NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Library Edition

"The NMC, the University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Chur, the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB), Hannover, and ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, are jointly releasing the NMC Horizon Report > 2015 Library Edition during a special online event. This is the second edition of the NMC Horizon Report that explores the realm of academic and research libraries in a global context." - NMC Horizon Report

Links to more information:

• NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Library Edition Wiki
• NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Library Edition Panel
• NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Library Edition (video)
• NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Library Edition (PDF)
• NMC Horizon Report Project

Happy National Library Week

Common Craft & Libraries

Common Craft recently posted a new - free - explainer video, this one focuses on  Libraries in the Internet Age. Why, you may ask. Their video summary and description provides that information: "We love libraries and librarians. We want them to succeed and we made this video to help the public understand how libraries have changed in the Internet Age."




This certainly explains why they were looking for librarian feedback in early March (smile).

Neil Gaiman: Literacy, Reading, Libraries

Neil Gaiman's lecture: Second annual The Reading Agency conference

Mr. Gaiman's words spoke to me as a reader, teacher, and librarian;  it was challenging to select only a snippet of content to feature with the video.

"Libraries are about Freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information." 

"I worry that here in the 21st Century people misunderstand what libraries are and the purpose of them. If you perceive a library as a shelf of books, it may seem antiquated or outdated in a word in which most, but not all, books in print exist digitally. But that is to fundamentally miss the point." -- Neil Gaiman, The Reading Agency, 10/14/13

Watch the video. Read the entire lecture here: Neil Gaiman, Reading & Obligation

VHS Domino Train

A film by:

Benjamin Wheal, Symon Williamson, Carly Reimann and friends

City of Tea Tree Gully Library

"To celebrate the demise of the video collection and the now unchallenged reign of the DVD, staff felt that the remaining videos must go out with a bang. One weekend staff came in on their own time to film the final stand of the video in a giant domino train throughout the library space as a fitting homage to their service. May the videos now rest in peace. Long live the VHS!" -- TTGLibrary's YouTube Channel

It's a bit lengthy, but worth the time as the VHS trail gets increasingly complicated towards the end (you can fast forward).I had three distinct thoughts once the video was over; how long did it take to set-up, how long did it take to clean up, and I need to post this video.

Losing Your Right Hand

What does it feel like to lose your right hand? I mean, my right hand at work. My assistant has been on medical leave since May 18 and that doesn't sound like a big deal. Except that I only have two employees besides me and about 5 student assistants.

I have been relearning how to do things I gratefully forgot, like how to add new patrons, how to fix circulation issues, remembering to put equipment in places and deliver films, checking on a multitude of little details that always needs to be checked before a new quarter starts, employee timesheets, reconciling a money drawer, etc. The list goes on.

That's in addition to my own usual duties and projects, like budgets, periodical renewals, collection development, new course management materials, etc. It takes one little situation to make you appreciate when you have a well-oiled machine running. When a part is gone, the whole thing just seems to fall apart. For us, running smoothly and collaboratively has been the key to our success with such a small staff.

Actually, I am proud of myself - no major crises, no major snafus. I have learned that I hate to reconcile a money drawer and deadlines always exist.

But I got to go back to my roots, so to speak, and do some cataloging functions, which I always enjoyed and clean out some clutter.

Luckily, it sounds as though there is daylight showing. My assistant might get to return part-time soon. And that will be a day for celebration. Hallelujah!!!

A great philosophy

A two-week holiday hiatus from work results in a backlog of necessary tasks and duties well beyond email (220+), blog feeds (1300+), blog posts, and library web site updates. Yesterday was devoted to scheduling graduate assistants and student workers for the spring semester in the IRC and making preparations necessary to begin the semester smoothly (including new stacks signage and update the wall collage).

Today, I've whittled the pile of journals perched in my mailbox down to two, the December 15, 2008 issue of Booklist and the December 2008 issue of School Library Journal. Since both of these are fun, I get to order juvenile books and the SLJ TechKnowledge sections never fail to have a great idea or two, in fact the December issue highlights Ohio Opens Schoolrooms, it is pretty much win-win for me.

But, I digress.

Taking Care of Business, an article by Christopher Harris, discusses how collection development policies and plans may help inform people what libraries have to offer students. What caught my attention was the accompanying photograph of Tracey Reed, a librarian at Clearwater Public Library, featuring a great sign:


Bother Me!
I'm here to help you ...

