Here's the deal

I have a case study due on Friday and I'm having a hard time getting focused for it. I know it'll be a cinch once I get the juices going, but I just don't care enough about this class to do it. Let's be realistic about the Academic library people. It seems like a lot more work than it's worth. At least the GIGANTIC university library. I don't want to be a "publish or perish" professor. I want to help people find stuff. I want to be the hip reference desk guy at the liberal arts college. Truthfully, I'd love to be the guy who teaches research methods to undergrads. That would be awesome and I'd get to teach.

In other library news, I finished my reference class. That was nice. It was a good class because I got a lot of great interaction with librarians in the field. I especially loved Julie Pinnell, reference librarian for the Nebraska Library Commission. I want her job. She just gets to answer reference questions all day from all over the State. and some of the examples are really really funny.

Next semester I'm taking Public Library, Social Constructs of Information and Collections Management. It'll be a good semester. Hopefully better than the last one.

Student Spotlight

I was chosen to be one of the students featured in the student spotlight for the NEMO library program. Here's what I said:

What is your education/library/professional background?
I am a graduate of Midland Lutheran college in Fremont, NE with a bachelors in English. I currently work part time at Midland Lutheran college's Luther library as a rereference librarian, part time at Keene Memorial Library in Fremont, NE as a children's librarian and grant coordinator, part time as a preschool aide for Trinity Early Childcare Center in Fremont, and as a movie clerk for Family Video.

What is on your reading list? What are your favorites/your recommended/your want to read lists?
Right now I'm getting ready to read Born Digital: The First Generation of Digital Natives by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser. It's a study into the generation of students who were brought up with technology wired into the everyday life. I'm also reading Blackest Night comic book run from DC and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 from Dark Horse.These are the first two series of comic book that have gotten me to buy the new issue every month. I recommend them both.

What professional journal or article have you read and would recommend? Why?
I have been reading School Library Journal an awful lot lately, especially their article "When Harry [Potter] Met Bella [Swan]," talking about the legality of fanfiction and if it is plagiarism or not. Another article that I've read recently deals with self censorship in the library. It was a fascinating look at how librarians will censor their own collection because they do not want to invest the time into fighting a challenge later. I like them because both articles tackle issues that librarians are dealing with all the time. How does a librarian support his student patrons who want to become writers without breaking copyright? Stuff like that would never cross my mind until after the movie studio and J.K. Rowling's lawyers and Stephanie Meyer's lawyers all rolled into the library to put me through the ringer.

What do you do in your “down time”? Your hobbies/recreation, how do you relax?
I'm what I like to call a rainy day knitter. I have a hat and a scarf started on needles at my house, but I only do about twenty minutes of work on it at a time. My hobby coming up in January will be the final season of LOST. You cannot even fathom how excited I am for that to come out. I'm also a fan of well written TV shows, cooking with cheap ingredients, and not cleaing my dishes.

What deep dark secret would you like to share?
I'm a librarian who blogs. I'm blogging about my library school experience. And another blog is about my day to day life stuff. and another blog with a friend of mine about our Midwestern perspectives on pop culture. I'm also terribly addicted to Entertainment Weekly. They are so smart. They are the reason I want a Masters in Popular Culture once I'm done with my MLS.

Name one of your personal or professional qualities that make you, or will make you, a leader in 21st century library and information centers.

Personal Quality: I'm super cheerful most of the time. If you saw me at NLA, you'd know me as the guy playing the "try and greet everyone" game. Howdy was my greeting of choice. And I can organize a fantastic potluck party when needed
Professional Quality: I have a passion for collection development. I came from a library that was diligent about having materials for everyone and ensuring that the newest, best materials were available to patrons. I make it my goal to whip collections into shape whenever I can.

What advice do you have for current Graduate Students?

When you're sitting in class, it's easy to just focus in on what you're learning and then go home. Don't do that. Stay after class. Talk to your professors. Talk to the students sitting next to you. Make a study group or a book club or a "hey you've got homework due Friday" buddy. Librarians in the 21st century need to make more connections, not less. Start now, when you're all still learning the ins and outs of the profession. Friendships in Library school can make lasting partnerships in the real world that can benefit you as a professional and your community of patrons.

What do you see as key future trends and challenges in LIS?

I think the challenge right now for the field is coming up with ways of providing the same service as usual while administrations, city budgets and state funding are pulling your funding first and fastest in order to balance a budget. Libraries are trending toward a more open access approach to information as a means to curb this decline in funds. More libraries have a Facebook or Twitter presence and some libraries are leading the charge for digitization. It's a pretty great time to be in the library field. We're the ones playing with new technology and making it work for our profession. You kinda can't wait to see what someones going to come up with next.

What do you think will be your legacy in this profession?

I really want to be the librarian that people remember as being helpful and informed. I would love to say I plan to be the head librarian at some land grant institution or a City Library director with 15 branches serving a million people, but I'm content for now to be the guy that can find you the book or the article you're looking for and do it with a smile and a whistle in my step.

Any Last Words?
Get a Google account. Seriously. You'll need it more times than you think during the program. and it's awesome to have otherwise. Google Reader for RSSing all the library blogs. It's pretty much the coolest thing they do.

Blogging for class - a review -

For reference class, we have been using Blogger to facilitate a conversation about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class ordering systems. What we come to realize as we finish the required reading that goes along with this assignment, is that everything can really go everywhere when looking through the lens of a digitized ordering system. Unlike 1st class ordering systems, digital information can be organized however you want.

But that's beside the point. What we're doing for class is discussing all of this on a blog. In the past, I have not been too keen on blogging for real life because the only other time I blog is when I bitch about people and life. However, this blogging has been real eye opening. What I think I like most about it is the blog is that it's quite like the message board through blackboard, but with the added benefit of adding flair and pizazz to your thoughts. If I find a photo that best represents my idea, I can post that. You can add off topic threads and not feel guilty. You can link to your own blog just by posting a response. Really great things. The best part is that Blogger allows you to invite real live people who might not have blackboard credentials to join your conversation. If you're blogging about YA fiction, perhaps you'll invite some best selling authors to comment if they see something interesting. they might not post a word, but the fact that it can be opened to anyone is a great way to lead discussion and focus into real world applications.

So I say HUZZAH! to you BLOGGER!

NLA/NEMA conference revisited

After an exhausting two days at the NLA/NEMA conference, I can truthfully say that there are many many many more librarians than I ever thought. And that I want all the technology that the SMART board people brought with them. Here are the highlights of my first conference experience.

1. Early breakfast with MU proffessors started at 7:30 AM! I didn't make it there until 8 because of an accident on Dodge, but it was nice to eat those delicious cinnamon rolls, meet with Dr. Budd and Dr. Adkins, and see Micki and Dr. Pasco so very early in the morning.

2. Micki's Murder Van: There's a funny story about that van, I just can't find it anywhere. Dangerous piece of vehicle that thing is.

3. Ben Hotness...I mean, Ben Softness: Google search man and genius taught some great lessons about searching google. Best tip of the day would have to be the "control" + "tab" to cycle through open tabs on Firefox or Safari or IE.

4. YART roundtable: A small but mighty group of us came together to talk shop and get ready for our spring meeting in Blair. Information to come for those interested. Also check out the YART blog @ nlayart.blogspot.com

5. Gaming with Librarians: Apples to apples with children's librarians is dangerously funny. Watching adults play guitar hero was amusing too. No comment on DDR though. ugh!

6. Gaming presentation: Let me just summarize the entire thing with Gordon's awesome quote. "Contrary to popular belief, gaming does not make you a douche."

7. Embassy Suite's Coffee bar: Fucking amazing. I can't even begin to describe it.

8. Final sessions: I went to a speaker who talked about the suppression of student voices, one about screen capture videos, and the keynote speaker giving an hour long book talk about his dad's awesome life.

9. Tweeting @ NLA: I always thought that Twitter was much too much of an overshare, but I discovered the usability of this technology at NLA. It's helpful to see what other's thought of a session you might be in or something important you missed that you should check out later.

Over all, it was a great experience, and I met a whole bunch of librarians that I will now need to contact so that I begin schmoozing them for jobs or scholarships or recommendations.

Riddle me this Dilemma

What do I take?

Digital Library or Public Library?

This is a lesson in time management

I hate when friends ask me on Facebook if I have the assignment done and you respond with "what assignment?" I really need to get myself a day planner. I didn't know that today was the 22nd until halfway through the day.

God. I can't wait for December. I get a break in December. I'll be broke, but I won't have to work three of my jobs for two weeks. Free vacation.

I miss you Zebra CAKE!

The snack box in the public library break room now stocks Zebra Cakes and Nutty Bars and Star Crunches. I haven't eaten those since 8th grade....maybe 9th. God love nostalgia! and food that's mostly plastic.

