5-23-05: SLA 2005 Conference Blog update
The SLA 2005 Conference Blog has sprung to life with pre-conference posts. It's also now linked from the SLA home page.
I haven't quite decided what I will post here as opposed to on the official conference blog, but perhaps that will become obvious once I get to Toronto.
5-20-05: fingerprints as library cards?
People seem to be very excited about the Naperville Public Library System's decision to use fingerprints to authenticate public computer users (as reported in the Chicago Tribune today). I was trying to explain to someone why this is scary, or why it is different than all of the other information that is collected from us all the time. We both agreed that fingerprints seemed much scarier than library cards, even if the same amount of personal information is tied to both. Finally (after the conversation was over, of course) it dawned on me that it's because of all of the other things that may be tied to your fingerprint. I don't want to use my fingerprint as my library identification for the same reasons I don't want to use my social security number as my library identification (or as my employee ID—my employer recently stopped using SSNs as employee IDs). If that fingerprint, or number, fell into the wrong hands (ha!) they could accomplish some very frightening things.
But here's another reason to be afraid: using fingerprints may actually be less secure than other means of identification.
Your fingerprint can be stolen with far less effort than it takes to get your alphanumeric password. Every time you touch an object you are leaving your biometric 'password' behind. (Anil's Doublespeak [via LibraryPlanet.com])
5-18-05: Ranganizzle. Holla back!
OK, so izzle-speak is so old that even Snoop Dogg's over it. So old, in fact, that librarians have discovered it. But don't let that stop you from translating diy librarian using Gizoogle. Check it out. Read wisdom like, I'm "worried thizzay I wizzay have mizzay time to blizzay," from yours truly.
5-13-05: please subscribe to the new feed
Please subscribe to the new feed. A recent study has proven that the old feed is the equivalent of eating bacon grease, while the new feed is both delicious and nutritious. Also, since I'm doing this by hand, I'm only going to update the new feed after this post. So if you want to keep up with me, the new feed is the way to go.
One more thing: Happy Friday the 13th.
5-13-05: SLA 2005 Conference Blog
I don't know if SLA has announced this publicly yet, but the conference blog is up. I'm pretty excited about participating, but worried that I won't have much time to blog at the conference. And no, the lack of wireless access will not be what's holding me back, because my laptop doesn't have wireless capabilities. I'm old school like that. (Although I am contemplating getting high-speed internet at home. It will be a big step from the modem connection, but sometimes I get distracted while waiting for a page to load, wander off to make a sandwich, and forget to come back to the computer.)
5-6-05: and speaking of comics and librarians...
The Baltimore Sun has a story about science comics, and of course they talk about Jim Ottaviani, nuclear engineer, librarian, and comic book writer. They also mention Jay Hosler, who I got to meet at SPX.
5-6-05: when it all comes together
If monkey + library + comic is the best combination ever, then Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science applied to comics is the challenger for the title. [via librarian.net]
On a related note, the cover story of my local newspaper's weekend section is about Free Comic Book Day. Don't forget, it's tomorrow!
5-5-05: DIY slides (without PowerPoint)
Jessamyn (librarian.net) has made her presentation template available for downloading under a Creative Commons license. She makes slides in HTML, with stylesheets for viewing and printing.
I often do presentations without PowerPoint also—by simply forgoing slides altogether. I only use slides when I need them, which is usually to show something visual like an organization chart, rather than something textual like (ack!) a bulleted list.
5-4-05: if I could be a librarian
So there's this new meme going around, If I could be a... and one of the choices is "If I could be a librarian..." So we librarians, loving lists as we do, and loving professional introspection as we do, are curious how people finish "If I could be a librarian..." And yes, as Anna points out, it is rather frustrating to read things like:
If I could be a librarian....I would spend most of my day with my nose buried in a book.
But I don't think most people really think that we spend all day reading. I doubt this blogger thinks that is an accurate depiction of librarianship any more than this is an accurate depiction of farming:
If I could be a farmer.....I would grow fields upon fields of lavender. I would have a small group of cows mincing around somewhere ... I would live in a beautiful big 12 bedroom farmhouse with a verandah that went all the way around the outside, and I would refurbish my farmhouse into a Bed and Breakfast.
I've always wondered, when we sit around bemoaning our public image, if other professions are any happier with the way they are perceived. I mean, plumbers can't be happy with their stereotype, can they?
Anyway, this was fun, and I just want to quote my favorite line out of this meme:
If I could be a missionary... I would point out that there are so many more positions.
5-3-05: NIH Public Access Policy
One of the most relevant parts of Michael Carroll's talk ("Expanding the Web: the Movement Toward Open Access", presented at the APLIC-I 38th Annual Conference, March 30, 2005, Philadelphia) for me was his discussion of the NIH Public Access Policy. I'm interested in the implications for the Open Access movement, for libraries, and for the publishing industry, of course. But what I really need to know, now, is what to tell my clients, most of whom receive funding from NIH.
