LSJ Editors' Blog

The LSJ Editors' Blog is moving

2007-02-07T16:24:00.000Z

We're happy to announce a new format and location for the LSJ Editors’ Blog! We’re taking the leap from Blogger to a self-hosted WordPress blog. Even more exciting, we’re opening up the blog to contributions from the entire Editorial Board, a distinguished group of future LIS professionals with a wide variety of interests and experiences.

New posts from the editorial staff and from board members will be made on the new blog—the old blog will no longer be updated. Apologies for any inconvenience to regular readers, but we really think the new format will be an improvement, with more regular posts and on a wider range of topics.

See you over there!

The Editors, Library Student Journal

Tour of Scottish Libraries

2007-02-01T14:48:00.000Z

The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Studies has announced the details of its 12th Librarians Tour of Scotland, which will take place July 14-25, 2007. And good news for students, you might be able to get credit for it–trip leader Jane Pearlmutter says:

Because I've had a number of questions regarding the availability of graduate credit for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Librarians' Tour to Scotland, I want to clarify that we offer Continuing Education Units for the tour but have not offered academic credit because of the additional cost to participants (who are rarely students). However, we have worked out arrangements in the past for students from other schools who would like to use it as an independent study (they get their credits from their home institution).

The tour includes the beautiful cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and a trip to the highlands and islands, with libraries along the way. Cost: approximately $2389 plus airfare.

Information Research: an international electronic journal

2007-01-22T15:22:00.000Z

Information Research is one of the premier Open Access journals covering Information and LIS subjects. The January issue includes, among a wide diversity of topics, several papers about the information needs and behaviors of various groups: a paper by Paulina Junni looks at the role of the internet in the information seeking behaviors of Master's candidates; Zahed Bigdeli examines the information habits and needs of Iranian Engineers; and Eric M. Meyers, Lisa P. Nathan, and Matthew L. Saxton study the "Barriers to information seeking in school libraries."

IR was one of the early adopters of the electronic format, growing out of the print publication Information Research News. Editor Tom Wilson has been publishing IR electronically since 1995, starting from a three-paper "trial issue" in April of that year. The journal is now in its 12th year and going strong!

Hawksworth's guide to search engines

2007-01-21T23:40:00.000Z

Scott Hawksworth at Degree Tutor has written the Librarian's Ultimate Guide to Search Engines. He says:

I feel that it is a helpful starting point for anyone -- librarian, professor, or student -- wanting to get a lot more out of web search.

The article includes a glossary along with an overview of the most popular search engines and some of the new Web 2.0 engines.

LIS top 25 for 2007

2007-01-04T15:21:00.000Z

Von Totanes, Filipino Librarian and member of this journal's Editorial Board, reports that, at least according to one expert, librarianship has a bright future:

According to "Get-Ahead Careers for 2007" by Marty Nemko (U.S.News & World Report, 18 December 2006), "Even though anybody can do a Google search, for instance, librarians will be needed more and more to help us navigate all that digital information."

The article lists Librarian as one of the top 25 careers for 2007. Compared to other careers on the list, it is one of the lowest paid, but it is given an "A" for Quality of Life (and a "C" for Prestige). Architect, by comparison, has a slightly lower median salary and only a "B" for Quality of Life (though an "A" for Prestige).

December Poll results

2007-01-04T14:45:00.000Z

Our December Poll closed with a total of 245 votes. Final results:

42% thought the quality varies, but online courses can be good;
25% have never experienced an online course;
21% thought online courses are usually just as good; and
12% thought they are almost never beneficial

Our January Poll asks:

When asked to provide patron information to the FBI, librarians should:

A. Never provide it -- it violates patron confidentiality

B. Sometimes provide it -- it depends on the reason for the request

C. Always provide it -- it's the law and they wouldn't ask if it wasn't import

D. Provide it, but violate the gag order

You can join the discussion on either topic at our community forum discussion board.

Zotero

2006-12-19T13:21:00.000Z

I'm currently testing out the relatively new Firefox extension Zotero, which is a citation-gathering tool that has a lot of features you wouldn't expect to go together in one place:

Automatic capture of citation information from web pages
Storage of PDFs, files, images, links, and whole web pages
Flexible notetaking with autosave
Fast, as-you-type search through your materials
Playlist-like library organization, including saved searches (smart collections) and tags
Platform for new forms of digital research that can be extended with other web tools and services
Runs right in your web browser
Formatted citation export
Free and open source

A lot more is still in development. When you're on a page with metadata establishing its status as a citable source, the extension recognizes it and allows you to save the citation. You can also take snapshots of pages and run saved searches.

My only gripe with it at the moment is that due to it being an extension run on Firefox, I need to have it installed on the computer I'm working at. Which means that I have to have Firefox 2.0 installed on the machine. There is development in the area of making the software accessible via the web (along the lines of GoogleDocs) but I feel that might change the functionality too much. An alternative would be to run it on Portable Firefox (which runs on a USB flash drive) so that I could use the same extensions at any location I'm working at.

What does Zotero have to do with libraries? Well, it's a full-featured, open-source manager of bibliographic data that makes extensive use of the COinS (Context Objects in Spans), a microformat standard for embedding bibliographic data in an online content item, closely related to OpenURL.

Too many acronyms? Brain all 'splody?

But seriously, the emergence of so much "library-standards-compliant" software for private use is enabling library services to reach people with more personalization and creativity than ever before in the online era. There's also a downside—library systems have to keep up! Does your library handle OpenURL well? Do COinS translate well into queries to your link resolver? Is your OpenURL link resolver (SFX or what have you) at an address that is easily found on your library site? [I ask this because on the UB Libraries page, the address for an OpenURL connection is under the EndNote documentation, listed under SFX (UBlib: Endnote & SFX)—and it's not retrievable via a site search for OpenURL!]

So if you're a Firefox user and have an interest in serials, electronic resources, or metadata, Zotero is a great free tool to check out.

Bisson's WPopac wins Mellon Award

2006-12-12T15:08:00.000Z

Congratulations to Casey Bisson, a much deserving winner of the 2006 Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration for his work with WPopac at Plymouth State University. WPopac uses the Word Press blog management application to add Web 2.0 functionality to library catalogs and make their records findable in Web search engines. Try it out at PSU's Lamson Library opac- it really is very impressive, incorporating tagging, comments, reviews and "search inside" from Amazon. The ILS vendors have been slow to add the sort of functionality library users have come to expect so its great to see librarians doing it themselves.

The PSU Press Release:

PSU’s Casey Bisson Wins Mellon Award for Innovative Search Software for Libraries
Making Libraries Relevant in an Internet-Based Society
12/4/06

You can’t trip over what’s not there. Every day millions of Internet users search online for information about millions of topics. And none of their search results includes resources from the countless libraries around the world—until now.

Casey Bisson, information architect for Plymouth State University’s Lamson Library, has received the prestigious Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration for his ground-breaking software application known as WPopac. The WPopac software will revolutionize the online search process by allowing titles and descriptions of library holdings to be found on the Internet.

The award was presented at a ceremony hosted by the Mellon Foundation on Monday, Dec. 4 at the fall meeting of the Coalition for Networked Information, in Washington, D.C., Bisson’s project was selected as one of only 10 recipients out of several hundred nominees for 2006, the first year the MATC awards have been granted. The decision was made by an all-star panel that included Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and Mitchell Baker, CEO of the Mozilla Foundation.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supports the thoughtful application of information technology to a wide range of scholarly purposes, including developing digital technologies to enhance research, teaching, and distance learning, and new technical approaches to archiving text and multimedia materials.

Christopher Mackie, program officer for the Mellon Foundation’s Research in Information Technology section, was pleased with how well WPopac fits the foundation’s criteria.

“The award committee was particularly excited by the way WPopac makes library patrons more active participants in their library experience,” Mackie said. “By allowing patrons to add information to library records online, the software allows the community to work together to make their library resources more informative and more valuable. When you couple this with the reduced costs of access that WPopac permits, and the enthusiasm with which it has been received by librarians and patrons alike, the committee judged the project to have a truly revolutionary potential.”

“For years we’ve been talking about the digital divide in terms of access, and we’ve been working hard to put computers and networks into every school and library,” Bisson said. “But those same libraries, and their communities, are invisible to people online. If libraries are to be more than study halls in the Internet age, if they are to continue their role as centers of knowledge in every community, they need to be findable and available online. They need the tools to represent their collections, their services, and the unique history of their communities online. That’s what WPopac does.”

Other universities receiving MATC awards this year include the University of Washington, Yale, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and the University of British Columbia.

According to PSU President Sara Jayne Steen, Bisson’s work is an example of exceptional effort and entrepreneurial spirit.

“Casey recognized a need for broader access to the myriad of resources contained in our libraries and developed a unique and creative solution designed to re-engage users of today’s web-based technologies,” Steen said. “We are proud of the Mellon Organization’s recognition of the university and Casey’s innovation and initiative.”

Dwight Fischer, director of information technology at PSU, called Bisson’s work an appropriate centerpiece for the university’s transformed academic library. “Over the past year, Lamson Library has implemented what is known as a Learning Commons,” Fischer explained. “This joint effort between library and IT professionals brings more technologies, online research materials, academic tutoring, writing and reading services to a central location in the library. Library faculty and staff members work side-by-side with IT professionals, forming a collaborative team that better reflects the needs of today’s students. Casey’s project will help build more bridges to more information for more people. We’re very proud of him.”

Links to more information:

Lamson Library: plymouth.edu/library/

WPopac for Lamson library's collection: plymouth.edu/library/opac/

WPopac Web log: wpopac.blogs.plymouth.edu/

New Hampshire Public Radio's interview with Casey Bisson from 12/5/06 www.nhpr.org/node/11927

For more information, contact: Christopher Williams, PSU Public Relations Director, 535-2476 cwilliams@plymouth.edu

November Issue of LSJ

2006-11-30T15:26:00.000Z

The November Issue of Library Student Journal is now available. I am happy to introduce what I think is a very interesting and diverse issue. There should be something in here for just about everyone!

Leah Larson gives us a delightful Christmas story, "A Cataloging Carol", with original illustrations by Jane Littlefield. Carrie Netzer Wajda discusses deaccessioning and the public image of information professionals. And Allyson Mower gives us an insider's look at a developing Institutional Repository.

We have two peer-reviewed articles this month. Iva Seto looks at the organization of knowledge and the hyperlink through the Eco's The Name of the Rose and Borges' The Library of Babel. And Ann Dixon takes us on a tour of children's poetry as it has developed through the years.

An editorial by Louise Cooke responds to two papers on Internet filtering published in the September LSJ, and Mary Francis argues for a reconsideration of reference terminology.

Two book reviews this month: Eric Brust reviews Administration of the Public Library, by Alice Gertzog and Edwin Beckerman, and Deborah Hicks reviews The Librarian's Career Guidebook, edited by Priscilla K. Shontz.

Enjoy!

An interview with the ALA president

2006-11-16T17:40:00.000Z

Left to right: Provost Tripathi, President Burger, Interim Dean Finley. Photos courtesy of Jennifer Potter. Click for more.

Jennifer Potter, president of the University at Buffalo chapter of ALA, had a chance to ask Leslie Burger, President of ALA, about her meeting with Provost Satish Tripathi and Interim Dean Lucinda M. Finley, in which they discussed the controversial decision to close the School of Informatics. In this recorded interview, Leslie reports a productive meeting that promised a bright future for the UB MLS program.

It has become clear that the Provost is willing to explore new options, reconsidering his initial decision that placed the Department of Library and Information Studies in the Graduate School of Education. It looks increasingly likely that our new home will be the College of Arts and Sciences. As in a previous meeting with student representatives, the Provost discussed his desire to establish a PhD component.

Leslie also gives this advice to soon-to-graduate students: "Students need to be passionate about what they want to do. They need to create the change they want to see."

Jennifer Potter presents a gift to Leslie Burger.

Thanks again to Leslie for visiting and to Jennifer and the other UB students who made it happen.

Leslie Burger's 10 tips for librarians

2006-11-14T02:49:00.000Z

ALA President Leslie Burger visited the University at Buffalo recently, giving an inspiring talk titled "Be a Transformative Librarian."

Photo at left courtesy of Jenn Graham. Click for more.

Her positive and forward-thinking attitude were wonderfully refreshing. The usual doom and gloom was conspicuously absent as she reminded us that libraries can and are still having a positive influence on their communities. Her examples of ways various libraries are maintaining relevance and using technology to their advantage were spot on. And I especially liked her focus on ACTIVE involvement in community discussion: at her own library, the Princeton Public Library, for instance, they stayed open late on election night to follow the results, and had a political expert on hand to answer questions; and at Salt Lake City Public Library they host a Freedom Forum series to lead discussions on hot button issues.

