Categories
Library Issues Personal

TENN-Share, and thoughts

I spent last Thursday and Friday at the Nashville Public Libary attending a small conference made up of Tennessee Libraries called TENN-Share.

The venue was really quite nice…the Nashville Public Library is in a wonderful building. However, none of the technology worked as it should (basically all presentations were done without computer assistance) and when a major portion of the program is Federated Search, that’s an issue. Also, for a major metropolitan library to not have wi-fi? Whassupwidat? I had planned on live-blogging the sessions, but NO wi-fi left me in the technological dark ages.

There were a number of good sessions, especially the ability to see different vendor products and be able to ask questions about content and usage of those products. It was also a great opportunity to meet other Tennessee librarians and network a bit…something that I haven’t really had a chance to do yet here.

Due to the majority of Thursday being about federated searching, I learned a lot about a word that was unfamiliar to me. De-duplication. Possibly this is because I haven’t done sufficient real database work, but I had never encountered the word before. I’d used the classic deselect, a grand old library term for remove from the collection. Patrons tend to be less excited about that when you use a word they don’t understand.

Categories
Digital Culture Library Issues

LibraryThing

Aside from the not-so-hip title (seriously guys…LibraryThing?) and the needs-prettier-interface/UI, the tool itself rocks like Dokken.

LibraryThing

There are a few things I’d like to see happen with it, though (listen up, developers!): one, you need geographical information, or at least the ability to form groups so that you can keep track of who around you has what books. Second, you need the ability to check in/check out books to other users, with email ticklers for returning. Third, you need to be able to sort by some shelving order (ie: I shelf mine alphabetically, so sort that way, OR if I want to go full on Library of Congress, give me a shelving order for that).

That said, it’s a cool tool I expect I will play with. It also imports Delicious Library files, which is nifty.

Categories
Library Issues Personal

Quick update

Crazy busy week ahead of me, and it only just started.

Taught my first ENGL 121 class today..the first of what will be dozens, I’m sure. It’s one of our core classes for library instruction. Went ok, if not great. The students didn’t have any clue about topics (which I had hoped they would) and 90% of them had never even been inside the library before (which I had hoped they would). Next time I’ll ratchet my expectations down and it’ll go fine.

If anyone is interested, here’s the slides for my basic library discussion I did with the ENGL 121 class.

Categories
Library Issues Media

My new hero: Rex Libris!

Rex Libris

Just as a tide of ignorance swells up and threatens to engulf the world, out of the ashes of the Great Library of Alexandria arises a hero, an educated fellow with fists of steel and a mind as sharp as a tack: public librarian Rex Libris. Follow the story of Rex, the tough-as-nails Head Librarian at Middleton Public Library, and his unending struggle against the forces of darkness. Wearing his distinctive, super-thick bottle glasses and armed with an arsenal of powerful weapons, he strikes fear into recalcitrant borrowers, and can take on virtually any foe — from loitering zombies to alien warlords who refuse to pay their late fees. Even the occasional infestation of rogue, public domain literary characters are dispatched with aplomb.

Everyone must check out the preview, as well as buy copies for everyone they know. I can’t wait to see how this goes…now if only there were somewhere within 50 miles I could buy it. This could well be the coolest comic book in the history of the world. 🙂

Categories
Library Issues

Public computers and Porn

I hesitate to use the word “porn” in a blog post, cause that guarantees I’ll be getting bizarre google referrals forever, but in this case, it’s warranted.

Here’s the situation…we’ve got 4 publically available computers in the reference area (we’ve got more computers than that, but the rest require a login/pwd combo from a student/faculty/staff member of the university). Of course, we’re having a bit of porn problem, which one would expect on public use PCs. The library is located in a semi-urban area, within walking distance of all of downtown Chattanooga, and as such as become a haven for members of our homeless population. This in and of itself isn’t a big deal…a number of the homeless are actually using our library for needed purposes (finding TN laws relating to Social Security for example). But some are coming into the library, parking on the 4 public computers for 8-10 hours a day, and surfing for porn.

Again, this is nothing new…any urban library has been dealing with these things for years. Unfortunately, it appears that we’ve never really had an effective policy that was uniformly enforced, and as such have had difficulty dealing with the issue.

And the issue really comes down to patron vs patron problems. The homeless are our patrons. But we’ve gotten more complaints about this issue than any other having to do with the library.

How do we balance the rights of one group of patrons to access material that another group finds offensive? This can be expanded to other issues…there was a court case regarding a patron at a library in Hawaii that involved him surfing to a gay travel site…no nudity, no porn…just a gay travel site that had two guys in swimming trunks on the front page. Another patron complained, and I can SO see that happening here. The slope is very slippery.

So what say you, Interweb? Any thoughts on appropriate controls/policies? What about patron vs patron rights? This is especially hard, since there’s a distinct disconnect between my personal feelings and what I might suggest to the library.

Categories
Digital Culture Library Issues

Information Literacy

My first official instruction duties here at UTC will be to do a talk to the incoming Faculty Fellows about Information Literacy and the library’s role in educating their students.

