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Friday, June 30
Friday Fun Link - June 30, 2006 (Book Burro)
by
Jason
on Fri 30 Jun 2006 10:30 AM EDT
Thursday, June 29
CLA Update
by
Jason
on Thu 29 Jun 2006 03:30 AM EDT
Just reading the CLA Bulletin and it sounds like they'll post speaker's presentations as they receive them (althought that's currently a non-existent link so who knows?) But anyhow, if something shows up there, one of my complaints will have been unfounded (though I'd still love to see full video streams of all the sessions - how cool would that be?)
Wednesday, June 28
Library Students + Technology = Funny
by
Jason
on Wed 28 Jun 2006 11:44 PM EDT
The entire 525 class had to post thoughts on our latest assignment on our personal blogs so I've been reading through my classmates' entries in between finishing my final 746 assignment (as of tomorrow, I'll have completed all of the assignments for "Collection Development in Academic Libraries". Man, it looked like a very busy, very top-heavy course seven weeks ago when the semester started but am I ever glad I didn't drop that class as I initially thought I might!)
Anyhew, here are a few of the funniest comments from the entries about people's Ubuntu experiences... "I did not visit any warez sites or anything of that type while I was searching because I know that most warez sites also offer ‘material of questionable morals’. I was at school, and it would have been inappropriate to view such materials." (I'm not sure if this was said seriously or in jest but I found it funny, especially when half the class misheard "blinklist.com" a couple weeks ago and ended up visiting "linklist.com" which is an entirely different proposition!) "Public access computers can cause problems depending on what environment they are located in...In my co-op placement at the University of Windsor, I found the University also had computers for alumni, the general public and even kids...I won't even get started on the times children used the computers. It created the "occasional" noise problem." "I began my inaugural journey into the world of Live CD's very optimistically, but after about 2 hours was worn down." "I have developed a lot of patience from playing video games which load from disc-based media and not a hard drive. Unfortunately, any patience developed waiting for games to load has been countered by impatience waiting for real life to be as exciting as video games." "Everything behaved like I expected it to, from Firefox to Solitaire. I think I may actually be better at Solitaire on Ubuntu." "After waiting an excruciatingly long time for the program to load, [it just] made me realize just how impatient I am when it comes to internet time." "I attempted to complete the assignment as it was described on the 525 course website but my efforts were thwarted by a completely packed Lab B. Stunned by the shear amount of people crowded into that tiny room, I slowly backed out of the room and skulked over to Lab C to complete the assignment." "Being an upstanding, moral student, I did not do this but found it very coincidental that the two print-outs attached to this report happened to be sitting on the printer, apparently without an owner, when I walked by after doing some experimenting with Ubuntu's settings." "I did try to look for "Bare Naked Ladies" (as in the band -- however there was a pop-up window asking if i wanted to see the filtered or the unfiltered results. I chose the filtered results. Thinking back, maybe I should have chosen the unfiltered results to see what would happen." "I find that my wireless connection is not working... at all. I spend several minutes cursing... Fuck. Word of the day." "I posted on the class sharepoint, and then cruised off to look for a nasty pornography site, which was rather embarrassing – not only was I in a public lab, but I’d never actually looked at pornography on the internet before. Ah, the things one must do to become a librarian." Great to see that other library students like to have some fun with their assignments as well - although admittedly, my write-up for this one was pretty boring. Tuesday, June 27
525 Assignment #5 - Secure Public Access Computing
by
Jason
on Tue 27 Jun 2006 09:35 PM EDT
By: Jason Hammond Activity
#5 Report – Secure Public Access Computing My
Experience With Ubuntu So this
assignment was a great opportunity to gain some experience with Ubuntu, a
desktop-focussed Linux distribution that is extremely useable, compact (the
program and all related files fit on a single CD) and self-contained (it ships
with various open-source software programs including OpenOffice, Firefox, Gimp
and others which should cover 99% of the average users’ computing needs.)[1]. My experience
was a bit frustrating initially. The
first time I loaded the program, it seemed to take a long time to load (as I
knew it would since it was being loaded from CD.) I sat staring at what appeared to be an empty screen for about
five minutes before deciding to re-boot.
Now, because I’m a male and a quasi-hacker, I don’t read
instructions very often. If I would’ve,
I might have realised that I had to reset the screen resolution after
booting. Instead, the second time I
tried to boot Ubuntu, I figured this out by moving the mouse around until I saw
that the top left menus were there but just out of the range of what was
displayed on the monitor at that resolution.
