Librarians Matter

I am attending the New Librarians Symposium 5  between Friday 16 September and Sunday 18 September. As a notetaking archive I am setting up a CoverItLive feed of my @libsmatter tweets each day. I am also adding in all tweets using the #nls5 hashtag and all tweets from the @nls5 Twitter account (with their permission).

I will activate each window on the morning of the day and hope to remember to close it at night. Press on the grey “play” button to see what is about to happen/is happening/has happened .

You may find it useful too

I am attending the New Librarians Symposium 5  between Friday 16 September and Sunday 18 September. As a notetaking archive I am setting up a CoverItLive feed of my @libsmatter tweets each day. I am also adding in all tweets using the #nls5 hashtag and all tweets from the @nls5 Twitter account (with their permission).

I will activate each window on the morning of the day and hope to remember to close it at night. Press on the grey “play” button to see what is about to happen/is happening/has happened .

You may find it useful too

Back to writing

Lecture notes

In the first half of this year I was unit coordinator for three units – Introduction to Libraries, Public Librarianship and Information Management Technologies.  Each lot of lecture notes is around 3500 words, with a few sitting at 5500. Some of the  material had not been given a thorough going-over in a long time- some week’s topics had no notes at all, some were so outdated that I did not think it was exactly ethical to release them without a lot of research, updating and rewriting. (Honestly, I purged some material that had been topical – and I remembered being on the course – when I took one of the units over 20 years ago. Australia Card anyone? ).

So – three months of reading and editing – or totally rewriting – about 9000 words per week. Enough to dry up any blog-juice I might have had left over.

Research writing

This semester I only have about 100 students in a single unit – Information Management Technologies, spread over 4 months with half the cohort starting 6 weeks after the first lot. So – now,  a year after starting this job, I have more time to look at the research writing part.

I am currently working on:

• My keynote for the New Librarians’ Symposium on 18 September. This goes way outside my comfort zone, which is usually speaking about new technology and wizz-bangedness. I chose instead to talk about The Hidden Rulebook: Building bridges instead of banging your head against a brick wall – trying to share some of what I have learned about working in libraries since being a New Librarian. It is really challenging to try to write something that does not seem like utterly self-indulgent oversharing.
• Trying to get my Master’s Thesis into a tighter, more targeted format as a journal article  all about why libraries developed their own Open Source Software.
• With Con Wiebrands , a paper for the VALA2012 conference next February, looking at the possible effects on libraries of “free and easy” online content sharing – both legal and illegal. At the moment, we are having too much fun finding sites to show as examples and trying to narrow down our main points.
• Trying to find a PhD topic with a view to starting something in the next year. So far I have three or four favourite topics, but the need to spread it over 6 years part-time means I have to choose something that takes advantage of the time-span, is not dependent on a new technology and that will keep me interested for 6 entire years.

Writing tools

Probably procrastination, but I have been experimenting with these three tools.

Popplet.

I use the iPad version of Popplet. It is a bit like mind-mapping software, but more for drawing out the relationships between ideas. One can create little boxes (popples !) and link them to others. The boxes can contain words or images or movies and can link to a number of other popples. It is a great way to group like ideas and see how they interrelate.  You can flick each box around the screen with your fingers and easily rearrange them. Here is a schematic map I made when I wanted to work out how specific examples of library hacking matched general computing examples of hacking – and what the common features might be:

Zotero stand alone.

The beta stand-alone version is now available. I gave this citation management tool a burl this morning. I think that it fills a gap for people who do not use Firefox as a preferred browser, or who are often not connected to the internet. Only one version of Zotero will run at a time with the same database, so I have to close Firefox  to use the standalone version. Not so useful for me.

Zotero itself has taken the place of any social bookmarking like delicious or diigo. Con and I used it to collect references for our VALA2010 paper over the last couple of months – just adding to a shared group library. We read through and tagged these references and pulled out useful quotes, so now as we write up the paper, we just click on a tag and instantly have a list of references on that topic.

Scrivener

Scrivener is a tool designed for long-form writing like novels, screenplays and theses. I am trying it out for our VALA2010 paper. I found the text-heavy one hour tutorial invaluable for understanding how it works.

