book the trip back to its home library and save all of us some money.

4) Prepare for downloadable movies.

Eventually libraries will be able to circulate movies to patrons without the DVD case taking up space because our customers will be downloading them from the library website. Or perhaps they'll be putting them on Hold and picking up a 'just burned DVD' that staff put on the Holds shelf. Right now movies are bought and sold as physical DVDs but eventually libraries will be buying rights to a title through relationships with companies like eztakes.com. Eztakes buys movies on VHS and DVD from regular folks (in other words they buy each person's rights to a movie) and then make them available as downloadable DVDs. Eventually someone will contract with a company like eztakes and make it cheaper to deliver items via download than via a commercially packaged DVD.

5) Reduce browsable stacks in the library and provide higher density shelving in the back office.

The better the discovery tools are, the less important physically browsing the library shelves is. When books are out on the public shelves, it is impossible to shelve them efficiently: ADA compliant walkways; underutilized bottom and top shelves; shelves that are only five feet tall when the ceiling is 15 feet away. While these are all important considerations for the public areas and they make for a really nice place to be, it doesn't make for efficient storage of books. We have to start thinking about what items need to be in our beautiful, inviting public spaces and which can be stored in the back in high density shelving or instantly retrievable with an automated retrieval system like the one in use at Sonoma State University.

Those are just some ideas that occurred to me as I read the above article in which books like "To Kill a Mockingbird" were put up on the chopping block. While I'm all for providing material that the public wants to read, let's not throw out the baby. The public is reacting to marketing and that's a large part of what determines what is circulating. Let's do our own marketing of the books we know are great and timeless. Let's make sure those classics (or at least one copy) has a place to live so we can get it to our customers when they realize how much they'd love to read it.

Posted by at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

September 19, 2006

Symposium on Library Courier Services - Delivery 2.0

Last week I was in Denver participating in a symposium about library courier services. The symposium, Moving Mountains: Exploring Library Courier Services, was an excellent opportunity for people in the delivery trenches to get together and share ideas about the myriad ways delivery can be accomplished in a library settings. There were as many ways to do it as there are library relationships.

As resource-sharing opportunities grow and more and more libraries expose their collections to users using innovative mash-ups (I think that might be redundant), we'll see even more variety in how delivery is done. Or will we? Are we destined to partner with UPS or FedEx for a large portion of our delivery needs because our users will demand that level of professionalism? I think that the answer to that question is yes. If you'd like to hear what else I had to say (or intended to say), here's a PDF of my presentation, Library Delivery 2.0. Comments welcome.

Posted by at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

September 11, 2006

DOPA and the Library 2.0 Gang

Forgot to mention that I participated in the DOPA discussion with the Library 2.0 Gang. Quite a nice group to be rubbing virtual elbows with....the one hour discussion is available in mp3 format.

The Library 2.0 Gang is a Talis creation...you know, the guys who wrote Do Libraries Matter? TheRise of Library 2.0.

Posted by at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

September 9, 2006

ChaCha.com, meet LII.org and AskNow.org

SFGate reports that a new online reference service is being launched - called Chacha by one of the pioneers of voice mail. Only this reference service is disguised as Google and its exciting! cutting-edge! and it doesn't involve the library or librarians!

As the article states, "the value of a service like ChaCha lies in its ability to connect users immediately to a knowledgeable guide, who has experience or background a particular field. Think of it as calling 411 directory assistance on the Web." ChaCha theoretically allows the user to search resources the 'guides' have pulled together or allows them to get help directly from the guide.

"We're not trying to (cover) the Web better than Google. Computers get smarter but they don't have a brain," said Brad Bostic. Presdient of ChaCha. "The only way to assimilate what's on the Web and deliver precise results, the only way to make that big leap is not a new algorithm -- it's human intelligence."

The article makes no mention of libraries, librarians, virtual reference (of any kind) nor lii.org (where 'guides' have already pulled together tens of thousands of excellent web resources).

The service is in an alpha testing phase and I couldn't get any results so maybe this isn't something to worry about. But, still, the idea that this kind of service could be discussed in a newspaper without mention of libraryland is pretty alarming. Either the writer of the article works for ChaCha or we're doing a really bad job of letting people know about our services. I suspect the latter.

Could it just be as simple as we need a catchier name for virtual reference? You have to admit that ChaCha is much sexier than AskNow and certainly sexier than AskALibrarian, 24/7, QuestionPoint or http://www.ci.benicia.ca.us/library.html.