Jenn at Jennimi has a very good description of the event so I wont rehash here. Burger's ten tips for librarians, as summarized by Jenn is below:

10 Tips for Librarians:

Be passionate! Be a cheerleader for libraries!
Think “all community all the time”
Walk on the wild side (take risks) - challenge the status quo, ask why? give someone in your organization the title of Chief Innovator (how do we apply?? Mark, you in?)
“400,000 smiling faces”. Hire for attitude as well as skills
Develop leadership at every level – it’s everybody’s job (not just Provost, Dean, Chair, but everybody!)
Become an activist
Embrace change – change is the one thing in life that’s constant
Invest in the basics (2nd most important according to Ms. Burger) – need GREAT websites, catalogs that make sense - that look like how people want them to look! Need buildings that work!!!!! Patrons can go to Barnes and Noble and have coffee, why not the library? Need great collections, need funding that matters! can’t allow ourselves to be victimized by our vendors anymore
Play well together – collaborate – involve all key stake holders – this takes a lot of work
“Keep everlastingly at it” (John Cotton Dana)

Ben Hockenberry at ASIS&T 2006

2006-11-11T02:55:00.000Z

Benjamin Hockenberry, LSJ Production Editor and Webmaster, recently returned from the ASIS&T 2006 Annual Meeting: Information Realities: Shaping the Digital Future for All. Part 1 of his conference blog is now posted, in which he discusses the SIG/CR Preconference: "Social Classification: Panacea or Pandora?" Sounds like a really interesting conference so far Ben!

Buffalo Museum of Science Research Library Online!

2006-11-07T13:34:00.000Z

Congratulations to the Buffalo Museum of Science on the recent completion of a library automation project. Jean Linn, collections manager (and LSJ editorial assistant), sends this news:

The Research Library has some very exciting and long-awaited news…we now have an online catalog! You can now search our holdings from home (and pick out your next reading material).

It was a long road getting to this point, and an interesting story (if you find library automation interesting). Here's some background (the short version): The BMS did at one point in the 1990s have a searchable catalog through the WNYLRC Union Catalog, but when WNYLRC moved to a decentralized system several years ago the BMS Research Library could no longer take part, not having the resources to maintain their own server and ILS. It was discovered that WNYLRC no longer had those BMS MARC records (or if they did the floppies on which they were stored are now useless), but OCLC came to the rescue. OCLC not only had record of what records the BMS catalogers had downloaded all those years ago, but also had copies of those records complete with local notes and any other changes made. This service - OCLC calls it Local Database Creation - is for just such an occasion when large amounts of data are lost or corrupted. It was, then, a (relatively!) simple and cost-effective matter to download the records again into BMS' new Sagebrush InfoCentre system. Sagebrush, recently bought by Follett, took over Winnebago in 1999 and has been selling its own Athena product side by side with Winnegabo's Spectrum system since then. InfoCentre is a sort of best-of-both response to the problem of owning two competing systems. Sagebrush is still supporting both of the old systems for now it seems, but new customers are pushed to InfoCentre.

It is a distinguished collection with a long history - one of the best small libraries in Western New York. Highlights of the collection and more information about the library itself are on the website.

Kudos to Kathy Leacock, former collections manager and a recent grad of the University at Buffalo MLS program, for recognizing the benefits to the local science community of having this catalog online. And kudos also to Jean Linn, a current UB MLS student, for seeing it through. It looks great!

October Poll results

2006-11-01T17:00:00.000Z

Our October Poll ended with just under 200 readers finishing the sentence "Internet filtering in libraries is...," and the winner by a narrow margin is: "...never a good idea" (35%). Following closely is "...sometimes a good idea" (28.5%) and then not far behind, "...up to the local community" (19.3%) and "...an overblown issue" (12.2%).

Our September issue included two papers on the topic and our November issue will include another. All recognize that this is not an issue with easy answers. Support for filtering accepts that some legitimate resources will be made unavailable; rejection of filtering accepts that some illegal or inappropriate activity might occur. Given the anti-censorship history of the field, it is unsurprising that many would reject filtering altogether. It is far from clear, however, if this can be viewed as censorship or if it is simply an acquisitions decision to select only websites that contain material appropriate to all patrons.

Our November Poll asks: Web 2.o is...

a big step forward, but underutilized.
a small step forward. When is 3.0 coming out?
what?
all hype. Enough already!
exactly what we need!

OEDb: online courses and the invisible web

2006-11-01T16:38:00.000Z

From the Online Education Database (OEDb), 10 Advantages to Taking Online Classes:

And OEDb founder Jimmy Atkinson has just published an article warning that the visible web is but the tip of the iceberg, explaining:

Google, the largest search database on the planet, currently has around eight billion web pages indexed. That's a lot of information. But it's nothing compared to what else is out there. Google can only index the visible web, or searchable web. But the invisible web, or deep web, is estimated to be 500 times bigger than the searchable web. The invisible web comprises databases and results of specialty search engines that the popular search engines simply are not able to index.

A fines debate

2006-10-24T01:31:00.000Z

A recent post on Mark Hurst's This is Broken blog has touched off an interesting debate. Mark complains that he was not notified by the Denver Public Library until 10 days after his books were overdue: "Why is the notice sent so long after the fact? Clearly the focus of the system is to extract fines and not the return of their material."

Clearly there is no consensus in the library world about how this touchy subject is handled. Or rather, the issue is often dismissed by librarians as unimportant. Unfortunately it is exactly the sort of small thing that causes big aggravation to the public and, in my opinion, someone from the for-profit world like Mark is absolutely right to scoff at such disregard for customer service.

GreatWesternDragon says:

We assume that you're responsible enough to bring the items back without needing to receive a mailed overdue notice. You're given a receipt when you get your books or the books are stamped. Do you need a past due notice to pay your light bill? Then you shouldn't need a past due notice to bring your items back.

The point is, if you received an overdue notice, the chances are that YOU are the one who's screwed up. You shouldn't need the library to send you a notice that your books are late. You should be responsible enough to bring them back on time.

CJ says:

I've been running public libraries for over 20 years. Trust me, income from fines is barely a drop in the bucket when it comes to operating revenue. My budget this year is 5 million dollars. About 80,000 of that is fines, and 25,000 copy machines. Most of it comes from various taxes.

And did you not receive a date due slip when you checked out your books? Do you not have an obligation to return those books without the library having to remind you?

PLUS, your local library surely has a web accessible catalog. You can log in there with your library card number very easily at any time to see a list of your current checkouts and their due dates, your current hold list and the status of each item, and how much you owe on your library account and why.

Be responsible for yourself, why don't you?

Frankly, I find it hard to believe someone with an attitude towards their (taxpaying) patrons has been allowed to run public libraires for so long!

GreatWesternDragon chimes back in with:

There were overdue fines many years before e-mail and people managed to stumble along then. My suggestion is, if you're having that much trouble keeping track of all of those materials, then you shouldn't check out that many materials....Those items don't belong to you, they belong to the library and everything is 100% free as long as you abide by the rules. There's no more moral high ground here requesting the timely return of materials.

So...just because we have new technologies to make your life easier doesnt mean we are under obligation to use them.

And, finally, Memnon (an apparent non-librarian, I should note) takes things up a notch with:

"Gee, let me use the library, but don't expect me to be resposible at all for using it correctly... and how DARE you charge me a tiny fee if I don't pay attention and get what I took out back in time"...Grow the hell up!!!

Now contrast this with some comments from patrons who really do appreciate a timely notice.

Hatchibombotar says:

I greatly value the one-day-before email notices that the Colorado Springs public library sends...I often have dozens of books and videos checked out from my public library for myself and my son. Given that the library's computers are much more capable of keeping track of what I have out and when it is due, why shouldn't they send me an email a day or two in advance? Do you want the stuff back on time, or do you want to feel morally superior to your patrons?

Lisa says:

I receive email notices from the Boulder Public Library 3 days before the book is due. I very much appreciate the notices.

And Migranium says:

My local public library system sends an email notice a few days before an item is due. I'll bet this automated customer-centric feature costs them very little. I certainly appreciate it!

I'm with the latter three on this one, obviously. It's nice to receive emailed notices on or before the day your books are due. It's good customer service. It's good PR.

Regular readers will know that I've had a similar complaint in the past about my local public, but I'm happy to say the BECPL has seen the light--they have recently started sending out notices BEFORE books are due, not three weeks after. Thanks to whatever enlightened soul got that policy changed!

Open Past Initiative

2006-10-23T15:28:00.000Z

Richard K. Johnson of SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) has deposited an article entitled The Open Past Initiative: A Discussion Paper in the E-LIS (E-prints in Library and Information Science) database, which proposes a new cooperative initiative to "digitize and disseminate the back-runs of scholarly journals." Johnson sees an opporunity for librarians and publishers to work together for mutual benefit:

This [current] situation benefits no one. Library investments in materials go underutilized, publisher assets lie unproductive, researcher access remains limited, and author research impact atrophies. Providing free electronic access to these valuable research resources would therefore benefit all the stakeholders in the journal publishing process....The Open Past Initiative would provide an exchange forum that would help match printed journal backfiles requiring retrospective digital conversion with academic libraries willing to support the conversion and online availability of the journal’s retrospective content.

Johnson puts the total cost of converting the backfiles of the average journal at $27,195.

Kudos to SPARC for taking on this noble cause! Obviously the key to making it work will be in finding incentives for individual libraries to make such an expenditure, but I hope SPARC can do it.

International School Library Day 2006

2006-10-23T15:23:00.000Z

Did you know today, 23 October 2006, is International School Library Day? Today is the day to promote your school library and increase awareness of its contribution to the school and the community.

If you need ideas, here are some examples of what libraries around the world are doing to celebrate. Or if you already have something planned you can submit your own event or activity to the list.

Michael Giarlo from the Access 2006 conference

2006-10-15T16:59:00.000Z

Michael Giarlo, recent MLIS graduate of Rutgers SCILS, is blogging at the Access 2006 conference in Ottawa.

Here's an excerpt from a recent post:

Day one of the Access 2006 conference is winding down. Two groups of hackers (by trade or in spirit) gathered earlier today at Hackfest and Ad Hockfest, determined to work on a select few of the excellent project suggestions. The experience was entirely new to me, but not uncomfortably so. I was in a group (with pbinkley, ksclarke, tholbroo, and BigD) that worked on a Scriptaculous- and Cocoon-powered METS editor, a project similar to one I may be working on at Princeton. The most rewarding aspect, though, was meeting fellow library technologists and hearing about the interesting, and sometimes interestingly uninteresting :), projects they're working on.

I wound up skipping the opening reception tonight because of how crappy I felt, and instead found a cool Irish pub--the Aulde Dubliner Pour House--a couple blocks away from my hotel. It was exactly how I would have pictured an Irish pub in Canada. Hockey was on every television; the Tragically Hip was playing loudly; and folks were quick to offer a friendly "Cheers!" It was quite relaxing, thanks in some part to the Kilkenny Cream Ale...All in all, a good beginning to the conference in spite of my malaise. I'm looking forward to reading other folks' accounts of their Access 2006 experiences over at Planet Access.

Michael recently published a paper in LSJ entitled The role of skepticism in human-information behavior: a cognitive-affective analysis. He is currently a digital library developer at the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library at Princeton University, developing a digital repository and creating web-authoring tools for digital collection-building.

LSJ September Poll results

2006-10-10T16:55:00.000Z

Each month we will have a new poll question on an issue raised in the previous month's issue of LSJ or on any topic of current concern.

The September Poll asked What do you call visitors to the library? The results:

Patrons:	57.11%	(261/457)
Users:	21.88%	(100/457)
Customers:	9.85%	(45/457)
Clients:	5.47%	(25/457)
Readers:	4.81%	(22/457)
Other:	0.88%	(4/457)

Clearly our readers prefer "patrons," with "users" a not-too-distant second. "Customers" came in with slightly less than 10% support. On the discussion board, "guest" was offered as another alternative by one reader, and others spoke out against the commercial/corporate feel of "customers" and "clients".

Our October poll ties in with two papers in the September issue by David Brian Holt and Lana Gottschalk:

Internet filtering in libraries is...

a good idea. Filters are well worth any ethical issues they raise.
sometimes a good idea. If used wisely, they serve a purpose.
up to the local community. Filter use should reflect local values.
never a good idea. They are against everything librarians stand for.
an overblown issue. Librarians spend too much time on these minor issues.

Please do visit us and vote if you have not yet done so!

