Coffee Klatch

It’s been a long four days, but it’s done. After doing some serious weeding of part of our Reference Collection, we figured that we could fill in all the holes that were created and clear off one whole stack, which could then be dismantled, allowing for more student seating.

(FYI, on average: 20 books = 1 shelf; 6 shelves = 1 bay; 4 bays (usually) = 1 side; 2 sides = 1 range. Therefore, 1 range = 8 bays or 48 shelves. Or close to 1,000 books.)

After removing all the weeded materials and shifting the books to fill the space, we were just able to get one whole range cleared off. But then, after talking the Dean of the Libraries, we agreed that an empty pocket in the back corner of the Reference Department would not be as good as removing one range from the front of one side. Because of how things are arranged, the effect would actually be more balanced. Plus it would create actual space in front of the office doors of two of the Reference Librarians. Final effect: a roomier Reference Dept.

After shifting everything back one range, it worked out that we had lots of extra space on that side of the room, plus a full bay or more empty at the end. So I ended up taking the Career Reference section (about 6 shelves total) and moving it from the Beginning of the Reference Collection to the End of it. Then I could take the encyclopedias and other materials in the Religion & History subjects and shift them forward, spacing them out and creating a more balanced arrangement of free space on the shelves. Before that, the first half of the collection (Library of Congress A - KZ) was crammed together rather tightly, while the second half (including all the Gale Literature series) had plenty of free space per shelf.

Now it’s shifted, balanced, and new shelf labels are coming soon. It was my goal to get this done before classes started. It’s 4:00pm on Tuesday and classes begin at 8:00am tomorrow morning. On the first shift, to clear a range, I had someone helping me shift. On Friday, Sunday afternoon, all day Monday and much of today, I’ve been working by myself. Those that might have helped me had deadlines for preparing instructional materials, which I didn’t have, so at least I was able to work on this, to try getting it done before school officially starts. Since I re-shifted much of the LC range A - F today, the end result is that I’ve physically moved every book in our Reference Collection myself. In just the last few days.

I am SO glad it’s done. You might not think it’s that much, but books can be really heavy. Especially older ones. And when you’re picking them up and carrying them around bookstacks to their new location, hefting them up (or down) to the appropriate shelf, then turning around and doing it again, and again, and again… it gets tiring. Whew! If you do the math, it’s roughly 10,000 books I’ve moved in the last three days. No wonder I’m tired.

Time to go home and totally veg! (Boy that looks weird! But although “vedge” gets the right pronunciation, it certainly not the right spelling! Oh well.)

I have decided to create a new blog. Its purpose is to contribute to the professional discussions about how technology is affecting libraries and learning. This will also allow me to keep my professional and personal blog posts separate. Not that the personal ones should be any less interesting, but I will be posting all articles about libraries and education, and how technology is changing them, on the new site, which is http://bibliotechweb.com. (Note the pun?) I’d been thinking of just falling back on using Blogger, but Topher reminded me that it doesn’t cost that much to register a domain name, and I can use DreamHost to host it for free since I can host up to three domains there for the same price as one. Thanks, Topher!!

I will also be moving relevant posts from this blog to the new one, to get it started with at least SOME material. (So, yes, I’m backdating some entries to make it flow well.) Posts on the new site will probably be a little more thoroughly researched and will be intended for librarians and teachers, as well as those people interested in those fields. Hopefully the new blog will be a useful tool for people dealing with those issues.

It’s always a good idea to keep a loose separation between your personal and professional lives. Plus, this will allow people interested in the miscellaneous things or the library technology things to keep focused and not have to sift through content they’re not interested in.

Current music: Fantasia on Greensleeves, by Ralph Vaughan Williams

This afternoon I had a student stop by that was looking for resources for writing a paper on women and rebellion or protests. As we talked about the topic and where she wanted to head with it, the term suffrage came up. I asked if she’d ever seen Mary Poppins, which she had, and I brought up what Glynis Johns, as Mrs. Winifred Banks, had sung about. How while George was away she would go out and attend rallies and campaign for the right of women to vote.