Kindle Won't Kill Libraries - The Daily Beast

Don’t throw out that library card just yet. The age-old institutions are holding onto familiar users and gaining new ones by expanding digital collections, seizing readers' newfound appreciation for electronic readers. More than 5,000 public libraries acr

Posted using ShareThis

The explicit books teens read (and the ones we read when we were their�age)

The explicit books teens read (and the ones we read when we were their age)

Shared via AddThis

I read this today, and I though about how I'm going to be the one with the purchasing power one of these days. I also recently read an article from School Library Journal about self censorship among librarians. That is, librarians who don't order materials on the basis that they do not want to have to fight it later if a parent complains. I understood why some librarians would not want to go through the work of defending their book choices (with principals being so wishy-washy these days) but I remember being able to access all sorts of material when I was WAY too young to be reading it. The most memorable at the moment is from Steven Gould's novel Jumper about a teenage boy. David, who can teleport. He and his girlfriend Millie hook up for the first time, and after the first bout of sex, she asks him "where did you learn that" and he responds "I told you, I read a lot."

Brilliant. Like Han Solo's "I know" to Princess Leia.

I was reading this in 6th grade. I barely knew what sex was (until the hidden porn stash was discovered in the basement).

I won't say I was too young to be reading it. That would cheapen what the book meant to me and how it helped me grow as a human being and an adolescent (did I mention the opening scene is David on the road about to get raped by a trucker.)

So really, if you think something isn't appropriate for a reader, tough shit, because if they can read it and understand it, then they are going to be able to find it on the internet. At least if it's a book, you know they aren't going to stumble into some site with a ladies tig ol bitties hanging out of her dress.

Academic library Exam II

Background: We were given a prompt wherein we were supposed to make decisions about how an imaginary library worked. We could base it off of one already in existence if we wanted to. I chose to base my on Midlands library because that is the one with which I had had more experience.

For starters, I will first describe the library for the what-if question. It is the campus library for a small (about 1000 students) liberal arts college. The library is open 80 hours a week with reference services available 70 hours a week. The main focus of the library’s mission is to serve the campus community, with a secondary mission to help serve the community where the college resides. The library collection contains about 300,000 monographs and is current in over 60 periodicals. The library also subscribes to several online databases and has access to several thousand journals. The library has an annual budget (excluding salaries) of about $700,000. The library is staffed with a director, a reference librarian (both faculty members), a serials librarian, a collections librarian, a part time archivist, and part time reference librarian. Twenty federal work-study students also staff the library. The libraries mission statement is
The library exists to serve the needs of the total College mission. Specifically, the library supports the broadest goals of the College as a liberal arts institution in both resources and services. The library, moreover, assists in the College's mission of providing a nurturing environment for spiritual, intellectual, and personal growth.
What is difficult about the “accountability” of this library is that it already operates on a pretty responsible budget. The college saw decreasing enrollment well before the economy took a dive, so money is fairly tight campus wide. The first order of business if I were the library director would be to begin a cross-training bonanza. All salaried librarians would effectively know how to do most of the duties in the library. Reference would know how to run serials and collections would know some of the duties the director supervises over (mostly cataloging). The other step I would take to streamline the work output would be to begin “promoting” experienced work-study students to different positions within the library. Currently, most students man the circulation desk and shelve books when needed. I would take the more experienced students and begin training them in reference, archiving, basic cataloging, and processing. Another area of training would be to teach the faculty how to access and teach the relevant databases for their field of study. All business professors would know how to search relevant business journals through the online databases AND be able to teach that (with help from the library) to students in the classroom. These steps would help to always keep the library gears turning; even if/when positions or hours need to be cut. This would also fulfill the criteria of increasing library productivity. Since we are involving more people we already pay to alleviate some of the everyday workload, the library runs more efficiently.
This leads to the first cost-cutting move. I would remove the part time reference position, which is paid through the library budget, and replace it with the work-study students, who are paid through federal monies. Yes, someone loses a job, but as far as the structure of the library, little is upset. This frees up twenty paid hours a week that can be cut from the library expenditures. The only troubling thing about cutting positions is that they rarely come back. Traditionally, the part time reference desk position was filled with a local library school student who could work with students on reference questions and still be able to complete homework in the downtime. If the position goes away, it will probably never come back to the library which removes a paraprofessional from the library staff AND takes away easy paid study time for a library student. That being said, it’s still the most financially non-valuable position.
Another move, besides cutting staff, would be to begin charging for some services for community users. Currently, the library offers basic community membership for anyone with a valid drivers license. We do this as a community service and charge nothing. Community patrons are not allowed to check out certain materials, but are allowed access to the internet. One way we could increase library revenue would be to begin charging community patrons for those basic services. The cost would not be anything steep, but it would contribute to the overall revenue of the library. Perhaps a $15 charge for 12 months of access or maybe even break it up for those community patrons who only use the internet and those who want to access the stacks. This step brings in money for services we already render, and if we lose patrons, we aren’t losing any money because they weren’t paying for it in the first place.
These are just a few ways the library can make small steps to increase the productivity of the library and decrease some spending and streamlining the budget overall. These changes would also continue to allow the library to fulfill its stated mission of providing “resources and services” to the college community. These changes improve the visibility of the campus library through the staff and faculty training, increase the number of service employees at the library through the “promoted” work-study students, and increase revenue cutting hours or positions and through charging for community access. These steps also clearly clear all of the hurdles Cohen and March describe as well. 1. The library as a strict set of goals as seen in the mission statement and the library can continue to adhere to it despite the cuts to budget. The library understands its processes. 2. The library understands its processes. The library has been a sustainable, functioning resource on the campus for decades. Change has been gradual, but it has been clear change done with intent and not the kind called “trial-and-error.” 3. The library has a clear purpose. The mission sets the parameters and then operates on objectives based on that mission. The library even defines the ways in which it reaches the objectives. The objectives are also clearly measurable. If the president wanted to see our accomplishments toward the objectives, the library could conclusively prove success. 4. The library has a clear leader. There is no ambiguity about who is in charge of the library. Even with the cross training, the vision and the direction of the library will still be up to the library director. 5. The library judges success based upon the mission and the objectives. Since the library does not create profit for the college and cannot be sustainable if it allowed “promotion based opportunity” it can only be deemed successful if it fulfills the stated objectives tied to the mission. The library fulfills the goals, and therefore is successful.
To conclude, I believe it must be noted that a library cannot continue to function as the first line in the budget cut. The success of the institution often times falls heavy onto the libraries shoulders, especially in larger, research-based institutions. Even for the small liberal arts college, the library serves as the access point for student learning and faculty success. Without the library, the learning community of the college suffers because it loses access to information. With that being said, I also think that there are ways for a small college library to innovate in order to shift with the market and become a more sustainable line item on the college budget. As long as the library can clearly meet and exceed the goals set down in the mission statement, then it can continue to go with business as usual. However, at the moment that service and access begin to suffer as a result of belt tightening, the library will have to either find a way to encourage the college president to continue to support the library or begin to look for other means of sustaining itself.

