(Data)base! How low can you go?

October 21, 2009 at 5:15 pm (access, collection development, databases, innovation, leadership, management)

Still waiting to hear from the state what’s going on with POWER library.  My sources tell me it might be a while.  And, as that veritable sage Tom Petty once put it, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

The plus side to waiting, though, is that you have plenty of time to scheme plan and agitate collaborate.  It’s always good to have a plan, and it’s about time you heard a little more about some of the fine people I work with, and what we do.

I will do my best to make these topics as “sexy” as possible, but sometimes there’s just no way to dress up a skunk:  librarians care, and very deeply, about electronic resources.  Patrons tend not to know, or care, how the magicians do their tricks…until the money runs out, and resources are cut.  I provide this information anyway, in the hopes that it will be useful to someone.

Allegheny County Databases 101

Library users in Allegheny County have access to three levels of database service, provided in different ways.  Let’s take it from the top down.

Pennsylvania POWER Library

This is the suite of electronic resources that is available to all libraries in the commonwealth. It is currently paid for by the state of Pennsylvania, but based on the 57.1% reduction to the line item that includes these resources, its future is uncertain.  These databases are selected and purchased by either the state library or a statewide committee of library staff, I believe–someone please correct me if this is not so.  It’s a tad shrouded in mystery, and I’d like a little more transparency on the process, myself…

EREC Databases

The Electronic Resources Evaluation Committee is a committee of the Allegheny County Library Association.  It is composed of librarians who represent different geographical regions within the county, as well as staff from the Electronic Information Network, a/k/a EIN, which currently handles the statistics reporting and tech troubleshooting for countywide electronic resources.   EREC purchases are funded from a variety of sources, which makes deciding issues about their administration (including tech support and stats-keeping) a touch complicated.

All databases selected by EREC are available to all library cardholders in Allegheny County, regardless of which library issued their card.  The committee meets once a month to decide which products to keep or cancel, discuss other electronic products on the market, set up trials, discuss the outcome of trials, and generally keep tabs on the state of library electronica. 

Individual Library Subscriptions

Each of the county’s libraries–and there are quite a lot that are not part of the CLP system–has the option to purchase individual database subscriptions with their collection development budgets.

CLP has its own Database Selection Committee (DBSC), which is made up of representatives from both Main Library and the branches, who make decisions about what, if any resources, we want to buy for CLP cardholders on top of what the county and state provide. Individual subscriptions have pros and cons, which we will examine more in detail when we discuss the patrons’-eye view of all this.

Everybody with me so far?  All righty then:

Chain Lightning

When all is working well, this three-tiered system actually functions more like an equilateral triangle, with all limbs in perfect balance, resting on a solid base.  If Bob Ross were here to paint it, he might call it a happy little triangle.

In our current situation, however, with steep budget cuts to POWER that could very well eliminate the majority of the subscription databases, a chain reaction has begun.

The current posse of fine folks on EREC are currently creating a survey, meant to be distributed to staff countywide, so they can provide feedback on what resources are key for them and their patrons.  A patron-friendly version of the survey, which will appear on the county database page, will glean info from library users.

The surveys will, hopefully, tell EREC a few important things it needs to know, namely:

  1. Which databases are most useful to library staff.
  2. Which databases are most useful to patrons.
  3. Which POWER library databases EREC should try to purchase if the state drops their subscriptions.
  4. Which EREC databases we should cancel to make room to pick up POWER subscriptions.

Do you see the bind that crops up there with points 3 and 4?  Given that the public library subsidy was cut 20% statewide, chances are good that EREC will have LESS money to spend in 2010, it will boil down to canceling some resources in order to save others.

Good times.

Whatever choices EREC makes will trickle down to individual libraries.  If, for example, a particular database is canceled countywide, each individual library may choose to research pricing, and make a purchase for its own cardholders.  Given that many vendors do their pricing by population served and/or number of cardholders, electronic resources are less expensive the smaller your service area gets.

The only problem there is that it creates little “service ghettos,” in which the quality of electronic access varies widely depending on how much collection money a library has to dedicate to databases.  This is what we library professionals like to call “uncool.”

The Patron Perspective

Patrons don’t care who buys what, what standards they use, or where the monies come from.  They simply want what they want.  This is human nature, and I am at peace with it.

Besides, look at it from the average patron’s point of view.  To her/him, does it matter who bought what for whom?  Nope.  S/he just wants the information, not an object lesson on service models.  And when s/he asks why s/he has access to some databases and not others, there’s currently no way to answer this question without boring the living daylights out of the poor patron.

If I ruled the world…

As you may have gathered, I think about these issues quite a bit.  I’ve been immersed in this stuff for about two years now, so I’ve certainly had plenty of time to consider it.  I’ve served on the DBSC and EREC, and then suddenly found myself as chair of both. 

From a certain perspective, this makes the job a lot easier:  when I get pricing for things, I can measure twice and cut once.  However, wearing multiple hats also forces me to think about everything twice as long and twice as hard.  What’s really in everybody’s best interests?  What is the solution that will be best for my library and its patrons, as well as other libraries and their patrons?