Well, after class tonight, she came back looking for more information and said that her teacher had given her a name to look up, somebody that had been active in helping women get the right to vote in Great Britain. Last name was Pankhurst. I just grinned! I said, “Remember the song in Mary Poppins? ‘Take heart for Mrs. Pankhurst has been clapped in irons again!’?” We were actually able to find Emmeline Pankhurst’s own book, My Own Story, in our library here at Butler. How cool is that?

Since every version of the lyrics that I found online had misspellings, I offer you the entire song here, as correct as possible based on logic and Googling and Amazoning and Disneying quite a bit:

Sister Suffragette
(from Mary Poppins)We’re clearly soldiers in petticoats,
Dauntless crusaders for women’s votes.
Though we adore men individually
We agree that as a group they’re rather stupid.

Cast off the shackles of yesterday!
Shoulder to shoulder into the fray!
Our daughter’s daughters will adore us
And they’ll sing in grateful chorus:
Well done, Sister Suffragette!

From Kensington to Billingsgate one hears the restless cries,
From every corner of the land: “Womankind arise!”
“Political equality!” and “Equal rights with men!”
Take heart for Mrs. Pankhurst has been clapped in irons again!
No more the meek and mild subservients we.
We’re fighting for our rights militantly!
Never you fear!

So, cast of the shackles of yesterday!
Shoulder to shoulder into the fray!
Our daughter’s daughters will adore us
And they’ll sing in grateful chorus:
Well done,
Well done,
Well done, Sister Suffragette!

Current music: None — working the Reference Desk. But you know what song’s stuck in my head now!

One of the biggest controversies involved in the Patriot Act has been the right of the FBI to visit a library and demand records of books checked out by certain patrons. Libraries have very strict rules AGAINST sharing that kind of information with anyone. Part of intellectual freedom, privacy, and all that. So when the FBI has shown up at a library demanding to see a list of materials checked out by certain patrons, the librarians naturally get up in arms. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI has made more than 200 such requests from libraries. Sometimes it’s a list of people who borrowed a particular book.

I’m happy to say that last week the House of Representatives voted to amend the version of the Patriot Act being renewed to NOT allow searches of libraries or bookstores by withholding funds from that kind of action.

Rep. Sanders of Vermont offered the following amendment (which was approved): “An amendment numbered 15 printed in the Congressional Record to prohibit funds in the bill from being used to implement provisions of Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act which permits searches of library circulation records, library patron lists, book sales records, or book customer lists under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).”

Hopefully this will continue into the official renewal and provide at least SOME privacy/freedom in this most traditional of situations.

Plenty of news on the Patriot Act is available at NPR and the ALA (American Library Association) has a nicely organized blog about it also.

Current music: Mozart Violin Concerto #5

I found this today and just HAD to post about it! The Curmudgeonly Librarian has a store for Curmudgeonly Librarian clothes. What cracked me up was this: Sexy Librarian Finery.

Via the Curmudgeonly Librarian Superstore you can select from the following categories: Shush Intimates, Information Hottie Gear, Wenchery Garb, and Stacked Librarian Frocks. How would YOU like to be known as “The Stacked Librarian?”

Gotta love being a librarian!
Current music: Stabat Mater, by Penderecki

Yesterday I spent the day at the Spring Program of the Indiana OnLine Users Group (IOLUG) where the subject of day was “Marketing Your Libary on the Web.” They talked about ways to promote your library and your library’s website, primarily using online tools. While I made lots of notes for things to consider, check on, or implement right away, there was one idea that I got that I just HAD to act on immediately.

It was based on a comment that Michael Stephens (visit his website: http://tametheweb.com/ to learn more and read GREAT ideas for technology in libraries) made during his presentation (which you can see on his site). He went to Wikipedia and scoured the library-related pages and didn’t find ANY reference to libraries using wikis.