Hot off the presses, our first issue

2006-09-26T19:06:00.000Z

We are thrilled to announce the release of the September issue of Library Student Journal—our first!

We have here a diverse blend of papers in this first issue:

Editor-in-chief Eli Guinnee introduces the first issue by advocating greater LIS participation in the Open Access publishing world;

David Brian Holt explores the effect of Internet filtering on the gay/lesbian patron;

Michael Giarlo examines the role skepticism plays in human-information behavior;

Cynthia Oser tells us that the problem of "underagism" can no longer be ignored, and gives us some suggestions;

Lana Gottschalk overviews the current state of Internet filtering in public libraries;

Licia Slimon writes about her personal experience with IM reference at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh;

Leith Robinson argues the case for content analysis;

And Benjamin Hockenberry reviews The knowledge entrepreneur, by Stan Skrzeszewski.

Have your own opinion on one of these subjects? The issues raised in this and future issues of LSJ can be discussed in the LSJ Community Forum. Please take time to give us your two cents.

Happy reading!

New Thomson search engine

2006-09-21T13:44:00.000Z

Thomson Gale takes on the Internet with a new search engine for, surprise surprise, Thomson Gale products. The AccessMyLibrary search engine searches some of the information in Thomson products and then links to the full text.

How does it work? Students do a keword search, get a list of results from Thomson products, click on a source, and view a small portion of the information available in that source. They can then click on "full text" to bring up a map. They find their area of the world on the map, choose their library from a list, enter their library card info, and there's the full text. And if you happen not to be a member of a participating library, then you have the option to purchase the article.

The point to all this (because obviously the point is not for Thomson to make more money) if you can get past Thomson's hideous prose:

Today, when individuals in your community are looking for information, many of them turn to internet search engines. While internet search engines are useful for many things, they don't let users know about important information resources that you have already purchased on their behalf that are available in your library... until now....Thomson Gale has invested in content, systems and technology, as well as worked with leading search engines to help bring users of search engines into your online library resources.

Frankly, I don't get it. Do people who use search engines constitute a group of libraryphobes that need to be tricked into discovering the library? (Go ahead, put your keyword in...that's it...see nothing to be afraid of, it's just a search box...now just hit the enter button...) Thomson didn't have a way to search their databases before now? They're going to bring young people to online libary resources with a search engine that only searches Thomson products? Their search engine only searches some of each resource even though the resources are full-text?

The obvious thing to do would have been to provide Google results next to Thomson results. Students could compare the resources available without limiting themselves to only Thomson products, and it would have helped to develop an understanding about the respective uses and differences of library and Internet information. Instead, Thomson has placed their own results underneath results from Google Ads! I'm sure this started as a good idea, but it's got the feel of something that passed through the offices of way too many middle managers. I hope this is not the way "users of search engines" are introduced to the resources of their library.

Jade Alburo at the RBMS Conference, Part 2

2006-09-11T15:25:00.000Z

I recently attended the 47th Annual Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) Preconference in Austin, Texas. Here are my notes and thoughts…

(Editor's note: If you have not yet done so, please visit Part 1 of Jade Alburo's RBMS Conference notes. )

Day 3: June 22, 2006

Like Day 2, plenaries were held in the morning at the hotel and seminars at the Harry Ransom Center (HRC) in the afternoon. After lunch, some people had the chance to tour HRC before the afternoon seminars. I took that time to get some rest.

Plenary III. Legal Issues Surrounding Cultural Heritage Collections.
Guido Carducci, Chief of the International Standards Section, Cultural Heritage Division, UNESCO, talked about protecting cultural heritage, including books and manuscripts, from illicit trafficking and export. To prevent illicit trafficking, he said that:
a) countries should strengthen legislation and grant legal specificity/status to cultural property (e.g., Can it be exported? For how long? Can it be sold?); and
b) concerned parties should maintain security inventories (photos, accurate descriptions, etc.).
For restitution of cultural heritage materials, owners can:
a) act on moral grounds/code of ethics (but this is iffy, unless legalized, since people have different morals/ethics);
b) claim illicit export (but it can only be recovered if both countries of import and export have an agreement with each other);
c) claim (non-transferative) theft (For some countries, goods can’t be transferred if no treaties apply or if claimants don’t have title; in other countries, though, possessor gains title if purchased in good faith.); and
d) invoke uniform law treaties, including 1954, 1970, 1995 UN protocols/conventions, through diplomatic channels (but restitution only applies if both countries are signatories).
According to Carducci, restitution can be made easier:
a) by raising cultural awareness about these issues;
b) if governments consider and ratify relevant international treaties (US only ratified 1970 convention); and
c) if countries create their own national legislation.

Joseph Sax, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Regulation at the University of California, Berkeley, discussed the property aspect of cultural property. He said that American law offers no alternative approach to ownership. He cited the T-Rex Sue example, where the courts ruled that the fossil is part of the land and, thus, belongs to the owner of the land. However, it is entirely possibly for private property laws to evolve to protect public interests for scientific discovery and research. He talked about a French example involving a cave with ancient drawings. France also has private ownership laws but, in this case, it evolved to patrimonial law, which allows the involuntary classification of private property as public heritage and gives the government up to five years for scientific study.

Plenary IV. Curatorial Crossover: Building Library, Archives, and Museum Collections.
Gerald Beasley, Director of the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University, addressed the notion of crossover, as expressed in the title of this plenary. Are we trying to crossover into a bigger market (like singers)? He said that the issue may not be so much about converging as it is about re-branding, and that crossover talks should not go too far without looking closely at the objects in our care. For example, books generally fail as museum objects because we collect books for their intellectual and emotional properties. A scanned book, just like a displayed book, provides a kind of access, a surrogate access to the visual aspects, but it does not provide access to provenance, weight, color under different lights, smell, etc. It does not provide empathetic access; with rare books especially, there is emotional value in opening and sifting through what the author himself opened and sifted through.

Andrew Robison, Mellon Senior Curator at the National Gallery of Art, discussed the relationship between a museum’s collection of prints and its libraries. Print collections often have large collections of books, mostly reference books, with which to access prints. Many prints are also only issued in bound volumes. However, prints that appear in rare books are assigned to rare book rooms, not print rooms. When a museum owns a print or object, as well as a rare book that contains really fine illustrations of that print or object, these materials are usually put in different places, rather than side by side. If collections cannot be seen side by side, then there should be an efficient loan process. What difference does it make where materials are placed? According to Robison, it provides confusing voices from the same institution to the same donors and vendors.

Bruce Whiteman, Head Librarian of the Clark Library at the University of California at Los Angeles, briefly talked about the similarities between LAMs, in that all three acquire cultural artifacts for preservation, study, etc., and all three contain collections of materials that “belong” to the other two institutions. He mentioned the exhibitability of materials, i.e, providing context (but keeping in mind that the audience is not willing to read too much text).

Seminar H. The Leab Awards: 20 Years of Special Collections Exhibitions.
The Leab Awards recognize excellence in exhibition catalogs, brochures, and electronic exhibitions of library and archival materials.

Marcia Reed, Head of Collection Development at the Getty Research Institute, questioned whether it made a difference whether an item is in a library or museum. She mentioned the old view of hierarchy, in which museums are for art, libraries for books & print materials, archives for manuscripts and non-print materials, and ethnographic and natural history collections for those specific topics. She also differentiated between the activities in museums (distance viewing) and libraries/archives (closed reading of complete books/materials) and pointed out that museums do not invite research into their collections.

William La Moy, Curator of Rare Books & Printed Materials at Syracuse University, talked about specific things to consider when creating catalogs and brochures, including paper selection (coated vs. uncoated-- text less legible when paper is too shiny; whiteness or brightness of stock), fidelity of 4-color balanced with legibility, publication size and shape (bigger publication limits distribution), binding (sewing better than binding), and typefaces (sans serif fonts are more tiring to read; choose open-type fonts).

Sarah Goodwin Thiel, Digital Imaging Librarian at the University of Kansas, talked about electronic exhibitions, which are representations of physically existing exhibitions or “virtual” exhibitions existing only in electronic format. These exhibitions, which are judged on intellectual content and design, should include: a table of contents on each page of the exhibition, consistent navigation on every page, at least one enlarged version of each image (when selected), bibliographic information for each item, and return buttons on each page. Libraries can design electronic exhibitions more easily if they use a template or table.

Following the afternoon sessions, we had a reception at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. This again gave me another opportunity to meet more of the attendees. Afterwards, I had a great dinner with a couple of the attendees.

Day 4: June 23, 2006

Plenary V. Educational Needs and Trends for Library, Archives, and Museum Professionals.
Bryant F. Tolles, Jr., Director of the Museum Studies Program and Professor at the University of Delaware, asked how professionals can acquire both library and museum training? While there are classes and practicums, he said that these are probably not enough.

Brenda S. Banks, (outgoing) Deputy Director, Georgia Archives, stated that there is a link between appropriate education for entering archivists and increasing diversity. She said that there needs to be alternative avenues for training besides graduate studies, and we have to think of ways to make the profession more accessible for minorities and the general population.

Margaret Hedstrom, Professor at the School of Information, University of Michigan, talked about the key drivers of convergence:
a) demand: shifting user populations and increasing diversity requires LAMs to think of ways to serve different users differently
b) value: special collections are especially valuable
c) economics: aggregation trumps fragmentation/specialization; collaboration trumps competition
d) intellectual property and ethical issues
e) underlying enabling technologies
f) combining dispersed materials/collections
She also cited the following common issues for LAMs:
a) large anticipated retirements
b) increased demand for services
c) need for new skills/perspectives
d) privatization of intellectual property
e) challenging ethical, legal, political issues
She asked if we could afford to maintain distinctions between LAMS, as well as other information professionals.

After the panelists spoke, there was some discussion about the need for a broader program that encompassed cultural properties and cultural heritage management. Someone mentioned that there already is one—the Long Island rare book and special collections program.

Plenary VI. Conference Wrap-Up and Reflections.
Robert Martin, Professor at the School of Library & Information Studies at Texas Women’s University and former Director of IMLS, gave the closing speech. He pointed out that there are real differences between libraries, archives, and museums, such as governance and funding, how collections are used (viewing vs. using/reading), and the education/preparation of professionals. He said that there should be a collaborative synergy between LAMs, or a recognition that they share intersecting nodes of interest. They should join efforts and, together, create and demonstrate their value. According to Martin, LAMs collect shared knowledge, and distinctions are outmoded, nullified by digital technology. LAMs should provide a seamless infrastructure for learning. Those who work at LAMs should create a different professional identity and culture and re-envision themselves as public servants who manage cultural heritage agencies; they should reshape practices and learn from each other.

The conference ended at around noon. After lunch, I joined the last tour of the Harry Ransom Center. It really is an impressive building and organization. Unfortunately, I had to cut my tour just a tad short, as I began to feel the effects of food poisoning (must be something I ate. lol).

Final Thoughts
The 47th Annual Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) Preconference was an unforgettable experience for me. For one, it proved to be an unlucky time; I sprained my ankle the weekend prior and had to limp along in my foot brace during the conference. This limited my ability to sightsee around Austin and spend time with other attendees outside the sessions. And, just when my ankle was feeling a little better and as soon as the conference ended, I had food poisoning. Besides these unfortunate circumstances, the Preconference itself proved to be quite memorable. This was the fourth conference I had attended within the space of three months, and I would have to say that this was the best one by far.

There were several reasons why I enjoyed it. First, as a library student, I wanted to learn more about RBMS; though I was a member of the section before, I did not really know much about rare books, manuscripts, or special collections. I knew that attending the conference would give me the opportunity to meet practicing librarians and archives, and I definitely met more attendees at this conference than at any other I have ever attended. Part of the reason that I met so many people is that, as a first-time attendee, I had signed up for a conference buddy, and my buddy was great in introducing me to many people and asking me how I was doing. I would definitely recommend that first-time or non-veteran conference attendees ask about conference buddy or mentor programs. Even if you don't end up seeing your buddy much, you'll at least get insight from someone who has attended these conferences several times and can tell you how to get the most out of it. Also, it's always good to meet someone whom you can ask questions not just about the conference, but also about their career paths and experiences.

The size of the conference was also conducive for meeting others. Compared to other conferences I have attended, this was rather intimate. I actually got to see the other attendees repeatedly, and it seemed easier and more comfortable to make their acquaintances. The fact that the schedule built in plenty of time for mingling (i.e., morning and afternoon breaks and receptions) ensured that we got to interact with each other in relaxed atmospheres. I've been to the big conferences--ALA, SLA, PLA--and it's hard to meet people when there are several thousand attendees, especially when you're a bit shy like me. So, when thinking of going to conferences, I would suggest choosing smaller ones, or at least plan on attending the gatherings of smaller sections/divisions/caucuses.