Marvel Maring interview paper

Reference Librarian Marvel Maring has been working at the UNO Criss Library for the past six years as the department liaison for Art, Theatre, English, the Humanities, and most recently, Communication programs. Let’s stop to process that before we even continue: Ms. Maring has as many seven departments that she interacts with on a weekly basis. Coming from a small liberal arts college, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, but after seeing just how much traffic comes through the Criss library in one day has made me a believer that Ms. Maring works miracles over and over and over again. I can see, however, that you are not going to take me at my word; and that’s fine by me. Allow me to share with you unequivocal proof that Ms. Marvel Maring is a reference librarian superhero.
To begin, a little background on our super librarian. Marvel Maring is a second career librarian. She originally received an MFA in Chicago and was teaching at Kansas State. She left KU to get masters in book arts from the University of Alabama. Coincidentally, the library science program runs the book art program at Alabama. Maring because a graduate assistant for a library science professor and began working some hours in the library, as well as sharing some classes with MLS students. Maring only had to take an extra semester of classes in order to graduate with a double masters in book art and library science. Of the career path, she had to say, “I didn’t have a guidance counselor telling me I had these skills and I’d like this. I just fell in love with it.”
During the hour-long interview, Ms. Maring was able to explain what she does at the Criss library and some of the challenges and joys of working at the library. One of her main roles at the library is to be a liaison to the English, Humanities, Art, Theatre and Communications departments. This job keeps her pretty busy. She does about 40 BI sessions a semester and usually about 7 face-to-face reference encounters a week. She explained that one of the perks about working with the English department is that there is an inherent relationship with the library early on. Librarian Melissa Caste-Brede helped create a collaboration piece with the freshman composition classes 7 years ago. That has lead to a buy-in by the English department to bring students to the library and to bring librarians to the classrooms. Ms. Maring says one of her favorite activities as a reference librarian is going into the classroom as students are just beginning the topic process for papers or projects. She says that she might not do any direct teaching, but she enjoys the time because it gives her a chance to connect with the students as well as get some baseline ideas for what types of resources the students are going to need.
Since the University of Nebraska-Omaha is a state institution, is has quite a lot of materials. More than this reporter could ever hope to maintain. Ms. Maring’s favorite electronic choice for her students and faculty was a three-way tie of sorts. Her first choice for electronic resources is the MLA International bibliography. It’s the core bibliography reference work for the humanities, her area of expertise. Her close second was a tie between Jstor and Project Muse because of their accessibility and the full text and user-friendly formats. For her communication students (a whole different animal than Art and Humanities students), Ms. Maring had three databases that she especially liked: Linguistics database, Sage full text, and Artstor. She mentions that Artstor is “a visual juggernaut” and “a really powerful and neat database” because it contains material gathered from the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Ms. Maring’s favorite print resource is the contemporary authors cumulative index. Even though some of the information is digitized in Gale, she thinks the print “is much more accessible and user friendly. Once the students get to see what’s available, they get over the hurdle of working in print.”
Maring showed a deft knowledge of both print and electronic resources, but one of her challenges within the library is dealing with the professors and their hunger for format. She said, “The English department can get a little grumpy about the print versus the digital resource.” She went on the explain that as a bookmaker, she understands the need for the tactile book as object, but that even some of the more persnickety English professors love electronic databases like Jstor with its full text articles and super simple interface. Another challenge she has in the library is the ethical considerations she has toward the community users. As a public institution, the Criss library also serves basic library needs for the public, but Maring noted that she has to remember to prioritize the level of service with regard to the mission of the students and the community patrons. One instance she described was a community user taking an online course and it was his first experience with a computer. He did not know how to log on or open an internet browser or many of the other basic skills needed for an online course. Service is one thing, but holding hands and walking them through the entire process is time consuming, especially when the patron is not a university student or faculty member.
As per the assignment parameters, I found a website with information pertinent to the reference interview. What I found to be most helpful were the notes concerning the reference interview. It gives a breakdown of the steps you need for a reference interview. They are approachability, Responsiveness, Listening/inquiring, finding, and follow-up (http://web.utk.edu/~wrobinso/531_lec_interview.html). Maring had given us a rundown of her steps of a reference interview, and they matched up pretty well, but she ended her list saying, “Reference librarians enjoy the search. We have to remind ourselves that the patron just wants the answer. They might not be as thrilled with the process as we are. Sometimes we might just have to get their email address and start sending them stuff.” What she said made sense. We had been discussing some of her most favorite reference questions, like the changes in country music since 9/11 and comparing religious broadcasters today with those from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. She explained how all of the information was fascinating and complex and how she loved going down different avenues of discovery, but then would have to stop and remember that somebody was waiting for her to send them something with substance. The part of the reference service I love is looking for diverse sets of information on a daily basis. I think I too would have to remind myself that I couldn’t be caught up in the search, but instead have to keep the patron in mind.
We closed our discussion with how she deals with changes in the library. She told us that the biggest concern is that libraries are increasingly trying to do more with less money. Her liaison with the communications department is one such move. It was someone else’s responsibility, but when that position was vacated, the responsibilities were split up among the other librarians. While it turned out to be a great match for Maring, others might not have been so lucky.
So to conclude this summary of our conversation, I will again state for the record that Marvel Maring is a reference librarian superhero. She comes to the aid of faculty and students, she serves the community, she finds what cant’ be found and mines the databases for long lost information. She is the Professor Xavier/Reed Richards/Tony Stark of reference, and with a name like Marvel, you can’t really go wrong.

Today in Library school we were rocking reference. Something I learned today was that all subject areas, all topics rely on similar structure for the organizing for organizing data. If you can take a reference question and decide where the information lies, be it a dictionary, almanac, statistical reference, etc. Even if the information is online, the framework is inherently built into the system and you can basically find anything you need. What is interesting about this is how I can now narrow down a search online by thinking in terms of print resources. Strange but cool.

FAILBLOG!

I have to remember to get more stuff put up here.

Recap: I"m taking Reference and the Academic Library. I'm so far loving both classes, and even using some of the stuff from those classes in real library settings. Reference especially has been an awesome adventure. I recently interviewed a reference librarian (what I want to be) who was the library liaison to the Humanities, English, Art, Music, Communications, and Theatre. I wanted to kill her and take her job on the spot. Anyway, she was explaining that most librarians who work in the academic field pursue a second masters degree or a PhD in order to comply with tenure requirements and all that jazz.

That brings me to Academic Library. We were discussing tenure on Saturday (which scares me a little, to be honest) and we touched on the fact that tenure is a go or no go kind of thing. If you aren't going for tenure, you're not going to be at the university past that. I don't understand that because one attains tenure after only 7 years. That's not a very long time. Wouldn't you want your faculty to be on staff for a longer amount of time before you were guaranteeing them their positions on campus. I don't know.

Class was a real manic day yesterday too. We had a lot of conversations about lots of things. I was a little irritated. Thankfully, the next class is on Halloween so there will at least me treats....and costumes.

And finally, without further ado, the library makes it way to Glee.

The New Age of the Book - The New York Review of Books

The New Age of the Book - The New York Review of Books

Shared via AddThis

"You are doing a great job I wanted you to know I do appreciate all of your efforts!"

My boss thinks i'm doing great! Go me.

I have been doing a lot of work at the library. It's been pretty fulfilling. I am getting great at the planning stages of work and I'm doing some great implementation of my plans. I've also been weeding books from the collection. That's been fun. Super super fun. I think that a collection will only circulate when the collection is manageable. Right now, the collection is far, far, far from manageable. I use far a lot because it is a bear. A huge, stalking

Today my boss handed me the library bill or rights, recently adopted by the ALA. One of my favorite on the list says "Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval." It's just a beautiful document. I recommend it.

There's a chance that the library here in Fremont will be closing for up to a month this winter to replace the heating and cooling. I don't know what that means to you, but to me is says two things:
One- there will be a lot of people who will be without something to do for most of their morning. There are a lot of people who need (and I say this truthfully) NEED the computers every day. Like the awkward habit kind. I can only imagine what they will do without their ability to email their family.
Two- I will have a whole lot of nothing to do for those three weeks. I'm excited. I might be doing some party stuff, but more than likely i'll just take to sleeping most days.

These are the two different ways you can search for information. Kingdom encompasses things like BIRDS or MAMMALS.

Meanwhile, searching for genus and species is like searching for homo sapien.

Here endeth the lesson

Yesterday I went to a library instruction class. It was an amazing hour. I am super jealous of the Bellevue students because after they graduate they get lifetime library privileges. NOT FAIR!

Anyway, I learned that you need to make the learning process fun for them you're a fish out of water.

I have to finish my tutorial and my topic bibliography for my two summer classes. It should be a piece of cake. I'm not too worried about it. If need be, I can do it during Shakespeare. That's 8 hours of my life I never get back.

Only one more week and life will slow down a bit.

http://screencast.com/t/ZTOxo31Hok

This is a link to something I have started playing with for my Library services tutorial. It's pretty lame at the moment, but I hope to turn it into a powerhouse awesome video. And the possibilities are kinda endless. That's just me thinking though.

Grrr Rubrics

I've created a rubric for my presentation. I have a presentation topic. It's not my best, but I think I'll be able to make a good tutorial project out of it. I hate assessment. I always have. It just doesn't sit well with me. Color me hippie, but there are better ways to see if a person is succeeding. I know that a rubric is much more open that a test might be, but I'd rather just not do it at all. Sink or swim?

A few things:

If i cannot put 16th century science questions on the ACT, then why on earth should I be expected to know 16th century literature. God bless Shakespeare, but I think that there is some awesome literature being written today that would make excellent test questions for standardized tests. Just saying.

You all need to read 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. A-MAZING book. Not even joking. It's a beautiful novel that you don't even expect until you're suddenly 100 pages into the book and you can't put it down. Simply Wonderful.

In my library job, I have a lot of duties. Some of them are trivial and some of them are fantastic. I'm finding that this latest series of duties to be really, really fun.

To wit: I am making a list of books to purchase. This is awesome, because not only do I get to spend someone else's money, I get the opportunity to put a little bit of myself into the library. I'm looking for graphic novels at the moment. I have to keep reminding myself to balance the trade paperback comic book graphic novels with the hard hitting, edgy, biographical ones. I'm not a huge fan of the boring stuff, but there some that look really good. One in particular is called Baghdad Pride. It's the story of four lions from the Baghdad zoo that escape during the bombing of the city in 2003. The lions and other creatures are sentient in this novelization, so it's interesting to see their take on the surrounding events. I only got a limited preview, but already I know that this is one of the books that I need to get my hands on.