I’m preparing by going over tons of the online literature concerning IL, as well as doing the standard sorts of database searches for articles on the subject. I’ve only got an hour or so with them, so I can’t do any terribly in-depth exercises (although I am going to do something active). I can talk about how IL is effectively learning how to learn, and that we’re trying to prepare the student to evaluate more than just scholarly information, and all that rot. But I’m trying to decide how far to push the evaluation of information stuff, since I don’t agree at all with some of the canon on the subject. I’m thinking of doing the following:

  • Presenting the canon
  • Showing how collaborative works break down the reliance on authority (aka the wikipedia effect) and have a discussion of how new media sources and the remix culture of the current student body are challenging our presuppositions about authorship
  • Conclude with a short discussion of how these things can/will pop up in each of the participant’s fields of study, and how we at the library can help them get these concepts across to their students



Seems harmless enough, right? I’m only concerned because my central issue coming into the library, at least in my own head, is the rate of change that I can effect. How much radicalism is too much?

Categories
Legal Issues Library Issues Personal

Blogs and Jobs

An interesting article came across the wire today from the Chronicle of Higher Education, entitled Bloggers Need Not Apply. A few snippets from the article, with commentary:

What is it with job seekers who also write blogs? Our recent faculty search at Quaint Old College resulted in a number of bloggers among our semifinalists. Those candidates looked good enough on paper to merit a phone interview, after which they were still being seriously considered for an on-campus interview.

That’s when the committee took a look at their online activity.

In some cases, a Google search of the candidate’s name turned up his or her blog. Other candidates told us about their Web site, even making sure we had the URL so we wouldn’t fail to find it. In one case, a candidate had mentioned it in the cover letter. We felt compelled to follow up in each of those instances, and it turned out to be every bit as eye-opening as a train wreck.

I can certainly understand following up on the provided URL (since the candidate clearly wanted it followed, or he/she wouldn’t have provided it), but how much detective work is too much? Yes, a Google search takes 2 minutes, and can provide you with a lot of publically accessible info on the person. But LOTS of public information isn’t allowed to be asked in an interview (for instance, whether the candidate is married is public information, in the form of a marriage license, but it is off limits for a job interview). What would the legal ramifications be if Job Applicant A was denied a position, discovered that it was partially due to a Google search (which happened to reveal his/her marital status) and sued the university on that grounds? I don’t know the answer, but I’m willing to bet that it’s possible there’s a case there.

Worst of all, for professional academics, it’s a publishing medium with no vetting process, no review board, and no editor. The author is the sole judge of what constitutes publishable material, and the medium allows for instantaneous distribution. After wrapping up a juicy rant at 3 a.m., it only takes a few clicks to put it into global circulation

“Worst of all…”????? That’s the best aspect of the publication medium in question. The harkens back to the academic bias I talked about in the past, as well as the wonderful piece by Jeff Pomerantz that I’ve pointed to before. Unfiltered writing is powerful writing.

The most worrisome part of the article by far is this jewel of a paragraph:

The content of the blog may be less worrisome than the fact of the blog itself. Several committee members expressed concern that a blogger who joined our staff might air departmental dirty laundry (real or imagined) on the cyber clothesline for the world to see. Past good behavior is no guarantee against future lapses of professional decorum.

Sure…and a clean record of sanity and lack of criminal record is no guarantee that the applicant won’t come into work and bludgeon everyone to death with his copy of the OED either. If you don’t trust your potential employee because he/she writes things that others might read…well…let’s just say that’s a bit on the paranoid side. Ok, I’ll be a little more blunt: it’s fucking stupid (see, that’s exactly the sort of thing they were worried about…).

I’d love to hear others thoughts on this topic….esp. the legality of the searches/disqualifications due to online information. The “to blog or not to blog” question is one that came up repeatedly during both Betsy and my job interviews these past couple of years, and I’m not sure there’s an easy, across-the-board answer. I made a choice that if a committee decided they didn’t want me because of my blogging, then I certainly didn’t want to work there, and that was fine.

EDIT: Thanks to Justin, here’s a couple of other people discussing this article: Tygar-blog and Planned Obsolescence.

EDIT (2): Another note on the article over at PomeRantz.

Categories
Library Issues Personal

My vision for UTC

I’ve struggled with how much to discuss my new job (Reference/Instruction Librarian at UT-Chattanooga), and I think that I’ve decided to just say what I want. I never censored myself before, and I see no real reason to do so now.

That said: here’s my first impressions. I love the place, and I love the people. I’m going to really enjoy getting my fingers into the place…because honestly, they need it. Short list of things that I see myself doing:

  • Organizing and instituting a virtual reference setup
  • Set up a true information commons in the reference area
  • Creating new classes that are student-need centered rather than class-or-professor centered
  • Move the reference staff into leadership roles on campus (or at the very least into communication roles for campus)

Yeah, I’m dreaming, but I might as well dream big.

Categories
Library Issues

LITA Rocks

In case anyone has missed this, the so-new-it-still-sparkles LITA blog is full of some amazing ALA conference coverage. KGS covers the Obama keynote and makes me wish I were there.

If the blog keeps up this level of use/writing, it’s going to be around for a long time.

Categories
Library Issues

More info on lists I’m looking for

As Anna pointed out in a comment to my previous post, perhaps I wasn’t as informative as I could have been in what sorts of lists I’m looking for. Here’s a short summary of my interests/responsibilities:

  • Instruction/Reference
  • Technology, esp. as it relates to the above
  • Digital Reference (the combination of the above)
  • Academic Libraries
  • Intellectual Property issues in libraries
  • Censorship/challenge issues in libraries

There’s a short list of things I feel like a want to keep up with. I’m sure there’s more, but that’s a sample. Thanks for any suggestions!