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Friday, March 28
Friday Fun Link - 2008 LJ Movers and Shakers (March 28, 2008)
by
Jason
on Fri 28 Mar 2008 09:39 PM CST
A recent post on Librarian.net reminded me that this year's list of Library's Journal's 2008 Movers & Shakers is now out. Congrats to Amy Buckland for getting the nod! (<old man voice>I remember when Amy was just a wee lass, firing off e-mails to library school-focused blogs asking about the merits of various schools.</old man voice> Obviously I didn't do a good enough sales job for UWO and she landed at McGill. London's loss is Montreal's gain.) Looking at the list of recipients and seeing how many of those named have blogs (and/or are doing work focused on technology and Web 2.0 stuff), it made me wonder what sort of relationship there is between having a blog and the "real world" of libraries? Classmate John Miedema of the Slow Reading blog recently presented at Salt Lake City Public Library's "Thinking Ahead" conference. I'm not sure if his blog was how they found him and/or if it helped lend credibility to his application if he "cold called" them as a potential speaker but I'm sure it didn't hurt.Maybe that's part of it - you need to have a certain specialty or theme that you're "known" for? (See #4 here.) Amy runs Library Student Journal, John has become a leading proponent of the Slow Reading movement. I haven't won any awards or been invited to any conferences because of my blog (yet!  ) but as I recently blogged about, it's been an amazing way to become connected to a wider library community that I wouldn't otherwise have in the pre-Internet days. (Of course, I also have my days when I think bloggers are a lot like poets and professors - namely, a group of people who are mostly interested in what other people in the same area are doing while no one else gives a toss. I've organized enough poetry readings in my life to know that 99% of the people who come to them are other poets. And the citation count wars of academics trying to get their papers cited by other academics often seemed like more of an academic circle jerk than anything.  )Er, anyhow, ranty tangents aside, being a part of the conversation has been useful, even if it hasn't paid off in awards, conference invites or Google-buyout offers. Even something as simple as being able to post the full version of my essay that won second place in the CLA student essay contest last year since CLA didn't have room to print anything but the winner in Feliciter has generated the a couple hits from people who searched for it after the winners were announced last year. And who knows - it may do so into the future as well. And then? That CLA conference invite can't be far off! (How can you tell it's conference season? I'm hoping to go to SLA this year - and to maybe get a chance to meet the famous Jessamyn West of librarian.net and MetaFilter.com - but CLA looks like it's not going to happen, what with the price of diapers and whatnot.)
Thursday, March 27
Read A Book For Your Health
by
Jason
on Thu 27 Mar 2008 11:56 PM CST
The Globe and Mail recently had an article on the benefits of reading and good literacy to your health (PDF). This is probably not a huge surprise but lines like "While we obsess about our weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, the single best predictor of good health and longevity is probably literacy." are pretty big statements to make. (I'd have guessed that the single best predictor of longevity might have to do with healthy eating and exercise.)(via one of our branch librarians who in turn, got it from a librarian at RPL)
Wednesday, March 26
The Reason I'm A Librarian?
by
Jason
on Wed 26 Mar 2008 01:47 PM CST
Each year, our library system gives out four awards to our branches - one for Service, one for Programming, one for Branch Development and one for Branch of the Year which incorporates elements of all three plus more. Right now, I'm working through nearly 200 quarterly reports (48 branches x 4 reports per year) to come up with a shortlist for this year's nominees. As part of the process, I did a tabulation of which branches have won awards since 1992. I knew my hometown of Indian Head had done okay, being one of only two branches in the whole system, to have won Branch of the Year twice. What I hadn't realised was how well Indian Head had done across all categories. Since 1992, we've they've won 6 awards. The next branches that come close are our two city branches, Estevan and Weyburn, which have won four awards each (and it's apparently a perennial argument around here whether city branches serving thousands of people should even compete with small towns serving hundreds or villages that literally serve dozens.) If you take away the two city branches, the next closest communities have won three awards over the same span. We haven't decided what to do about Indian Head this year - I've got a pretty big conflict of interest being from there so think I might get a colleague to look over their reports to see if they should be on the shortlist for any of the awards this time around. (But frankly, they can afford to wait for a year. Give everybody else a chance to catch up! )As I said, the awards only go back to 1992 and by that time, I was off at University. I haven't lived in Indian Head since (though my parents still do.) Even without the awards to "prove" it, I think Indian Head has always had a strong library with great boards and staff - even as I personally tend to think of Indian Head as more of a sports town in general. (On the prairies, my theory is that every small town basically falls into one of two categories - you're either a sports town or an arts & culture town.)