Another reason that I liked the conference was its theme. I particularly wanted to attend this year’s conference because, as a folklorist, I am interested in all aspects of culture, and I was curious to hear the discussions on the intersections between libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs). As a Chesapeake Information and Research Library Alliance (CIRLA) Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, the inclusive topic was also quite appropriate for me. When you know your interests, it is good to attend those conferences. However when you are still exploring your options, attending a more inclusive conference like ALA gives you an overview of the various types of libraries, jobs, programs, etc.

The plenaries and sessions at this RBMS Preconference gave me much to consider. For instance, while I had always taken it for granted that LAMs are cultural organizations, I had not really thought about their roles as memory institutions or as catalysts for civic improvement. I certainly had not thought about the differences in the ways LAMs provide access to their materials. In addition to audience and access issues, I learned about cataloging, collection, legal, and educational issues. I found the presentations and discussions very helpful and thought-provoking. I especially think that the calls for collaboration and ideas for providing greater access would be most useful for me once I start my professional career.

In addition to the people and the theme, I was very impressed by the organization of the conference. I thought it was appropriate to have the magnificent Harry Ransom Center as one of the sites, with its fabulous exhibition space and extensive archives. The program and speakers were great, though it would have been even better if there were representatives from museums or at least more people who work in museum libraries. The scheduling was terrific, especially the punctuality and the times set aside for mingling. The logistics worked out perfectly, including the buses. I thought everything worked out seamlessly and, if RBMS Preconferences are always like this, I look forward to my next one.

Jade is an MLS student at the College of Information Studies, University of Maryland, College Park and a CIRLA Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. Originally from the Philippines and currently living in Washington, D.C., she holds an M.A. in Folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland and a B.A. in English and Religious Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Her interests include: ethnic (especially Filipino/Filipino American) identities and traditions, immigration/diaspora, and multicultural children's/young adult literature.

New career opportunity

2006-09-08T14:25:00.000Z

Perhaps library schools should add "Wayfinding" to their curriculum if places like Seattle are going to keep building wacky libraries. The people at LIS News found this story about a woman who has a job as Wayfinder at the new Seattle Central Library. Apparently so many people were getting lost, they had to hire someone to help patrons navigate their way through the library....

The Seattle Public Library hired Faulk - who calls herself a professional "wayfinder" - this year to help visitors navigate its downtown building, which was designed by Rem Koolhaas and opened in 2004. The glass-and-metal-mesh structure with the offset levels and spiraling rows of books won rave reviews from architecture critics, but tourists and book-borrowers kept getting lost.
This summer, Faulk - who's being paid $49,000 - placed several signs at the library. Some are in the main lobby, with arrows pointing to escalators and to the restrooms, back and to the right.
But there are still areas in the library that can seem like a labyrinth, and the system is planning to put in more of Faulk's signs next year. At the top of the escalator to the fifth floor, for instance, there's no sign for the escalator to the sixth floor. Faulk thinks one is called for.

Pretty sweet gig for 49k!

Live Googling in the classroom

2006-08-30T15:33:00.000Z

At the ACRLog Steven is blogging about a new phenomenon: "Google Jockeys," asking if the concept could be applied to conference sessions. This is new to me, but apparently some professors have assistants who Google key terms and display the results in real time while they are giving a lecture or presentation. The idea is to show the class or audience what further resources are available and how to find them on the internet.

According to an Educause report:

The skill of the Google jockey has a considerable bearing on the usefulness of the exercise. Google jockeying teaches both the jockey and the audience about efficient, targeted Internet research, but a novice jockey can be a drag on the main presentation. Although many benefit from the educational component that Google jockeying adds, some students—and faculty—are not comfortable multitasking and will find the practice more distracting than helpful.

This report, by the way, is part of the EDUCAUSE "7 things you should know about" series, which provides a handy monthly primer on useful emerging technologies.

Interning at the LoC

2006-08-22T13:48:00.000Z

The good people of LIS News found this stor y in AXcessNews about an intern at the Library of Congress and her interesting finds while digging through some uncataloged documents.

Among the thousands of documents she catalogued and mounted for display, Mueller said some of the more interesting items include a children's biblical board game and a poster from the New York theater owned by Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.
Mueller said her favorite find is a collection of tobacco advertisements from the early 1870s that featured children smoking.
Items discovered by some of the other interns include blueprints for a proposed expansion of the White House, early photographs of baseball great Cy Young and a 1916 play script by composer Cole Porter and his college roommate.

Visit the LoC's Internships, Fellowships, and Volunteer Programs page if interested in doing something like this yourself. There are a number of opportunities available (and not all of them are unpaid!).

Kristin Yiotis at ALA, Part II

2006-08-10T17:00:00.000Z

ALA Annual Conference, 2006, New Orleans: Part II
(The first installment can be read here)

The conference itself took place in the Morial Conference Center as well as in hotels throughout the downtown area of New Orleans. The Morial Center itself is reputed to be one mile long, so you do lots of walking. Free shuttle buses take participants from hotels to the conference center, leaving about every 15 minutes. Social and networking events including meet and greets, receptions, and division social hours, usually take place in hotel events rooms rather than the conference center.

ALA virtually moves its offices into the conference center for the duration. Every form of technology is made use of. An electronic message center enables communication with other conference goers. Cognotes, a daily newspaper that provides the latest conference updates is published on site. Internet Café, a bank of computers linked to the Web, allows for checking email and keeping in touch with home. At Placement Services prospective employers and employees meet for interviews usually arranged in advance. Here too is you can get your resume reviewed as part of the Resume Review Service, organized by NMRT. The ALA store sells ALA publications and promotional items. You can take your children and sign them up for Camp ALA while you attend the conference.

Then there’s The Stacks, a huge emporium of exhibitors and vendors of everything that caters to libraries and conference goers. I came across booths selling glycerin insoles for your aching feet and Navajo silver jewelry, vendors of library furniture, book publishers, computer hardware and software. Famous authors are on site for book signings, lots of promo materials is given away, gimmicks to attract attendees, like espresso coffee service, movie house-style popcorn machines, lots of candy, and the inevitable cloth sacks printed with the company logo. Visit the conference General Information page for more details.

The conference program book, 210 pages of events, session, and programs, is organized in various ways: by program track and subtrack, chronologically by day and time with extended descriptions of each program, and a quick check, daily schedule of events without descriptions. I decided to go for the division President’s Programs, the Speaker Series with featured guests such as Laura Bush, and the Opening and Closing Sessions with big names such as Cokie Roberts and Madeline Albright. Visit the Special Events page for more details.

You try to get to as many events as possible but the biggest problem is logistics. Is it worth it to go from the conference center to a hotel to catch a session if you have to get back to the conference center for the following session? Every morning, I walked the 20 minute hike to the conference center early to beat the heat and to get to the Internet Café for coffee and a chance to check my emails before conference sessions started at 8 am. I stayed all day at the conference center and in the evenings I headed back to the hotels where the socials were held.

As a library student I’m not always sure which program track to choose when planning which sessions to attend. Plus I’m still learning to decode the ALA division acronyms. What did I go to this year? I chose User Services, Reference and Outreach track and the Information Literacy subtrack. Most sessions are two hours. The best feature a panel of presenters, from four to eight people, who speak around a theme such as: Podcasting the Classroom, Doing Information Literacy Differently, Model Programs from the Immersion Experience (an annual information literacy immersion workshop sponsored by ACRL).

The Immersion Experience session focused on assessment tools and brought together the people from Kent State who developed the SAILS and TRAILS information literacy assessment and the people from Educational Testing Service (ETS) who developed the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy Assessment. I was particularly interested in hearing Dr. Lesley Farmer, Cal State Long Beach, who discussed the ICT trial testing taking place throughout CSU system, including San Jose State.

I attended the ACRL’s President Program, a debate on the usefulness of information literacy instruction called: “The emperor has no clothes: Be it resolved that information literacy is a fad and waste of librarians’ time and talent.” The outcome of the debate, in which the audience participated, was decidedly against the motion. Visit the Programs and Sessions page for more details.

Networking is a big part of conference going. I met librarians from all over, met current students and graduates from my own school. I had my resume reviewed and in general attended sessions that were informative and hugely motivational. When you’re sitting in a football stadium-sized hall and it is filled with librarians, you get a sense of the strength and power of ALA! You realize that these people have a voice and are used to using it. We welcomed Madeline Albright, Mayor Radin of New Orleans, the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, First Lady Laura Bush, California Librarian Kevin Starr, news correspondents Cokie Roberts and Andrew Cooper.

This year I registered in advance for the Conference within a Conference called Empowerment 2006: Taking Charge of a Sea of Change, a separate, specially-priced, educational opportunity for library support staff. For a reduced price, library tech people can attend any conference session during the two days of their Conference plus a Saturday Breakfast Kickoff and a Sunday Luncheon. When I registered, I didn’t have to pay anything in addition to the $55 advance student registration fee.

Am I attending ALA Annual Conference 2007, Washington D.C.? Absolutely!!! Hope to see you there.

Kristin is a graduate student in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University and a member of the LSJ Editorial Board. Her research interest is in open archives institutional repositories, particularly electronic theses and dissertation repositories (ETDs). Her published articles are based on student writing awards sponsored by LITA/Endeavor (2005), "The Open Access Initiative," and the SLA Information Technology Division (2005), "The Open Archives Initiative and Eprints repositories".

Jade Alburo at the RBMS Conference, Part 1

2006-08-09T18:13:00.000Z

I recently attended the 47th Annual Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) Preconference in Austin, Texas. Here are my notes and thoughts…

Day 1: June 20, 2006

I arrived in Austin in the afternoon and, at 5 p.m., I attended the conference orientation and introduction to RBMS at one of the conference venues, the InterContinental Stephen F. Austin located downtown. As a first-time attendee (and scholarship recipient), I had signed up for a conference buddy. I was paired up with Libby Chenault, rare book librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. While this is a rather intimate conference (this year, with over 350 attendees, is the largest), it helped tremendously to have a veteran RBMS member and preconference attendee at my side. She introduced me to many people before the orientation and at the opening reception that followed (though I was beginning to think that most of the attendees were from North Carolina, since many of the people to whom Libby introduced me had North Carolina connections). I also talked to a few people on my own, mostly other first-time attendees (we could spot each other from our “first-time attendee” ribbons).

At the orientation/introduction itself, conference organizers and section leaders gave some background on RBMS (e.g., it is the largest section within the Association of College and Research Libraries, which is itself the largest division of ALA); the preconference in general (e.g., it called a preconference because it is held the few days prior to ALA’s annual conference); and this year’s preconference specifically (e.g., schedules and activities). Members were encouraged to become more involved in the section by joining committees, RBMS discussion list, and specific discussion groups, as well as attending section meetings at ALA Annual Conferences and Mid-Winter Meetings.

Day 2: June 21, 2006

This was a very long day. It was the first actual day of sessions. In the morning, plenary sessions for everyone to attend were held at the InterContinental. In the afternoon, smaller seminars were held at the other venue, the Harry Ransom Center (HRC) at The University of Texas at Austin. We started early at 8:30 a.m. with welcome and introductory remarks, which focused on this year’s theme: “Libraries, Archives, and Museums in the Twenty-First Century: Intersecting Missions, Converging Futures?”

Plenary I. Setting the Stage: Cultural Roles of Libraries, Archives, and Museums.

Lawrence Pijeaux, President and CEO of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI), talked about some of his organization’s collaborative endeavors. The Teachers’ Domain Civil Rights Special Collection, produced in partnership with WGBH Boston and Washington University in St. Louis, is a digital resource for teachers and students that includes lesson plans and oral histories. This is one way that BCRI is maximizing access to its materials. The Birmingham Cultural Alliance Partnership is an after school enrichment program involving eight cultural institutions. It is designed to enhance student learning, promote parent involvement, and improve test scores and student involvement. BCRI is, thus, not only educating people about the civil rights movement but also playing an active role in improving the communities it serves. Pijeaux recommended that institutions research all potential projects thoroughly, use all available technologies for greater access, engage in win-win collaborations, involve parents and communities to be served, have a diverse board and staff, and be prepared for the long haul (since successful programs take a while to develop).

James Michalko, President and CEO of RLG, spoke about libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) being memory institutions. As such, they have an impact on other parts of civilization, but they also tend to be slow in changing. According to Michalko, institutions cannot do it alone; in order to be visible and to make people care, they have to create scale. They also cannot do it alone with current cost structures. Michalko urged the audience to have the courage to use different approaches and reminded us that access is the hallmark of what we do, in addition to (not instead of) acquisitions.