(Note on Michael Stephens: It is incredibly motivating and energizing to listen to this guy talk about technology in libraries! He’s nonstop and FULL of energy. And also full of incredible ideas. What I enjoyed most about his presentation is that he said things that many of us have been thinking for a while, but he has the clout to make people listen and to make new technology ideas seem attainable and useful instead of pie-in-the-sky. THANK YOU, MICHAEL!)

For those of you new to this innovative technology, “a Wiki or wiki (pronounced [wɪki:], [wi:ki:] or [vi:ki:]) (and for those of you unfamiliar with IPA is a web application that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows anyone to edit the content. Wiki also refers to the collaborative software used to create such a website” (taken from Wikipedia’s entry on Wiki).

So I was thinking about uses for purposefully allowing (even encouraging) ANYONE to edit content of web pages. There are tons of wikis out there, on all kinds of topics, but the idea that came to me during Michael Stephens’ presentation was using a wiki to allow faculty and students to review, discuss, and comment on the Reference Resources that we provide at Butler University.

So within an hour of getting home yesterday after the conference, I decided on SeedWiki as my host and set up Butler WikiRef. I decided to start by listing the databases that we subscribe to, and then moving on to books and things. You can visit our site at http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/butler_wikiref/ or by going to http://www.seedwiki.com and searching for Butler or WikiRef. While this wiki will primarily be geared toward those participating in academics at Butler University, anyone is welcome to contribute–that’s the nature of wiki.

Current music: The Confluence, by Richard Clayderman and Rahul Sharma

I‘ve looked at many pictures of libraries from all over the world, and, in my opinion, none can compare in beauty, style, and class to the Austrian National Library in Vienna. It’s the largest baroque library in the world and it was erected in the first half of the eighteenth century as an independent wing of the Imperial Palace.

While there are entrance fees to the State Hall (where these pictures are from) and several other museums within the site (their Globe Museum (over 380 globes, etc.), Papyrus Museum, and Esperanto Museum), this is still quite an active library, not just a museum. Their Mission Statement says they’re the main scientific library in Austria and that they regard themselves as “a centre of information and research set up to provide services; the country’s excellent bank of memories; a multilevel centre of education and culture.” You can read about the history of this library at http://www.onb.ac.at/ev/about/history/index.htm.

To visit this beautiful library online, visit http://www.onb.ac.at/index_eng.htm. If you want to see more pictures, go to http://www.onb.ac.at/siteseeing/prunksaal/index.htm and click on Der Prunksall in Bildern.

If you want some nicer, high quality images, visit Webshots.

Current music: Schubert Lieder, Volume I, sung by Ian Bostridge

Describe a librarian. I mean, in the movies. What’s a movie librarian like? You know what I’m talking about: female, fiftyish, thin, single, horn-rimmed glasses, hair in a tight bun, lives with five cats, and goes around SHUSHING everyone. There are TONS of examples of this kind of thing in the movies, and it ALWAYS gets me mad. It has for years! You doubt me? Just try sitting in the same room with me and watching a movie with a “typical” librarian in it! Hell hath no fury….

So anyway, there’s a movie coming out called The Hollywood Librarian. It’s a movie about how librarians are portrayed in movies. Go figure! Here’s its own description:

“The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians in Film is a full-length, feature documentary film now in production. The first of its kind, this film will show the realities of 21st century librarianship in the entertaining and appealing context of American movies. Dozens of interviews with real librarians will be intercut with film clips of cinematic librarians in order to examine such issues as stereotyping, censorship and intellectual freedom, books and literacy, library funding, equal access ~ in short, the whole impact of librarians in our culture and society.”

Library Journal mentions that a private source donated $50,000 as “seed money” so the library consultant who is producing the documentary can work full time on the film. Apparently she’s already spoken about this project at over 25 different events and is now able to stop doing presentations and focus on the film, even though the website implies that she is still looking for sponsors even while filming.

I will be curious to see this film when it comes out. Don’t know when that will be, so until then I will leave you with MY favorite librarian anti-stereotype:

Conan the Librarian!

As always, I seem to be a catalyst for change in my environment. Go figure. And most of the changes I influence tend to be related to technology. Again, go figure.

