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Interview with Brand-new Librarians I – Rachel Slough

Sep 23rd, 2010
by Bohyun (Library Hat).
1 comment

In my last blog post, I talked about how soon-to-be librarians lacking professional involvement and networking can build a good foundation for their post-MLS job search through the work itself.  I also thought about adding some practical tips about the post-MLS job search. But having worked as a librarian for almost two years, I realized that I may not count as a really “brand-new” librarian. So instead, I decided to interview three brilliant “really brand-new” academic librarians who successfully got their first librarian position shortly after their graduation.

This post features the first of this series, the interview with Rachel Slough, the E-Learning Librarian at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. I met Rachel at the ACRL New Members Discussion Group meeting at ALA Midwinter 2010, where she gave a wonderful presentation. “Hot Starts for Hot Shots: Using Technology to Start Instruction.” At that time, she was a graduate student at Indiana University School of Library and Information Science and also the Graduate Assistant for Teaching & Learning.  Now, she is in her first professional librarian position which she started less than a month ago. Rachel writes at her blog, Lib and Learn and tweets as @rslough. Below she talks about her post-MLS job search, the challenges, and the importance of self-care.

Rachel Slough, E-Learning Librarian

1.  Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Rachel Slough, and I am the E-Learning Librarian at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

2. When did you get your MLS, when did you start your first professional librarian position, how long did the job search take, and how did you prepare yourself for it?

I received my MLS from Indiana University in May 2010, and started my first professional job in August. I started applying for jobs about six months before graduation, and received my first offer (which I accepted excitedly!) on graduation day.

I got the librarian “bug” as an undergraduate through an internship with the Writing Center and two librarians to help provide instruction and guide students through all steps of the research process. In library school, I worked for the head of the Teaching and Learning department, for the Reference department, and the Government Documents department. After my first semester of library school, I took a leave of absence to spend a year in Chile teaching on a Fulbright grant, which also gave me a chance to volunteer with several library-related projects. When I returned to library school, I volunteered for a committee with the Society for Scholarly Publishing and participated in the ALA Emerging Leaders program.

I really believe in applying and putting yourself out there for things that spark your interest, and maybe even scare you a little, because you never know what will work out or where you’ll find joy, inspiration, and new perspectives. I was really excited about libraries when I started library school–and still am!–and finding ways to get involved and be active within the profession connected me with inspiring people and gave me energy.

3. How did you do your job search? What were some of the things that worked and didn’t? What was the greatest challenge?

I subscribed to RSS feeds with job postings: LISNews, ALA JobLIST, Chronicle of Higher Education, University of Texas LIS program, etc. Everyday I went through and starred ones that were of interest, and blocked off 3-6 hours one day each week to go through and apply to whatever ones that I’d marked. I also would have some kind of reward for myself after I finished applications for the week! For me, blocking off a specific time every week, rather than doing it every day, and having a set space in the library where I only worked on job applications really helped. Most of the job search happened my last semester of library school, and my adviser recommended taking an internship and an independent research course, which allowed me to be a little more flexible with my time. This was great advice that I would highly recommend.

One of the hardest things for me was that the dynamics with my classmates changed. There was definitely a divide between those of us who were on the job search and those who weren’t, and things were different with my classmates graduating at the same time. It’s just very hard when we’re all applying for the same jobs, and we want to talk about it because it’s stressful and scary, but at the same time, you may or may not want to know that your classmate has been offered an in-person interview for your “dream” job or that your best friend has an on-site interview for the same place you do! As people started getting jobs, it got easier, but there was definitely a period where it was particularly difficult.

I also found it tough to not get discouraged or overly anxious. Everyone told me that it really would be ok, that I would find something, etc., but it’s very hard to believe this when you’re wrapped up in the process and receiving rejection letters left and right, or worse, not hearing anything at all. Once the interviews started, it was hard to keep up the energy and stamina, as well as to devote the time for preparation while still applying to other positions.

4. Is your work as the professional librarian what you expected and prepared yourself for while you were in the MLS program? Otherwise, what would you have done differently if you knew?

I have been a professional librarian for less than a month, so that’s a hard question to answer. While in library school, I spent a lot of time and class work on the areas that most interested me. I wish that I could have also taken a greater variety so that I better understood what my colleagues do. I’m not sure how to find that balance, but I would encourage any MLS student to seek it. I think I also would have tried to spend more time with PhD students. Much of my work, and I think this is true for many of my colleagues, is working with faculty and finding ways we can support their teaching and research needs. Finding ways to connect with them, and knowing their needs even as grad students in other disciplines, would be helpful.

5. Any advice for many MLS students who will be soon graduating and looking for their first professional librarian position?

My friend and classmate Steven Hoover wrote a great piece for Library Journal that I found immensely helpful. You can find it here: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6697547.html?nid=3309

I would encourage students to think of themselves as “real” librarians as much as possible: submit articles for publication , look at grant opportunities, apply to present at conferences, attend webinars or take online training to supplement your library school coursework, get involved with library organizations at the local, state, and/or national level. I know some of these can be expensive, but there are also scholarships, and I found the investment well worth it. My conference experiences were valuable, and getting involved with organizations gave me new perspectives that were helpful in interviews, and made it easier to get committee appointments now when they count toward my retention. Conferences and committees also helped me build a professional network, which was immensely helpful during the job search, and I’m sure will continue to be throughout my career.