I’ve come to the conclusion that, in most cases, it really makes more sense to buy databases on a countywide level, especially databases that give access to full-text journal articles.  It seems ridiculous to have an army of little full-text fiefdoms – better to make the purchase on a wider scale, making as many journal articles available to as many people as possible.

In a way, this is not unlike the argument for opening up the gifted curriculum to students of all levels.  Trips to the ballet, and chess lessons, and visits to art museums, are just the ticket for the high-achievers.  But perhaps, if the “regular” or “under-performing” kids had those opportunities as well, it would cause them to flourish and grow?  While every library should be free to spend its individual collection budgets as it sees fit, I can think of very few situations where a boutique database is needed.

Obviously, there are exceptions, and sometimes pricing on a countywide scale is prohibitive.  Why shouldn’t a library pick up that would please its patrons if countywide pricing is not feasible?  Still, if I ruled the world, I’d do a complete overhaul of the current three-tier system.  Here are some of the changes I’d make:

  1. There would be a countywide database coordinator whose sole responsibility would be the care and feeding of the EREC databases.
  2. That person’s duties would include, but not be limited to:  researching products, designing and producing promotional brochures, scheduling–and, if necessary, teaching–training sessions, creating Camtasia and/or video tutorials for staff and patrons, maintaining an electronic resources blog to keep everybody in the county abreast of electronica, serving as liaison to EREC and whomever selects state resources, as well as being a consultant for libraries on an individual basis.
  3. And speaking of the state, a huge part of this person’s job would be to let some sunshine in on just exactly how those POWER databases are selected.  They’d also be responsible for promtion of and training on state-provided resources.
  4. If, after closer examination it was felt that was the best solution, this person would also be responsible for database tech support and statistics gathering for all the county libraries.
  5. Given the scope of 2 & 3, this person should be compensated A Very Lot.   Perhaps not as much as a director, but definitely more than the average librarian. 
  6. A subscription to The Charleston Advisor should be part of this person’s benefits package. Either that or the agency that employed him/her should pick up the tab.

You can see why I won’t be put in charge of anything anytime soon.  I can just hear you now:  “Where, foolish dreamer, is there money for that in this current economic climate?”

My only response on that point is, you get what you pay for.

If you have made it to the end of this post with your eyeballs still firmly lodged in their sockets, I salute your fortitude.  Blathering about all this has been helpful for me because I have been asked to give not one, but two, presentations about databases within the next few months, and spilling it out in a blog entry has been insanely helpful in terms of brainstorming what I want to say.

Comments / questions / clarification?  Let me know.

2 Comments

You can’t spell intern without “ni!”: Stuff I’ve learned.

August 25, 2009 at 4:28 pm (blogging, collection development, creativity, databases, humor, leadership, management, professional development, web resources)

If that subject header had you scratching your noggin, click here for elucidation.  For the rest of you, on with the story!

For the past few months, my workload rose to such a pitch that half-joking plea for an intern had become part of my regular rotation of requests.  Call it manifestation or plain old nagging, but when an opportunity appeared mid-summer, yours truly was given an intern…er, 1/2 an intern.  In Solomonic fashion, Tanya split her time here at Main between the stacks and shelving department, and helping me with tasks in Ref. Services.

Having her around has been educational.  For one thing, Tanya’s not planning to make librarianship a career, though she was intrigued that there were such things as medical libraries and librarians.  Working with her has forced me to re-examine everything I do, because I know I’m going to have to explain/justify it to a non-library person.  It’s also forced me to be even better organized, because I want to make her time here useful and educational – that means having tasks ready, and not just tasks, but a variety of tasks, so that she gets a well-rounded experience.

On top of that, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to model that one behavior I hope to someday perfect–the art of dropping everything and paying attention to her when she has a question–as well as other behaviors worth having in the bag of tricks:  patience, a sense of humor, problem-solving skills, diplomacy, flexibility and creativity.   We had a teachable moment just this morning, in which I was having difficulty exporting data from Millennium Create List, and I had to ask one of my peers for a reminder/refresher on the spot–not sure if that was more educational for her or for me!  But still, the point was made:  even the nominal leader gets stuck, and needs to ask for help.

Here are some of the things Tanya’s helped me with so far:

  • mass mailings
  • weeding (literal and digital)
  • creating digital booklists
  • creating displays
  • database evaluations [seeing how a non-library person perceived our electronic resources was insanely valuable]
  • collection development (print and digital)
  • searching for missing items
  • shadowing at the reference desk

She also wrote a very nice Eleventh Stack post describing her internship, both at Main and at the Carrick branch, where she spent the first part of her summer. If the point of internships is to educate folks on just how important library service is to the community, I’d have to say “mission accomplished” on this one. I can’t really take the credit for that, per se, but I’m glad I played a small part in helping her have a good library experience.

As for me, I was a lot more comfortable in a leadership role this time than I was last time, when I supervised the Help Desk workers. Funny what time and, hopefully, a little maturity, can do! I am still not 100% convinced it’s the direction in which I want to take my career, but I now know that I could become a good manager if I were willing to work at it. So the real question is, what would make me happy?  Although I’m pro-money, and fond of regular meals, I’m a little more concerned with other levels on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs at this point in my life.