Once I realised the screen resolution was incorrect after the initial
install, I found both the menu item to change the screen resolution and then
the best resolution to use (I went from 1280x1024 to 1024x768.) After I got
Ubuntu to the proper screen resolution, I spent some time clicking around the
menus, just familiarizing myself with the interface and also loading some of
the programs (many of which I was familiar with from using them on my home
computer.) I had a weird flashback to
the first time I sat in front of an Apple IIc many years ago after working on
early 286-era PC’s – everything was similar but different to what I was used
to. Ubuntu in
Library Usage Advantages
of Ubuntu for Public Access Terminals in Libraries - the
security provided by a non-Windows system, simply based on the fact that Linux
is not yet a major target for hackers, is another huge advantage - some claim
that Ubuntu is a more stable platform than Windows though my research found
people on both sides of this issue.
Personally, I was able to crash both the Word-equivalent (while trying
to load the Fax Wizard) and the image editor, things I regularly manage to do
in Windows XP. So that’s a tie in my
books. Disadvantages
of Ubuntu for Public Access Terminals in Libraries - even though
Ubuntu is very user-friendly, it still may need a fairly tech-savvy network
administrator to install and maintain.
But this is only speculation as the answer to this question is beyond
the scope of this assignment which asked us to assess Ubuntu on a single
machine, not as part of a network configuration. - support and
troubleshooting (for both the network administration and staff) would be a
related issue but there appear to be very active, responsive online forums for
this operating system[6] that would be of assistance. - a much more
technical take on some of the disadvantages of Ubuntu is available at: http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/visualbasic/dotnet/archives/ubuntu-why-9461
Other
Thoughts [1] Wikipedia – Ubuntu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28Linux_distribution%29 (Accessed: June 27, 2006) [2] Ubuntu – ShipIt. https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ (Accessed: June 27, 2006) [3] Gates Foundation – Public Libraries. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Libraries/USLibraryProgram/ (Accessed: June 27, 2006) [4] ABCNews “World’s Richest Man Donates 85% of Fortune to Gates Foundation” http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/MellodyHobson/story?id=2118501&page=1 (Accessed: June 27, 2006) [5] Tennessee Government –
Gates Foundation FAQ. http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/lps/pachug/FAQ.pdf
(Accessed: June 27, 2006) [6] Ubuntu Forums. http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ (Accessed: June 27, 2006) Monday, June 26
CLA Session Notes - "Systemic Barriers to Library Use: Libraries Engage the Socially Excluded"
by
Jason
on Mon 26 Jun 2006 05:24 PM EDT
These are my notes from probably the best session I attended at CLA (okay, it tied with Michael Geist's session on copyright but those were two totally different things. Or were they?)
To put it in perspective, I wrote maybe a page in my notebook at most sessions I attended. I took six pages at this one. This session featured: Annette DeFavri, Coordinator of the Working Together: Connecting Libraries to Communities Project, Vancouver Public Library, BC John Pateman, Head of Libraries, Lincoln County Council, Lincoln, England Brian Campbell, Director of Systems and Special Projects, Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver, BC Background on the Project from OLA Website (CLA didn't have this much info in their conference blurb and I couldn't find a web site specifically for the Working Together project): "Working Together" is a demonstration project funded by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), Office of Learning Technologies Community Learning Network Initiatives (OLT), that is intended to run for a period of three years, with annual funding approval. There are four library systems participating across Canada: Vancouver Public Library, Regina Public Library, Toronto Public Library and Halifax Public Library. Within the three years, the four libraries will develop and test models of working with marginalized or economically disadvantaged communities in order to identify what these communities expect from libraries and to determine approaches of what and how services may be best delivered; as well as demonstrate ways that libraries can transform how they work with these communities by providing experience, models, tools and a philosophy which encourages working with these communities as an important part of library service. In Toronto, the project is being carried out in the Flemingdon Park and Thorncliffe Park communities where a high percentage of families live below the low income cutoff measure and where many new immigrants settle to begin to look for employment, education and English language skills. The poster session will share the experiences of the first year of the "Working Together" project: community asset mapping, meeting the target communities, developing programs and partnerships, planning for the next phase Here are the notes I took from each speaker's presentation: Annette DeFavri - Why is this project needed? Socially excluded people tell them that libraries are for people: who read, who are smart, who can use computers. When they do come to the library, they don't want to interrupt staff who always look busy, they feel that there's a "high school or secret club vibe" that they're not a part of, they have anger towards institutions, and that they often don't feel welcome because they're not welcome. (I'm man enough to admit that I teared up as she went through the responses of people as to why they don't use the library. This would be the first of many times during the presentation that this