Another graphic novel i'm thinking of getting is the Buffy collection. I know you'll say that I'm jsut getting them for myself, which is not true since I already own them all, but I think that if we had them, we could get more YA girls into the stacks. Chicks these days are not the Babysitters club readers they used to be. They're into Halo now, and all of those other shoot em up games that the boys are into. It's quite interesting. I'm trying to find a line between girly and guns without being cliche. I just know that some girls don't want princess books anymore.

I'm still awake and I'm less than two hours away from finishing class. Right now I'm learning about standards, objectives, and goals for lesson planning. We'll be making a tutorial. Good times!

I'm still awake!
Thank goodness for diet MTN DEW

Today I'm going to attempt eight hours of class while only having slept two hours total over the course of the night. I was Event Staffing at Shakespeare overnight. But today we will be having a talk about realistic fiction. It looks to be exciting.

Summer reading is in full swing. Even I have gotten back into the reading groove. I haven't done that since I was a sophomore in college. Go me!
The only downside is that I check out books like I check out movies at the video store, a lot all at once and I never have time for any. But that's to be expected I suppose. Thankfully, all of the things at the library are free. That means more for me.

If you are a parent, take your kids to the library this summer. If you babysit, take your kids to the library this summer. If you have no kids, steal some and take them to the library this summer. Go Go GO!

New book that isn't homework

Hello!

At class on Saturday, there was a presentation over new books for YA in Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Graphic novel. One of the books is called Hero, about a up-and-coming superhero who had to deal with the fact that he's a gay. I bought the book on Monday, started reading it last night, and can not wait for naptime so that I can keep reading. It's such a good book. There is good character development so far, the voice could not be any funnier, and if I were a struggling gay teen, I would LOVE this book. It's much better than some of the stuff I've read in my time [I'm talking to you, Geography Club].

Here are the details:

Moore, Perry. Hero. Hyperion books; New York, NY. c 2007

I just finished reading a book called Feed. The book is basically about runaway marketing and technology in the new future. You could call it a run of the mill dystopian future America, but it was a little more than that. There were parts of it that made me want to yell "right on" when the characters were talking about the strange things their friends were doing. For example, in the book, people are hooked into a "feed" of constant information. Imagine Facebook, Google, Amazon, Twitter, and email/IM always available in your brain. When you sleep, advertisements come to your dreams. The people of this future have begun to grow lesions. Some say because of the feed, others for some other reason all together, but once a popular "feedcast" (TV show in your head) starts to glamorize the lesions, it isn't long before everyone else is getting them cosmetically added to their own bodies in order to be cool. Now imagine that the lesions are a new pair of shoes or a music group. The same thing happens now as it is described in the "future" but at the same time, much more out of control.

That was a terrible, long, terrible paragraph. I wish I could have put my words together a little better for you all, but it's just not how it happened. I do recommend you all take a look at the book. It's cataloged as YA so it wouldn't be too much for you to read. I got it done in a few days. You could probably do it faster.

I'm now moving on to a book called Impossible. It's about a girl who will go crazy the moment she gives birth because of a family curse. She must complete three impossible tasks in order to stay the coming curse, but will she be able to do it in time?

Youth Services

This is just a quick post because I have to go to Hein's class now.

Let me say this: I am looking forward to this class more than any other in all of the classes I've taken. I hope the discussion is as good as I see it being.

I'm one week away from the start of my new set of classes for grad school. These should be pretty fun though. One class has me reading YA books for the whole summer. I can't say I'm upset about that. I love love LOVE young adult books. they are like cotton candy. You can pick it up, start it and finish it in the course of a weekend. Light reading.

Go see the Star Trek Movie. I know that this isnt' the forum for it, but I think it needs to be stated once because it was that good.

My other class is all about library use instruction. I'm learning how to teach others to use the library. This shouldn't be too hard because I do that all the time at Midland. I'm usually showing someone how to send themselves a file on the copier or access a journal or something "complicated." But hopefully this will give me some really helpful stuff for the library job i've got locked down.

Speaking of that job. I had said in a previous post that the job was a little boring. I should probably have rethought that. I'm liking the job a lot. I was just not used to the quiet of the library . I know that sounds dumb, but the actual back room of the library is rather quiet. I adjusted. Now I have some pretty awesome responsibilities. I'm weeding books (which is so much fun, and a little sad) and I'm planning parties to fulfill the grant specifications. I also get to spend $5,000 on new books. Yeah, I'm going to have a fun time this summer. And all the way until the end of the year.

I passed! and I did it with flying colors. That means that I'm amazing!....or i'm really good at faking it! We'll see.

I also started my new library job this week. It has been an amazing [easy/awkward] first few days. I think what I'm going to be doing will really get me introduced to the work of a public librarian. So far it's been great! The public library has a lot more hoops to jump through as far as patrons go. I mean, there's a code book that narrows down addresses to the street number for whether you can get a card or not. That's pretty hard core. I mean seriously, HARDCORE!

The other thing that I'm finding interesting about the public library dynamic is the amount of collaboration and subordination that is involved. There are numerous people that I might have to go through in order to get something done. and from what I have learned, buying stuff takes an act of congress if not God himself.

There will be more about this, but truthfully I think it might be that way at all libraries. God forbid though. I might have to go into cataloging just to get away from the chain of command. Or just go straight to the top of the food chain.

I spend an aweful lot of time going to work and sleeping. That's not the only things I do, but it sure seems to take up a lot of my time recently. Thankfully, I have discovered that I have comic books from Curt that I haven't even begun to read. Blessed be the comic books for they will keep me entertained. However, I have discovered some really interesting nonfiction at which I will have to look. (it just took me two minutes to end that sentence because I was trying to unsplit the infinitive and end without an preposition. Fucking English!) There are a lot of new books coming out about the tech savvy generation and how they are all coming out with some badass stuff. I dare say I might even enjoy reading nonfiction a little.

Oh SNAP!

Best. News. EVER! I'm almost done with Cataloging. I could not be more happy. I don't think I can be a cataloger. A lot of the librarians I have talked to say the same thing I do about how a cataloger is a necessary part of the library, but not something they could do.

Coming up next for me will be Library Use Instruction and Teen Services. Thses will both probably be pretty fun. I'm totally pumped for Teen Services. I get to read all the best YA fiction and nonfiction and learn how the library can support the young adults of the community. We're bringing games into the library and letting kids use the internet for free and all the other cool things that all you kids are doing these days.

Library use instruction will be with all of my library peeps. Tim and Therese and Meg and I think maybe even Bridget.
[edit: Not Bridget.]

Thank goodness I've finished my homework. I just spent the last forty minutes mid sentence because I was on facebook.

Technical Services Interview

The Midland Lutheran College library sits at the center of the college campus. It serves a student population of over 600, a faculty and staff population of over 300, and limited community access to a city of over 25,000 people. While the library does not get as much traffic as it could, there are a consistent number of students, faculty, staff, and community members who utilize the Midland library resources daily. To facilitate this exchange of information, the library employs four full time staff members, one part time staff member, and about two dozen work study students to fill in the various tasks of cataloging, processing, reference help, page duty and circulation. Generally, the four full time staff members do a majority of the technical services work, but the technical services department of the library is not so much a “defined” position as much as it is a series of assignments divided among the staff.
My interview was with Dr. Tom Boyle, Director of the Midland library. We held our interview via email and follow up phone call. Dr. Boyle has been with the Midland Library for over 15 years, and has taken the time to give me a lot of advice with the cataloging class on top of this interview. My first question for him concerned the selection of materials for the library. Dr. Boyle directed me to the Luther Library website for the general acquisition policy for the college. There are four, hierarchical priorities:
1. Materials to support the current teaching program of the College, noting it is an undergraduate institution.
2. General reference materials in fields not currently covered by College programs but of such importance that they belong in all scholarly libraries.
3. Materials to support the research needs of the faculty and to assist administrative and service personnel in the effective performance of their duties (this may include works dealing with topics of current concern to members of the campus community).
4. Materials to support cooperative programs with other libraries or academic institutions; to maintain and develop a limited number of special collections (such as the Library of Biblical Literature); to form a basic collection in support of anticipated future programs of the college; and to acquire appropriate varieties of recreational library materials. (www.mlc.edu/library)
Dr. Boyle says he uses tools like Booklist, Library Journal and Choice. The library’s book supplier (Baker and Taylor) also has lists of recommended books for college libraries. For the most part, Dr. Boyle is in charge of the selection of materials, but in some instances, individual departments (Nursing and Education) select books to be added to the collection. Each department of the college has a book budget at the beginning of each academic year in which to add books to the collection. In addition to books, print journals are purchased with input of the various departments. The electronic resources are all mostly packaged with indexes (Academic Premier, ERIC, CINALH) and in most instances; the library will drop the print subscription if an electronic version becomes available.
Once the materials come into the library, an order card is created and the process begins. The order card is like a checklist of everything one would need to know about the book. It indicates the title, source, cost, date, PO #, etc. and is placed in the item. Preliminary processing involves stamping the book, placing the security strip and the barcode. Any one of the full time staff members and on occasion some of the work-study students who have been trained in the process do this. On the occasion of the library making a large purchase of books, a purchase order is needed from the business office. However, the standard method of payment is directly from the library budget.
After the preliminary processing is done, Dr. Boyle will catalog the item. Our library uses the OCLC Connexion service, so the cataloging of items can sometimes be easier. Dr. Boyle finds the record in OCLC, notifies them we have the item and exports the MARC record to us. We then have to import the record into the LIS system. Once on the LIS, the record is linked to the barcode attached to it and given a Dewey and Cutter number and the item is placed on the new books shelf.
The final step in the whole process remove the item from the new books shelf, cut down the book jacket to just the summary and author information on the front and back flaps, tape those to the inside of the book, and place the permanent book label on the spine with the Dewey call number and the Cutter number. College work-study students usually do this job. The whole process can take as little as a week to process, but takes longer time over the summer months and during the college breaks when the full library staff is unavailable.