I would also really emphasize the importance of self-care. Working out, eating chocolate (but not exclusively), and finding ways to remind yourself that you are a person outside of your librarian-self are also really key during this process. And hang in there!

Looking back at “What is Your Library Doing about Emerging Technologies?”

Jun 30th, 2010
by Bohyun (Library Hat).
3 comments

Who knew that I, the second-time attendee of the ALA annual conference, would be organizing and moderating a panel of a dozen librarians? But I have. Just a few days ago. And I still find the experience amazing and hard to believe because partially I found ALA hard to be involved with initially (I wrote about that here before). It was mostly due to my ignorance that I undertook the responsibility of organizing a program and agreed to be a moderator. I had no idea how much efforts would be required and how much logistics will be involved in doing so, although I am glad I was part of this program.

This program, “What is Your Library Doing about Emerging Technologies?” has originated almost accidentally at the last ALA Annual in Chicago. The LITA Emerging Technologies Interest Group meeting attracted dozens of Emerging Technologies Librarians, many of whom were young in age (considering the median age of librarians) and also new in profession. Those librarians including me, who came to the meeting, voiced confusion and challenges in this new role/position in the library profession. Since the job title was so new, the job responsibilities were not yet clear, and there was no established procedure existing for Emerging Technologies Librarians to follow in observing, evaluating, testing, and implementing emerging technologies. Also hotly discussed topics were the fact that there was no agreed-upon clear definition of emerging technologies and the lack of a library’s clear vision and organizational effectiveness in managing emerging technologies.

The way this program was planned and its proposal was submitted was unique – at least I think it is – in that the program proposal was 100 % based upon the voice and concerns of the librarians who came to the Interest Group meeting. Many times, we find conference program topics focus on chasing after the most recent trends, the most popular topics, and the most advanced technologies of the library-land. Although these programs keep us up-to-date and give us an opportunity to peek at the shiniest new programs or technologies being implemented in the leading libraries often by the experts of the fields, we get a bitter taste in the mouth when we come back to our own beloved but less-leading library and try to somehow make the shiny new awesome programs or technologies work for us. This program was definitely not one of those programs. Someone at this year’s Emerging Technology Interest Group said that the program was “complimentary” to the widely-popular LITA Top Tech Trends program (after I said “opposite”). And I think that is a very accurate observation. We need both types of programs. One that focus on where we want to go; the other that thoroughly examines where we really are.

In organizing this program, Jacquelyn Erdman, the vice-chair of the LITA Emerging Technologies Interest Group, and I, tried to be true to its origin. Rather than soliciting several presentations on the hottest items in emerging technologies or showcasing the successful cases of emerging technologies implementations, we focused on the question of what emerging technologies mean when they are discussed in the library context and why the uses of this term could be problematic. We also wanted to cover what Emerging Technologies Librarians do in the real life and what the challenges are in both managing emerging technologies and implementing them at libraries.

This turned out to be a difficult task. Our panel has become quite large in order to ensure that the discussion would reflect the general voice of Emerging Technology Librarians; we found that the use of the term “emerging technologies” often inconsistent or even contrary to its accepted definition in other fields; many Emerging Technologies Librarians belonged to public services rather than Systems/IT/Web services as was originally assumed; the foremost challenge in managing and implementing technologies as an Emerging Technology Librarian was found to be introducing and leading changes without necessary authority in an organization that is often intolerant of risks and fears changes – which is a very sensitive topic to discuss in public.

Some of the attendees of the program criticized that the program didn’t have enough depth. That is partially correct, but it was also difficult to avoid because the intention of the program was to raise the issue that have not been discussed much before, and in order to do that it was necessary to give a broad perspective on the matter of emerging technologies in libraries. But we had some very interesting discussion in this year’s interest group meeting, and I think we will be submitting a program proposal “with depth” this time around for the next year’s Annual.

Ideally, the program would have been a big informal discussion in which both panelists and attendees sit around and very informally chat, asking difficult questions and honestly discussing the challenges and problems we face at work in managing and implementing emerging technologies. I realize now, however, this is unlikely to happen in the Annual Conference. Regardless of how much of what we intended as organizers was materialized in the actual panel discussion, the program was well-received. The room was packed, and more importantly, many librarians randomly stopped me and other panelists to remark that they enjoyed the panel discussion or that they didn’t attend but heard good things from those who did so. Both types of comments made all the program participants quite happy and we swapped stories about that among ourselves.

Although I keep thinking about a hundred different ways in which I could have improved the program in retrospect(!), I am satisfied with the fact that I was part of the program that went for something quite different from typical ALA conference programs. I also sincerely thank all the librarians who initiated this discussion about emerging technologies at the last year’s Annual and hope the program helped to clear and answer some of the confusions and questions raised in the last year’s meeting.