Scrivener Organising It lets me divide the paper into “chunks” and work on just a single chunk. I can then see the chunks represented as index cards on a pinboard and rearrange the sections into an order that suits me. Con and I have divided up the headings for our paper. In Scrivener, I have made cards for each of my headings, but then subcards where I can work on individual paragraphs that I may want to shift around. When I am happy with the order, I can then choose which bits I want to sew together, arrange it and export the whole lot into something like WORD for a final tidy up.

Scrivener Storing Scrivener also allows an author to store, organise, access and notate documents relevant to the work, like pdfs, audio files or video files. So if I had 20 key references I could store them in Scrivener. I use Zotero for this already. I can understand, however, someone who wanted to keep track of characters or events in a novel using this extensively.

A bit of a deal-breaker is the lack of easy integration of Zotero with Scrivener. It is understandable that, with a much smaller user-base, there is no plugin written for Scrivener like there is for WORD. It would be great to be able to drop references in-text and have an automatically generated Reference List. Elizabeth Goodman has written a workaround for Integrating Zotero and Scrivener for citation management , which I aim to try out in the next couple of weeks.

Young Adult novellist, Justine Larbalestier blogged last week about how she used Scrivener to write her award-winning novel, Liar.  Scrivener’s functionality is clear in her account of how she used the program to make sure she kept to her structural  pattern of “Before”, “After” and “Backstory”.

Scrivener started as Mac-only software, but there are now beta versions available for Windows and for Linux . It is shareware that costs around $45 after the first 30 (nonconsecutive) days of free trial.

Where have I been? The last few months have been the biggest gap in posting since I began this blog.

I have been getting back into writing and learning. You would think that this would mean a spike of entries in my blog as I tried to hash things out and explored ideas. So would I – but it did not happen that way.

So, the next two posts are about where I have been with writing and learning.

(I am still creating a daily image over at Flickr if you *really* want to stalk me )

Thanks to my friend David from Canada, these arrived in the post on Monday:

DRM is Digital Rights Managment – the technical “wrapping up” of electronic content in its formatting so that only some devices or users can access it. It is a way to apply to easy-to-copy-and-distribute digital objects “ownership” models that suit hard-to-copy-and-distribute physical objects.

My major problem with DRM is that it locks up cultural growth and creativity in a way that is very hard to technically archive or preserve. It stops sharing – not just sharing via piracy, but the type of sharing that communities have for years entrusted their libraries to facilitate.

This cartoon from Randall Monroe’s xkcd, Steal this Comic,  explains the problem very well:

The image on the “Librarians against DRM” buttons was created by artist Nina Paley for Readersbillofrights.org. The site has been set up to raise awareness of the issues around ebooks when considering the right to read – and to invite critical examination and discussion of this. There is a bibliography of further reading and a readers’ bill of rights for digital books section of the website. It is also interesting to check out the site to see that the ways they are communicating – no Facebook page,for example – match their commitment to the free and unrestricted flow of information.

Nina Paley – an advocate for author-led distribution models – is interesting in her own right.  To be the subject of an entire other blog post, I think.

Relaxing #blogjune weekend continues, and so does this week’s video blogging.

Sunday morning coffee at our local farmers’ markets – solo singer with guitar, coffee, garlic seedlings, locally baked bread, market stalls, breakfast tables in 30 seconds Sunday Morning Coffee.

Post number 18 for #blogjune 2011.

Kate Davis talked to me via Skype last week as part of the the Libraryhack event around mashing up data from Australian State and National libraries.

In this little clip, I answer her questions about:

1. Why is Open Data important ?
2. What kinds of data should libraries be making open?
3. What are the applications of mashups for libraries ?

For the applications of mashups, I talk a bit about getting data into the physical world, rather than just blending two digital sources that remain online. Examples would be pointing an iPad at a monument and seeing all of the library’s local history data about it, or pointing a smartphone at a book in a school library bookshelf and seeing how often it has been studied in classes and how previous students rated the book.