If and when I ever get a handle on that, I’ll let you know. And if that last paragraph shocked you, you should hear about my backup plan just in case this whole librarian thing doesn’t work out. No, not the goat farm – that’s the retirement plan.

I have a few writing topics I’m going to defer until September, as they revolve around specific timed events.  There are a few things saved in my newsreader that I want to warble about, but for now, let’s leave it open-ended.  Your alchemist also takes requests, so if there’s something you’d like me to write about, do leave a comment.

5 Comments

Sorkinesque (a day in the life, part I)

July 29, 2009 at 6:04 pm (ALA Annual 2009, Twitter, blogging, collection development, conferences, databases, day in the life, humor, leadership, management, news, personal, philosophizing, professional development, reader's advisory, traditional library services)

Intro/Backstory
Yes, it really did take me that long to finish and post those meeting minutes!  The reasons why will become apparent shortly.  But first, some backstory.

Last week various colleagues posted the news in various forums that another one of those “day in the library life” blogging events was going to take place.  I love those things.  I never sign up for them, though, because, realistically, if I stopped to write down everything I was doing in a given moment, I’d never get anything done.  And then I thought, well, what better way to demonstrate that a normal day in my life is very much like an episode of Aaron Sorkin’s Sports Night than to take a crack at it?

[Those of you who don't know from Sports Night are cordially invited to check out the DVD and see what all the fuss is about - even though starting with anything other than the pilot might seem counterintuitive, I highly recommend starting with "Dear Louise," "Shoe Money Tonight," and "Small Town" to get a feel for the characters, their workplace, and their relationship to each other. It's a wonderful show about a close-knit group of professionals who are extremely passionate about what they do, to the point of appearing like complete ciphers to folks who don't work in their field. Sound like any other professional folks you know? :) ]

So, without further ado, here is a reconstruction, based on my frantically scribbled notes, of everything that took place in my library life on Monday, July 27, 2009.

Library Alchemy: A Day in the Life

Part I – Off-desk

9:30:  Check the desk schedule, add my desk shifts to my Outlook calendar.  Exchange witty banter with colleagues.  Laugh self into pancreatic pain.

9:40:  Finish up ALA expense report and bring it to my boss.  Chat with boss about database stuff, which segues into a philosophical discussion of future staffing models for the reference department.  Return to office.  Field questions from colleague about the exact same stuff was just discussing with boss.  More philosophy ensues.

10:00 Open up e-mail.  Answer the time-sensitive stuff.  Answer flurry of questions about Twitter and HootSuite.  Get another chunk of the Twitter gang signed up with HootSuite accounts and schedule trainings for those who want it.  Discover the “most popular Tweets” feature in HootSuite and squee over it.  Put aside a whack of database reference cards to give to a branch colleague at the Friday meeting.  More e-mail with various blog staffers in an attempt to coordinate some guest posts for September. Decline to take a call from a vendor and proceed to feel guilty about it.

A colleague drops by to check in with me about the school tour I’m giving this afternoon.  The group  has changed its mind several times on whether or not it wants catalog and database training.  The colleague and I decide that asking them what they want is the best solution.  Photocopy catalog and database training handouts for tour group.  Run over training in my head while at the photocopier.  A colleague walks by, greeting me with the mysterious phrase, “PEANUT SAUCE!”  I respond with the countersign, “SCALLIONS!”  Tamp down nervousness about giving catalog and database training, which never seems to go away no matter how many tours and trainings I do.  Accept that fear is normal.  Recite the Litany Against Fear anyway.

11:00 Break time. Decide to take a walk around the building. Ask colleague how her Friday evening presentation went. Ask another colleague about bloggish things. Say hello and good morning to countless other colleagues. Receive a lovely gift: an inspirational photo of a dandelion with the phrase “I release all that does not serve me” written on it. Hang photo on bulletin board.

11:15 Head over to book order. Discover that all of the non-fiction books mentioned in the 7/26 New York Times Book Review have either already been purchased, or are on order. Do vague skippy victory dance. Dive into the other ordering tools with gusto.  Decide that I should probably call back the vendor whose call I dodged and just tell her “thanks, no thanks” right up front. Get vendor’s voice mail. Quietly rejoice. Deliver polite, professional message and hang up, feeling 100s of pounds lighter.

12:00 Lunch. Chat with colleague in lunchroom about violins and music librarianship. Consume leftover peanut noodles with zest and start reading Work the System. Approve wholeheartedly of its emphasis on systems thinking and personal responsibility. Speculate on how its principles could be applied to my work life. Finish peanut noodles and head to the post office to mail a package to my mom. Study lines for the play I’m currently acting in while stuck in line at the post office.

1:00  Log into Eleventh Stack. Clean out spam filter, look at stats. Start rearranging widgets in sidebar based on a conversation taking place on the blog team distribution list. Start draft of next week’s blog post. Proofread a few scheduled posts. Read the post du jour and marvel again at how many awesome, creative people I’m surrounded with.

Log into the library’s Twitter account. Check for new followers. Block spam followers. Read followers’ tweets. Make mental note to remind everybody to use #pittsburgh in their tweets. Ping the rest of the Twitter team about HootSuite signup and training.