Lastly, thanks everyone who came to this program!
(The Twitter Archive for this program is at http://twapperkeeper.com/hashtag/emergetech?sm=6&sd=2&sy=&em=6&ed=31&ey=&o=&l=500&from_user=&text=)

Information Overload & Personal Information Management

Jun 21st, 2010
by Bohyun (Library Hat).
2 comments

I am very excited to present at ALA 2010 Annual Conference LITA BIGWIG Social Software Showcase. The topic I am presenting is Information Overload & Personal Information Management.  I know that it is not anything fancy or something that would satisfy your techno-lust.  But there is a lot to think about libraries and information overload, which has quickly become part of our daily life.  Whether we like it or not, information overload is the everyday reality that all of us including library users, now have to cope with and manage.  The traditional library systems, programs, and services, on the other hand, have been slow in moving towards acknowledging and addressing the new needs of library users who suffer from information fatigue and are ready to “satisfice” as a result.

Curious? Come join the BIGWIG Showcase on Monday, June 28, 2010 from 10:30 am to Noon at the Renaissance Washington Grand BR South/Central.

Slides – “Information Overload & Personal Information Management”

Joomla: A Nice Surprise

Apr 18th, 2010
by Bohyun (Library Hat).
Comments are off for this post

I volunteered to serve on the web committee of the Southern Chapter of Medical Library Association (SC/MLA) this year.  The work I do as the co-chair of this committee is to create a web site for the 60th Annual SC/MLA Conference.  The idea of using Joomla for the conference site came from the folks at the Shimberg Health Sciences Library of Univ. of South Florida who use Joomla for their library site.

I have heard about Joomla before but never tried.  I heard a lot about Drupal and WordPress at library conferences but not so much about Joomla.

Well, I spent a few days – three days to be exact – working with a Joomla site, and I am very much impressed.  Joomla is easy to learn, and I love the fact that it comes with so many useful modules which can be configured and used pretty much out of the box.  There are also many free template extensions that can be directly plugged in to create a nice web site.  I picked a template and an extension for the banner image, installed and configured the settings, did some CSS editing to customize the overall style of the site, added a bunch of pages with lorem-ipsum content, activated a couple of useful modules such as breadcrumb and footer.  That’s pretty much all I have done and Ta-da!

I am a web admin at work but we don’t use a CMS.  Now if we ever migrate the site to a CMS, I will shout for Joomla.  If you are looking for a content management system (CMS) that is free and easy-to-use, Joomla is definitely something to consider.  Interested?  Check out the Showcase of the library Websites built with Joomla.

(This is the site I have worked on, which is still in progress: http://library.hsc.usf.edu/scmla/)

After Two days with an iPad

Apr 5th, 2010
by Bohyun (Library Hat).
2 comments

So finally it came. The long-awaited iPad. I got this as a birthday present from my husband.  So  I can’t really say that I was committed to purchase this gadget myself.  I doubt if I would have spent that much $$$ although the model I got is the lowest spec (16GB wi-fi access only).  But of course, my wiser half was convinced rightly that I would want one.  It arrived yesterday morning with a honk from a UPS truck.  I wonder how many same iPad packages the UPS driver delivered that day, but I am pretty sure he had a good idea about what was going on.

So to cut to the chase, this is how it looks. My iPad.

I think I am relatively happy with it although I am not sure how successful it would be as a eBook reader and a PDF reading device, which are the features that I was most looking forward to test.  Actually, now that I have spent two days with it, I think I will use the iPad more for watching TV shows/movies (Surprise I rarely watch videos on the computer!) and surfing online. I am not sure if I will use the iPad for any type of serious work other than PDF reading.  But the App Store is showing all three productivity apps for the iPad with very high ratings.  So I am holding my judgment on this.

The iPad is not as light as I would like, but about half the weight of my small netbook, which can make a big difference when you are traveling.  It seems to be pretty sturdy but the screen is very glossy and gets a lot of glare used outdoors or under direct lighting.  It is quite fast and the battery seems to last long enough to last the working hours from 8/9 to 5 without recharging. The screen keyboard is usable when the iPad is in a horizontal position but is too sensitive. Lots of typos ensued when I tried to type. The keyboard inputs letters every time the fingers brush on it.  Personally, I am very much bummed about the fact that iPad doesn’t support as many international keyboards as the iPhone does. What this means to me is that I can’t write emails and create documents in Korean.  Although this may be a feature that is not widely used, the ease of switching keyboards for different languages was one of the features that distinguished Macs from PCs.

I don’t think the iPad will replace my smartphone.  Checking emails, Twitter, my calendar, to-do-list, making short notes, taking photos and videos will still be the tasks I perform mostly on my smartphone when I am not using an iPad already for something else.  But then there is a chance that I may use the iPad a lot.  Iin that case, I will perform these tasks on the iPad rather than on my smartphone.  It is to be seen later.

So the question boils down to this: would it be a good reading device?  Depending on that, I may or may not carry my iPad around.