I also can't help but think about how ChaCha could benefit from some librarian expertise....imagine the resources of lii.org and the reference abilities of all those AskNow librarians combined with the entrepreneurial acumen and budget of the ChaCha folks -- now we've got something going on!

Posted by at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

September 7, 2006

A 2.0 Frenzy

Judy O'Connell (heyjude) has developed a very nice graphic called the Library 2.0 Meme Map. As clever as the graphic is, I think it is missing a key component of the Library 2.0 environment; namely, the fulfillment side.

The fulfillment side of library services in a library 2.0 world is something I've been thinking about for the last several days in anticipation of my talk at Moving Mountains: A Symposium Exploring Library Courier Services. My talk is entitled....you guessed it Delivery 2.0.

Some stray thoughts on the topic: A true 2.0 library will get the information to the user wherever the user wants it. It will allow the user to specify the format of the item in and the manner in which they will receive it. A 2.0 library will let customers who wish to pay for premium services do so, e.g. Fed Ex Next Day Delivery for an $15, Messenger Delivery today for $20.

A 2.0 library will find a way to get the item into their users hands or inbox regardless of whether that requires buying the item, borrowing the item, digitizing the item, or downloading the item. All 2.0 libraries will have reciprocal relationships for borrowing and returning items so that most any library can borrow an item from most any other library regardless of library type or region.

A 2.0 library will provide an easy-to-use self-addressed stamped envelope that can be used to return the items by mail (think NetFlix...and hold that thought).

As soon as I get my synapses going on this topic of library 2.0 and delivery 2.0, I end up struggling with the limitations of ILS 1.5 I see the original text-based library systems as the 1.0 version (there are still some out there). ILS 1.5 is what we've got now -- graphical interfaces on top of same old ILS systems (oh, plus MARC field 856).

I'm developing ideas about ILS 2.0 with much help from Karen Calhoun of Cornell who wrote an excellent report called The Changing Nature of the Catalog and its Integration with Other Disocovery Tools (PDF). Among numerous great ideas, Karen suggests enriching the catalog experience with services such as "more like this," "get it," cover art and reviews. And I recommend such services as "Your Friends's Faves," "Librarian Picks," "Recommendations for You."

Back to my synapses...having helped our user find stuff to read that they are going to lovebecause we are treating them like individuals with unique preferences instead of as generic-walmart-customer, we alow them to build their book queue. Now, if they choose, each time they return an item by mail (using those handy return envelopes mentioned above), the next item in their queue goes out to them. Just like NetFlix.

Let's keep going. Because we're asking our customers to rate the books they've read (which allows us to build their customized recommendations), we will know which books really knocked their socks off. When weeding time comes up, we notify the people who LOVED that book (or something similar) that they can now buy that book. Yep, just like NetFlix.

John Blyberg (blyberg.net) identifes the hurdles we face getting to Delivery 2.0 but I think I'm a bit more hopeful than he is. He describes the library condition as a bit of a catch-22 when it comes to delivery because library's don't charge for services and have to manage huge inventories of stock. But...why can't we charge for some services? And, one thing the catalog does very well is manage stock. What we also need the catalogs to do is exchange stock with our 'business partners."

It's all doable. We just have to have to will to make some changes. That gets us into Librarian 2.0. But let's leave it alone for now.

Library delivery
Library2

Posted by at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

September 1, 2006

Fun with Menopause and Tomato Juice

Eric Lease Morgan has created something very cool called Tomato Juice. Here's how he describes it:

Given one or more words the system will try to look up definitions,
synonyms, encyclopedia articles, books (with cover art when
available), pictures, and Web links related to the input. It does
this by taking advantage of various (Amazon.com, Yahoo, dictionary,
etc.) Web Services.

I tried it out using the word 'menopause.' I urge you to do the same and be sure to click on the link "Pictures and Images" after running your search. Priceless.

Eric suggests this mash-up of his is something that libraries not only might want to do for their users (Agreed!) but it is something they might want to allow others to do with their data. In other words, make your library content one of the things that gets included in someone else's Tomato Juice -esque mashup. (Agreed!)

The direction we're going is to get our data out to our users. We can't wait for them to come to us. I guess that's my theme for the day.

Posted by at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every Library Needs the LibX Firefox extension

I don't understand why there hasn't been a lot more enthusiasm for LibX, the Firefox extension because it TOTALLY rocks!

For starters, every public access computer should be set up with it and the library should be promoting it to their customers. It's an EASY WAY to bring your library to your customers via their favorite software -- their browser.