2:00 Meet the school tour group in the teen department. Immediately lose all normal vision when contact lens slides off center. Attempt several times to correct this subtly. Fail miserably. Start tour anyway, blind. Ignore rude noises produced by high school males and charitably assume that they are involuntary. Give tour of first and second floors, with special emphasis on Job and Career Center, based on group leader’s interests.

Ask about catalog and database training. Teacher says, “Whatever you think is best.” Decide to give the best catalog and database training ever and lead students to computer lab. Turn on projector. Wait. Fiddle with projector, silently coaxing it to cooperate. Decide projector has developed selective deafness. Give training without projector, using the computer at the lab attendant’s desk. Give thanks once again for theater and improv training.

3:00 Reassure long line of patrons waiting outside computer lab that yes, they can use the computers now. Check e-mail and discover that the wireless is down. Discover, also, that there are questions about my ALA reimbursement form. Silently consider starting a goat farm.

Start planning for Friday’s database committee meeting. Finish writing up June EREC meeting minutes, send to group, and post to ACLA wiki. Skim newsreader. Read an article that makes my heart sink and e-mail it to pertinent (and impertinent) parties. Skim “kept as new” items and decide to keep them marked because someday I will pay them the full attention they deserve, really!

Run downstairs to get coffee. Run into teen patron at coffeeshop. Engage in casual, stealth readers’ advisory with said teen. Run into hard-to-schedule colleague and set up a training time that is technically after my regular work hours, but is the only thing that will fit her schedule. Run back upstairs to my office.

Make list of tasks for my intern to work on on Tuesday. Walk down the hall to resolve the questions about my ALA reimbursement. Notice that the hallway smells strongly of french fries. Observe to colleague that, if the library were a musical, it would be at this point that we all burst into song about the joy of french fries. Stand still with colleague for a few seconds and imagine what this would sound like. Clear up questions about ALA reimbursement. Walk back to my office, inhaling deeply and smiling to self.

See? And we haven’t even made it to the reference desk yet! That deserves its own special installment, which I hope to deliver on Friday. Stay tuned!

1 Comment

Re-entry. Also, character.

July 21, 2009 at 5:42 pm (23ThingsN@, Emerging Leaders 2009, collection development, ethics, leadership, philosophizing, professional development, reviews)

Re-entry

The work doesn’t stop just because you go to a conference!  Between catching up on what I’ve missed, and the inexorable forward progress of projects and meetings, I’ve been a busy bee – far too busy to blog. It’s been a great exercise in applying all those leadership lessons from EL. Quietly and subtly, of course. :)

Today, though, with my official ALA report complete and good progress made on most of my major projects, I can afford a quick end-of-day check-in.

The key item on which to report is that this is the last week of 23 Things ‘n @, and while we’ll have to wait a bit for the exit survey results, the comments on this week’s post are, for the most part, positive. Here are my gut instincts on what we could do differently next time to improve the learning experience:

  • Cap registration.  Following 250 blogs and trying to make sure everybody felt supported / listened to was pretty darned exhausting, even for four people as awesome as the members of Team Celery Stick.  Smaller cohorts would allow us to give people more individualized attention
  • Offer various “flavors” of “thing” for each skill level.  Example:  When talking about YouTube, have the absolute beginners FIND a video, have the fairly comfortable folks EMBED a video, and have the really advanced folks MAKE and POST a video.  No value judgments – just OPTIONS.  A lot of really highly-skilled people dropped out, and while the program sort of wasn’t aimed at them, we have a responsibility to make sure our advanced learners get even more opportunities to advance.
  • Recruit graduates of this cohort to help teach the next cohort – not only would this spread the work around, it would give graduates of the first cohort the chance to enhance their skills by passing them on.

Just some gut thoughts.  I’ll have survey results/excerpts for you soon, I hope.

Character

It’s funny how, sometimes, there’s a theme to everything you do in a particular week.  During this ALA re-entry period, the theme in my work life appears to be character.  Or maybe it’s just because, for professional reading, I’m knee-deep in The Speed of Trust. Whatever the case may be, I’ve been paying particular attention to situations where integrity and other elements of character have come up, and been more aware of my own actions.

You’ll pardon me if that sounds cryptic.  There’s nothing specific I can put my finger on – I’m just noticing these things more – again, possibly an aftereffect of Emerging Leaders.  There seem to be a hundred thousand opportunities to demonstrate character/integrity at work, every day, especially during challenging economic times.

The Pennsylvania legislature, for example, continues to astound me with its blatant disregard for electronic resources.  Yesterday they passed a version of H.B. 1416, the most recent budget proposal, that completely eliminates funding for AskHere PA and the Pennsylvania POWER library.  Although it would be easy to hit the ceiling and break out the pitchforks and torches, I am determined to remain classy.  Ergo, rather than begin any partisan mudslinging, I’ll simply let you compare all the budget proposals on hand and draw your own conclusions. Needless to say, if this version of the budget ultimately triumphs, it’s a huge blow to library service in PA…and it drives me crazy that electronic resources are seen as “extras” or “pork” in the budget, when they’re actually a lifeline to thousands of people statewide.

But it’s not just the big issues; character is revealed in the little things, too. It’s in the way we talk to our colleagues, the way we share (or don’t share) information, the way we seek (or don’t) for win-win solutions. Everything that comes up in a day is grist for the mill, an opportunity to be classy or not so much.