First Impression

Yes, you can see your finger prints all over when the light hits the screen. I took it out to the outside. Under the daylight sun, I could see my face and background reflected as if it were a black mirror. The iPad in a box comes with a power code/plug, a tiny little instruction, and nothing else. Not even a cheap wiping cloth.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my iPad.  My plan was to think about it once it arrives.  Well, I had a very difficult time to get it to work and had to spent hours grumbling.  As soon as I unboxed the shiny new iPad, of course I plugged right into the power outlet thinking it will work automatically. It didn’t. Instead, it showed the sign that I have to hook it up to iTunes first. The instruction also said that I should first download the latest version of iTunes. This took a very long time. Finally, I was done, I hooked up my iPad.  I only got an error message saying an iPad requires Mac OS leopard or higher.  I got only Tiger on my Mac desktop and haven’t updated it.  Wouldn’t it have been so nice if Apple put that on the instruction sheet? So I took out my Mac laptop (I know I just have so many computers), which has Leopard, downloaded iTunes again and hooked it up. It worked.

But if the iPad is going to work for grandmas and grandpas, they will definitely need some help from their granddaughters and grandsons.

IPad as a Movie player: Thumbs Up

It is quite accurate to think that an iPad is a big iPhone with limited functionalities but with a bigger screen.  Initially my response to an iPad was lukewarm.  It didn’t seem to do anything special that I couldn’t do with my iPhone and a netbook.  Well, that was my thought until I downloaded the ABC player app and watched a few episodes of FlashForward and Modern Family.  IPad rocks as a video player.  The screen is awesome for playing a video and the lack of keyboard is a huge advantage in this type of use. I could watch a TV episode lying down on the couch holding it against a cushion. It gets a bit heavy on the wrist after a while, and you may want a holder.  But there is no sitting required to watch a video when you use an iPad.  This was something I didn’t think that I would use an iPad for.  I was impressed how well it works as a video player.  The Apple store is also selling a VGA cable to connect an iPad to a TV.  I am not sure if it can transfer the audio as well as the video.  But I think I may also try that in the future. Try the Netflix app and the ABC player app for this if you have an iPad already.

The only issue I found in video viewing was the shiny surface.  The touchscreen is the best if it is used indoors without direct lighting that will cause annoying glare.

For videos that are online, however, the iPad is unable to play any Flash files although it plays MPEG4 files well.

IPad as an eBook Reader: Better but…

I wasn’t terribly impressed by iBooks, which comes with one free book, Winnie the Pooh. (There are more you can download.)   There was the obvious advantage of having a larger screen and being a tablet rather than a computer with a keyboard.  But I could not zoom in and out freely in iBooks as I did using Safari.  IBooks only offer two font sizes.  Also, as a reading screen, an iPad is no different from a computer screen except that its surface gets a lot of glare which would make lunchtime reading outdoors challenging.  The iPad screen doesn’t use the e-Ink technology, as many noted, and so, is hard on the eyes for prolonged reading.  The iPad also seems to lack the accessibility feature of reading out the content of an ebook in iBooks or of a web page in Safari like the iPhone 3GS (although I am not 100% sure). The iPad also is equipped with much-touted iPhone OS’ accessibility features that allow zooming in and out of the screen itself rather than the fonts and make the content on the web read aloud.  In order to use this features, one has to go to the Accessibility tab on the Settings.  Make sure to double-tap with three fingers when you want to return to the normal screen after you turn on the zoom function.

IBooks also doesn’t allow highlighting and notes-adding feature that the Kindle iPad app offers.  And finding a free eBook for iBooks is not as intuitive as it could be. (One needs to go to the App Store first. )  I liked the dictionary function of iBooks a lot but was disappointed that there was no way to use the dictionary as a stand-alone app to look up whatever word I would like.  I thought this was very odd.  Overall, I was more impressed with the Classics app on the iPhone, which is pretty much identical with iBook except that iBooks lacks the page-turning sound (again, such a shame! the sound makes a big difference).

The iPad hasn’t yet changed my preference for reading a book in paper whenever possible.  I think eBook readers have still a long way to go to become even a remote competitor with books in paper.

IPad as a PDF reader: Promising but Awaiting Better Apps…

Reading PDF files is one of the big reasons that made me to get an iPad.  But in order to do that, you need to get an app.  The iPad allows you to read PDF files online but not to download them on the iPad, which seems to me to be ridiculous.  I purchased GoodReader which allows syncing with Dropbox, Google Docs, Box.net, etc.  It also allows you to directly search and download PDFs onto iPad from the web.

But I realized that in order for me to save trees, I need to be able to annotate on the PDF files that I read.  So I got iAnnotate for that purpose.  Both apps work well, and iAnnotate also supports downloading the annotated pdf file back to the computer although I have not tried this yet.  The only issue with iAnnotate is that it doesn’t sync with Dropbox or Google Docs and you have to manually  upload documents to the iAnnotate application on your computer.  I am hoping that iAnnotate adds the sync feature with Dropbox in the future.

I haven’t read much yet on iAnnotate nor GoodReader. But so far it seems to be promising.  And if I can get most of my PDF readings done on the iPad rather than printing them out on the papers or reading in front of my computers, it would be a huge benefit for me.  Just to store and read PDF files, the Evernote app also does a great job. This app is free and allows voice recording as well as creating notes. (This is how I found out that the iPad comes with a mic but there was no Voice Memos app on the default screen.  I realized that in order to use the built-in mic, one needs to go to the Apple App store and download Voice Memos for iPad. This app is free. I think in the future, Apple may add more default apps to the iPad.)