This was shown to me just last night. I think it speaks volumes about how wonderful Craigslist can be when used propery.

your librarian hates you

---

Date: 2003-07-16, 11:20PM EDT


if:

You never have your library card, and then you cough on me while explaining that you don't even have an ID on you.

You refuse to learn to use the computers for yourself, and get impatient when I dont know your yahoo password.

You stare blankly as I check in your 40 books so you can pay a five-cent fine.

You contest a five-cent fine.

You call me "dear" and "doll" and "sweetie".

You physically turn my computer monitor around to watch my screen if I'm helping you. appalling.

You want to know why we dont order the paperbacks you want, after the ten letters you've written to our superiors.

You refuse to ever, ever, ever buy a book.

You angrily explain you need this book more than other people do, as you are in a prestigious "book club".

You are over sixty and compliment my eyes/smile, and wink.

You smell worse than the garbage that keeps you warm.

You put out your cigarette on your way in.

You light your cigarette in the lobby on the way out.

On good days you smell like actual vodka rather than scope.

You rearrange the items on my desk.

You pick up the book you saw me put down to assist you, and start to read.

You are banging on the door to get in, so you can save 50 cents on the newspaper.

You cut up the newspaper.

You steal the newspaper. we only have one newspaper you know.

You want a particular book a friend recommended, but you dont know the title or author or year of publication, and your friend has recently passed on.

You say anything other than "no shit, right?" when you catch me yawning.

..Such as "are we BORING YOU?"- the answer is, yes.

You let your child scream for more than 30 seconds without escorting him out.

Your stroller needs WD40.

When your child starts hysterically bawling, and we dont have to look at a clock to know it is precisely 11am. take him to the fucking park.

Your computer starts making a beeping noise because of your disk, so you just leave it for us to figure out. You play dumb: we are on to you. Your disk has your name on it, jackass.

You state loudly that librarians shouldnt have peircings. They shouldnt be fucking on their desks after-hours either, I suppose?

You believe that being ancient means you can be an asshole.


the end.


dickheads.

Post surge

Sorry for the huge influx of posting. I just remembered that I'm supposed to be showing what I learned. I can tell you that I am having a heyday with OCLS's online Connexion site. The Web Dewey features make life so much easier, even if Dewey does not. I'll pull through though. I got more than half of my assignment done already but I had to take an Entertainment Weekly break. Catch up on some of the latest pop culture and read the theories on Lost for this week. If you haven't had a chance to get addicted to this show then I suggest you start with season 2 and just go!. You'll be so glad you did.

I"m also starting the book I found at the Fremont public library called Library 2.0: a guide to participatory library service. It's written by Michael Casey and Laura Savastinuk. So far I'm only to the basic stuff, but there are some really great insights ahead. I'll give a full review when I finish it this weekend. Until then, happy trails.

Authority control and controlled vocabulary

In the age of instant gratification, the information agencies that house a vast majority of the world’s authoritative information are seeing less action. Thank in part to Google, patrons of libraries can now find their information on the internet with the help of keyword searching and a very sensitive mathematical algorithm to rank websites. Libraries, being based formerly within the wooden alcoves of card catalogs, are fantastically put together in terms of access points like author, title, and subject. In fact, the Library of Congress (LOC) regularly puts out thousands of new subject headings a year. It is through these headings that information can be essentially “tagged” with a controlled vocabulary word to access it. Cookery for cookbooks and Myocardial infarction for heart attacks are just a few examples within the LOC subject headings. These are certainly not the only subject headings either. However, the simpler task is to search with a keyword. The five articles I described in the annotated bibliography below all deal in a fundamental way with authority control or controlled vocabulary. Each makes the argument that the way of doing business in the information retrieval game is dependent upon authority control. The one ring to rule them all.

First, we’ll look to controlled vocabulary and it’s place within the OPAC. Controlled vocabulary is essentially an agreed upon list of words and phrases that are used within the catalog in order to steam line the search process and ensure that all bibliographic records for a title are uniform. The most important place for controlled vocabulary is the subject heading. It is within the subject heading that books, articles, videos, songs, sheet music, art and any other piece of information can be linked together with other information of similar description. Music by Bach and Beethoven would be found together in classical music, Signs, Unbreakable, and The Village would be found under bad movies. The controlled vocabulary dictates what words are used to describe the information. In “Controlled vocabularies: implementation and evaluation,” Marshall shows how to use a controlled vocabulary not only with an online card catalog, but also in any instance that controlled vocabulary is used. She explains that even if attaching a controlled vocabulary to a full text search would involve false hits. In fact, if one gives “consideration to defining the environment” with regard to what exactly the controlled vocabulary will search “will yield more precise results” (Marshall 2006 p. 55). In order for controlled vocabulary to work, there needs to be a framework in which it can be contextualized. Thankfully, the authority control gives us controlled vocabulary a place to roam.

Authority control will probably start a war someday. Not really, but the kinds of decisions the people in charge of authority control have to make cause countless people to get upset. In recent events, the LOC stopped producing authority files for series. While this doesn’t seem like much, many libraries rely on the LOC to give them a sense of direction. In an article by Mirna Willer, the dealings of the international authority body IFLA are called into question. She ask whether we are ready to see authority control reach new heights in the new environments opening up to it or sit back and wait for information technology to do the work for us later (2006 p. 56). The new heights and new environments she’s talking about are authority control taking part in art galleries, museums and archives, in seeing the expansion of authority control to encompass more information than it has before. She leaves her question unanswered, but also leaves a stinging barb with the authority community regarding their unwillingness to take up this task.

Finally, the happy marriage between controlled vocabulary and authority control creates the OPAC. The online public access catalog is the life and blood of the modern library. Searches live and die by how well information can be accessed on these system. What three of the articles show is that there is as much a need for authority control and controlled vocabulary now as ever there was. Gross and Taylor perform a study to look at the ability of keyword searching within the OPAC’s holdings to net good results if those keywords were not reliant upon the subject headings. (Subject headings, remember, are the happy union between a controlled vocabulary and an authority to determine that a particular topic will be labeled with that particular controlled term.) Gross and Taylor discover that as much as 36 percent of the returned information would not have been if it weren’t for the subject heading matching to a subject heading or a cross reference to a subject heading. When taking into account foreign language materials, the percentage jumps to as much as 100 percent in some cases. (2005 p. 216, 223). Thomas Mann’s articles show a similar argument; only Mann provided detailed search examples based on actually user queries. In his first article, Mann discusses the use of Google’s keyword searching with Google Paper, an online repository of digital books. Mann walks us step by step through how searching by keyword and searching by subject term yield different results, weighing that searches conducted with subject headings are far more appropriate than those without. Mann’s second article takes that small demonstration and creates a 30 page walk through on how to take a topic and break it down, dummy it up, look in different places and look along the same lines (Mann 2007 p. 11-13). Each of his techniques involves modifying the use of controlled vocabulary and relying upon the authority of the system to find relevant materials and not the hope that a keyword will catch the right set of information. It is because of the backbone of authority control and controlled vocabulary that Mann is able to better attend to the needs of his patrons, not the unfeeling machine giant Google and its keyword ranking system.