Here's what it does:

Provides users direct access to their library catalog via a toolbar or a right-click menu (context menu). Users can perform searches on keyword, title, author, CrossRef DOIs, ISBNs, and ISSNs, and PubMed IDs. The right-click being a context menu means the options available depend on what the user is right-clicking on.
Users can select all or part of a reference and run a search against Google Scholar's database. The results are compared to the library's subscriptions (via OpenURL) and if a matching hit is found, the user is taken straight to the article. The actual Google Scholar results page is also displayed to the user.
With Google Scholar, depending on how your link resolver is setup, you may be able to take the user straight to the article at their library without the user seeing Google's involvement at all.
Displays "cues" (little icons) when a library service is available related to what is on the web page. For example, if the user is viewing book titles, a cue would appear allowing the user to click on it to see if the book is available at their library. See the screenshots page for how that looks.
Support for COinS which turns hidden tags inserted by web site authors or publishers into actionable OpenURLs links that allow a user to download the full text of an item.

You can host your edition of the Firefox extension or have it hosted on the LibX server where it will be automatically updated.

What a great way to bring the library to the user. Why aren't more libraries using this? Am I missing something? So far, most of the users of LibX are academic libraries but a few brave public libraries are trying it out. Kudos to them!

Sure wish my library used LibX. For all of us in California with San Francisco Public Library cards, this would be an incredible resource because it would make access to their excellent subscription databases that much easier.

This is great stuff!

Posted by at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

August 16, 2006

Is the Web Worth It?

I love this quote from Tim Berners-Lee in an interview with Mark Lawson at BBC News when he was asked if the Web was really worth the trouble (e.g. identity theft, pornography):

"I feel that we need to individually work on putting good things on it, finding ways to protect ourselves from accidentally finding the bad stuff, and that at the end of the day, a lot of the problems of bad information out there, things that you don't like, are problems with humanity.

This is humanity which is communicating over the web, just as it's communicating over so many other different media. I think it's a more complicated question we have to; first of all, make it a universal medium, and secondly we have to work to make sure that that it supports the sort of society that we want to build on top of it."

I couldn't agree more.

Posted by at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 7, 2006

Seriously, DOPA is bad news

Nancy Willard of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use (csriu.org) wrote a article that was reprinted on blue Skunk Blog
stating clearly that DOPA is nothing more than Republican posturing. She paints this picture of the ad campaign against any Democrat who opposes DOPA:

(Candidate's name) voted against Deleting Online Predators Act -- a law intended to keep children safe from predators online. If (candidate) is not dedicated to protecting your children from Internet predators, how can you expect him or her to effectively address other important concerns?

Willard then goes on to provide some very solid reasons Democrats (or anyone) can use to argue that DOPA should be canned including:

1) DOPA is so vague that it will be deemed unconstitutional
2) DOPA is duplicative of CIPA - if schools consider a specific site 'harmful to minors' they can use their existing filter software and the CIPA legislation to justify blocking the site.
3) "Any place that kids congregate to communicate will attract predators" and it is impossible to block all possible avenues for online communication.
4) "Any moderately intelligent middle school student" can proxy around a school's filter and it is impossible to block all the proxies that might be used.
5) There is already too much reliance on filtering technology for controlling kid's use of the Internet. "What is needed in schools is a stronger focus on educational use of the Internet and more effective monitoring, including technical monitoring."
6) Another piece of legislation, COPA (a criminal law that requires sites with adult materials to have age verification) can only be passed (per a previous Supreme Court ruling) if the DOJ can prove that filtering is ineffective. That puts the government's CIPA and DOPA legislation in a bit of a bind.

There's lots of great info on DOPA and the reasons it should not come to fruition and Willard hits on most of them. Also see the YALSA DOPA Wiki for some good resources on social networking, DOPA, the law and an excellent "MySpace for Parents" article.

And now, here's my new contribution to the argument: Blocking MySpace will provide incentive for kids to learn how to get around filters. Until now, there's been enough alternative sites for kids to use to accomplish their goals (shop, communicate, play games, etc) so they haven't needed to bother with proxies and other new, savvy ways to bypass the Internet filters. But there is no space like MySpace, and if libraries and schools start blocking MySpace with their filters, even the 'good kids' are going to find their way around it.

The technology savvy will use one of the many ways to get around filters described here and the less savvy will just go to the mall, park outside someone's house or go to Starbucks to get online without restriction and without supervision.

DOPA is the best way to motivate our youth to learn better ways to get around filters and to keep their online activities hidden from responsible adults.