Bravo! Everyone is busy, but we are here to help.

Interested in the photograph? Use Academic Search Complete, or any other database that features SJL, the article is available in full text html and pdf with picture. Unfortunately, it is not available on the SLJ website.

Ohio Librarians - LSTA Minigrants Available

The State Library of Ohio is pleased to announce the availability of Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds for minigrant proposals. Under the minigrant program, any type of library may apply for funds in one of the following categories: Innovative Technology; Staff Development and Training; Services to Target Populations; and Services to Youth.

A maximum of $24,000 in federal funds may be requested. A cash match of 25% of the total project amount is required.

Proposals are due at the State Library by 4:00 p.m. October 29, 2008.
Approved proposals will run from April 1, 2009 through August 31, 2009.

The Request for Proposal, Application Guidelines and other documents to assist with preparing the application can be found at www.library.ohio.gov/publib/lstamini.html

If you have any questions about the LSTA Minigrants or the LSTA program in general, please contact Missy Lodge, Head, Library Programs and Development at mlodge@sloma.state.oh.us, 614-644-6914 or 800-686-1532.

Resource Opportunity

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), in cooperation with the ALA Public Programs Office, is now accepting applications for the second round of Picturing America. Online applications will be accepted through Oct. 31 at http://picturingamerica.neh.org.

Picturing America is a free educational resource that helps teach American history and culture by bringing some of our nation’s greatest works of art directly to classrooms and libraries. At no cost, recipients will receive a set of high-quality reproductions of 40 pieces of great American art (each approximately 24 inches by 36 inches) and an illustrated teachers resource book with information about the artists and artwork and lesson ideas for all grade levels to facilitate the use of the reproductions in core subject areas. Delivery of these materials is scheduled for spring 2009. Additional educational resources are also available through the Picturing America Web site, http://picturingamerica.neh.gov. Resources to support public library programming will be added in the spring.

All public libraries, schools (K–12, public, private, parochial, charter and home school consortia) in the United States and its territories who have not previously received Picturing America may apply for the program through Oct. 31 at http://picturingamerica.neh.gov.


Additionally, other libraries (academic, special, research) with programs and collections for the general public are eligible to apply. Please note that previous recipients of the Picturing America collection are not eligible for a second award.

With questions, contact the ALA Public Programs office at publicprograms@ala.org.

Article opportunity

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

College & Undergraduate Libraries presents

"Agility by Design: New Roles for Academic Libraries on Campus and Beyond"

College & Undergraduate Libraries, a peer-reviewed Taylor and Francis publication, invites proposals for articles to be published in a special issue focusing on emerging and perhaps unconventional roles of the academic library, both on campus and beyond. The growing intensity of users’ modern-day information needs coupled with an information technology landscape that is open and ever-changing, is facilitating administrative, organizational and programmatic changes within many academic libraries. In many cases, this is best illustrated by staff with new or unusual qualifications, backgrounds, or position descriptions; cutting edge services that are out of the mainstream; traditional services offered in innovative ways; new staffing configurations; new collaborations both on and off campus; and new roles on campus.

Would you describe your library as having any of these features? If so, then you may have an article to contribute to College & Undergraduate Libraries.

The special issue will be edited by Scottie Cochrane from Denison University (cochrane@denison.edu) and Valeda F. Dent of Rutgers University (vdent@rutgers.edu).

In their pieces, authors should focus solely on those aspects that might be defined as unconventional or nontraditional in any area of library operations, programs, services, or administration. Authors are invited to submit articles/proposals for pieces such as:

1. theoretical, philosophical, or ideological discussions of the transition from traditional library roles, services, practices and organizational structures, to the more nontraditional/unconventional
2. opinion or position papers
3. case studies
4. collaboration or relationships between librarians and other campus partners
5. collaboration or relationships between librarians and off-campus partners
6. research studies dealing with the impact of nontraditional/unconventional roles, services, practices or organizational structures
7. annotated reviews of the literature.

We welcome proposals from librarians and campus and off-campus collaborators, individually and as teams. The proposal should consist of an abstract of 500 words together will all author contact information. Articles should run at least 20 double-spaced pages in length.

For additional information, please contact either editor. Please submit proposals to Scottie Cochrane or Valeda Dent by August 18, 2008. Selected proposals will be announced September 5, 2008, and first drafts of accepted proposals will be due by December 5, 2008.