What remains to be seen is what happens next. While it is certain that the authority control and controlled vocabulary are certainly a better means of searching for information, Google and search engines like it are here to stay and they are completing directly for the hearts and minds of today’s scholars and today’s youth. Will the OPAC grow to incorporate the one time seamless search many of us are used to, or perhaps the search engine giants will take on their own controlled vocabulary and become an authority in and of themselves. But like Willer asked, who will be at the forefront of this new move to innovation with the enemy? Who will move first, and who will survive when the smoke clears? We shall all have to wait and see.

Authority control Literature review.

Gross, T., & Taylor, A. (2005). What have we got to lose? The effect of controlled vocabulary on keyword searching results. College & Research Libraries, 66(3), 212-30. Retrieved April 4, 2009, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

This article, from a cataloging journal, is a study on the use of OPAC searches using keywords vs. subject headings. First, the article gives a history of the similar studies that try to address the same question the researchers are looking to find. Their method for the purposes of the study was to look at the query requests of an OPAC system for three days at a single institution and see if any returns would not have been available if the search term had not correlated to a subject heading. The results showed that 35.4 percent of returns would not come up if the LC subject headings were excluded. The study also found that in the case of foreign language titles, the total percent could be as large at 50 percent of returns. Gross and Taylor determined that LC subject headings were a vital part of the cataloging process because their existence benefitted the users much more than if LC subject headings were not available.

Mann, T. (2005). “Will google’s keyword searching eliminate the need for LC cataloging and classification?” (2005, Aug 15). Library of Congress professional guild local 2910. Retrieved April 4, 2009 from http://www.guild2910.org/searching.htm

The foundation of this article plants itself firmly on the concept that the new Google Print is not as effective when it comes to finding appropriate resources because it is utilizing Google’s keyword search algorithms to search through its database and not subject headings. Mann demonstrates using the search phrase “Afghanistan” and “history.” Imputing those into Google tenders more than 11,000,000 hits. Putting “Afghanistan” into an OPAC tenders a list no more than fifty hits long. Each hit is actually a subject heading that links the user to titles within that subject. These subject headings can lead a user to books that do not directly refer the Afghanistan within the title of the work or perhaps only address Afghanistan for a chapter. It also returns all sources in a foreign language. Google’s search method is dependant on keywords within the article and the weight those keywords hold to determine relevance. This means that if your search term translates to something else in a foreign language, then all the results of that language would be lost. Afghanistan in Farsi is certainly not spelled the same as English. Mann contends that the need for subject searching within the library is key for research.


***. (2008). The Peloponnesian War and the future of reference, cataloging, and scholarship in research libraries. Journal of Library Metadata, 8, 53-100.

A more detailed follow up to Mann’s previous article, he continues within the same vein as before, noting that utilizing search engines for research is failure because keywords, while very useful for simple fact finding missions, are not well equipped to handle academic researching needs. Mann uses an example this time of a users need to find information about the Peloponnesian War and the use of tributes to fund that war. The user tried a traditional web based search engine. Mann uses the metaphor of the five blind men who come across an elephant. The first only feels the tail and claims it’s a rope and so on and so on. None can see the entire picture because each is too caught up with the very localized. The same is true for Google searching. One cannot see the whole elephant with keywords because it divides the whole too far down. Subject headings are better way to address information, but putting the parts together to make a whole picture. Mann details how a user can use all of the functions of a library OPAC to refine or expand upon the topic, using techniques like related record searching, and searching for literature reviews as other ways to find similar information. Mann suggests that there is a need for less seamless one-time searching and more need for multiple search techniques.

Marshall, J. (2006). Controlled vocabularies: implementation and evaluation. Key Words, 14(2), 53-7, 59. Retrieved April 4, 2009, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

Marshall’s article is the second in a series about controlled vocabulary. She briefly summarizes part one of the series and informs the reader that this second part should be used with the intention that a controlled vocabulary is already in place and one is deciding how to use it. Marshall begins by giving different options of how one could display controlled vocabulary. One was is similar to the LC and Sears schedule, giving a term, and the broader and narrower topics within the same controlled vocabulary. She also showcases index entry, multi level hierarchy, top term, and static concept map styles as other means to implement controlled vocabularies. She then gives several ways to search a controlled vocabulary. She describes eight distinct components of searching with controlled vocabulary including text operants, a user interface, and user feedback cycles. These all have to do with the means of searching with controlled vocabulary. Her final point is to show how one evaluates the controlled vocabulary. One is through heuristic critique, where a panel of experts determine how well the vocabulary works. She also points readers to an article on how to prepare for an expert panel to evaluate the controlled vocabulary thesaurus. She leaves with the final thought that a controlled vocabulary thesaurus is never completed until it is no longer used for indexing or is no longer updated. Controlled vocabulary’s work is never done until it is retired.

Willer, M. (2006). Name authorities in the library context. International Cataloguing and Bibliographic Control, 35(3), 55-7. Retrieved April 4, 2009, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

Willer begins by prefacing that this article will make three points and ask one question. The first point is a sort of history lesson detailing the IFLA’s principles, standards and concepts. The IFLA is essentially a group dedicated to an international authority system and its implementation. The beginnings of this group have its roots in the 1960’s and can still be felt through their workings with national authority systems in 2003 at a meeting of experts on international cataloging code. Her second point describes what happens to authority records in a networked environment. When looking at a national catalog or national union of catalogs, the systems work by making their uniform heading the authority for subscribers to that particular catalog or union. This is especially difficult with union catalogs because the authority cannot be considered true unless all authorized forms conform to the uniform heading. Willer points to CERL (Consortium of European Research Libraries) as an organization that has found a way around this hiccup. The CERL thesaurus is actually composed with a number of different national cataloging rules so that libraries have a choice according to national traditions or local user needs. Willer’s third point concerns the reader with the interoperability of the system into other organizations. She explains that archives and museums have addressed an interest in working co-operatively with the IFLA. It shows a mutual understanding and acceptance on the level of conceptual models and agreement on interoperable content. These different information-holding bodies could work together to make a more uniform authority, if they could agree to build it together. Willer’s question is a big one. Is the authority control community ready to move toward national or international authority control? She wonders if the folks responsible for information and communication technology will take charge, or if those responsible for authority control can get their act together.

Trends in Technical Service

Tenopir, C. (2009, March). Visualize the Perfect Search. Library Journal, 134(4), 22-22. Retrieved April 13, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Breeding, M. (2009, March). Library Automation in a Difficult Economy. Computers in Libraries, 29(3), 22-24. Retrieved April 13, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

The rising trends in technical service in libraries are varied and to be quite honest sometimes really hard to understand. There are a lot of things that technical service librarians do that even regular librarians just shake their heads in amazement. For instance, some of the complex things that have to be done for serials make my head spin. Thankfully, sometimes the technical service librarians discuss things that are not really hard to understand. The topic I have chosen to discuss dealing with technical services is the aim of libraries to catch up to Google, and the cost effective ways to do it.

Tenopir’s article was my starting off point. She talked about the new ILS interface called Summon. It debuted at the ALA Midwinter conference. The goal of Summon is to compile and present a library’s materials in a similar way to Google. Google relies on the complex algorithm and the literally billions of pages of information to somewhat reliably return accurate information to users entering queries. Summon will attempt to relevance rank whole libraries, using content, machine and human feedback, number of times an article has been cited, impact factor and peer review status of the original journal, and (in the case of magazines and newspapers) currency (Tenopir 2009, p 22). Summon is still in the testing stage at a few universities in the United States. Tenopir also voices interest in a new type of “visual searching” wherein users can search visually instead of by content. The best part is that the interface is guided by the content. The International Children’s Digital Library allows filters for happy book and sad books, color of cover, length, and type of stories. The moral of the story is that libraries creating technical services that emulate and expand upon some of the features of popular and (heaven forbid) easy search engines littering the internet these days.

Breeding’s article was really the clincher for my investigation into trends in library technical service. In his article, he overviewed some of the trends he has noticed in technical services, but more importantly, he discusses the cost of these services and their impact on libraries. This is an important factor in all libraries but especially now, with a down economy and everyone tightening their belts. One conflict Breeding noted that often arises is the deep discount that vendors will offer libraries that currently use one of their legacy products. This has put libraries in a bind. More often than not, the library will go with the cheaper upgrade, even if the service is not the absolute best (Breeding 2009, p. 23). This means that systems like Summon might not be available to every Tom, Dick and Joe library across the country. However, Breeding points to a number of ways to bring innovative ILSs into small libraries without buying a server farm and hiring the graduating class of MIT to run the system. One way, that I myself have seen successfully managed, is to pool resources with other libraries in order to make a large investment that all can share. The Nebraska Independent College Library Consortium (NICLC) is an ILS and OPAC system that is shared by eight colleges across Nebraska. This allows eight small libraries to pool their academic resources into one pool and purchase a more powerful ILS than could be purchased alone. A second way to bring small libraries big technical service is to utilize something called Software as a Service (SaaS). This mostly subscription based access gives small libraries the access to ILSs and other technical services, but through inexpensive software instead of buying the server farm and putting it in the library basement.