Plenary II. Library, Archives, and Museum Collaborations: Audience and Access Issues.

Merrilee Proffitt, Program Officer at RLG, talked about how LAMs used to be undifferentiated; people collected all sorts of materials resulting in a “cabinet of curiosities.” As collections grew larger, they became more specialized, since it is easier to manage similar things. However, users today are leaning towards the undifferentiated, as long as they are available at their fingertips. Günter Waibel, also a Program Officer at RLG, described the difference in audience experiences at LAMs. People have an autonomous experience in libraries, a curated view in museums, and a mediated (under staff supervision) experience in archives. However, in virtual spaces, people’s experiences are not differentiated as in physical spaces.

According to Deborah Wythe, Head of Digital Collections & Services at the Brooklyn Museum, cultural heritage organizations share central core tenets, including embracing technologies for access. Museums, though, rarely talk about access; they refer to visitors rather than users. They provide a guided context—interpretation, not just mediation. There are several online tools that can be used to make the most of collections and make them available to a wider audience, such as image tagging (e.g., Flickr), blogging, My Museum, and e-commerce. Wythe said that organizations can converge for more visibility.

Michelle Doucet is the Director General for Services of Library and Archives Canada (LAC), which was established in 2004 by a parliamentary act and combined the former National Library of Canada and National Archives of Canada. She said that the merger made sense since LAC now has both published and unpublished documentary heritage materials of all mediums. Access is LAC’s key driver; there is a clear focus on the clients and on the breadth and depth of materials. However, there are some issues, including digital divide, physical vs. virtual, mediated vs. unmediated, interpretive vs. non-interpretive, funding, and space management. According to Doucet, when institutions merge, players have to buy into the convergence and their roles in it.

Marcia Reed, Head of Collection Development at the Getty Research Institute, pointed out the distance viewing of materials in museums and close reading in libraries and archives before mentioning that collections in LAMs are becoming more inclusive. She said that collaborations and exhibits presenting LAM materials bring these resources to a new audience.

Seminar C. Developing a Collaborative Model for Researching 19th-Century Books and Presenting Them to a Larger Audience: Issues and Prospects.

Jessica Lacher-Feldman, Public Outreach Coordinator at the University of Alabama, talked about Publishers’ Bindings Online 1815-1930: the Art of Books (PBO), a searchable database featuring over 10,000 images of up to 5,000 book bindings. It looks at the book as art/object/historical artifact, as opposed to a bibliographic identity. PBO, a collaborative project between the University of Alabama and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has such value-added content as tutorials, online project manual, searchable glossary, lesson plans, etc.

Sid Huttner, Head of Special Collections at the University of Iowa, discussed The Lucile Project, which traces the publishing history of Owen Meredith’s 19th-century book, Lucile. Since Lucile was often part of a series, presenting descriptions and images of its various editions could help to date other 19th-century books.

Seminar D. Cataloging Artists’ Books: Challenges and Solutions.

Nina Schneider, Cataloger for the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library, began her presentation by showing examples of artist books, or books that are also pieces of art. She said that the biggest problem is that artists’ books are often classified as a subject rather than a genre, which then puts them in the same category as books about artists. Schneider offered the following short-term solutions: a) fuller descriptions and transcription, b) controlled vocabulary, c) in-house written policy for cataloging artists’ books, d) inclusive indexing, and e) defining the genre. She also suggested that, in the long term, there should be: a) national standards (for description and access), b) a specific thesaurus (for intellectual and physical characteristics), and c) catalogs that include digital images. [See http://www.ninaschneider.com/rbms2006/presentation.doc for full text of presentation.]

Johanna Drucker, Book Artist and Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, talked about Artists’ Books Online (ABO), an online collection of artists’ books and related materials. For this project, they created controlled vocabulary for many of the fields and used MARC as basis but went way beyond it.

According to Daniel Starr, Manager of Bibliographic Operations at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, catalogers can add an 856 field, linking to artists’ or publishers’ sites. These sites might be able to provide more information about the artist books, including images. Information from these sites can also be used to fill out other fields.

When the afternoon’s sessions ended, there was a reception in the HRC’s lobby. We were treated to delicious cross-cultural aperitifs, chocolates, and beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), as well as a zydeco (I think) band, while we mingled. This also gave us an opportunity to view HRC’s exhibits.

Skills for the 21st Century Librarian

2006-08-08T16:17:00.000Z

Hey all! I'm looking to collect some feedback from people in the library student community regarding the status of education in our professional programs. What areas of coursework do you feel are being served best and worst in your institutions? What skills do you feel you're equipped with, and what do you feel needs to be augmented?

This post over on Information Wants to Be Free has been around since mid-July, but it, and its comments, are important reading for library students now and in the future: Skills for the 21st Century Librarian. Here's a supplemental post she put up after the comments poured in: Further Thoughts. And here's a related post on Goblin in the Library: Teaching New Tricks.

Just looking to spur some discussion...what do you students think?

P.S. - I'm also posting this on the Library Student Community Forum.

A meeting with The Provost

2006-08-07T17:48:00.000Z

Two weeks ago five student representatives met with Provost Tripathi and Dr. Lucinda M. Finley, Interim Dean of School of Informatics, to discuss the decision to dissolve the School of Informatics. Washtub Librarian and LSJ webmaster Ben Hockenberry has a good synopsis of the meeting, so I don't feel like I need to go into much detail here. The five of us have had trouble after the fact coming to a consensus about how well the meeting went (which is why we have all been slow to communicate its outcome).

I was probably the most sceptical going into the meeting, but came out of it the most reassured; others went in with positive attitudes, but came out much more sceptical. I thought the mood was rather relaxed and friendly; others thought it was quite tense. So, there you go.

My main points:

Tripathi assured us a number of times that all necessary resources will be made available to ensure the requirements of our provisional accreditation are met.
Both Finley and Tripathi assured us that the techological resources of the department would not only be continued in our new home but if anything would be increased.
We had been warned before the meeting to focus on student issues and stay away from faculty issues, but I am of the belief that faculty recruitment and retention is the number one student issue so stressed this concern nonetheless. Tripathi seemed genuinly concerned about faculty retention and recruitment and agreed that this was the most important issue. I found it reassuring that he did not try to offer false promises on this point.
Most exciting for me was to hear the commitment of The Provost and Interim Dean to creating a PhD program for the Department of Library and Information Studies, a dream that had stalled in the School of Informatics, and a subject that they brought up themselves without prompting from us.
Finley is planning a couple open meetings in the future to discuss issues of the reorganization with concerned students. I stressed that we wanted student representation in all future decision making, not just a couple of informational meetings. I think we'll get a couple informational meetings.
The meeting closed with Tripathi and Finley saying that their doors are always open if all or any of us would like to meet with them again to discuss the issue further.

So, in conclusion, I'm feeling now like the DLIS will be okay in the end. Unless we were completely lied to, which isn't impossible.

In lieu of a loo, an itty bitty IT

2006-08-01T01:10:00.000Z

I don't want to cause unnecessary alarm, but from the Worthington Herald comes this news...

Worthing Borough Council are closing the public toilets, and the space will become a new IT computer suite in the library.

The improvements will take place over the next few months after the Borough Council agreed the library, in Mulberry Lane, needed the extra space.

The toilets will close from August 4.

"This is part of an ongoing programme of improvements: refurbishment and re-shelving of the children's library in the autumn," said Mike Coleman, Deputy Leader of West Sussex County Council, who has responsibility for Libraries.

He said: "We are also redecorating and carrying out minor improvements in the adult library. We expect to finish the work in the autumn, and the Library will stay open while the IT suite is being built."

For anyone feeling inconvenienced, the nearest available public toilets are those situated at the Sea Lane Cafe.

Sounds harmless enough, right? Usual story: local library finally gets priorities straight, local pub comes to the rescue, right? Not quite. In a related story from the Goring News...

Stuck in the loo
On Friday evening a lady got suck in the ladies at the Sea Lane Cafe. The man who locks up gave the traditional shout, being too discrete to look inside, and not hearing any reply closed the gates. So there was the trapped lady, clutching the bars like a scene from a horror movie crying "I'm not a celebrity, but get me out of here!". We found the man with the key who luckily had not yet gone home for the night.

I think my library visits will be quite short next time I'm in Worthing! And if that's not enough...

Late night fracas at Sea Lane Cafe
Peter Attwood, the head chef and part owner of the Sea Lane Cafe in Goring turned out on Friday night accompanied by a friend, because there was a rowdy party near the Cafe where there has recently been a lot of vandalism. Unfortunately he brought a baseball bat, and one of the kids apparently says he got hit. So Peter was taken off to the police station and was released after a couple of hours with a caution for carrying an offensive weapon, and now has a criminal record. The police stayed at the cafe until the party had disbursed and there were no other arrests. It seems that bottles and beer cans are not counted as offensive weapons, and apparently there is nothing wrong with leaving broken glass all over the place.

Eek!

(For the record, my headline is much better than the Worthing Herald headline: "Goring library's information techno-loo-gy boost." C'mon Worthing Herald, we deserve better. The Sea Lane motto, on the other hand--"Open 8 days. Nine-day license applied for"--is spot on.)

Kristin Yiotis at ALA

2006-07-18T16:15:00.000Z

ALA Annual Conference, 2006, New Orleans: Arriving and Exploring the City

Kristin Yiotis

Wednesday, June 21, I flew into the Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans to attend the ALA annual conference. I arrived early in order to spend some vacation hiking around the city. I had made the commitment to attend ALA 2006 early and sent in my registration before January 1, to take advantage of the 50 percent discount to the usual student rate. Immediately I activated one of the United Mileage Plus credit card offers I had been receiving. The credit card came with a 20,000 mile bonus, which, when added to the miles I had already accrued, meant I had enough for a reward ticket, a free round-trip ticket except for the $10 tax. So I had all the logistics worked out for ALA except for an affordable hotel room, My roomshare at the NMRT hotel, the Pere Marquette Renaissance, came about informally through the NMRT Conference Group Room Wiki set up by Aaron Dobbs.

But the group room wouldn’t start until Thursday, so when I left the airport I took a city bus to the India House, a hostel located in the Mid City District, about 27 blocks up Canal Street going away from the Mississippi River toward Lake Ponchitrain. Another conference goer--a Spectrum Scholar--and I were happy to discover that all city buses were free. I would find out that bus and trolley services throughout the city were slow, but safe. and entirely free, though not all routes were yet in place. I was let out on Tulane Avenue at Lopez Street, an intersection that looked uninhabited, and told to walk over two or three blocks. I set out walking down the middle of the road, past rows of houses boarded up and obviously unoccupied. This street and others I passed seemed entirely deserted, without signs of life, and eerily quite. Refuse and wreckage lay in piles that blocked sidewalks. I took in the spray painted messages on doors and outer walls, just like I had seen on TV news--“No Animals, 2 Dogs, Dead Animal.” Some houses had FEMA trailers parked in the front yard. A few, very few, houses were newly painted, lawns and flower beds sparkling. Yet I saw no people until I neared Canal Street where a small, yellow- haired boy spied me and, seeing I was a stranger, lead me to India House.

The only good thing about India House is its price, $17.00 a night for a bunk bed in a room of six bunk beds, and its nearness to the Canal Street trolley line, which ran until 10 p.m. After getting situated with a bunk bed, I took the trolley down Canal Street, taking in the boarded up commercial areas, the store fronts, the more institutional-looking buildings, really everything on the street uptown. Further downtown, we went past the Financial District hotels that would become the conference center hotels, past Harrah’s gambling casino, clear to the River Walk that followed the Mississippi River. By then it was dark, the night bringing coolness and inviting breezes along the river. But I was tired having arisen at 4 a.m. Pacific time to catch my 6:30 flight, and so just stayed on the trolley as it turned downriver along the boarder of the French Quarter. At its end point, I simply stayed on while it turned around and headed back up Canal Street.

Thursday I had all day to explore New Orleans. Since I was already in Mid City, I decided to head toward Lake Ponchitrain to explore some of the famous cemeteries that were located near the City Park, the Metairie and St. Louis Cemeteries. In New Orleans, bodies are not buried underground but above ground in huge and ornate tombs that are now in a slow state of decay and disarray, from the hurricane? I couldn’t tell. At 9 a.m. it was already extremely hot and humid. I wore walking sandals, loose-fitting, pull-up, thin cottony shorts of a wild, jungle flower print in yellow, blue, green, and purple, and a thin purple tank top. “This is New Orleans after all, the Big Easy,” I rationalized, “don’t worry about overdoing it.” That morning I hiked through the City Park on a path that meandered on one side along a bayou of a river banked by tall reeds and lush brush and on the other opened up onto large green stretches shaded by ancient trees, rows of oak trees that dangled Spanish moss, and what looked to me like banyan trees. I passed children playing on massive tree limbs that lay along the ground before rising and artists set up with easels painting the scene.