Scottie Cochrane Valeda F. Dent

A New Kind of Book

Today, I discovered there is a new kind of book to borrow.
Actually a "human" book. Called the Living Library, it allows a person to "borrow" a human for a 30 minute chat. The borrowed person represents a certain aspect: gay, immigrant, goth, male nanny, librarian, etc. Read here for more about the concept.

A novel concept to be sure! I am sitting on a Visioning Task Force for OSU Libraries and my sub-committee is Collaboration. One of our members had read this and thought it interesting. Our committee as a whole thought it gave an unusual twist to providing information and reference service. Imagine being able to go to a university library and checking out a professor, a researcher, a scientists, an athlete or a scholar to talk with, as well as any of the ones mentioned above and lots of others not mentioned. What a way to provide a diversity experience in a unique way and information in a meaningful way!!

So, what book would YOU be???? I think I might be the harried mom or maybe the collaborator ......

READ posters abound

I've been mulling over trying to see how my small staff might be able to create some local READ posters for our campus for some time now. The CDs have been gathering dust in my desk for too long! Personally, I think they are neat and have great outreach appeal, especially for small schools. I can see three distinct ways to use them: on campus among the students and faculty, using students (scholars and/or athletes) to give back by creating one of them and allowing them to give them to their home schools and finally, out in the community, featuring local celebrities or government officials with their favorite reads. Many libraries have already been doing such things.

Wow! What a great way to involve a whole community in the simple act of reading!

I just received in the mail today two READ posters from the State Library of Ohio. The featured persons are none other than our Governor, Ted Strickland, and his wife, Frances. How nifty and how generous that they sent a set to all libraries in Ohio! Check out the posters.

We are considering experimenting in developing one as part of our Constitution Day activities. Might be interesting. If only I knew Adobe Photoshop ........

Copyright Wars

I just read about the lawsuit filed by four publishers against Georgia State University regarding violation of copyright with electronic materials. It appears to becoming more prominent in regards to universities, libraries and electronic access. Ohio State University Libraries has been taking great pains to follow appropriate steps to ensure only authorized access to any materials placed on reserve. The materials are now placed within our course management system and is clearly labelled as to when the access will end. Copyright permissions are sought before material is placed on reserve. I find that faculty and other administrators still may not understand the ramifications of placing links of course syllabi or just posting them and thus creating a potential problem. I am trying to educate my faculty as to why it is important that the library place materials on reserve for them or that they be sure to get copyright permission for anything they may copy or put on reserve in general. See a copy of the complaint and a press release of support at the Association of American University Presses website. See story in upper left corner of page and links to press release and complaint filed. It will be interesting to see how the lawsuit progresses.

Happy Anniversary, OhioLINK!

I received the latest copy of OhioLINK's Snapshot, their annual report. In it, there are many interesting items about what OhioLINK has accomplished in the last 15 years. It has provided and continues to provide:

• an affordable approach to expanded information access
• quality teaching and learning research resources
• assisting students and faculty in finding and accessing scholarly information 24/7
• enabling world-class research with rich information resources
• helping scholarly communities share and discover research materials
• increasing information access with anytime, anywhere delivery
• anytime, anywhere access
• KEEPING IT AFFORDABLE for libraries and insitutions in the State of Ohio

The future plans have all the member libraries looking at ways to reinvent OhioLINK, to provide for a fresh new vision for the coming years, especially in light of Gov. Strickland's University System of Ohio and his 10-year Higher Education strategic plan.

Ohio should be proud of OhioLINK and what it has given to Ohio colleges and universities over the last 15 years. Changes and evolution was certainly a given as new resources, new technologies and new services were developed. I know Ohio librarians are proud to say that they are a part of the OhioLINK consortium and when it is mentioned, respect from other librarians is evident. OhioLINK is a model of collaboration and cooperation among library systems and even within our State government and Board of Regents

I know that our students and faculty receive a much higher caliber of resources and access than was possible when I was an undergraduate in 80's. I only wish OhioLINK had been around then. I would have had fun searching the on-line catalog, much like I did the stacks.

I wish you OhioLINK, a very Happy 15th Anniversary and I look forward to the next 15 years, to see what we can develop and implement together!

What's In?