And here’s the kicker: how do you choose to behave when there won’t necessarily be a reward for good behavior? Salary freezes and benefit cuts are the new normal, so it’s not like there’s a financial incentive to behave with integrity. If you take away the monetary rewards, and the future looks uncertain, what’s your motivation to show up, do a good job, treat your colleagues fairly, etc.?

As ever, I have no answers. I simply ask prickly questions! Some people have religious beliefs to guide their choices. Others have personal codes of morals or ethics that aren’t necessarily grounded in a higher power. What criteria shape your choices? What does it mean to you to be a librarian with integrity?

On a slightly more fun closing note, I now have 1/2 an intern to help me with my tasks! I say “1/2″ because she’ll be splitting her time with me and someone in another department. She’ll be here until the end of August, and she’s already been a huge help to me today – finished mailing out those Mango bookmarks, started weeding our LibraryThing account, and got a crash course in collection development with some catalogs I brought back from ALA (independent publishers, mostly).

From a leadership point of view, having an intern is fun-scary – I had to do a lot of planning to make sure she’d have things to do, and I want to be conscious of her having a good, well-rounded library experience (and not just do all the LAV scutwork – not ethical!). But it’s mostly a great opportunity to model the profession for somebody who is actually studying something else, and not necessarily going on to be a librarian.

So, I’ll probably have more to say about that as the month goes by. For now, though, I’m bound and determined not to blog until I get caught up on these darned EREC oommittee meeting minutes. We are now two meetings behind, and it’s not fair to blog when I’ve got actual accountability things to finish. What an incentive to be done, though!

Oh, and once it’s published, I have a thing or two to say about the last book review I wrote, and about book reviewing in general. You’ll see why…..

4 Comments

Working Harder AND Smarter – Thursday Update

May 28, 2009 at 4:35 pm (23ThingsN@, Emerging Leaders 2009, Learning 2.0, Twitter, blogging, collection development, databases, leadership, news, professional development, social justice, traditional library services)

Did I say Wednesday?  That didn’t happen, clearly.  But, rather than let this blog become a bluesy litany of “where does the time go,” I’ll confine myself to a quick project update:

Collection development:  The one sane thing in my workday.  It’s nice to go through NYTBR and see you already have all the hot nonfiction either in the collection or on order.  Score!

Eleventh Stack:  Also holding steady.  Hit count is slightly down, but still above last year at this time.  It also mirrors last year’s slight decline.  I don’t mind fewer readers over the summer, as long as it’s part of a larger pattern.  Still, all the more reason to sit down and think of ways to kick it up a notch..

23 Things N’@:  Week 4 is all about wikis, and everybody’s happy!  The range of experience and abilities continues to educate me on how we can do this better next time.  Definitely a move to a tiered-activity system is in order, IMHO, something along the lines of beginner/intermediate/advanced, so that people have options to choose from according to their experience/comfort level. That being said, holy project success!

Twitter: I have mixed feelings about how this is going, and would like to write more about it at length.  Long story short, it’s an easily managed, low-maintenance project, but I don’t know if it’s achieving our objectives.  More time may be called for.  We shall see.

Database Stuff (CLP):  We haven’t met for a while because our new quarterly renewal schedule has made the committee process more efficient.  It’s time for 3rd-quarter renewals, though, and a look at 1st-quarter stats.  Plus, me being me, I have some wild and crazy ideas to throw at the committee to see what they think.  Secretly I want a database promotion task force.  I will pay for jackets that say “Database promotion task force,” if given free rein. :)

Database Stuff (EREC/ACLA): Good news!  The deal went through, and the county has purchased a subscription to Mango Languages.   Our patrons really miss Rosetta Stone, and for the life of me, I still don’t understand WHY they chose to stop selling the database to public libraries.  We are hoping, however, that Mango will fill this critical gap – language learning is very popular here, and the wait list for materials is very, very long.  We’re working out the hookup kinks as we speak – stay tuned, because you know I’m going to try to learn about seven languages myself. :)

Oh, and all that above about task forces and jackets?  Add a blog and multiply by ten, and you’ll get an idea of what I’d love to achieve at the countywide level.  Girl’s gotta dream…

Emerging Leaders:  You’re probably wondering why I have barely discussed this at all.  I’ve been meaning to, but now I don’t have to, really, because the fine folks at In the Library With the Lead Pipe have spread it all out for you in a nutshell.

Emerging Leaders has been like boot camp. I am getting a lot out of it. I am not sure that what I am getting out of it is exactly what the program planners intended, but such is life. :) It’s difficult to capture the zeitgeist of this kind of experience in medias res, so I’ll probably not even try until after annual, when it’s all over and done with.

Alternative Media Task Force/Event Planning: My other ALA project! The group process on this particular project has been amazing. We are putting together the Alternative Media Reception / SRRT 40th anniversary celebration, and it’s going to be awesome. Stay tuned for the official announcement, because you’re really not going to want to miss it.