The basic issue is that NIH wants to provide public access to federally-funded research while publishers want to protect their profits, and researchers, who need to publish in peer-reviewed journals in order to get tenure, are caught in the middle. Martin Frank sums up the quandry of researchers:
having to choose between pleasing their funding agency or their publisher, both of which are equally important career-wise. (quoted in Life After the NIH, Library Journal, April 15, 2005)
The NIH, in its Public Access Policy implementation guidance, briefly addresses the copyright conundrum:
Authors and/or their institutions should ensure that their PMC submissions are consistent with any other agreements, including copyright assignments that they may have, or enter into, with publishers or other third parties.
So, in short, the onus of negotiating between access and restrictive publishers' contracts remains on the researchers (and by extension on their institutions). I wonder what role libraries should play? (Not in the Open Access movement itself, but in providing guidance to our clients--users, patrons, customers, whatever.) As the librarian for a NIH-funded research center, what, if anything, should I tell my researchers as the new NIH policy goes into effect? (It was effective yesterday, actually.)
I agree with Carroll that the leadership and initiative for Open Access must come from tenured faculty. But they will have to make conscious coices about which journals they publish their work in. I guess it will take quite some time for the prevailing culture of academic publishing to change.
This is kind of old news, but I didn't get a chance to write about it at the time because I was trying to finish the site redesign before posting.
My favorite library conference is the very small annual conference held by APLIC-I. I enjoy the conference so much partly because it is so small and specialized. I get a chance to talk to colleagues who really understand the problems I face every day. And, while it may not bring in big-name speakers, I think the presentations are often better for it. The speakers are often more willing to do a little research to understand their audience -- many times the speakers are APLIC-I members and understand their audience perfectly.
While I'm heaping praises on it, I should mention that I am on APLIC-I's board of directors and thus a member of the conference planning committee. The reasons I wanted to be on the board, though, are exactly the reasons I mentioned.
All of this is a roundabout way of saying that I'm finally getting around to blogging about this year's conference, which was held March 28-30 in Philadelphia. I'm just going to mention a few of the highlights for me. If you're curious, you can look at the conference program.
On Monday, we toured the Library Company of Philadelphia. Another advantage of a small conference is being able to take all of the attendees on a tour. I have a bad tendency to have difficulty mustering enthusiasm for historical sites, especially from the period covered by this collection (colonial to the end of the 19th century). This tour, however, was truly interesting, and the librarians did a great job of seeking out items in their collections that would appeal to APLIC-I (for instance, books and pamphlets on reproductive and sexual health).
The highlight on Tuesday was a talk by Michael Carroll from Villanova, who is on the board of directors of Creative Commons. Everyone raved about the talk. Carroll was both clear and engaging (perhaps not what we expected from a lawyer) and I loved watching the reactions to Creative Commons' short film Get Creative. One really exciting thing for me was finding out about Yahoo!'s Creative Commons search -- and going back to my hotel room, logging on, and discovering that diy librarian shows up in the search. In fact, right now it's the second result if you search for "diy".
A traditional part of the APLIC-I conference experience is the banquet. This year it was held at the Marrakesh: Authentic Moroccan Restaurant (whose website appears to be temporarily down). Not that the APLIC-I group is particularly uptight or anything, but it was still fun to see a group of librarians rip into a whole cooked chicken with their hands (no utensils here!).
On Wednesday, Susan Rohner and Claire Twose gave a presentation on the Population Digital Library they created at Johns Hopkins. I was a bit skeptical about the project when I first heard of it, but after their talk I'm pretty excited about what they've accomplished. They really see the digital library as more than just a collection of links on a website.
Tuesday and Wednesday also featured panel discussions called "APLIC Librarians Respond to Change", which was an opportunity to hear semi-formal talks from our members. It was interesting just to hear how each participant chose to look at change; some focused on increasing electronic resources, some on funding shifts (something that can be very common in population and reproductive health), and some on organizational change. I participated in the panel on the second day, but I don't have any kind of formal presentation or even notes to post here. Towards the end of my talk, I got distracted because I thought I had used up my time allotment (when in fact I wasn't even close) and strayed completely from my notes. In the end, perhaps my talk was better without those few paragraphs anyway.
Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday, May 7. The selection of free comics looks good, including a new Owly story. So go get your free comics!
I've been wearing a Free Comic Book Day pin on my jacket for several weeks, and it's a great conversation starter. At the bus stop, in the elevator, in bars, people all want to know if it's for real. Yes, I say, there is such a thing as a free comic! I've been such a good promoter that my local comics shop has promised me a generous commission (50% of free) plus FREE COMICS.
Free Comic Book Day was also reported on LISNews.com and YALSA is one of the supporters.
All content on this website, unless otherwise noted, was created by Tara Murray and is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