Eventually I wound up at the City Museum at Esplanade and continued on down this broad avenue that goes all the way to the Mississippi. The big, New Orleans’ style, white mansions, with their tall columns and second story balconies, the mansions of the white south, fronted the avenue, but soon it became obvious that I had wandered into a different neighborhood. Coming from the opposite direction, a caravan of humvees carried young men in uniform, cradling rifles in their arms. When they passed me they waved and I waved back. I figured it was a good place to flag down a bus, rather than go any further on foot. I remembered that President Bush had called the National Guard to New Orleans a few days before when five or six young men had been found in the Financial District shot dead. City police cars were in evidence at every intersection downtown, parked next to the trolley line on the Canal Street median. But in the neighborhoods the National Guard patrolled.

The bus took me near to within walking distance of the Public Library on Tulane Avenue. There I was able to check my email at a library computer. Half the entire first floor was converted to a FEMA service center, a big room fill of agents seated at desks, at least 10 of them. Patrons were asked once entering the building if they were going to FEMA or the library. It appeared that more people were there to visit FEMA than use the library

Not far from the library was the NMRT hotel, the Pere Marquette Renaissance. I checked in, got the hotel key, and viewed the room. I was the first one to arrive. I quickly went back to India House to get my bags and after depositing them in the hotel, continued with my travels. Following the suggestions of my tourist guide book, I took a bus to the Garden District, the Saint Charles Street trolley not yet running, to see more of the beautiful New Orleans homes and gardens. But after my adventure of the morning, the Garden District, though better preserved, seemed tame and less exotic. I wanted to get as far as the Audubon Park, but was just too hot and tired.

Quiet, cool, clean, lots of amenities like an outdoor pool with comfy lounge chairs, cookies and punch, an exercise room, and most of all convenient to the conference venues, the Pere Marquette was a welcome change from India House. For the next five nights we slept two women to a bed and our only guy stretched out at our feet on a portable bed made up on extra-big bed pillows.

Friday morning arrived. I still had until noon before any conference events would begin. So I took off down Bourbon Street just across Canal from our hotel and visited the French Quarter. It’s a small and really old place, quaint houses painted in bright pastels on narrow streets, lots of balconies with wrought iron grillwork. Again it was hot, up in the 90s, and humid; not much was open. I hate to admit that I didn’t stop in at any of the famous places my guide book said were musts, except for the Jackson Square Park, and even there I forgot to go into Saint Louis Cathedral, the famous, old Catholic church. While resting at Jackson Square, I struck up a conversation with a local, a long time resident, who spoke about his experience in the hurricane. All the local people I met and talked with were extremely friendly, helpful, even funny and light hearted. During my entire time in New Orleans I never felt unsafe, but felt very welcomed by the local people. ALA was the first big conference to come back and the people really wanted us there.

Around noon, I walked the River Walk upriver to the Morial Conference Center, a huge complex that is a mile long in itself. On the way, I detoured to Algiers on the west side of the Mississippi, hoping to catch some cooler breezes while crossing on the ferry. But not losing site of my final destination, I didn’t get off the ferry but stayed on for the round trip ride. Once inside the conference center, the cold hit like an icy shower after the heat of the natural air. I could hardly stand it in my sweat-soaked, tissue-weight clothes. But I came prepared with a sweater and jacket. I was able to pick up my registration packet and head out to the first sessions. So the conference had begun, and I had no more time for sight seeing.

More about the conference in the next installment!

Kristin is a graduate student in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University and a member of the LSJ Editorial Board. Her research interest is in open archives institutional repositories, particularly electronic theses and dissertation repositories (ETDs). Her published articles are based on student writing awards sponsored by LITA/Endeavor (2005), "The Open Access Initiative," and the SLA Information Technology Division (2005), "The Open Archives Initiative and Eprints repositories".

Wikimapia

2006-07-10T16:14:00.000Z

The best new wiki, I think, is wikimapia-- a google world map that allows you to share information about particular places. Here is a zoomed in map of the University at Buffalo North Campus. I'm writing this post specifcally from Baldy Hall. Click Baldy for the option of viewing the info I've added to it, and add your own if you wish.
y=43000377&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;x=-78787959&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;z=19&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;l=0&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;m=a width=348 height=281&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; frameborder=0&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

1/3 Million free eBooks

2006-07-09T16:36:00.000Z

From Carolyn Evans: You can download free ebooks 7/4-8/4/06 from:
http://worldebookfair.com/. The 2006 World eBook Fair has 330,000 eBooks titles in over 100 languages and no membership is required to download. According to the site:

Ten times as many eBooks are available from private eBook sources, without the media circus that comes with 100 billion dollar media mavens such as Google. The World eBook Fair has created a library of wide ranging samples of these eBooks, totaling 1/3 million. Here are eBooks from nearly every classic author on the varieties of subjects previously only available through the largest library collections in the world. Now these books are yours for personal use, free of charge, to keep for the rest of your lives.
This event is brought to you by the oldest and largest free eBook source on the Internet, Project Gutenberg, with the assistance of the World eBook Library, the providers of the largest collection, and a number of other eBook efforts around the world. The World eBook Library normally charges $8.95 per year for online access, and allows unlimited personal downloading. During The World eBook Fair all these books are available free of charge through a gateway at http://www.gutenberg.org and http://WorldeBookFair.com.

A search debate

2006-07-04T18:47:00.000Z

There's a great post over at The Shifted Librarian-- a debate about the future impact of "search" to libraries. Will the large search companies (Yahoo, Google, etc) replace the need for libraries? Moderated by Roy Tennant, Joe Janes argues that market forces will favor search as it becomes more ubiquitous, while Stephen Abram argues that libraries are about much more than searching. It's well-worth reading the entire thing, but here's a brief excerpt:

Joe: more than anything else, that's a market
they will if libraries let that happen
if their services are sufficiently powerful & ubiquitous, then people will go there
if the millions of searches going to them came to us, we would be overwhelmed in 20 minutes; we can't do anything with most of those services
"we don't call it adult services anymore since the internet" - search that phrase and you *won't* find your local public library, although that might be a market we want to branch out into
he's not sure it's an altogether bad thing?

stephen: wrong question, who cares? no one comes to libraries to search
users come to us for learning, community, and services
the top 10 websites provide a good community experience
we should be more worried about MySpace and Facebook, not the search engines
40% of all internet traffic is in MySpace - what is the potential that those folks have to do?

joe: points are well taken, but can't just dismiss search
a shared notion that algorithmic search will only take those services part of the way, so they are scrambling to add more on top of it
they've also tried Q&A services, but none have had enormous amounts of use, although it is acknowledgment that human beings can answer questions
search was *one* of the reasons people came into libraries
search was never the point, it's a means to an end, but it was a big point

...

stephen: with a bunch of North Americans on the panel, we're all just sharing our ignorance
teams are contextual
people work in teams on things they can't work on alone
Google, Yahoo, etc., are in the 20th century mass market model that TV was in
libraries create relationships with small groups of teens
libraries need to step up to the plate and stop trying to be about search and start trying to be about learning and community

Dissolution podcast

2006-06-30T04:05:00.000Z

A big thanks to Jim Milles of the UB Law Library for dedicating a Check This Out podcast to the UB School of Informatics dissolution. A number of students-- Communications, Informatics, and MLS-- turned out tonight to voice their concerns. Jenn at Library Matters has posted her notes and Kevin Lim has even posted some pictures. But please do listen to the podcast and you can even phone in your own comments to Jim's Comments Line ((716) 989-4422 or Skype "jmilles").

I wont repeat what others have already said, but I will say it was interesting to get a perspective from the Informatics students, who feel especially abandoned by the decision and by the lack of communication. The future of their program seems very up-in-the-air at this point and the conspicuous silence from the provost is not helping the situation. It really is a pity, given the quality of students it is producing and the demand in the job market for students with their skills, that UB is failing to appreciate the potential.

I am, not to dwell on the past to much, still intrigued by the strange way the information was released. The first press release stated only that the Dean of the School had agreed to step down, followed a few days later by the explanation that the School was in fact being reorganized. My guess is that Tripathi had not been fully prepared to release the full story yet, but Dean Penniman was about to let the cat out of the bag so Tripathi beat him to it with that hasty second release. The Provost seemed to be caught totally off guard by the sudden media attention, and thus the best he could come up with was some vauge, meaningless management speak. Or maybe he is just really really bad at this sort of thing.

Next step for us is to meet with the Provost and try to get some answers. Maybe he's the sort that's more forthcoming in person.

Mashing Up the Library competition

2006-06-27T11:12:00.000Z

While reading the blog at LibraryThing I found a post about the Mashing Up The Library competition being hosted by Talis. With a £1,000 first prize and a second prize of £500 there's some financial incentive (above and beyond the incentive of doing good things). Maybe a student will be able to defray some tuition costs!

Demise of a School

2006-06-24T01:56:00.000Z

We're in a bit of a crisis here at the UB School of Informatics. Provost Satish K. Tripathi just announced that the decision has been made to "reorganize" (ie. dissolve) the School, putting the Department of Library and Information Studies in the School of Education. The official press release gives a rather uppeat view, but the real story is a bit more depressing. Alex Halvais explains a bit of the history behind the decision in this blog post (be sure to read the comments).

We're trying to stay positive, and in reality the department has far too much going for it to be held down by even a major step backward, but the decision is nonetheless very demoralizing. Overnight we have gone from innovative to marginalized; from a sense that we are poised to be one of the top LIS school in North America, to a sense that we have been abandoned to mediocrity by the administration.

And all from the unilateral decision of a single man. The decision was made with absolutely no student or faculty consultation. Why was the decision made? To save money? Because in Tripathi's world all LIS is education? Who knows. We're not being told why. It is a shock.

Tripathi has not even extended the courtesy of communicating the decisions to the students. We are learning of it from the newspaper and from the grapevine. Below is a selection comparing the spin of the provost and the real story as written in the Buffalo News...

From the UB news release:

Through the course of the natural evolution of the university we are always looking at the best way to align and integrate strategically our academic programs and academic support services to best fulfill the university's mission of teaching, research and public service...It is our expectation that not only will these academic programs continue in their current manifestation, but that they will progress and flourish, moving into the ranks of nationally recognized degree programs."

From the Buffalo News:

David Penniman, who was recruited as the school's dean in 2001 under former Provost Elizabeth D. Capalidi, said the move will make it nearly impossible to sustain the informatics program. It's a shared responsibility of two departments, which are now being placed under different leadership, he said.

He's also concerned the decision will cause some faculty to leave, particularly some of the younger members who came to be part of the innovative program.

"They were outraged," Penniman said, "not only at the decision, but the way the decision was made."

From the official UB press release:

Tripathi announced last week that after serving five years as dean of the School of Informatics, W. David Penniman had agreed to return to the faculty.

From the Buffalo News:

Penniman said he was forced to step down as the school's dean two weeks ago, after the provost told him he was looking for new leadership in the School of Informatics.

The removal of Penniman - who is expected to stay on as a faculty member for now, but is uncertain about his future at the university - is the latest in a series of administrative changes at UB since President John B. Simpson arrived in 2003.

"I was in shock I would be told I was an inadequate dean," Penniman said, "but then the greater shock is to destroy not just what I, but the faculty, have built over the past five years."

And the most insulting paragraph from the UB press release:

Administrative changes will not impact current or incoming students. The reorganization will be communicated to students in coming weeks.

In the coming weeks? Wont impact the students? Really, Tripathi, we deserve better. Tell us what is going on. Tell us in an open and honest way. And do it now.

Reviewers needed!

2006-06-20T15:59:00.000Z

Interested in being a reviewer for Library Student Journal? We need peer-reviewers and we need book reviewers.

We are looking for volunteer reviewers to evaluate manuscripts submitted to the peer-reviewed section of the journal. Peer-reviewers should be students or chartership candidates. Every scholarly article published in LSJ will have been reviewed by at least 2 members of the Editorial Board and at least one outside reviewer.

Any member of the LIS community can be a book reviewer. The books will be recently or soon-to-be published books on LIS topics of interest to LIS students. Great way to get some free, and hopefully interesting, books!

More details on how to volunteer here. Hope to hear from you soon!