And just because it’s not nearly busy or exciting enough around here, guess where the next G20 summit is going to be held? It’s going to be one crazy summer at Alchemy, so stick around…bonus points if you can identify the Sports Night references in this post…

2 Comments

Snippets from the A-Team

April 16, 2009 at 7:55 pm (Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, Twitter, blogging, collection development, databases, traditional library services, virtual reference)

And by “A-Team,” I mean, of course, Team Alchemy.  I just love it when a plan comes together, though, and many things have blossomed this week.  Here’s a short progress report.

Collection Development

Got a compliment today – it was passed down from the coordinator of collection development, who appreciates the way Bonnie and I have worked out the ordering of pop culture/current events non-fiction. That’s really gratifying to hear, because we spend a lot of time making sure we’re not duplicating orders! Our LibraryThing account helps, and the rest of the staff in both our departments have been gracious about using it.

Refdesk

The question du jour concerned Slavic mythology. Do we have the best career, or what?

Virtual Reference

There’s a lot of rhetoric floating around about best practices and whatnot, so I’ll not dwell on this overmuch. Suffice to say, I think virtual reference is splendid for developing writing skills, and learning to adapt the reference interview to a text-based process is a never-ending course in professional development.

Of course, it’s also subject to Murphy’s Law: if I start conducting a reference interview, the patron asks for just a few quick links. If I start with links, the patron invariably reveals more info that cries for a reference interview. Definitely educational. :)

Eleventh Stack

In March the Eleventh Stack blog earned a record-high number of hits, and so far this year monthly visits are double those from 2008. On March 25th we were featured as one of WordPress’s top 100 growing blogs. Granted, we were only #98, but given how many WordPress blogs there are, I think that’s a pretty cool feat!

CLPicks

As of right now we’re up to 81 followers on Twitter, and our TwitterGrade has risen to 85. Again, not too shabby for a ragtag team of librarians trying something new. A goodish chunk of our followers are local people, too, not just my librarian friends/colleagues. Whew. :)

23 Things

Team Celery Stick (a subsidiary of Team Alchemy) opened up registration yesterday for our “23 Things ‘N ‘At” program – in one day we received 110 registrants countywide, so the bar is up there pretty high! Kelley, Ryan, Beth and I have risen to the occasion by setting up our wiki, creating the official program blog, and putting the final touches on our content.

Databases (CLP)

Working on 1st-quarter stats. Also spent some time doing scenario planning, in case of material budget cuts. It’s better to plan for things and not need them then vice versa, IMHO. And it’s a good exercise in seeing where you’re strong, collectionwise, in what formats.

Databases (countywide)

With much help from the committee, have set up four trainings for our suite of NetLibrary recorded books. They’ve just changed the interface and added iPod-compatible titles (hurray!), so we want to make sure the various libraries’ staffs are up to speed.

There’s more, but I think that’s enough for now. If I told you everything I did all day, you wouldn’t believe me! Although I wish I got more reference desk time, I’m really happy to be part of all the things I do on the daily. I definitely stretched out of my comfort zone with this job, and it’s taken me to places I never imagined I’d go.

From clerking to reader’s advisory librarian to nominal 2.0 person/reference librarian in 7 short years. Who knows what will happen next? It’s pretty exciting…

At any rate, I’ll be back next week with the results of the drawing for Slow Reading. Hope you all had a wonderful National Library Week!

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Book Review: Slow Reading

April 14, 2009 at 12:26 pm (Library 2.0, collection development, professional development, reader's advisory, reviews, traditional library services)

First in an occasional series of reviews for books published by Library Juice Press and/or Litwin Books. These are volunteer reviews, written gratis, done in the interest of getting coverage for library issues and publications that don’t always get as much professional press as they should.  Any omissions or errors are my own, and do not reflect the intentions of either the author or the publisher.  As ever, though, I pull no punches, but call ‘em like I see ‘em.

The Book:

Miedema, John. Slow Reading. Duluth, MN: Litwin Books, 2009. 78 pg. ISBN: 978-0-9802004-4-7. $12.00.

Summary:

In five short chapters/essays, Miedema defines slow reading and mounts a cogent defense of it in the face of technological advances that frequently predict the death of print.  Stressing the need for multiple reading experiences and ways of learning, Miedema’s short, yet powerful, book, should be required reading for library school students and library management who do not hold the MLIS, and have therefore been removed from the professional discourse around ways of reading and service to readers.

Analysis:

Face it:  if you had a dollar for every time you heard one of the technorati say that “print is dead”, you’d be able to thumb your nose at your 403(b) and set sail for the sun-drenched island of your choice.  Alas, until now, the response to such a deeply ignorant statement has been the sputtering incoherence of thousands of library workers who know better, but can’t cogently explain why because we’re too busy picking our jaws up off the floor or scraping our exploded brains off the ceiling. 

Thanks to John Miedema, those of us who recognize and advocate the value of books and paper now have a catchphrase of our own, a scholarly framework within which to compose our arguments, and a physical object to wave in the faces of those who would march us off to twopointopia willy-nilly.  “Slow reading,” a term grounded in the same ideology that informed the Slow Movement, is defined and contextualized by a body of scholarship from library science as well as literary criticism, and exemplifies a middle way that acknowledges various ways of reading and meaning-making in a calm, reasonable fashion.