IPad for Online Reading: Excellent

While the iPad is so-so as an ebook reader and it is yet to be seen if it will be good for PDF reading/annotating, it works quite well for online surfing and casual reading onthe web. The USA Today app almost makes you feel as if you were reading a newspaper in paper again.  The BBC News app allows one to easily browse news and plays video in a news article.

IPad as a Gaming Device: Promising

I have only tried Scrabble on the iPad, but I think gaming on the iPad will be quite cool since it will provide a larger screen to fill with images and may well provide a more intuitive control for games. I think it would be addictive if a good role-playing game comes out for the iPad but any simple games will be fun as well.

Overall

I think that overall the iPad is an interesting device and that the large part of its success will depend on the apps that can take advantage of the unique features of this device.  I am disappointed, however, to find that Apple is offering a lesser version of the iPhone OS for the iPad with the limited number of international keyboards.

As also noted by many, the way Apple designed the iPad to run the silos of applications that do not talk to each other becomes glaringly annoying as one needs to save multiple copies of one and the same file to use it for different applications.  One copy for iAnnotate. Another copy of the same file for GoodReader. You get the idea of how inefficient and stupid this is.  The iPad also makes it a huge pain to import and export any files.  Why no way to exchange files directly between at least the iPad and the iPhone?

I am not going to even bother with commenting on the lack of built-in camera, which is obviously an intentional omission by Apple. (See  WePad for example, which runs Flash, comes with USB ports, a built-in web cam, an inbuilt card reader and expandable memory.)

Lastly, it will be interesting to see how publishers and news media will provide content to the iPad users. Already the TIME magazine packaged their weekly magazine as an individual app and priced it for $4.99 in the App Store.  This caused a lot of complaints from users who didn’t realize that they were purchasing only one weekly magazine.  The Wall Street Journal app also requires its users to create an account even for free content, which I found to be annoying and disturbing.

Mobile Access to Licensed Databases in Medicine and Other Subject Areas

Apr 4th, 2010
by Bohyun (Library Hat).
1 comment

I gave a presentation on the Handheld Librarian Online Conference on Feb. 17, 2010 with the title of “Mobile Access to Licensed Databases in Medicine and Other Subject Areas,” with my colleague, Marissa Ball.  (Unfortunately the archived recording is not available for the public and I can’t even access it…)   We also gave the same presentation in DCLA (Dade County Library Association) Fair  on Mar. 31, 2010.   While we had almost four hundred attendees in the online presentation, we had the audience of a dozen librarians at the local DCLA fair.  We loved having presentations with librarians in a virtual as well as a physical space. The experience was interestingly different.

In the presentation, we focused on the current status of mobile access to licensed databases.  It is worthwhile to look at what is happening in medicine regarding mobile resources because mobile devices were introduced in medicine much earlier than in other areas and are more widely used.  There exist more database vendors in medicine and health sciences that offer mobile resources, and medical and health sciences libraries are more familiar with offering and supporting mobile resources for library users. In medicine, the use of a mobile device and mobile resources also provides unique benefits by bringing up-to-date information at the point of care to help healthcare practitioners to make an informed clinical decision.  Interestingly, however, there seem to be no such unique benefits from using a mobile device or mobile resources in humanities or social sciences that are comparable to those found in medicine.  Hence, the question is if mobile resources and devices will eventually play a unique role in teaching, learning, and research activities in areas that are not practice-based as they are in medicine.  we expressed an optimistic view on this question since mobile devices can allow students to learn, teachers to teach, and researchers to research using mobile devices in a way that is completely different from the way they currently do using desktop computers.

What do you think?  Here are the presentation slides and also a very inspiring presentation by Dr. Ivor Kovic in Mobile Monday in Amsterdam.

Mobile Access to Licensed Databases in Medicine and Other Subject Areas

Mobile Health by Dr. Ivor Kovic at Mobile Monday in Amsterdam

A lay librarian’s thought on “Nothing is Future”

Feb 4th, 2010
by Bohyun (Library Hat).
Comments are off for this post

Wayne Bivens-Tatum, a Princeton librarian and the blogger of Academic Librarian, wrote a post “Nothing is the Future” a few days ago, which resulted in many comments including the very excellent one from Tim Spalding at LibraryThing.  In his comment in Thingology, Tim Spalding warns about a potential misreading of Bivens-Tatum’s post suggesting that people should use his essay as a way to “kick it up a notch” intellectually, get past the small stuff and confront the very real changes ahead.” Bivens-Tatum also posted a response, “Preaching and Persuading,” making it clear that that his target of criticism is not the adoption of any new technology in libraries per se but the manner in which new technologies have been adopted so far in libraries.

Here are some of the thoughts that came to my mind while reading these blog posts, which have gotten surprisingly long.