I was reading the latest issue of University Business over the weekend and in the editor's column was a discussion of what's in in technology and what's out. Included in a chart of technology trends was that Library Stacks were out and "collaboratories, e-Journals, Wikipedia and Google" were now in. At least he didn't include librarians as being out! The term "collaboratories" was an interesting one; I had not heard it before. But, as libraries continue to develop and evolve with more electronic functions, I can see where that term would be appropriate. Many libraries are now cooperatively offering joint facilities with IT folks, where students have access to multimedia production hardware and software to work on course assignments. The assignments themselves are becoming more complex in nature, requiring increased knowledge of computers and various kinds of software. I think that in that respect, the library is a great place to think of going.

But including Wikipedia and Google (internet sources) and not library resources is disturbing to me as a director. It is a shame that "library stacks" are what the library is considered to be about and not the many other excellent (and credible!) resources that we do offer. And while Wikipedia and Google are there (whether librarians like it or not), they still must be treated with care and crictial evaluation. It's too bad that critical thinking and information literacy are not considered an "in" trend.

That librarian stereotype

A hot article topic remains the changing face of librarianship; how many new, and not so new, librarians continue to break the molds we were forced into many years ago. At home over Labor Day weekend, I chanced upon an article in the Valley News Dispatch Sunday Living edition featuring three librarians in the Pittsburgh area who are doing their part to change how people view the profession.

Not So Prim and Proper introduces Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh librarians Sara Beasley and Tim Williams, both employed at the main branch in Oakland, and Charlene Hoffer, a librarian at the Vandergrift Public Library. An excerpt from the article, and something to remember because new does not always mean better:

"But while librarians might now skydive, ride motorcycles, play hockey or perform in noise-metal bands, they still have respect for those quiet, stern women who for so long made libraries a refuge of information and knowledge."

"So much credit has to be given to the librarians who came before us," Williams says. "They laid the foundation for the impressive collections we have here -- the resources, the indexes, the organization of it. Every day, I feel humbled by it." (Not So Prim and Proper, Regis Behe, VND, 9/2/07)

Kudos to the "not so prim and proper" librarians featured in this article (though I do wish they would have taken the photo in the Vandergrift library nearer some of their new titles)! It is always a joy to see local papers feature and appreciate libraries and librarians.

Tags: Not So Prim and Proper, Libraries, Librarians, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Vandergrift Public Library

Rain, Rain, Go Away

The amount of rain that Ohio has experienced this past week served to remind me that while I was craving some relief from the drought in the past, I am now more than ready for the rain to go away. The flooding has wreaked havoc on many of my surrounding communities, and many school beginnings have been delayed. I have a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows in my office and I got to witness the fury of Mother Nature in full view. What an awsome sight! My library was fortunate to only get two or three leaks. It is a regular duty to patrol the library in search of leaks when it rains heavily. We have had several serious ones in the past. We have some persistent places that just won't go away. So the local roofing company knows the library very well. Storms like the ones we have experienced in the last two weeks reinforce the critical importance of a library having a disaster response plan in place. Whether you have a faulty lighting system or a serious flooding problem, administrators need to work closely with their maintenance and public safety departments to ensure that patrons as well as the collections are protected as much as possible. Yesterday, someone asked me the elevation of the library above the flood plain of the creek that runs near us. I admit, I never considered the creek ever flooding enough to reach the library, but after that last storm, I think I'll go have a talk with the Maintenance Department, just to be sure.

Internet Archives: The Open Library

LibraryThing's Thingology Blog has an interesting post this morning about Open Library, an Internet Archives project.

"Imagine a library that collected all the world's information about all the world's books and made it available for everyone to view and update. We're building that library." (The Open Library, 7/17/07)

Intrigued, I selected King Lear and found 28 different entries. After refining my search to eng (chosen because there were 26 results for "eng" and only 2 for "English") I was able to peruse the "catalog" results and find more than one full text copy of the play. While it took some time to locate a title actually containing the play, I browsed: The plays of William Shakespeare in ten volumes, with corrections and illustrations of various commentators by Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Johnson, Samuel, 1649-1703 Steevens, George, 1736-1800 Reed, Isaac, 1742-1807. Published in London, 1778, this particular volume (IX) was contributed by University of California Libraries and included the plays Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline, and King Lear.

The graphics interface is visually appealing with full text selections dispayed as an open book. Users are able to manipulate the book using arrows, paging via your mouse, or investigate specific topics using the search box provided. Beginning on page 347, King Lear was the third of three plays in the volume so I tried, unsucessfully, to use the search box (it never returned any results). Instead of advancing through three hundred pages, I clicked my mouse toward the last third of the book, clicking the mouse over various pages to fast-forward, this method also displayed a "leaf" number, but the count was not the acutal page number. The display provides opportunity for magnifying the book and/or listening to an audio version; unfortunately while the links worked neither perk is yet available hence the "early technology preview" notice on Open Library's main page.