happened.) - a lot of these barriers are rooted in librarian's professional culture - fines are a huge barrier - libraries should look at ways to eliminate or forgive them - even bigger than the fines issue is that people simply don't feel comfortable discussing fines or coming in to talk about them. - librarians need to assess "library context" for what they do but also the "community context" - librarians don't have a culture of change, we don't listen to community, patrons - unequal relationship between staff and patrons. Often staff don't wear name tags so we know their name but they don't know ours. - food and drink policies can be an issue for people who carry their food with them. - library culture is currently "collect and protect" but should be "community information providers" - we need to remember that without people, there are no libraries - instead of arguing about whether to call them "customers" or "patrons", we should call the people who come into our libraries what they are - "neighbours" (was this a point from the Stephen Lewis speech that she reiterated? My notes aren't clear.) - librarians need to take risks everyday - Annette is starting a new CLA interest group on "community access" (may not be the exact title.) If you're interested in joining, e-mail me and I'll pass along her e-mail address. John Bateman - heads and hearts are the barrier, we don't think and we don't feel - self-criticism of our profession is hard - libraries are used most by people who don't need them and least by people who need them the most - it's a fundamental shift in how we operate but we should move to a "needs based" library service, not equal to all because that never works. (Someone asked in the Q&A how we can maintain our neutrality by being activists like this and Brian Campbell responded that there is no such thing as neutrality and that by saying you're neutral, you're admitting that you're part of the status quo that causes these problems.) - "needs based" means we treat people differently based on their needs - "needs based" policies can work in any library anywhere - we need to actively engage local community. - improving things for excluded people will improve things for all patrons - 20% of patrons are active, core users who want more of the same thus the status quo. Of this 20%, 47% want free books, 26% want space savings, 20% want trusted source/help - 30% are passive/lapsed users who use library infrequently or who used it once but no longer do. To reach this group, there was a "Love Libraries" campaign in the UK which showed this group wanted better selection, facilities, author events (although the study was sponsored by publishers so maybe it had a bias?) - 50% are irregular or non-users, don't read beyond library needs, we need to do more with outreach services (schools, bookmobiles, sales or giveaways) which are all traditional services, just taken to people - need to differentiate: "community outreach" works in the community, "community development" works with the community - overall, librarians need to shake-up our culture of comfort and see world thru eyes of disenfranchised Brian Campbell - Brian starts with a moment to acknowledge the street person who was murdered a couple nights ago just as the conference was getting underway. Who was he? Did he have a family? Did he use the library or was he turned away? (cue more tears, not just me but probably most of the audience. We'd seen the gathering of other street people to leave flowers and console each other when we'd gone on the pub crawl. Did he have a family? Obviously. Did the library turn him away? Who knows - some definitely would have.) - how can we become relevant to people like this young man? - there's a corporate invasion that's changing the language of libraries - libraries serve middle class traditionally even though they are the people who can afford books, they can afford to pay for commercial information services (ie. home internet access) - poor are afraid of us because of our rules, culture, environment - lack of pictographic signs in libraries is a major issue that a literate person rarely considers - we need to give understanding of how libraries work to people who don't come to them. Think how foreign would it be to enter a library for the first time? What is that desk for? Can you take any book you want or only some? Do you need a key to use the washroom? - libraries get lumped with schools, prisons and other unfriendly institutions - think what institution we most resemble when you walk in the door? At least at his library, the one it most resembles is a prison. What's the first thing you see when you go through the electronic gates at the front? A guard. - our economic system demands poor people, it's not through their individual choice or character that they are poor - we need to think how they see us, not how we see them - we also need to realise that this process is ongoing and can't have an end point - we need a human element, not just focus on numbers - we need to lose our fear of different/other people - library schools need a Community Development course - "Working Together" - December 2005 Feliciter article has more information and background about the project If anybody who was at the session has more information or can think of anything I've missed, feel free to e-mail me and I'll add it. Sessions like this are exactly why I think the CLA should have transcripts of every session available after the conference. There were no less than three other sessions I wanted to go to at the same time as this one and it was literally a random pick that made me choose this one. Many of my colleagues who wanted to attend this session didn't make that same choice. Sunday, June 25
CLA Conference - Holly's Take
by
Jason
on Sun 25 Jun 2006 12:42 PM EDT
[2008-03-21 - Holly is a classmate who I think posted her impressions on our class's private Yahoo! group and who gave me permission to reprint them here.]