A final thought from Breeding pointed out that in times of recession, libraries and technology firms and most any business turn toward innovation over tried and true practices (2009, p. 24). This innovation could lead to cheaper, better put together programs, services, and technology. Perhaps we might be seeing a cheaper, open source version of a Summon like ILS on the market. Or perhaps we’ll see something even more phenomenal and equally inexpensive. The best part is, we’ll never know until it’s too late and we have something new.

There is something to be said about the lovely feeling that cataloging brings. I feel like there is something missing from my life. I definitely know it isn't cataloging. Ewww.

FML!

I'm working on my cataloging homework and I've come to the conclusion that easy work is never easy when it requires work. I mean, if I knew that finding subjects would be so FUCKING hard I would never have signed up for the course. Not to mention that fact that I still have to update from the time where she ripped apart my last submission. There is too much to do before Saturday and everything is coming down the pike at once.

Life lesson folks: Don't procrastinate!

In other Library news, I find out if I get my library gig tomorrow. I'm betting on no since it's taken them so long, so i'm not going to be bummed, but if I do get it i'm going to jump for joy. Then be sad because i'll have to leave Daycare (which I love).

That's the news with library services. Who knows, if I get this library gig then I can start writing about patrons and how fucked up their lives are and how shitty my coworkers are and how much smarter I am than the rest of them. JOY!

What you will learn by the end of the week

Some initial research into an annotated bibliography that I have to complete has yielded some fairly interesting insights into Authority files and controlled vocabulary. Why this topic fascinates me so much in beyond me, but for some reason I can't get enough of the organization (which itself is funny because I am not organized).

This is not library related, however, I do feel that this is one of the best songwriters in the world. The WORLD people.
Have a listen. Then buy his stuff.

I was going to give you the whole thing, but the first part is really boring. So I'll give you the more interesting section.

The difference between OPACs and the online search engine Google has a lot to do with who is doing the cataloging. With the OPAC, the cataloging, cross-referencing, and other important parts of the bibliographic record are all added manually by a cataloger. It’s a time consuming and meticulous process that ensures that a majority of what is asked of the OPAC will come back with a response, even if it’s one that tells the user to look somewhere else or rephrase the query. According to the article “How does Google collect and rank results,” the cataloging is mostly done by “spiders” or computer programs that troll the web, asking servers to give information about the websites they are hosting. These spiders then use the websites they have and catalog the pages via certain words. The article gives the example of civil and war. Of 100 documents or pages, perhaps thirteen have the word civil in them, another 24 have the word war in them and only 8 have both the words civil and war within the document. Of all 100 of those documents, the 8 that have the words civil and war in them are the most relevant. Google also uses a program called PageRank that looks at all of the indexed sites and further ranks the pages by looking at where the query words come up within the site and how many times the query term shows up. For example, if Jungle Cats is the search topic, a website with the term Jungle Cats in the title of the website is probably more relevant than one that only says Jungle Cats once. It also assigns rank by what is hyperlinked and to the website and from where. For instance, if Cnn.com links to an article or website about tax returns, it would be more relevant than if it weren’t’ linked at all or even if a similar site were linked to from three unknown sites.
The other HUGE difference between Google and the OPAC is simply a numbers game. When a user looks for an article or a book on the Midland OPAC the most returns that might ever be dealt with maybe only number in the thousands, and that would be going for a very general category, like music, or an entire Dewey section. Google will search for a refined topic like heart disease in Thailand and return results numbering in the millions. One caveat to the millions of hits is that some will only show up because the word “heart” or “disease” will be in the document. Google also returns all of these hits within a matter of seconds. The article explains that Google cut the time down by dividing the index created by the spider bots to many computers. Instead of the user looking through one large database of information, the search engine will search through many smaller ones. Then all of the machines together give the results for the query.
Finally, Google does not rely on controlled vocabulary for its searches. Whereas an OPAC will have Library of Congress subject headings and an authority file with which to find author, series, and title placement, Google simply compiles search terms into a database. While Google’s method makes it easier for users to find their topics, it also opens up a large amount of unnecessary hits to a query. If a user were to search Google for heart attack, any document having “heart” or “attack” would eventually come up in the results. On the other hand, myocardial infarction is the LOC subject heading. Any document with that search phrase as well as a cross reference to documents including the words “heart attack” but not returns with just “heart” or “attack.” Controlled vocabulary allows users to make better searches, but it requires work on the part of the user to actively use the controlled vocabulary. That is the trade of with Google, ease at the expense of relevance.
Google is a remarkable tool to use for research. It makes searching the web easy and fast for the every day user. It makes quick work of the vast information available on the internet and returns queries to the user within seconds. The library OPAC, on the other hand, is a smaller database of information, but controlled vocabulary, authority files, and for the most part verifiable information are available in it. Neither OPAC nor Google is better than the other, but each can give a different piece of the search query pie to users

I was going to give you the whole thing, but the first part is really boring. So I'll give you the more interesting section.

The difference between OPACs and the online search engine Google has a lot to do with who is doing the cataloging. With the OPAC, the cataloging, cross-referencing, and other important parts of the bibliographic record are all added manually by a cataloger. It’s a time consuming and meticulous process that ensures that a majority of what is asked of the OPAC will come back with a response, even if it’s one that tells the user to look somewhere else or rephrase the query. According to the article “How does Google collect and rank results,” the cataloging is mostly done by “spiders” or computer programs that troll the web, asking servers to give information about the websites they are hosting. These spiders then use the websites they have and catalog the pages via certain words. The article gives the example of civil and war. Of 100 documents or pages, perhaps thirteen have the word civil in them, another 24 have the word war in them and only 8 have both the words civil and war within the document. Of all 100 of those documents, the 8 that have the words civil and war in them are the most relevant. Google also uses a program called PageRank that looks at all of the indexed sites and further ranks the pages by looking at where the query words come up within the site and how many times the query term shows up. For example, if Jungle Cats is the search topic, a website with the term Jungle Cats in the title of the website is probably more relevant than one that only says Jungle Cats once. It also assigns rank by what is hyperlinked and to the website and from where. For instance, if Cnn.com links to an article or website about tax returns, it would be more relevant than if it weren’t’ linked at all or even if a similar site were linked to from three unknown sites.
The other HUGE difference between Google and the OPAC is simply a numbers game. When a user looks for an article or a book on the Midland OPAC the most returns that might ever be dealt with maybe only number in the thousands, and that would be going for a very general category, like music, or an entire Dewey section. Google will search for a refined topic like heart disease in Thailand and return results numbering in the millions. One caveat to the millions of hits is that some will only show up because the word “heart” or “disease” will be in the document. Google also returns all of these hits within a matter of seconds. The article explains that Google cut the time down by dividing the index created by the spider bots to many computers. Instead of the user looking through one large database of information, the search engine will search through many smaller ones. Then all of the machines together give the results for the query.
Finally, Google does not rely on controlled vocabulary for its searches. Whereas an OPAC will have Library of Congress subject headings and an authority file with which to find author, series, and title placement, Google simply compiles search terms into a database. While Google’s method makes it easier for users to find their topics, it also opens up a large amount of unnecessary hits to a query. If a user were to search Google for heart attack, any document having “heart” or “attack” would eventually come up in the results. On the other hand, myocardial infarction is the LOC subject heading. Any document with that search phrase as well as a cross reference to documents including the words “heart attack” but not returns with just “heart” or “attack.” Controlled vocabulary allows users to make better searches, but it requires work on the part of the user to actively use the controlled vocabulary. That is the trade of with Google, ease at the expense of relevance.
Google is a remarkable tool to use for research. It makes searching the web easy and fast for the every day user. It makes quick work of the vast information available on the internet and returns queries to the user within seconds. The library OPAC, on the other hand, is a smaller database of information, but controlled vocabulary, authority files, and for the most part verifiable information are available in it. Neither OPAC nor Google is better than the other, but each can give a different piece of the search query pie to users

Later tonight I will be putting up a paper comparing the Midland Lutheran College Library OPAC with the University of Nebraska-Omaha library OPAC. Then I will compare both of those Online Public Access Catalogs with Google. It's supposed to be 6 to 8 pages. I haven't started yet. I just don't feel like it at the moment. Thankfully it's all just showing examples of how the OPACs work and some explanation.