One of my current projects is a redesign of our library website. The current library website is at http://www.butler.edu/library if you want to take a gander at it in its current state. It hasn’t changed much over the last four years, but it will THIS year! I’m getting input from the other librarians about features and that kind of thing, and we’re working on coming up with terms that are what the USERS would think of, instead of library terms. For example, “Electronic Resources.” Well, DUH! Isn’t anything I’d access through the website Electronic? “Library Services” is another, and almost every library website uses it. But it’s really not obvious what that means, since there are various kinds of services, all coming from the library, and they’re not typically listed only under Library Services. Since so many online databases include books, journal articles, statistics, abstracts, and more, the line is continuously blurring. And with products like METALIB being developed, which can search across databases, including the library’s own catalog, it’s even less necessary to delineate WHERE you’re searching. People just want to find the information!

We’re also strongly considering offering library reference services over IM, as well as more strongly promoting our email-based reference services. I very well may be switching back to Trillian or GAIM so I can manage multiple connections better. (Any comments from you readers about the best IM program for merging multiple IM accounts into one interface?)

Other fun changes are probably coming down the pike, but I have to wait to say anything about them until they’re active (which could take a while). Have I mentioned lately that I love being a librarian again?
Current music: Mozart’s Requiem - a perfect CD for a rainy Good Friday morning

Okay, Michael Gorman is the president-elect of ALA, the American Library Association. In a recent edition of Library Journal, he wrote an article (op-ed), called “Where do they find these people?” - http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA502009.

There are library-related listservs (not to mention BLOGS) that are having a FLURRY of responses and discussions because of Gorman’s statements. Apparently this started (in part, anyway) because of someone calling him an idiot on their blog: http://www.livejournal.com/users/crasch/327213.html, but it also, to give him the benefit of the doubt, could stem from a disbelief on his part that the technology in question is actually beneficial to the world of information and scholarship.

A couple of quotes from his article:

“It is obvious that the Blog People read what they want to read rather than what is in front of them and judge me to be wrong on the basis of what they think rather than what I actually wrote. Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs. In that case, their rejection of my view is quite understandable.”

and

“If a fraction of the latter were devoted to buying books and providing librarians for the library-starved children of California, the effort would be of far more use to humanity and society. Perhaps that latter thought will reinforce the opinion of the Blog Person who included “Michael Gorman is an idiot” in his reasoned critique, because no opinion that comes from someone who is “antidigital” (in the words of another Blog Person) could possibly be correct. For the record, though I may have associated with Antidigitalists, I am not and have never been a member of the Antidigitalist party and would be willing to testify to that under oath. I doubt even that would save me from being burned at the virtual stake, or, at best, being placed in a virtual pillory to be pelted with blogs. Ugh!”

Seems like he got was he was dreading. Maybe if he’d kept his criticism about the technology and not about the people, he wouldn’t have drawn as large of a response.

I like this rejoinder someone posted on Web4Lib, a listserv I subscribe to.

“I think what he actually meant to say was something along the lines of:

‘A blog is a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable — except for ALA literary award winners such as Orson Scott Card [ornery.org] or Neil Gaiman [neilgaiman.com] or Sherwood Smith [livejournal.com] or David Brin [blogspot.com] or Jane Yolen [janeyolen.com] or Dianne Duane [blogspot.com] or, oh, bugger, you know, all those other ALA award-winning authors who also blog, not that I want to imply that ALA award-winning librarians who blog, like Kathleen de la Peña McCook [blogspot.com], are bad either, and oh, yeah, I definitely don’t want to seem to be criticizing PLABlog [plablog.org], the brand new blog of the Public Library Association [pla.org], especially not when we put out a nifty little press release [ala.org] crowing about it, just last month, because that would look pretty stupid, now, wouldn’t it — er, um, what was I saying, again?’” http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=140584&cid=11775329

Here’s another fun one: http://scanblog.blogspot.com/2005/02/revenge-of-codex-people.html

Current music: Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D