Chapter highlights and key talking points include:

  • The roles of pleasure and comprehension in reading
  • The role of readers’ advisory, charmingly called “an uncertainty principle of library science.”
  • The truth behind such myths as “the paperless office” and the ways in which digital technologies have caused various aspects of the traditional library to thrive rather than perish.
  • Specific features and processes that distinguish reading print from reading online.
  • “E-books as metadata for print books” [a personal favorite section here - reviewer = biased]
  • A short history of the Slow Movement and its implications for reading and libararies.
  • Bibliotherapy in the context of “The Psychology of Slow Reading” [another underappreciated aspect of reading, IMHO]
  • Tips for becoming a slow reader [this short section could, and probably should, become its own book].

One of my greatest fears about librarianship is that we’re in danger, as a profession, of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  One of my frustations with our profession is that those people with opposing viewpoints or alternative solutions express themselves either so stridently that their opponents cannot find an entry point, or so quietly that their voices go entirely undetected.  Slow Reading strikes the perfect balance between these two extremes with credible scholarship and a concerned, yet measured, tone that allows the reader to accept Miedema’s arguments and weigh them against his/her own personal and professional experience.  This book is an essential purchase for library science curricula as well as public libraries in communities where one can obtain an MLIS.  It is also strongly recommended for medium-to-large academic libraries with strong programs in the humanities, as much of the research here will interest scholars in that discipline. 

In fact, I believe in this book so much that I will gladly share my galley with one lucky Alchemy reader who wants to learn more.  If you leave a comment on this entry between now and 4/16, you will be entered into a drawing to receive my review copy, gratis.  In fact, I’ll even pay for postage if you happen to be a faraway librarian.  Sorry, though – I can only make this offer to one reader – as the old-school record commercials used to say, if you don’t win, “You’ll have to get your own.”

Next regular update will be a project update and possible commentary on the astonishing head-scratcher of a National Library Week that’s off and running with a bang (Amazon FAIL) and a whimper (RIP Judith Krug :( ).

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Random alchemy update

February 20, 2009 at 5:55 pm (Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, Twitter, collection development, databases, humor, philosophizing, presentations, web resources)

It’s been a busy, exciting week. Here are a few of the many things going on in the alchemy lab.

We’ve Got Widgets

Ryan gave a brief training this morning on the widgets our IT department has developed. Good stuff. I’m now on a mission to discover if anybody’s created anything like Book Burro for A/V formats, and, if not, can IT build us one…

Twitter

Under the heading of “still somewhat secretive,” we’ve figured out a cool way to use Twitter that will work for our library, and yours truly is trying to coordinate the training / implementation effort. What’s really great about this is the sheer number of volunteers, and the sheer range of staff it covers (older, younger, timid, more adventurous, etc.). 2.0 technologies are becoming, for lack of a better word, ecumenical around here. It’s a lovely thing.

23 Things

The Allegheny County version of a 23 Things learning program has made all kinds of progress since last I brought it up. We have four technology playgrounds scheduled, one in each region except Central (more on this in a bit). Staff who attend will get a chance to play with Flip cameras and other geegaws, and learn about blogging and other social tools, as an appetite-whetter for the program itself, which will start near the end of April. Team Celery Stick (don’t ask) is meeting next week to keep the momentum going.

CLP Technology Playground

A cross-departmental group, which includes Ryan, Irene and me, has been planning a technology event for the public, scheduled for 4/25/09. We’ve reached the point where we know what activites we’re going to have, and how to staff them; what resources we want to show off; and what sorts of prizes/incentives we’d like to offer for participants. Now we’re working with Communication and Creative Services to create publicity and day-of props/handouts. My role in this phase has been creating draft copy, and Kaarin and I worked on revisions this afternoon.

Database stuff

This past week I accepted the role of chair on the EREC committee, which is responsible for recommending the purchase of electronic resources at the county level. The group is utterly fabulous, full of good ideas and wisdom/experience, and based on our meeting yesterday, I think 2009 will be a good year, despite challenges.

The state of subscription databases in a Google age is an interesting one. The committee has an opportunity to try some new things this year, and maybe take some risks (? – we can start small!). The outgoing chair, Ann, has given me a checklist of things to think about and work on, so I’ll be spending a lot of time on that in days–and entries–to come.

Weeding

Nothing like some old-school library work to ground you after all the meetings and the planning! I’m almost done with the LC circulating collection, weeding primarily for duplicates and poor condition, but I’ve also got some notes and lists on things we could use. I’m also moving some things from circ to reference. Dewey and reference collections to follow later this year…

When Technology Fails

Our computer network (internet, ILS and all) was down between noon and 3 p.m. today. Some patrons were unhappy and left, but there were plenty of other folks who stayed behind to read, study, and use non-computer resources. Customer Service was able to use offline functions to check out patrons’ materials, and it was actually kind of fun, in a creative way, to see exactly what sort of work could be accomplished without the Almighty Internet. Good practice for the zombie apocalypse, too.

A Touch of Sentiment

In a recent post on the experience economy, David Lee King provides notes on a presentation by Jane McGonigal. I’ll reproduce the money quote here:

Four key principles of happiness:

satisfying work to do
experience of being good at something
time spent with people we like
chance to be a part of something bigger

That’s the perfect description of a normal day around here, from my perspective. Of course, that condition begs the question, what do you do with your good fortune?