I have a few reservations concerning the Wikipedia-like atmosphere, but was overall impressed with the scope of the project. For those of us worried about copyright, from the About Us section:

"We hooked it up to the Internet Archive's book scanning project, so that you can read the full text of all the out-of-copyright books they've made available. And we hope to add a print-on-demand feature, so that you can get nice paper copies of these scanned books, as well as a scan-on-demand feature, so you can fund the scanning of that out-of-copyright book you've always loved." (About Us, 7/17/07)

There is no comparison to holding a book in my hand, but it was definitely interesting to look at a 229 year old copy of Shakespeare. I've bookmarked the site on my browser and will check back again.

Update: 7/18/07
More information about this project may be found at ACRLog: Open Library Opens


Tags: The Open Library, Internet Archive Project, Thingology Blog

Google, OCLC, and the Future of Cataloging

It's been a few months since I wrote, the reason being that I haven't seen anything really exciting that I wanted to write about that hadn't already been around the block a few times in the library blogosphere. But today I read a couple of blog posts and an email that all seem to relate in my mind so I just had to comment.

First, the email: Today the CIC (Committee on Institutional Cooperation) announced that they are joining the Google Books scanning project. This is huge news considering the size of these 12 libraries. Granted, that 2 of the member libraries (University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin-Madison) were already members. But the addition of these 10 additional libraries with their huge collections boosts the library partners on this project from 15 to 25 and will exponentially increase the number of books scanned. This makes Ohio State as the first Ohio university to take part in this and I'll be very interested to hear their views as the project proceeds.

I'm all for the increased accessibility of information and if Google is leading the charge, more power to them. But it got me thinking as to where OCLC is in all of this. We already know that their mission statements are a tad overlapping (Google's & OCLC's) although Google makes no specific mention of libraries. I think OCLC is finally understanding that Google is not only quickly becoming competition, they are in fact way ahead in the game. OCLC seems to be considering moves toward more openness and coming out of its proprietary shell. Paul Miller over at Panlibus highlights some of OCLC's more recent podcast discussions of not only future possibilities but also how that may effect their current business model. My hope is that OCLC is sincere about being more open to third parties and getting the information out there. I think that this openness would spur desperately needed innovation in library technologies. While Open WorldCat is move in the right direction, it isn't even a baby step in comparison to where libraries should be on the Web at this point.

This leads me to the other blog post (that I was pointed to by Nicole at What I Learned Today) at Cataloging Futures. The discussion began by talking about how to upgrade catalogers' skill sets and the question was raised as to whether or not catalogers need to have programming skills. I read this post (and comments) just after the aforementioned email and Panlibus post and I have to tell you, my immediate instinct was an emphatic yes. MARC was wonderful and necessary when it was created. But its time has passed and as a standard it isolates the rich information libraries have in their catalogs from the rest of the world who use XML, SQL, etc. After more reflection, I don't think that all catalogers need to be programmers, but many more of them need to develop an understanding at very least. We need more people programming in and for our profession before we render ourselves irrelevant in the information industry.

Before, I really anger too many catalogers, I have to say I don't see catalogers as irrelevant or disappearing anytime soon; even without programming skills. Catalogers have (in my view) 2 distinct areas in their work: classifying/organizing information and coding that into MARC format when necessary. The first part is the most valuable part of their job and something that will continue to be crucially valuable to all information (not just in libraries). The second area however needs to be simplified, streamlined, and made relevant for todays world. My hope is that it will be a librarian who can bridge this gap to make the transition not only possible but preferably seamless to patrons.

Why lump all three of these topics together? Well, because it all seems to be vicious circle. A lot of librarians see the disconnect that libraries are having with patrons who are seeking information in a much more immediate fashion and are at a loss of how to address this disconnect. They look to their vendors and OCLC to give them products that will solve these problems. Most of the vendors and OCLC realize that things need to change and so they study and discuss the problems and test potential products in committees and focus groups over months and years. Meanwhile, Google is actually delivering more and more information and services to our patrons which in turn makes them less satisfied and more frustrated with the services and perceived value we provide. This cannot continue and at some point libraries and our services will either catch up or fall irrevocably behind.

Tags: OCLC, Google, cataloging, libraries