AADL selected as best large-library site

2006-06-19T14:00:00.000Z

According to the AADL Director's Blog, the Ann Arbor District Library was selected by the ALA as this year's best library website for large libraries. The AADL site is incredibly easy to navigate, seamlessly incorporating things like RSS feeds and blogs for new material. According to the director's blog, the goal of a recent revamp project was to make the site "functional for all levels of computer proficiency, and...to use interactive tools to facilitate communication with our customers." Goal accomplished I'd say!

LSJ Community Forum up!

2006-06-16T14:15:00.000Z

The Library Student Journal Community Forum is now up and running.

Is there an upcoming event you think we should know about? Have a question you think someone in LIS land might know the answer to? Been to a conference lately and want to share what you learned?

The forum is a discussion board for the entire Library and Information Science community worldwide to share ideas and information, serious or funny...there really are no rules.

See you there!

SSP 2006 meeting

2006-06-12T15:48:00.000Z

I'm just back from a very interesting Society for Scholarly Publishing Meeting in Arlington, VA. The meeting concentrated on the need for scholarly publishers to adapt to new developments on the Web and to changes in reader expectations. Of particular focus was the Open Access movement, the impact of new search technologies, the rise of institutional repositories and the need for journals to foster "community." A quick summary of the highlights...

Keynote speaker Marshall Keys discussed the aspects of scholarly journals that need to be modernized to survive in the current world--a world far different than the one for which traditional scholarly journals were created. As one example of the how libraries and scholarly journals need to evolve to meet the needs of the modern reader, he suggested online journals should be formatted to be easily read on handheld devices. To survive, he argues, journals will facilitate discovery, will be portable and convenient, will tell the reader what other readers are looking at and will facilitate community. Keys spoke from the library perspective, which made the speech especially interesting to me. He made clear that scholarly publishers and libraries should work closely together--they are in the same boat in many ways and their end goals are the same.

David Meerman Scott, an expert in online marketing, stressed the need to tailor marketing strategies for the online environment. A successful campaign on the Web can be worth millions of dollars of traditional marketing. Establishing a journal blog, he points out, is essentuial if for no other reason than to increase the likelihood of search engine hits. (Check.) And for subscription journals, one of the best ways to gain paying readers is to offer at least some free content.

Geoffrey Bilder, from Scholarly Information Services, and Roy Tennant, from the University of California's California Digital Library (and owner of the Web4Lib list), emphasized the importance of developing journal websites that take into account the fact that most readers enter the site at the article level through a google or yahoo search, not through the homepage. All the bells and whistles in which journals invest time, money and energy are often completely bypassed. Tennant stressed the need to have an online journal that enables "ubiquitous discovery," and he spoke for the need for publishers and librarians to further develop and implement protocols like OpenURL and OAI-PMH. Bilder used the metaphor that journals should invest in building the "tunnels under Disneyland" rather than the "Disneyland Experience" itself. First and foremost, readers want convenience; they do not, Bilder stressed, want to make decisions.

Steve Borostyan, of Public Library of Science, Abel Packer of Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), and Martin Richardson, of Oxford University Press, discussed the various Open Access options available to scholarly publishers. There are more OA models than I had realized, with variations on each model. Some journals now allow authors to purchase Open Access rights as an extra option (in the example Richardson gave, the cost to the author was $1500/$2800 depending on whether the affiliated institution held a subscription)-- the benefit being greater potential for impact. In a sponsored OA model, a sponsor covers the cost of publishing so submissions are free for authors (this is the model LSJ uses). The most prevalent model seems to be the Full OA model, in which authors are charged a set fee per submission (in Richardson's example, the fee was $1900 and 54% of authors paid this fee from research grant funds). There is generally a fee waiver option for authors not able to afford the fee, but according to Borostyan, in his experience 95% pay the fee (Richardson seconded this figure). One attendee noted in the questions and answer period that in her experience the percentage of authors claiming the waiver goes steadily up over time so it becomes increasingly important to develop strict standards regarding the waiver. It was nice to get some specific dollar figures from other journal--I never realized the cost to authors was so high in the non-sponsored journals.

Microsoft had a big presence at the meeting, offering free specialty coffee to attendees and rather nice Nalgene water bottles in promotion of its Windows Livesearch to compete with Google Scholar. The consensus inside the seminar rooms, however, seemed to be rather anti-Windows-and-Google. One attendee spoke out against the willingness of some to compromise their journals in order to adapt them specifically for Google searching and against Microsoft's seeming need to challenge everything Google does with its own version (he was not swayed, apparently, by the Microsoft coffee bar at which I saw him queuing no less than five times in two days). Perhaps "anti" isn't the right word--let's say there is a reluctant acceptance that Google, et al. are now a big part of the sholarly communiciation process so we'd better adapt to it.

Many thanks to the SSP for the travel grant! It was great to meet other librarians and publishers, and get some practical advice as we get our little journal going here. And nice to meet Von from the LSJ editorial board--he's in Baltimore now blogging the SLA conference if anyone wants the inside scoop on the happenings there.

LSJ call for papers

2006-06-05T22:01:00.000Z

I'm happy to announce that our Editorial Board is now in place and we are accepting submissions.

Note that while submissions to the peer-reviewed section of LSJ are only for scholarly articles in which a student is the primary and corresponding author, we are welcoming editorials, letters, reviews and essays from students, faculty and practitioners alike. Please pay close attention to the details of the submission guidelines before submitting as improperly submitted manuscripts may be returned without consideration.

We look forward to reading some great papers!

Google Trends

2006-06-03T21:52:00.000Z

Google has introduced a cool new feature: Google Trends allows you to examine and compare search terms by their frequency of use in various cities and regions around the world. According to Google:

Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. We then show you a graph with the results -- our search-volume graph -- plotted on a linear scale....Google Trends makes it possible to find overarching trends in search and news. Our graphs are based on aggregated data from millions of searches done on Google over time. The results that Google Trends displays are produced entirely by an automated formula - you can rest assured that no one is reviewing your personal info. As an additional measure, Google Trends will only return results for those terms that have received a significant amount of search traffic.

You can examine a single search term.

Or you can compare search terms.

Libraries in Belgium Feel the Love

2006-05-30T16:02:00.000Z

Ah... Love is in the air, and Belgian library patrons are falling hard. Combining a love for literacy and, well, just plain love, Eric Van der Straeten and Danny Theuwis have created a popular new program called lib-dating that's catching on in libraries around Belgium. It's kind of like literary speed-dating, with a little red wine thrown into the mix for good measure. According to the AP article, this is how it works:

"Upon arriving, participants pick a small piece of paper from a glass with a question on it, such as: What was your favorite book as a child and why? They are instructed to go around the room with the question and mingle.
For the second round, readers take the three favorite books or passages they were asked to bring, and share their thoughts one-on-one with others for a few minutes before switching to a new partner and new books.
At the end of the session, participants are instructed to put their books down and write a note to be placed in the book of the person they would like to meet again."

Ooohhh... it sounds just like high school, doesn't it?

Because many of the initial participants were disappointed that there weren't more lib-dating opportunities, Theuwis and Van der Straeten have held several training sessions at Antwerp's Permeke library to train librarians from more than 300 libraries across the country on how to host a lib-dating session.

Sex in the library. Who'da thunk it?

Rory Litwin on Library 2.0 privacy issues

2006-05-23T14:37:00.000Z

Rory Litwin over at Library Juice has written this very interesting piece about the privacy issues inherent in Library 2.0. His summary of the issue:

The basic idea of Library 2.0, to transform library services by making them more personalized, more interactive, and more web-based along Web 2.0 lines, has a logic to it that is ineluctable and exciting. I am strongly in favor of the Library 2.0 idea, but want to raise what I think is an important note of caution and consideration as we more forward with experiments with library services that are modeled on Web 2.0 principles. The difficulty that I think we have to grapple with in considering the Library 2.0 idea is that libraries and Web 2.0 services are based on serving two very different essential activities, and those activities have an opposite relationship to privacy.

I agree with Rory that there are important issues here that deserve more attention, and I echo his concluding remarks: "I would like to see more discussion of privacy in relation to Library 2.0 innovations. I also hope we will be very conscious of the ways in which these ideas sometimes offer to introduce new, social purposes to libraries, beyond just offering new ways of fulfilling already-existing purposes." My own sense is that too much time is spent comparing Library 1.0 and Library 2.0 and asking Which is better? and not enough time exploring ways to incorporate Library 2.0 ideas in a responsible way.

A quick intro to Library 2.0 for those new to the concept...

"Library 2.0" is simply the application of "Web 2.0" concepts in a library setting. Web 2.0 is a conception of the Web as a social network system that relies on user-created content, as seen in websites like Myspace and Flickr. This blog is Web 2.0. I've linked some of the keywords above to Wikipedia, a very useful Web 2.0 tool. One can argue that Web 2.0 is more organized, but via folksonomies rather than traditional taxonomies.Web 2.0 is a DIY Web in which those of us who are not inclined towards tech savviness can create sophisticated applications even though we don't understand the technology behind it. Web 2.0 is about making the technology more invisible and the social interaction more real. It is not that Web 1.0 will evolve into Web 2.0 at a future time; Web 2.0 and Web 1.0 currently coexist.

Actor/Scholar Opens Free Library in Nigeria

2006-05-17T15:12:00.000Z

Who knew there was such a thing as an African tabloid? My ignorance was eradicated when I discovered this article about an amazing man, found at The Sun News On-line.

It's as simple as this: Raphael James saw a need, and he filled it.

James, the executive director of the Centre for Research Information Management and Media Development (CRIMMD) is a researcher, psychologist, actor and an author from Abia State, Nigeria. The goal of his organization is to conduct research into areas that don't get a lot of attention, but which James believes are essential to the development of the country.

Believing what we all know -- that literacy is imperative to economic and sociological success, particularly in less-developed countries -- James started the library, located in Ejigbo in the Nigerian state of Lagos, to encourage Nigerians to "develop good reading culture."

The CRIMMD, which is affiliated with the Bill Clinton Library in the U.S., discovered that people only read when they have a job interview or an examination to write. But encouraging a more active reading culture would help people to overcome many of the challenges that they face in life.

"We decided to set up a public library to encourage the youths to develop the habit of reading for pleasure," says James. As a result of this, plans are underway to set up more libraries in other parts of Lagos.

"We discovered that we don’t have a reading culture in Nigeria, and when you tell people to come and pay money to read nobody would come. That is why we made it free so that people would come and read," he added.

First-time users of the library fill out a registration form, after which they are able to use the library and its materials. However, the books--for the most part--are non-circulating. "We don’t allow people to borrow books to read because when people borrow books, the chances are that the books would not be returned," explains James. "For each book that leaves the library and is not returned, it will create vacant spaces hence, we prevent our books from leaving the library."

Instead, patrons are encouraged to come in and read the books during the reading hours. "People can also bring in their books to read, but they have to inform the librarian about the books they have brought, so that when they are leaving the library, they would not be harassed."

James has made public appeals for book donations. But so far, donations have been few, so the CRIMMD has had to spend precious resources to purchase books for the library. "We don’t ask people to give us money; rather, we appeal to people to donate books to the library," says James.

The library is located at 11 Adewoyin Street, off Adewale Adenuga Street, Ejigbo, Lagos State. Future projects for the CRIMMD include a reading competition, which James hopes will encourage more youths to improve their literacy skills. The CRIMMD also has a young writers initiative underway, which helps get their works published and distributed. About six young authors are currently in the program, including James' own son, six-year-old Oluebubechukwu Sharon James, whose first book, Freedom, was published earlier this year.

James hopes that the CRIMMD's free library will encourage the creation of more free libraries in his country. "I believe that if the youths are encouraged to read, they would gain more knowledge, so my advice to them is to read books--not only books recommended by schools or the West African Examination Council’s syllabus. It would increase their knowledge in treating every day’s challenges as they grow up."

Hear, hear.
_________________________________________________

Source: "Free library opens in Lagos," Damiete Braide, The Sun News On-line, November 2, 2005.

Book digitization in the Times

2006-05-15T23:57:00.000Z

From yesterday's New York Times, an article about the digitization of the world's books --Scan This Book! by Kevin Kelly. Lengthy, but well worth the read.

Kelly is clearly in favor of mass digitization, as am I, but there are detractors. ALA president Michael Gorman famously dislikes Google and elaborates on his distaste for their digitization plans in this LA Times op ed piece from 2004. Peter Binkley, in turn, responds with this.