Instead of filtering, kids need mentoring, guidance, supervision and encouragement. They are going to explore the cyberworld with or without our help. Why not give them the resources they need to make intelligent decisions about what is fun and what is dangerous and increase the chances that they will navigate safely.

Posted by at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 31, 2006

COPE a DOPA, ROPE a DOPE

The question is...can we survive until the next election when we throw the bums out? DOPA passed the House, Net neutrality amendment to COPE is rejected by the House. Jeb Bush vetoes $2.2 million for libraries. All this bad news is available from Library Journal. In case DOPA and COPE are new to you, here's a quick explanation (with music accompaniment):

DOPA: Deleting Online Predators Act. Yet another restriction tied to CIPA funds. This time, the libraries and schools must prevent the children from accessing any social networking websites which, of course, are the sites they MOST want to visit. Ever heard of MySpace.com, Flickr, Frappr, Facebook, or del.icio.us? Well, none of those sites would be allowed with DOPA. Just when libraries are moving well beyond the "Shush!" image, the government passes Super-Shush laws like this. Going to be hard to pursue our Library 2.0 plans with DOPA hobbling our efforts.

COPE: Communications, Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act. Big, complicated communications legislations but the key thing is that any attempt to build in protections for net neutrality were defeated. Per Common Cause), "net neutrality is the principle that you should be able to access whatever web content or services you choose, without any interference from your Internet service provider." Without net neutrality, network operators can (and probably would) ensure that certain (probably undesireable, commercial) content arrives to your computer much faster than other (probably educational, non-commercial) content. Creates a whole new meaning for the term 'digital divide.' Speaking of educational, Jon Stewart did a piece on net neutrality viewable here.

ROPE a DOPE: Boxing style successfuly employed by Muhammad Ali in which the fighter lies on the ropes and allows his opponent to punch him until he gets so tired from the effort that the recipient of all the punches can take advantage of his opponent's fatique (thanks Wikipedia). This takes me back to my initial question...can we survive until the next election? Do we just hang onto those ropes and hope none of their punches knock us out? Will they be tired out from their aggression of the past six years? Will we ultimately find an opening to land a knock-out punch?

For our environment, our libraries, our kids, our middle class, our troops, our self-respect.....I hope so.

Lots more good material on DOPA on Del.icio.us

Posted by at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 27, 2006

Libraries, Thomas Frey and a Dash of Waynn Pearson

I was just enjoying some futuristic reading on the DaVinci Institute website. Thomas Frey is the Executive Director there. He wrote two articles that I'd like to discuss. One is called Findability vs Spyability: Will the convergence of search technology and RFID chips improve our lives or forever put us in a fishbowl for all to see? and the other The Future of Libraries: Beginning the Great Transformation.

From the RFID article:

1) "Privacy cannot be viewed in isolation without considering how it affects security and convenience. There is a three-way tension between privacy, security, and convenience and one cannot be changed without affecting the other two." Frey explains that it is important to find the right balance of these aspects of RFID so that no one issue dominates. When I began talking about RFID, I was concerned about the potential privacy issues but I found myself increasingly uncomfortable with the fear-mongering associated with RFID. As Frey points out, just because one can kill a person by beating them over the head with a book doesn't mean we should outlaw books. It's true that RFID tags can be abused by ne'er-do-wells but what has become ever more clear is that there are exciting possibilities in RFID for libraries. I still don't recommend leaping on the RFID bandwagon just yet, but it's not because RFID is evil. It's that RFID library applications are half-baked.

2) "All new technology begins with a lawless Wild West stage. Typically the technology is poorly defined and poorly understood and for an initial time period the developing industry is self-regulated." That's what I was getting at with my half-baked comment. We are in the Wild West stage of RFID. The industry is self-regulated and the library RFID technology is most definitely poorly-defined.

In the Future of Libraries article, Frey identifies ten trends. My reflections on a few of them:

Trend #4: "Search Technology will become increasingly more complicated." Frey forecasts that new attributes will be introduced into search technology including taste, smell, texture, reflectivity, and more. He argues that librarians will continue to serve as intermediaries in the search process because it will be too complicated for normal folks and people just won't have the time to keep up to speed. This is almost exactly the opposite of the self-service trend others have identified.

Trend #5: "Time compression is changing the lifestyle of library patrons." Or put another, cleverer way "we have more needs faster." This trend appears to be intricately connected to trend #4. Addressing the patron's need for instant information gratification is going to keep our profession busy. Think metasearch tools only way cooler.