——–

In his article, “Academic Digital Libraries of the Future: An Environmental Scan,” Derek Law writes:

“We have reached a point where entrenched and traditional organizational settings give rise to organizational clashes, as new issues and content emerge which do not fit historical patterns. The bundling of functions has imperceptibly changed, but we have become so busy and adept at keeping the library efficient and well manage  that we have lacked the space to step back and observe it from a higher level. …… Libraries have fallen into the trap of substituting means for ends and have not considered what is in the interest of their parent universities. It is, then, the purpose of this paper to review and scan the landscape facing university libraries and to attempt to identify the key competencies or core areas of work that the profession needs to grasp as its key to the future.”

His statement is targeted for academic librareis, but the diagnosis may well resonate with any rank and file librarian at differnet types of libraries. The problem seems to be that overall our library world appears lost on what a library should be in the future.

I realize that it is hard to articulate this impression of mine, particularly when there is so much conversation about new technologies and trends that libraries have to consider and adapt thier services for. What I am trying to get at is that most of the conversation is about what’s new and how to catch up. The numerous things get swiftly classified under the “Have To” category from this conversation. But they don’t always seem to have a clear relevance to “Why” and “For what” let alone “How To.”

Today’s library world, which resembles almost the Warring States period of China a long long time ago, unnerves me sometimes because everything seems to be geared towards catching up with the latest trends. Yesterday wiki and blog, today Facebook and Twitter, tomorrow mobile websites, content, and devices. Libraries and librarians have been working hard and frantically.

But, now that we have done so, are we significantly better off? Have our efforts significantly changed the way our users and our parent institutions perceive us? Why this nagging suspicion that we all seem to share and worry about, i.e. libraries are still ill-prepared for whatever the future will bring about? Why doesn’t this doubt cease that we are running in parallel with our users and parent institutions rather than running together as a team?

Staying up-to-date for the future is of course great. But what are we staying up-to-date for? There is no shortage of what libraries may become in the future: a digital repository, a learning commons, a place for innovative user experience, an information hub, what have you. But how do we get there where these visions are from here and now? Where are our blueprints, not another list of to-dos seemingly dislocated from the vision?

This brings back a question I often think about.  What kind of an agent a library is in its parent organization as a whole? Is it a dynamic, creative, competent, and energetic enough agent that can lead a change it desires through its parent organization?  If libraries are not currently such agents, how do we begin to become so?  Changes at these two different levels -internal and external- seem to be intertwined.  If we can at least begin to form some answers about these issues, maybe we will finally be able to spend more time on working towards making actual changes to the future of libraries rather than talking about it. Just a thought of a lay librarian.

Persistence and Some Other Virtues for Solo Web-Services Librarians

Feb 3rd, 2010
by Bohyun (Library Hat).
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Last September, I did an online presentation through OPAL (Open Program for All).  The topic was “Web Services for Underfunded and Understaffed Libraries.”   After the presentation, I uploaded my slides on SlideShare and then completely forgot about it.  A few days ago, I got an email from SlideShare that notified me the number of views of these slides.  How interesting!  Anyhow, so I remembered. Right, I did that presentation, and what was I thinking back then?

I felt funny realizing that what was a burning question to me only about four months ago seemed already close to some distant memory.  The presentation was part of my efforts to make sense of the challenges and difficulties I have encountered at my work as a new solo web librarian at a small academic library.  I was feeling overwhelmed because I was fully aware of many innovative things I wanted to try, but also there was a very clear limit to what I could do in reality.  Also I was somewhat depressed by the fact that some really awesome things other libraries were doing couldn’t be done for various reasons related to limited resources, funding, staff, etc.

Does the fact that I almost forgot about the presentation mean that I came to some kind of  conclusion on that topic?  Well, probably not.  I think it would be more accurate to say that I have rather gotten used to my environment.

However, now that I look back, I think I learned something about patience in getting things done.  Trying new things requires dealing with some procedures and forming a teamwork  whether it is with some university offices or within one’s organization.  Inevitably, it takes time and efforts – sometimes in a seemingly inexplicably large sum.  Unfortunately, there is no real shortcut in dealing with all the steps whether it is bureaucracy or paperwork.  So what becomes quite important is, more often than not, persistence.

Persistence is also an important virtue and one of the most valuable weapon in a solo web-services librarian’s arsenal.  I mentioned in the presentation that almost everything technology-related becomes the responsibilities of web-services librarian in a small library. So, it is unavoidable that things that need to be done pile up while one solo web-services librarian tries to get all the technology-related things requested as well as other things s/he deems to be important done.  Some of them cannot be done in the time frame desired and/or requested.  Some of them have to go down on the priority list, so that more important things, which keep popping up anew, can be taken care of. But if there are things that need to be done whether it is next month or next season, they have to stay on the list and a solo web-services librarian needs to find time for those.  This sometimes requires persuading others and enlisting their help.

Oh, and resourcefulness. That probably would make another blog post. So I won’t talk about it here.

Another thing that I have learned since the presentation is that one library can’t do all and each library’s environment is unique.  This seems quite an obvious thing to say.  But still many times, libraries waste a lot of time trying to replicate what has been done successfully at other libraries without realizing that there are very different dynamics at work.  Particularly for small libraries, it only makes sense to focus a small number of things that they can excel at rather than spreading thin their resources and staff in many different things.

From time to time, I think I should remind myself of these new lessons I have learned, so that I won’t get unproductively frustrated or disappointed and stay positive and efficient at the same time.