Ethics slashed from the BECPL budget

2006-05-15T14:02:00.000Z

This patron's story in the Buffalo News yesterday has me worked up. Even though the patron was in Europe with her library card at the time of checkout, she is being held responsible for a DVD checked out to her account but never returned. The BECPL's argument seems to be that it is impossible to check something out to someone without their library card, so obviously she gave her card to someone else while she was in Europe. Anyone who has worked circulation will know that this is a flat out lie- items can and do get checked out to patrons without their card, and mixups can and do happen for a number of reasons.

I myself have had run-ins with the BECPL circulation desk and have found it frustrating that they so easily will lie to me about what the system can and cant do (in my case it was, to paraphrase: "yes it was our fault that your book is overdue, but it is impossible to backdate a checkin or clear a fine"). I'm all for contributing money to my local underfunded public library, but I find these sorts of things offensive and embarrassing. I think public libraries have a duty to provide the best possible service with whatever money they have, without treating patrons like rubbish.

I wonder, then, if what is needed is a website where library patrons can send stories like the one in the Buffalo News above. Neutral librarians with their expertise could offer advice, let the patron know when they are being cheated. Libraries could be ranked by number of complaints. It might be a good way to police ourselves, so to speak. Hmm...maybe we'll set something up here at LSJ.

Oh, and if anyone out there works for the BECPL, I'd love to hear what sort of notes are in my patron record.

Internet lending in Finland

2006-05-10T01:36:00.000Z

From The Scotsman, a story about a Finnish public library that loans its patrons broadband internet. In cooperation with the local phone company, the City of Lahti's 7 public libraries now have 100 cable modems that patrons can use to connect to the Web for free via their cable TV connection.

Anni Saari, a librarian there, kindly emailed me a more detailed explanation. It seems the local phone company, Päijät-Hämeen Puhelin, is celebrating its 100 year anniversary and it approached the library with the idea of offering free internet through the public library. That's worth repeating--the phone company came up with the idea to loan internet through the public library! And the library is not charged a single Euro for being able to provide the free service.

The loan period is 28 days, unrenewable. The phone company provides the tech support to patrons. An online form is filled out at the library and sent to the phone company, which can then activate the modem for the length of the loan, and then deactive it when the modem becomes overdue.

And, Anni tells me, the article contains one error--there are at least two other libraries in Finland that now loan modems: Helsinki City Library, and Raisio Library.

Tim Berners Lee on Net Neutrality

2006-05-08T20:28:00.000Z

I've been following the recently failed attempts to have net neutrality codified into law. Tim Berners Lee recently posted his statement in support of network neutrality. The ALA also supported the recently failed amendment.

I'm firmly in the camp of network neutrality supporters. Surely some better way can be found to finance the build out of better networks than allowing the communications giants to charge fees for preferential delivery. Ed Markey, the representative who introduced the amendment, has vowed that the fight is not over.

You can join the fight by heading to Save the Internet. A quote from their homepage: "Your local library shouldn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to have its Web site open quickly on your computer."

Superpatron Ed Vielmetti

2006-05-08T14:13:00.000Z

You'll have to excuse our silence of late. The LSJ editors have been swamped with the enviable but arduous task of choosing our first editorial board from dozens and dozens of excellent applications--enviable, because they are all so good; arduous, because they are all so good. The board will be announced very soon--stay tuned.

In the meantime, I would like to direct your attention to one of my favorite library-oriented blogs: Ed Vielmetti's perfectly named Superpatron blog, a blog "For library patrons who love their libraries, who take advantage of everything they have to offer, and are always on the lookout for great ideas from libraries around the world." Ed, a patron at Ann Arbor District Library in Michigan, is always on the lookout for new ways to improve library services and his perspective as a patron provides some wonderful insights. This post about his Amazon/AADL "mashup" is a good place to start.

ALA elects Loriene Roy president for '07-'08 term

2006-05-03T13:53:00.000Z

Congratulations to Loriene Roy, recently announced as ALA President for the 2007-2008 term. Get to know more about Loriene from her blog.

LiSRadio steaming up the airwaves

2006-05-01T13:54:00.000Z

If you haven't yet, check out LiSRadio, a "new and exciting series of interactive webcasts brought to you by the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri-Columbia." LiSRadio consists of a variety of interesting series on LIS topics. For students I especially recommend the First Tuesday Series and On The Job.

Tomorrow's (ie. tuesday's, go figure) First Tuesday–-an interview with Dr. Mary Bly, aka Eloisa James, author of such steamy historical romances as Kiss Me, Annabel ("Sleeping in the same bed? Not to mention the game of words started by the earl – in which the prize is a kiss. And the forfeit…") and the recently released The Taming of the Duke ("Lady Maitland is still under the watchful eye of her former guardian, the wildly untamed Rafe, the Duke of Holbrook...")–-is perhaps not the most relevant for all LIS students, but check out the September 6 interview with Rachel Holt about Job Opportunities for Next Gen Librarians (and read more on Nextgens from Rachel here).

The changing nature of the catalog

2006-05-01T00:46:00.000Z

I received a forward the other day to the Library of Congress commissioned report "Changing Nature of the Catalog and its Integration with Other Discovery Tools," which portrays the catalog as needing to be re-positioned so that it might regain some of its "dwindling market share." Karen Calhoun's recommendations include encouraging "LC to dismantle LCSH,"

The e-mail also linked to a rebuttal from Dr. Thomas Mann, author of The Oxford Guide to Library Research, which states, in part, that it is fallacious to suggest that the library catalog does operate, or should operate, within the forces of the free market. It can be found at http://www.guild2910.org/. Click on "New Essay! April 4, 2006" (a PDF file).

Mann's rebuttal focuses largely on the needs of research libraries and the scholars that use them. Calhoun is more concerned with the ability of the library to compete in the broader information economy. Suppositions about the impending popularity of e-books and digitization that supports full-text searching are used by Calhoun to support her position.

The future of data storage?

2006-04-29T14:47:00.000Z

According to New Scientist Tech, researchers have discovered a potential way to store data at a density millions of times greater than what is currently possible. Kurt Kleiner writes here:

Researchers at Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania, both in Philadelphia, and Harvard University in Massachusetts, US, discovered that water turns barium titanate (BaTiO₃) nanowires into a potential form of computer memory....Jonathan Spanier, a team member from Drexel University, estimates that the wires could theoretically be used to make computer memory drives with a density of 10,000 terabits (10¹⁶ bits) of data per cubic centimetre. By contrast, current flash memory drives store about five gigabits (5 x 10⁹) of data per cubic centimetre.

Just how much information is contained in 10,000 terabits? Eric Berger puts it into context:

By way of comparison, the entire text of all volumes in the U.S. Library of Congress comprises about 10 terabits. The Internet -- you know, where you're reading this -- is about 100 terabits....Within the space of about 100 cubic centimeters of this memory you could store every printed word, from Webster's dictionary to Gutenberg's bible. With 1,000 cubic centimeters you could store every word spoken by every human being in Earth's history.

Innovative public libraries enable digital media downloads

2006-04-27T20:14:00.000Z

For a month now patrons of the Chicago Public Library have been able to download over 1300 audio books from its Digital Audio Books Catalog. After downloading the free OverDrive software, patrons can check out up to 6 titles for 21 days, after which the they are automatically "returned to the shelf" and become available for another patron to check out. Some items can be legally burned to CD, on an item to item basis. OverDrive works with many portable devices, though notably not the iPod.

Not to be outdone, Denver Public Library now uses OverDrive for its digital audio books collection and its digital video ("eflicks") collection. --More info from CBS Denver--

Firebrary!

2006-04-27T00:56:00.000Z

Some exciting local news today: UB's own Dr. June Abbas and the students of her Digital Libraries class unveiled the Firebrary: the Buffalo Fire Historical Society Digital Library. Congrats June, et al., it's beautiful! I particularly like the pics of the 1896 smoke mask, and accompanying audio commentary.

...more about the making of the Firebary.

Past Digital Libraries classes created the Bentley Snow Crystal Collection and the Pierce Arrow Musuem Digital Library.

Are you involved in an interesting student project? Let us know about it: lis-lsj@buffalo.edu

Blogging at the ALA

2006-04-25T17:09:00.000Z

American Library Association president Michael Gorman got the blogosphere riled up last year when he published an article in Library Journal entitled Revenge of the Blog People!, which contained, among other things, this statement: "Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts."

President-elect Leslie Burger, by contrast, has a blog of her own. In this post she explains why it is important for us to engage with the blogosphere.

And another ALA VIP is now blogging: Mary Ghikas, Senior Associate Executive Director, has recently started The Green Kangaroo.

What a difference a year makes!

Is the Book Burro friendly?

2006-04-22T20:08:00.000Z

There is a free add-on to the Firefox browser called Book Burro which does something very interesting: it senses when you are searching for a book on the Web, gives you the prices from several online bookstores, and tells you if the book is available at your library (for now it only works at a select few libraries, but soon ,they promise, you will be able to customize it for your own local library).

Let's imagine I'm searching Amazon and I come across The Enduring Library by Michael Gorman and I think Now there is a book I have got to read. I'm about to Add to Shopping Cart but instead I glance up at Book Burro and I see that the Seattle Public Library has a copy of it. With one click it takes me not only to the SPL catalogue but specifically to the record for The Enduring Library, which confirms that the book is available. So I put the credit card back in the wallet and I head to the library--bad for MG and Amazon, perhaps, but good for me and the SPL.

Seems pretty great, no? But I wonder if there are other implications. What is stopping a reader in Seattle, for instance, from searching Amazon instead of the SPL OPAC? This is, in a way, the opposite of attempts by librarians to catalogue the Web to be searchable in library catalogues. Perhaps in the future we wont even go to the OPAC to find library resources; we'll go to Google OPAC or somesuch. And we'll put up with the advertisements because it will work. Of course none of this would be an issue if OPAC design was not so outdated...but that's a subject for another day.

The Book Burro site doesn't say much about the technology behind it. Anybody care to enlighten me on how it works?

LSJ Seeks Editorial Board Members

2006-04-21T01:34:00.000Z

Library Student Journal is now officially forming its editorial board.  The board's
primary responsibilty is to ensure a high quality of peer-review and to assist the
editors in making editorial decisions.  Members will be asked to review papers
on topics familar to them.  For more information about the role/duties of the
editorial board please go to http://informatics.buffalo.edu/org/lsj/board.html.

To apply, please send an email to lis-lsj@buffalo.edu with a current CV or resume
attached; write "editorial board" in the subject line, and in the body state your
name, affiliation, expected graduation date, primary interests and experience in
the field, and a paragraph explaining why you are interested in serving on the
board (less than 200 words please).

Please apply by May 6.

Any questions, feel free to email us at lis-lsj@buffalo.edu.

Getting started with blogs and RSS feeds

2006-04-19T15:10:00.000Z

I'm a recent convert to blogging/RSS feeds and I hope to convert many of you LIS students as well. RSS is worth knowing about for two reasons: RSS feeds are the best way to keep updated on new developments in the field, and RSS has great potential as a tool for better serving our communities. With RSS you can subscibe to the feeds of your favorite journals, newspapers and blogs through an aggregator, and any newly published information from those sources will be automatically sent to your desktop. No searching, no surfing, no nothing, it's just there! So please, take a couple minutes to subscribe to a feed or two--I promise it will save you hours in the long run.

How do you get started? There are, let's say, three easy steps: Find an aggregator. Subscribe to some feeds. Read.

A google search will find some good free aggregators. Bloglines is a popular one. I personally like gmail's "Webclips" feature-- a very simple aggregator already attached to all gmail accounts. If you use the excellent and free Firefox browser, you can even add feeds to your Bookmarks by clicking on the little orange icon on the bottom of the window or on the right side of the address bar.

All aggregators have a feature to search for and subscribe to feeds--do a search for "library" to find some good library blogs, etc.--or if you know the feed url you can cut and paste it into your aggregator. Ours is: http://librarystudentjournal.blogspot.com/atom.xml .

For more details check out Getting Started with RSS: The Fifteen-Minute Tutorial by K.G Schneider's, aka the Free Range Librarian.

Eli Guinnee
lis-lsj@buffalo.edu

Introducing Library Student Journal!

2006-04-10T23:42:00.000Z

Welcome to the LSJ Editors' Blog!

Library Student Journal is the international peer-reviewed journal for future information science professionals edited by students at the University at Buffalo.

Beginning May 2006, we will be accepting submissions. Right now, we are in the process of forming the editorial board. If you would like to be involved please see our website for information on how to apply, or contact us at lis-lsj@buffalo.edu.

Here at the LSJ Editors' Blog my coeditors and I will tell you about new articles in LSJ and alert you to whatever LIS news we think students should know about. Please feel free to post comments about things we've posted, or email us when we've overlooked something important.

Eli Guinnee, editor