Trend #6: "Over time we will be transitioning to a verbal society." Literacy, he says will be dead by 2050. The keyboard will be the first to go and this will signal the beginning of the end. Soon thereafter, we'll be getting and sending our information verbally. He may be on to something here. How many of us already tell our phones who to call or who to text? How many would rather listen to a podcast than read a report?

Trend #9: "We are transitioning from a product-based economy to an experience based economy." Well, anyone in the gravitational pull of Waynn Pearson knows this already. Waynn was the City Librarian for Cerritos where he created the first Experience Library. Waynn was on to this trend like white on rice. Thanks to him, many of us have had a chance to experience information in very new ways. At the Cerritos Library information was liberated from the page. Waynn retires tomorrow but I'm guessing he's only retiring from Cerritos, not from libraryland. Given Waynn's tendency to bubble over and erupt with enthusiasm I'm hoping we haven't heard the last from him.

Trend #10: "Libraries will transition from a center of information to a center of culture." Gosh, this sounds familiar. I recently suggested that libraries were going to turn into community centers if they didn't find a convenient way to get information to their customers (think NetFlix and Amazon). But my scenario was bleak. Frey's scenario is rich and exciting. He paints a picture of a library tapped into the "spirit of the community, assessing priorities and providing resources to support the things deemed most important."

Thomas Frey is an interesting fellow. He and his colleagues at the DaVinci Institute provide an intriguing and unique twist to some familiar topics. Maybe Waynn Pearson will end up over there.

Posted by at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 30, 2006

San Jose State SLIS Competencies

Hooray for a San Jose State Library School for dumping the CE Papers.

The semester after I will complete my schooling (August 2006), they are inaugurating a new system for the culminating experience (CE). Instead of having a choice of the CE Papers (responding to two questions [from a predefined field of 12 or so] in the form of a 20-page research paper) OR writing a thesis, students will now have the option of writing a thesis OR preparing an e-portfolio.

The e-portfolio must present evidence of competency in the following areas:

articulate the ethics, values and foundational principles of library and information professionals and their role in the promotion of intellectual freedom;
compare the environments and organizational settings in which library and information professionals practice;
recognize the social, cultural and economic dimensions of information use;
apply the fundamental principles of planning, management and marketing/advocacy;
design, query and evaluate information retrieval systems;
use the basic concepts and principles related to the creation, evaluation, selection, acquisition, preservation and organization of specific items or collections of information;
understand the system of standards and methods used to control and create information structures and apply basic principles involved in the organization and representation of knowledge;
demonstrate proficiency in the use of current information and communication technologies, and other related technologies, as they affect the resources and uses of libraries and other types of information providing entities;
use service concepts, principles and techniques that facilitate information access, relevance, and accuracy for individuals or groups of users;
describe the fundamental concepts of information-seeking behaviors;
design training programs based on appropriate learning principles and theories;
understand the nature of research, research methods and research findings; retrieve, evaluate and synthesize scholarly and professional literature for informed decision-making by specific client groups;
demonstrate oral and written communication skills necessary for group work, collaborations and professional level presentations; and
evaluate programs and services on specified criteria.

The e-portfolio can be composed of a combination of formats: articles, discussion posts, research summaries, videos, presentation slides, reports from conferences or seminars, etc. In other words, it is relatively format-agnostic (someone has been reading about GenX).

The CE papers were so much like high school term papers that I ended up a bit sorry that I hadn't taken on a thesis. These two choices (thesis or e-portfolio) make much more sense for someone graduating with a Master's Degree.

Kudos to Ken Haycock, the new SLIS Program Director, for making this change (among many other good changes in the program). Go Ken!

Posted by at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 30, 2006

Data Mining: What is it and how it is related to Information Retrieval and Text Mining

If you are interested in learning a bit more about data mining, you might enjoy this paper. In addition to providing a basic overview of data mining, it also addresses the relationship of data mining to text mining and information retrieval.

Download PDF file

Posted by at 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 27, 2006

The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

Just read American Libraries Direct (3/22/06 issue) and found some items of interest: one good, one bad and one ugly.

The Good:
The New York Online Virtual Electronic Library (NOVEL)-- which has offered access to subscription-based newspapers, magazines, and full-text scholarly articles through local libraries since 2001 -- is now available to state residents from their home computers using only their drivers license or nondriver ID card number. Says senior librarian Mary Woodward: NOVEL provides access to individuals across the state, whether they be high-income earners in Manhattan, in assisted-living residences in the Adirondacks, or a student in the southern tier. They all ha