The good: Sessions - “Is one stop shopping all we dreamed it would be? The Single search interface in action” This was great, it was a LAC librarian and two librarians from Memorial University who are doing research on the usability of the single search interface in their online catalogues. The LAC research was done via survey on their website, and the Memorial one is with their search technology that they’ve tested with a small group of undergrads, grad students, and profs. The university used a capture program so they could actually record and analyze how information was searched and what threw people off track or was inconvenient, so it was very interesting to see which aspects of design were a problem. Also, they noted that undergrads would just go crazy and click on every result to see what they could find; profs and grad students would take their time and read through everything. The government info track sessions were good; learned some helpful reference tips from a U of T prof in the first session, learned about various efforts to save digital government information in the second and about the future of gov docs in the third. Also went to a cultural-type session on the library of Alexandria – the ancient and the new one- which talked about how countries from around the world contributed to re-build a library in Alexandria. It was a nice break to hear about more positive things in the library world. The not so good: I agree 100% with Paul and Kelly re: the food and the random trade show “entertainment”. At an early morning session I went to, the speaker brought Timbits for everyone b/c she felt bad about us being up so early and obviously we weren’t going to have anything beyond water available. Also, first timers breakfast was poorly organized. The food wasn’t served on time and the speeches started after we all had food, so it was running behind, once you finished your plate you couldn’t have anything else and the waiters were taking away plates during the speeches, which was a distraction. Not worth the money, for an $18 for breakfast in a hotel, it was disappointing. I was impressed that early on, Barbara Clubb made the rounds and made an effort to speak briefly with everyone at the table. Re: the tradeshow, I found the government booths to be informative and “student-friendly”; corporate ones, not so much (not that that was a surprise). It’s nice to do a tour around and talk to exhibitors on the first day, and then on the second day vendors were trying to get rid of as much stuff as possible so they didn’t have to take it home, so it was a good time to stock up on free stuff. Also, for those of you who remember Trish (from U of A) from the pub crawl, here’s the site where her shirt’s from: http://www.librariangear.com/ It’s a site with library related t-shirts, etc. Friday, June 23
Half Done!
by
Jason
on Sat 24 Jun 2006 12:17 AM EDT
Math is apparently not my specialty because when I wrote an entry or two ago that the summer semester was half-over as of Friday, it took a conversation with Lindsay today to make me realise that for anyone in the program planning to do it in one year straight (three semesters of five classes each with no co-op), the year is officially half over as well. (I'll give her the Classmate of the Day for that tip.) Hmm, who else in my cohort is doing the "Suicide Five" (as I heard the 100% accelerated version of this program described to me by a former grad before I got here)? I can't think of any off the top of my head but I'm sure there's a few of us. Definitely mixed feelings on this - we learn so much in such a short time doing it that way but I wonder if it's getting absorbed? A normal two year program might've been better for that but might've been worse too - I mean, could they stretch some of these classes out anymore than they already do? And in some ways, the accelerated program more closely simulates the work world - you have multiple projects on the go at all times, you get them done to the best of your ability in very short timeframes and then you move on to the next ones.
It's a minor milestone but realising I'm half done the program (already) has put me in a sort of philosophical mood. I often find myself thinking about my classmates - where they'll end up, what their careers will be, what it'll be like if we get together at an alumni reception at a CLA conference in ten or twenty or thirty years except we're the grizzled old veterans telling the new recruits about the "good ol' days." I know that day will come soon enough. I can't believe how fast the last six months have gone, how much I've learned, how many fun and memorable experiences I've had, how many cool people I've met. It's funny to think back to getting that acceptance letter in November and how excited I was, arriving at the end of December and how nervous I was, starting in January and how gung ho I was (that exhuberance dropped off a bit, I have to admit). The program's both as tough as I heard it was but also easier in some ways. I think I have a pretty big advantage having worked with books/authors/publlishers (and often by extension, librarians) for the past ten years but I also have some big weaknesses - my writing style isn't always the most scholarly technique being a big one. Another thing that's both a strength and a weakness - I tend to be very opinionated about, well, pretty much everything, and I'm usually not shy about sharing those opinions (this blog being a prime example - there's been one or three minor flare-ups about things I've written here.) Sometimes I wish I was more of a person who just kinda kept my head down and did my work and didn't make waves. But then I think "what fun would that be?"  I guess that's it for now. This semester has also been incredibly top heavy and I think things will be (a bit) calmer for the next seven weeks. Then Shea and I already have our summer break pretty much filled with plans. Then it's final semester (nice to see the class list for fall is up already - perhaps some of those opinionated musings had some effect?) and then we'll see what's out there for me when I'm done.