The question which still remains in my mind as an unanswered question is how a solo web-services librarian should deal with necessary R&D.  Unlike at larger libraries where there are multiple programmers and a large IT staff for example, it is extremely difficult for a solo web-services librarian to engage in any productive and meaningful R&D activities because there are so many daily tasks to be handled that come before R&D.  (Also remember many of these librarians are trained first as librarians and not necessarily magical in programming and writing codes?)  On the other hand, without R&D, a solo web-services librarian is likely to be burned out and  get outdated at the same time.  Sadly, I don’t see any systematic support for R&D in small libraries.

This is probably not an issue that can be solved by a lay librarian nor at the scale of individual small libraries.  My hope is to see some larger agencies that  support continuing education/R&D for library technology staff – maybe funded by multiple libraries – and those libraries again committing themselves to allowing time for such continuing education for their technology staff.  Oh, well, wouldn’t that be nice?

For what it’s worth, here is my past presentation at OPAL. I am glad SlideShare sent me the notice. Otherwise I would have completely forgotten about all these questions.

OPAL Program Archive: http://www.opal-online.org/archivelis.htm (Sep. 17, 29009)

What the iPad is and isn’t

Jan 31st, 2010
by Bohyun (Library Hat).
2 comments

So, a lot of people seem to want an iPad including those who are fully aware of its shortcomings. The iPad doesn’t support Flash, isn’t equipped with a camera, and lacks the e-Ink display.  Do I think it will kill both netbooks and e-Readers currently available in the market? Probably not. (But some think it will. )  Do I think it would be a wise thing to buy an iPad as soon as it comes out to the market? Absolutely not.

But, do I want one? You bet. And hopefully I will hack it.

I missed the announcement of iPad Wednesday that so many people watched. Of course, as soon as I found time, I watched iPad video. While watching the video twice (thank you, Comcast, for turtle-speed internet), these are the thoughts that passed my mind.

  1. OMG, it is so sleek! I can’t wait to try reading something on it.
  2. No e-Ink?  So iPad’s just a touch-screen netbook without Flash/peripheral support?
  3. Stupid information appliance. Who needs that for $$$?
  4. But maybe my aunt who doesn’t do any internet would like this because using the iPad will be easy and intuitive.
  5. Still not fair that buyers can’t configure or control the iPad that is practically a computer!
  6. How would the iPad change what we think about computers and the web?

The video on the Apple website was more than impressive. It was made perfectly to open people’s wallet. However, the advertisement video was also clear in that the iPad was designed to be an appliance. Something that you turn on and use without thinking to surf the web and consume online media.  The iPad is more similar to Roku, a box that plays Netflix movies onto a TV than to a netbook and closer to a less portable iPhone that cannot make a call or take a photo than a MacBook. Unlike Annalee Newitz who thinks that Apple is marketing the iPad as a computer, I think Apple advertises iPad as a piece of electronics rather than as a computer.

However, I agree with her that iPad is a media consumption device more than anything. In “Why the iPad is Crap Futurism,” she says:

“One of the fundamental attributes of computers is that they are interactive and reconfigurable. You can change the way a computer behaves at a very deep level. Interactivity on the iPad consists of touching icons on the screen to change which application you’re using. Hardly more interactive than changing channels on a TV. Sure, you can compose a short email or text message; you can use the Brushes app to draw a sketch. But those activities are not the same thing as programming the device to do something new. Unlike a computer, the iPad is simply not reconfigurable. The iPad emulates television in another way, too: You can channel surf through the Apps Store, but you can’t change what’s playing. Every single app that’s available for the iPad has to be approved by Apple first, just like apps for iPhones. That means censorship of “offensive” apps, no apps that compete with Apple (i.e., no Google Voice), and no random app somebody wrote to do whatever obscure shit you want to do. So you’ve got thousands of channels and nothing on. You can only keep flipping through the channels, hoping in vain to see something other than reruns of Cheaters and Alf.”

Considering its computing power, the iPad is really a computer. With its large screen, the iPad has no excuse to be such a locked-down device that gives users no control over it. It seems that we are forced to take convenience over control, and this is worrisome.

Adam Pash of Lifehacker warns about the possible ramification of Apple’s attitude towards its products in “The Problem with the Apple iPad”:

“The iPad, much like the iPhone, is completely locked down. The user has no control over what she installs on the hardware, short of accepting exactly what Apple has approved for it. …… Apple requires you to hack the device if you actually want control over it yourself. Apple’s gotten into the habit of acting like you’re renting hardware. ”


As someone fascinated by apps, I believe iPhone/iTouch contributed to democratizing media on the web. More people now take photos, make drawings, and create videos using iPhone/iTouch because they made it so easy to do so.  And those are creative activities, not the mere consumption of any given media.  The iPad could have done more in this direction of promoting the read-write culture of the web. (See “Apple iPad – The content revolution that wasn’t” )

The very innovativeness of iPhone OS emphasizes the danger of it being a completely locked-down system.  Have you ever wondered exactly how iPhone’s user interface is so revolutionary? In “The Apple Tablet Interface Must Be Like This”, Jesus Diaz explains this by showing how iPhone materializes Jef Raskin’s idea of a morphing information appliance that could do every single task imaginable perfectly, changing its interface according to your objectives.