I then go on to talk about what libraries need to ensure to make our data really useful for mashing up. My points were:

1. Collect enough useful information initially
2. Store it in a standardised format
3. Work toward a permanent URL for each data object – an authoritative “anchor point” for further remix
4. Ensure useful reuse rights
5. Endeavour to complement and complete the collection of data to make it comprehensive
6. Provide easy access for those who want to contribute data
7. Provide an alternative open platform to closed publishing sources
8. Allow live API access to data if at all possible
9. Actively insert mass batches of data outside the library website (eg. SLQ photos in Wikipedia) but work out how to ensure funders know this service is happening
10. Anticipate possible future use cases

And …. here it is , LibraryHack interview with Kathryn Greenhill .

… There is NO one-size-fits all answer …

Back at the ALIA Information Online Conference in February, I asked a bunch of librarians around the breakfast table what they thought a library was and what librarians do. They all had different answers. Some involved dead cats. Some librarians also shared what they think new librarians need to know.

I made this little movie partly to share with students in my Introduction to Libraries unit. What comes out to me is how flexible librarians need to be and how enthused most of the librarians are about what they do – even if they all explain it rather differently …

Thank you to: Amy, Ruth, Con, Naomi, Peter, Kate, Andrew, Bonnie, Lucinda, Kim and Sophie.

This was shot using a Zoom Q3. I like the audio it produced, which is why I bought it. Most of the movie is black and white, however, because it could not cope with the dim light in the ballroom… so it was either some with bright orange faces or everyone with black and white…

What is a library? What do librarians do?

A couple of days ago, I added to my Twitter profile the phrase “all of us are smarter than any of us”. I seem to say it over and over to students. It is really the backbone idea around many of the things about which I am passionate – Open Source, unconferences, personal learning networks and libraries.

Wikipedia works because enough people care and put in time and effort to make something with authority. Pushing for an “Australian content only” site separate from Wikipedia would just not work. There is not critical mass to maintain it and more people would search Wikipedia first.

What if we had something similar in libraryland? We already do. I suggest that if we get behind the efforts below and read, comment and engage, we will make our own library lives easier. I would love to see Australian library folk adding Australian-based content to these sources.

Libraries Interact: blog central for Australasian Libraries . Started in 2006 by a group of Australian library bloggers. Anyone can join up and submit a blog post as long as it is relevant to libraries and Australasia.

Library Success: a best practices wiki .  Originally created by librarian Meredith Farkas. The Grand Dame of collaborative libraryland sharing that details ways that libraries have done things well. It is looking a bit tired at the moment, but pages like the Mobile Libraries page are still being updated. I wonder whether it would make a good student project for someone to research and update the topics? And for another to run a social media campaign to encourage people to contribute?

LISNews . Created by librarian Blake Carver in 1999 . Publishes news stories about libraries from around the world. A great way to find out who is doing what, and how what we do is regarded by other people. You can very easily contribute by suggesting a story . (And if you want to kill a couple of seconds in a very amusing way, check in every so often and watch the site tagline change …I believe that no kittens were injured in the production of the latest tagline)

LISEvents This aims to be a “library community conferences and events site”.  It is another Blake Carver brainchild. It was launched earlier in the week and so far there is just one Australian entry. Adding an entry is easy.  Something like this could become a great directory for Australian library events. There is also a “speakers” section where you can find someone who can talk about a particular topic or add your own details

LISVendor Created by law librarian, Sarah Glassmeyer. This wiki is self-described as  “a place for librarians to communicate and otherwise share information about our interactions and business dealings with library vendors: complaints and compliments about customer service, problems with products, pricing information, etc.”.

And … not really open contribution … . You can suggest ideas for blog posts in their Contributor Interest Form.   I think the profession would benefit if we engaged with what is being said here and through comments …

Hack Library School A collaborative blog by library students where they share not only the library school experience, but how that can be made better.

So…. are there other sources that I have missed?

I am tweeting today from the State Library of Western Australia’s Day of Hack event. The event hashtag is #libhackwa . I am pulling these tweets and those from @libsmatter into a CoverItLive window below.