Friday Fun Link - Library Dominoes (June 23, 2006)
by
Jason
on Fri 23 Jun 2006 07:04 PM EDT
This isn’t exactly a “fun” link but this photo has been making the rounds of various library blogs (not sure where I first saw it so I can’t give credit unfortunately) Here’s the photo. Flickr has a few others plus some discussion you might want to check out as well.
Classmate Mike's Top Ten Ways To Annoy/Astonish Your Profs
by
Jason
on Fri 23 Jun 2006 02:53 AM EDT
Tomorrow marks the halfway point of the summer semester. I'll be at the Grad Club around noon to have a drink and to celebrate this milestone in "flimsy excuses to go for a drink." Anybody who's reading this and around campus is invited to join me (and the crowds of soccer hooligans who are sure to be there as well) for a pint or a pop or another alliterative 'p' word for coffee.
Talking (does e-mailing = talking) to Sabina about the book zine inspired me to pull out my copy of the one they put together last semester. (If you haven't heard about it, The Book Zine is a fun little booklet that's put together every semester with lists of "Top 10 Books" and various other oddities submitted by students and profs.) A classmate whose on co-op right now had the funniest list of all-time, especially when you realise these are all actual things he said in class. (I know, I was there.) Mike M.'s Top Ten Ways To Annoy/Astonish Your Professors 10. Suggest there should be showers in public libraries. 9. Point out that you need to know the Volume to Issue to Page ratio of journals for binding purposes. 8. Ask "So that's what the books say but what's it like in REAL LIFE?" 7. Note that "How do you intend to use that information?" is not a neutral question. 6. Point out that the most important part of Reader's Advisory service is persuasion skills. 5. State that since libraries are government funded, that librarians should "just toe the party line!" 4. Ask "Why do we have ethics?" 3. Point out that "charisma of the speaker" is the most important aspect of effective presentations. 2. Ask "Why are we learning this?" 1. Come to class wearing the clothes you had on yesterday, still drunk, half hungover, reeking of beer with a really bad haircut and sunglasses. I've been pretty good about asking people's permission if I mention them in any sort of embarrasing light or whatever but to celebrate the semester being half over as of today (Friday), I'm going to post a few never-released photos of #1 on Mike's list...sorry buddy!    Thursday, June 22
Captain Copyright Saves The Day at CLA
by
Jason
on Thu 22 Jun 2006 08:46 PM EDT
Access Copyright's "Captain Copyright" campaign raised some hackles at CLA and had a few of us subverting the promotional materials that Access Copyright had at their booth by modifying the stickers they were giving out...
 For anyone who doesn't know, Captain Copyright is a character created by Access Copyright to promote copyright to students and teachers. Unfortunately, it presents a very biased view of copyright without many (any?) mention of fair use provisions and containing various other misrepresentations on the site. Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, sums up the problems with this campaign way better than I ever could. His post also has some good discussion about the issue by his site visitors. The CLA membership (who weren't consulted about this campaign before it was launched although they apparently should've been) passed a resolution at their AGM (PDF - scroll to page four) that was brought by their Copyright Working Group and the Information Commons Interest Group for the organization to write a letter of condemnation to Access Copyright about this program and to monitor future developments. There are two ironies with this whole thing - the Captain Copyright web site explicitly restricts anyone's ability to use materials on the site or even link to the site. (My use of the modified graphic above would be a violation in their opinion. I'm claiming the non-legal but commonly understood "anything on the Net is free for the taking" precedent as my defense.  )The other irony is that Captain Copryight himself is apparently comprised of a number of potential copyright infractions including one image that evokes the infamous "goatse" (which I think Access Copyright should be ashamed of exposing children to!) Boing Boing has a post which summarizes the possible copyright infringements in the character. |
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