Because the iPhone OS works well and intuitively, there is an even stronger need for it to be configurable. Why can’t it be both ways, Adam Pash asks, just as MacBook comes with a terminal that most people rarely use but is still essential for some who like to see under the hood. Like he says,

To say that “either a device is user friendly or it’s open” is a false dichotomy.


ALA before and after – My 2010 MidWinter

Jan 23rd, 2010
by Bohyun (Library Hat).
8 comments

What happens when you join ALA? I am not sure about other professional organizations. But at least in ALA, nothing happens unless you are awarded with some scholarships, fellowships, internships, etc. I called up and paid my membership fee. A few weeks later, I got the card with my ALA member number printed in the mail. That was it. I could have researched about ALA and gone through documents in the ALA website. But I didn’t. I thought that maybe I would get some kind of quick guidebook. But nope. Somehow I thought something would happen since I joined. But nope. I didn’t just join ALA. I joined LITA. I joined ACRL. I joined NMRT. That’s a lot of groups, that’s quite a bit of investment. Again, nothing happened. (Yes, later on I signed up for a mentoring program at NMRT and met a wonderful mentor. But it took a while for me to figure that out.)

The organizational structure of ALA seems to be quite complicated. During the 2010 midwinter I went to the NMRT membership meeting. NMRT is a Round Table for new members. A place for me to go and learn about ALA, I thought. But it turned out that I wasn’t even aware of the complexity of NMRT’s organizational structure itself. I forgot the exact details, but there were at least 3-4 levels of ranks/tiers. I was also told that ALA has a even more complicated structure. (I still don’t get what ALA council does, for example. Should I?)  It bothers my mind that an organization has to have that many levels to function, to the degree that new members have to attend a membership meeting to just get an idea of how the organization is structured and operates. (Since I didn’t attend, I have no idea. Am I a bad member?)

Anyhow, I took the risk of heading out to my very first ALA conference in Chicago last summer without knowing so much about ALA nor any people in particular. Well, the experience was, shall I say…, mixed. I loved the chance to meet one of my ex-bosses. I hung out with one of my colleagues briefly a couple of times outside the conference. It was nice. But overall it was overwhelming, and there wasn’t as much fun as I would have liked. (Granted I didn’t go to any orientation and membership meetings simply because I didn’t know that they would be helpful. Are they?) I went to a lot of programs and meetings (including many interest groups and discussion groups) that seemed relevant to my work. The experience was informative. I got new ideas and learned quite a bit. But when the conference ended, I sorely realized that I didn’t meet that many people, and I didn’t feel any closer to ALA. I still felt like an outsider. (And this was after I was an ALA member for two years – one year as a student – and I attended an annual.)

Some may object. But I suspect that my experience may pretty much sum up what new ALA members feel, may complain about, and possibly make them leave . There is no welcoming gesture. There is no personal contact. ALA is aloof. It won’t say hi just because you are nearby. It expects you to make a move. ALA is no treasure chest that you get to open when you join. It is more like a playground where you get to go in when you become a member. But you still have to find people to play with and participate in some games to have fun.

Playground
(Image from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10707024@N04/3040961248/)


For some other interesting observations about ALA, see Agnostic, Maybe (1), Agnostic, Maybe (2), and Opinions of a Wolf.

I think I am near the entrance of this playground peeking in curiously. But ALA feels slightly closer to me now that I have some faces that I can associate ALA with. At the Midwinter, I actually met people I didn’t know because I marked social events in my schedule. NMRT social was fun. The tweet-up I organized was great because I met lots of librarians with whom I had a chat on Twitter. (Thank you everyone who came!!!)  After Hours social was awesome because we were all sort of drunk, and it was quite late. On the other hand, LITA happy hour was kind of awkward. (Networking dinner was nice though.) The reception for young librarians was interesting, but I wasn’t sure about who was invited on what basis. (Was it for all new members or for all new and young members…?)

I discovered that small groups such as interest groups and discussion groups at ALA are great for new members because they are small in size. There are also so many of these that there is a good chance there is something you may find interesting. If you show enough interests, it may not be terribly difficult to get involved in these groups. I was – to my surprise – drawn into organizing a program for 2010 D.C. annual, which came out of the discussion that took place at the LITA Emerging Technologies Interest Group meeting I attended at the 2009 annual. I am a new member and organizing a program (hard to believe in my mind). Well, this is definitely something exciting. But then,  I may not get a chance to work on a committee I volunteered for in the next 10 years (I actually saw someone tweeted about this) and/or I may not succeed in getting involved at the level of divisions and sections.  (Well, that would be kind of disappointing. Or not, I am not sure…)

For new members’ information, I was also given a great advice at the midwinter that it is a good idea to be active in listservs and online because it gives one something to talk about and connect with others when you actually attend a conference. (But of course, one needs to find out what listservs would be a good fit and how to get on to them first.)

I am not yet sure if I will continue to play in this playground. But I think I will give it a shot. I had more fun in Boston than in Chicago.

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