Here is a description of the event:

The national Libraryhack competition invites people to create mashups and apps using publicly available and reusable data. Re-mix library datasets and create new content, or re-purpose them and build new apps, and be in the running to win a great prize. The datasets for use can be found at: http://libraryhack.org/data/

Come to the State Library for a taster session and start thinking about what you might create to be able to enter the national competition. We’ll have mashing experts and specialists from the Australian Web Industry Association on hand to help you navigate your way through the wealth of info released for mashups.

The National and State Libraries of Australasia’s Reimagining Libraries initiative has a vision to:

In collaboration, the National, State and Territory Libraries of Australia and New Zealand will become leaders in empowering people to create, discover, use and transform our collections, content and global information resources.

There are ten separate projects to achieve this vision. Project number 5, lead by the State Library of Queensland, is described as:

Community created content – identifying and implementing a framework and tool set for everyone to create and transform online content

One element of this project in the Library Hack initiative. Anna Raunik from the State Library presented a paper at the recent ALIA Information Online Conference that explained the ideas and implementation of the project in the LibraryHack project.

Here’s the CoverItLive window:

I am live tweeting the Public Libraries of Western Australia here in Fremantle today from my blogging twitter account, @libsmatter . I am chairing the keynote session and then co-facilitating a session with Cindi Trainor and John Blyberg in the afternoon.

I hope that Twitter’s recent dummy spit of not allowing 3rd party clients to use APIs has not affected CoverItLive too. I suspect not, because CiL does other things than just deal with Twitter, so it should be fine. If I find that feeds from Twitter are not being fed in, then I will change to the Cover It Live window in the middle of the event.

The window is pulling in tweets from @libsmatter and anything with the conference hashtag #plwaconf .

Here is the CoverItLive window:

 

CONTENT MACHINE

I am creating content, content, content for my work at the moment, so I am afraid I am not talking as much here. Technology for information management, and the history of libraries and what managers do in a public library are all ajumble in my head this week and being spat out into lecture notes and live lectures and screencasts and workshops.

Petrucenia, A. (2010). . Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/andriuxuk/4427753474/

Yes – I am enjoying my job. Discussion in the second hour of a workshop yesterday was everything one hopes university can offer to students (and tutors). Times like this make it worthwhile.

JUMPING FISH

And I had an amazing sunset snorkle at Cottesloe Beach that night – with silhouettes of fish jumping over orange tinged water while the moon rose over the shore. I could put my head under the water and swim through metres and metres of tiny fish then look up and see them jumping above the water.

CONFERENCES

PLWA

I am looking forward to co-presenting (and hanging out with) John Blyberg and Cindi Trainor at the Public Libraries Western Australia Biennial conference on April 1 in Fremantle. They are both American Library Journal Movers and Shakers and have damn fine library brains. Registrations close tomorrow. I have attended the last two conferences and  although I was looking forward to seeing some of the speakers that I knew, I found that there were several “dark horse” speakers who I learned a lot from. Maybe I just chose sessions well, but it is one of the *very* few conferences where every session was enlightening and interesting.

We are doing an “interactive session” about the Darien Statements and why it is useful to think about what the core of librarianship is for you. What do we mean by “interactive session”? – we will all find out together on the day…

NEW LIBRARIANS’ SYMPOSIUM

I am taking it as a sign of faith in my ability to make people want to get out of bed that I am keynoting this conference in Perth on the last day. On a Sunday. First thing in the morning. The morning after the conference dinner.  18 September 2011. The excellent Kate Davis and Mal Booth will be speaking in the days before me – and David Lee King in the afternoon. All these things make me really, really, really eager to do a great job.

The title of my talk will be “The Hidden Rulebook: building bridges instead of hitting brick walls”.

NATIONAL LIBRARY CAMP

This event is Monday after New Librarians’ Symposium, 19 September 2011. Many people at NLS will be staying for this. It will be exciting and fun and we will all laugh and learn. I can promise that much. Much more? I do not know. Registrations open soon.

Off to churn, churn, churn …

I like David Rothman.

I like the clairity of his thought and succinctness of his expression.

So – I find his Common Sense Librarianship: An Ordered List Manifesto a hot knife of reason through the butterpat of weighty bullshit that often presses down as soon as we open our mouths to talk about our profession.

Go read it and feel free to tell me or him what you think.