I talked about it in my Statement of Intent to get into FIMS. Although I laid it on pretty thick (as I tend to do), I honestly think you can draw a pretty straight line from my formative experiences in that small town library to where I am today (er, supervising that small town library while trying not to let my biases show!  )
Tuesday, March 25
LibraryThing Local
by
Jason
on Tue 25 Mar 2008 07:40 PM CST
LibraryThing is already a wicked cool service but it's getting better all the time. One of their latest features is LibraryThing Local which is "a new [LibraryThing] sub-site devoted to finding, mapping and
describing the world's bookstore, library, book fair and festival—as
well as all the readings, signings, lectures and other events they
host." Here is a fascinating post from one of the LibraryThing blogs looking at the distribution of bookstores v. libraries in cities across North America.
Saturday, March 22
"A cafe has taken the place of part of the fiction section and a computer learning zone has replaced the periodicals room"
by
Jason
on Sat 22 Mar 2008 10:24 PM CST
MetaFilter has a good discussion on the death of libraries, this time about a library in the UK. "Hendon's library's opening hours have been cut, a cafe has taken the place of part of the fiction section,
and a computer learning zone has replaced the periodicals room. When I
complained, a local councillor wrote back to say that he did not feel
that the cut in opening hours was a great hardship for anyone." The Guardian writes on the long slow death of libraries.
The thread also led to the obituary for a groundbreaking children's librarian who started one of the first children's libraries in the UK at that branch, Eileen Colwell. Reading her obituary reminds me of why I love libraries, I love librarians and why I decided to get into this amazing world in the first place.
Thursday, March 13
Collegial Connections in a Digital Age
by
Jason
on Thu 13 Mar 2008 11:06 PM CST
It's fascinating to think about the relationships we have with our colleagues in this digital age compared to how it was in pre-Internet (or at least the Jurassic era of the Internet - the years around 1995 or so). Back then, you would become colleagues at University but then, it took an extra special effort to stay in touch with people once you convocated. Now, because of the Internet and tools like Google, Facebook, blogs, RSS and more, I'm able to keep up with friends who move across oceans (very happy to see Renee back blogging after a move from China to Amsterdam!) and across continents. I've connected with current students at FIMS and alumni who I never would've known had our digital paths not crossed (okay, slight fib as I met the Canuck Librarian at OLA in 2006 but all the other alumni I know via online connections tend to be via Facebook and don't have blogs I can easily link to.) I've also "met" LIS students in schools across Canada and the US that I likely also never would've met unless we crossed paths in the physical world somewhere somehow. And I've even become "friends" with Internet-celebrity librarians who are kind enough to reply to my messages and treat me like a normal human being when I write them with ideas, comments or questions. So what's my point? I think it's no secret that the dynamic for interpersonal relations has vastly changed in the last five years because of online tools and it's only going to change more in the years to come.
Before, you might know of a job opening and say "Tim would be perfect for that - too bad we lost touch after grad school." Now, it's a quick Facebook message to let Tim know about the opportunity. Before, you might chat over beers about the latest issues in librarianship with colleagues who work in the same city, attend the same conferences and belong to the same organizations. Now, you can do the same with librarians across the continent and around the world. Before, if you wanted to meet a librarian who had specific expertise in an area, it took a lot of digging. Now it often takes no more than a Google search or a message on a listserv to find someone with that specific knowledge.
Monday, March 3
Borrowed Time: How Do You Build A Library in the Age of Google
by
Jason
on Mon 03 Mar 2008 08:36 PM CST
Ross Dawson, a business consultant who tracks different customs, devices, and institutions on what he calls an Extinction Timeline,
predicts that libraries will disappear in 2019. He's probably right as
far as the function of the library as a civic monument, or as a public
repository for books, is concerned. On the other hand, in its mutating
role as urban hangout, meeting place, and arbiter of information, the
public library seems far from spent. This has less to do with the
digital world—or the digital word—than with the age-old need for human
contact.
How do you build a public library in the age of Google? - By Witold Rybczynski - Slate Magazine
(via Cenobyte)
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