That’s one for pondering over a leisurely weekend. Next week, more alchemical whimsy, workload depending…

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Book ‘em, Facebook! You too, MySpace.

November 18, 2008 at 7:38 pm (Facebook, Library 2.0, MySpace, collection development, news, traditional library services)

The fine folks at TechCrunch recently blogged about two tell-all books on social media. As the pop-culture collection developer, I put these on my Outlook calendar to remember for later. But it was the last paragraph of the article that raised my eyebrows.

Books about current events are starting to make less and less sense. By the time they’re finished the stories in them are usually old news. That’s certainly the case with Angwin’s MySpace book. Perhaps Kirkpatrick will write a little more quickly.

The implication here seems to be that unless a book on pop culture is hip, happening and with it, it’s of no use to anyone.  Given that all history was, at one point, “current events,” methinks somebody forgot that we’re also supposed to be preserving the Long Tail. Does Arrington think future generations won’t want to know what on earth we were thinking, way back in the Spring of Aught Nine?

At any rate, I did a quick catalog check to see what goodies we currently have to offer on these two popular social networks.  Most of our collection consists of practical user manuals or money-making guides, but one intriguing title appears from Connie Neal. What makes this guide interesting is that a) it’s published by Zondervan, which specializes in Christian books, and b) Neal has already served as a successful pop-culture apologist for another worldwide social phenomenon. Can she provide effective counterarguments to Andrew Keen’s pessimism? I think I’m going to have to order the book and find out!

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November Update from Your Multitasking Alchemist

November 4, 2008 at 8:36 pm (Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, Twitter, blogging, collection development, conferences, databases, humor, personal, philosophizing, presentations, professional development, web resources)

The leaves fall, the temperature drops, and the days between blogging pass like a dream.  It’s still very busy in my world, but I thought I’d take a few moments to briefly discuss what “busy” means this month.

It’s database renewal season, so I’m busy crafting an agenda for tomorrow’s meeting.  Quite a lot to discuss on a conceptual level too, as we’re considering expanding the committee’s charge to promotion and instruction.  If we’re really feeling ambitious, we might explore the possibility of having an e-resources committee that would cover e-audio and video formats, and expand membership to include stakeholders in those areas.  All up in the air, of course.

I’m currently at the refdesk.  Best question this evening so far, and a chance to practice explaining technology, involved blogging and live blogging.  The patron heard it discussed on TV, and called in because he didn’t know what those concepts meant.  This comforts me, that even in matters technological, some folks still turn to the library first.

Only one serious callback on the plate, but it’s a doozy.  The magazine writer who was impressed with our collective due diligence on the Robert Frost quote is back with more quotes.  Another Frost, a Vincent Lombardi, a random economist, etc.  Tracing quotation provenance is my favorite kind of question, but don’t tell the other librarians, or they’ll make me share.  Hee.

There are a lot of ordering tools on the table this week, so I think that will be tomorrow’s major endeavor.  There’s an Ingram Advance for next week, too, so I’d like to get a jump on that.  Friday is my next turn in the Eleventh Stack rotation, so I want to make sure that’s of the same high caliber our readers have come to expect.

In professional development news, I’m fussily revising my PaLA presentation and slides. Perfectionism can be a two-edged sword. Luckily, I really enjoy giving presentations and don’t get too nervous – after all, sharing with peers is good, and I appreciate the chance to talk about what my peers and I are trying over here. Tame the Web discussed presentations recently, and I found it a good, reassuring reminder of what’s important.

I’m also greedily devouring various bloggy dispatches from Internet Librarian via my newsreader. Since not everybody can go to every conference, the blogs and embedded presentations are invaluable. If I can ever make time to sit down and watch all that video, and read all that copy, I will gladly share the highlights!

Tweeting tonight’s shift, at intervals. I Tweet rarely, because there’s so much to do. There will always be more work to do, and I tend to work as if my hair is on fire. It is, however, a labor of love. There’s nothing like working in a public library. Nothing. Others might disagree, but then again, everyone has their niche in library world, which is what makes it great.

I think, to be a good public librarian, you have to love people, even when they are not very likeable. Last night I spent two hours on one transaction, and somewhere in the middle of that long conversation, I lost a contact lens. It was one of those moments that tries your soul, and makes you wonder if you really went to graduate school for this. I went home, put on my glasses, and briefly contemplated applying to the Peace Corps.

But the next day, when I came in, I learned that my colleagues had found my contact lens when I could not (being, after all, quite the blind). They rescued it, soaked it in their own saline, and stored it in an extra case they just happened to have handy. And one lovely, leafy printout from the color printer was on my desk, an extra left behind by that same patron I’d been helping. It’s a picture of a path leading into the woods, green and inviting, beckoning us on to goodness knows where.

And that, in a nutshell, is public library service: you make your way down the path as best you can, never knowing what will happen next, and sometimes tested by obstacles. But you are never alone on your journey, and there is always something lovely hidden around the next bend to remind you why you started off on the journey in the first place.

Until next month, probably, I remain….

LAV, library alchemist!

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