Books and Movies

Dear reader, if you are still the least bit interested in anything I have to say, then you are damned lucky I'm still writing. I come to you with the amazingness of movies based on books. Let's begin with the two coming out this week: Twilight and Quantum of Solace.
Now, mind you, Quantum of Solace is not a book, but the character of Bond was created in novels by Sir Ian Flemming. I don't know if there was anything remotely similar about the Bond from the books and the Bond from the movies, but I certainly do love what they've done with him since Casino Royale. This latest installment really knocks my socks off. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Now Twilight, on the other hand, is.....uh.....how do I put it nicely? I didn't read the books. I think i refuse to read them on the account that they are so popular with the kids these days. Now I think that as a librarian I should have an open mind about books and things, but what can i say? I'm a bad person. Don't waste your time on Twilight. It's too brooding and dark. Lots of sadness and pain. And a Shit Ending.

The Library of Congress (LOC) keeps an Authority Record. By the way, this record is HUGE! It's basically the way the LOC keeps everything level for everyone. They have Authority records for Authors, Series, and Subjects. The have recently stopped making records for Series, but they continue to add subject headings all the time, to the tune of 2,000 to 4,000 entries a year. These headings are as simple as "Automobiles" to something as huge as "Mytocardial infartion" (heart attack). These headings keep everything together. If you are searching for a book in the catalog, the best thing you can do is look for the subject. If you want information on a topic, don't look for keywords because you won't get nearly as many results. Use the subject search and use controlled vocabulary. That means, think about what you want and then you type it in. This shit ain't no Google.
The best thing about using the subject heading search is that even if you aren't looking for the correct heading, the subject records regulary have similar entries. This means that if you look for heart attack in the subject field you'll be told to "see Mytocardial infartion." (Yes I know I've misspelled it twice. I don't want to take the time to look it up. DEAL!)
I learned this in the first two hours of class. The last four hours of class were not even close to interesting. I took the time to look for yarn on the internet, rebid on a phone I'm trying for on Ebay and chatted on gmail. It was a productive online day. I did not get on EW.com, which is a big step for me.Usually I waste whole hours on EW. It's just that amazing.

Today, I learned a lot about book censoring and how incredibly stupid it would be to allow parents to run the education system. Color me liberal, but some of the books they were disputing were AMAZING books. The Catcher in the Rye, for instance, is a great story for young adults to read because it truly describes the life. It's an honest look at life from the eyes of Holden Cauffield.

And while I agree that some of the books were probably not the most appropriate for the ages present, the websites I read went about it completely the wrong way. (you can see those sites here and here) The sites suggested that parents stop the books from being in the library because "it's your tax dollars at work." Meanwhile, the better solution would be to dialogue with your children on a regular basis about what you deem to be appropriate. How about ask them what they are reading in school? Or maybe get the book list for the year (it is possible, most teachers have all the books chosen by the start of the school year). Open dialogue with your child will only increase the understanding you have with your child and your child's understanding of what you deem appropriate. However, you have to face the fact that if your child wants to know something, he or she can readily find out about it through much easier ways than the school or public library.

Among the other things I have learned tonight are that Academic libraries define their sense of "place" by expanding into the digital arena. It is through the online areas that Academic libraries are growing their patrons and engaging their users. Meanwhile, Public libraries have to try and define their "space" through their actual physical setting. Public libraries often reflect their community through their interpretations of "space" by how they designate what areas of the library to be of more or less importance. Does the children's area grow because the population of young children has increased 20% in the last 10 years? Do we shrink the microfilm area because all the newspapers are now available online? Can we grow the computer access area because more and more people are coming in to look for jobs on the internet?

One last thing: I have three more books to catalog. It shouldn't be too hard. Here's hoping I can get it all done tonight.

This morning I work up puking.
That was at 4 am
I can only think that the Chicken tortilla soup I had for dinner had something to do with it. Probably the sour cream they drizzled on top. I hate sour cream. It's probably what did it.
The best part about my day of health was the part where I slept until 11. I haven't done that on a weekday in FOREVER! Not since college in any case. It was fantastic. The downside to not going to work is twofold. First, there's 8 hours of work I'm just out. Second, when I left my house today to go work the library I found out that the temperature was like.....15 degrees out! Cold as fuck and no warning. and there was snow on the ground. WTF!

Now i'm just chilling out at the library, trying to do good work.

I hate daylight savings time.

The bright side: I don't have any homework stuff to worry about this week.
The down side: I'm super bored.

I'm updating right now from Caffeine Dreams, the best coffee shop in Omaha. It's better than Crane because it fosters a more hipster atmostphere. Indie music and coffee matrons wearing low cut "show my boobie" numbers. Not a bad set up. The only thing I really hate about this coffee shop is all the hipsters. What the hell are they thinking? I would love to see a picture of a hipster from ten years ago. Were they the kids that were all in love with Jay-Z and Eminem? And where do they expect to go in life with holes in their ears as big as a pop can? And don't even get me started on skinny jeans. God in HEAVEN!

I have begun to pay back the greek organization that I had the pleasure of being associated with in College. it's only about two years overdue, but what can I say....I'm slow.

I think the best two thing about this week both happened on Friday. First, I went back to Midland to talk to Dr. Staley's Cultural Minorities class about living with "the gay" and what that means in NE and at Midland and in Fremont. It was a really enjoyable class. There was good questions from both the professor and the students, and the dialog was both witty and informative. I really wish I could do it more ofter. Truthfully. I think I broke a lot of barriers today. There are some people that don't understand that being gay and being a social pariah are not mutually exclusive. I live my life the best way I know how and I do it with grace and dignity and a lot of humor. (I sound like I'm living with AIDS or something, jeez). The point is, I like being gay. I like being who I am. I like making asshole straight boys feel uncomfortable and dirty.

Also on Friday, I got another tattoo. It's a really nice compass rose on my chest.
So what do we think? I think it's fantastic. I love the fact that it turned out so bad ass. I was a little wary, but it all turned into a nice experience. And Jamie and Jay were there to witness. Then we went and had shots and listened to the rain fall and the thunder rumble. It was a beautiful night on Friday. I wish I had a date so I could make an excuse to make out. Meh.

This whole post is terribly unlibrarian like and I apologize for that.You get something from the field soon. I promise.

The two websites I have chosen to review are LibraryThing and Internet Library for Librarians. LibraryThing can be found at http://www.librarything.com/. Internet Library for Librarians can be found at http://www.itcompany.com/inforetriever/index.htm. LibraryThing is a social cataloging site that allows users to compile their personal libraries onto the site and share them with other users. Users can tag their books with keywords so that other users can find similar titles. For instance, tagging the novel Twilight with keywords like “teens” and “love” and “vampires” will link to books like Interview with the Vampire and Romeo and Juliet depending on which tag being searched. Internet Library for Librarians is a virtual hub of information for librarians. With subheadings like “descriptive cataloging,” “authority maintenance,” “MARC formats,” “meta-data,” and “OPACs” this site gives details on how the operations of a library work and links to helpful sites like MARC, AARC2, and RDA.
The criteria I used to evaluate the websites were twofold. Firstly, the site had to be easy to navigate. LibraryThing was not only extremely easy to maneuver through; it also came with a guided tour in case something eluded the user. Internet library for librarians had all of the links to the proper pages right at the top of the page. There was no searching though different links to find the information needed. It was all right there at the start. Both sites were laid out in a professional manner with link to contact site administrators with more information or assistance. The second piece of criteria I used to evaluate the sites was the level of detail that each site went into as far as the information it was trying to present. For the Internet library for librarians site, the site gets a gold star. The amount of information that site provides is almost too much. When going back to the parent site, there is information on Administration, Youth Services, and other parts of library service. As far as cataloging goes, the site explains what the issue is for the individual links and then provides links to the respective site on the World Wide Web. LibraryThing, being less formal, was also informative with its social aspects. I enjoyed being able to browse by tag and being able to look at an individual users library. LibraryThing also allows users to export their library to other sites, making it portable and accessible.
As far as my reasoning and use of the sites go, there are a few simple answers. I chose LibraryThing and Internet Library for librarians because both sites are different aspects of the cataloging phenomenon. LibraryThing dives into the Web 2.0 aspects of cataloging and social networking, allowing users to comment on each other’s collections and share ideas and reviews and personal connections to the books. Internet Library for librarians is the opposite, focusing on the purely detailed aspects of cataloging. Links to RDA and AACR2 and explanations of descriptive cataloging and OPACs and MARC and meta-data are all very un-Web 2.0, however, they are important to the librarian in search for help in cataloging books or other materials. My use of LibraryThing has already begun. I have begun cataloging my personal library with some success and begun to connect with other users about my graphic novel habit and my love of American literature. Internet Library for Librarians will be helpful for a search of general catalog topics. If I did not have access to the links provided on Blackboard of this class, then Internet Library would be the place to find the necessary information. It’s been bookmarked on my computer in preparation for the day the Blackboard site goes down at the end of the semester. I’m not sure how often I’ll use it, but it’ll be nice to know it’s there for me to access if I need it.