Green's 1876 look at the profession

I recently read an article for class entitled, "The Personal Relationship between Librarian and Reader" from an 1876 public librarian. It provides a nostalgic and interesting look at how the role of reference librarian was established. The public librarian attempts to argue the importance of mingling among librarians and readers to best serve the needs of the community. He states, "The more freely a librarian mingles with readers, and the greater the amount of assistance he renders them, the more intense does the conviction of citizens, also, become, that the library is a useful institution, and the more willing do they grow to grant money in larger and larger sums to be used in buying books and employing additional assistants."

His description of a reference assistant gives insight into the political correctness of the time:

"Now, the policy advocated of freedom of intercourse between librarian and readers, when adopted in the conduct of these departments, does much to give efficiency to the efforts of the officers to get readers to take out wholesome books and such works as are adapted to their capacity and the grade of enlightenment to which they belong. It is a common practice, as we all know, for users of a library to ask the librarian or his assistants to select stories for them. I would have great use made of this disposition. Place in the circulating department one of the most accomplished persons in the corps of your assistants--some cultivated woman, for instance, who heartily enjoys works of the imagination, but whose taste is educated. She must be a person of pleasant manners, and -while of proper dignity, ready to unbend, and of social disposition. It is well if there is a vein of philanthropy in her composition. Instruct this assistant to consult with every person who asks for help in selecting books. This should not be her whole work; for work of this kind is best done when it has the appearance of being performed incidentally. Let the assistant, then, have some regular work, but such employment as she can at once lay aside when her aid is asked for in picking out books to read. I am confident that in some such way as this a great influence can be exerted in the direction of causing good books to be used."

http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/DIS220/personal.htm

Poem in your Pocket Day 2010

Take a moment to enjoy a nice poem today...here are a couple of my favorites:

As You Go Through Life

Don’t look for the flaws as you go through life;
And even when you find them,
It is wise and kind to be somewhat blind
And look for the virtue behind them.
For the cloudiest night has a hint of light
Somewhere in its shadows hiding;
It is better by far to hunt for a star,
Than the spots on the sun abiding.

The current of life runs ever away
To the bosom of God’s great ocean.
Don’t set your force ‘gainst the river’s course
And think to alter its motion.
Don’t waste a curse on the universe –
Remember it lived before you.
Don’t butt at the storm with your puny form,
But bend and let it go o’er you.

The world will never adjust itself
To suit your whims to the letter.
Some things must go wrong your whole life long,
And the sooner you know it the better.
It is folly to fight with the Infinite,
And go under at last in the wrestle;
The wiser man shapes into God’s plan
As water shapes into a vessel.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox



Circle of Life

We are connected
one another, every moment,
every place, every cell,
every movement, every utterance
each action, reverberates
echoes, across time,
through space
splits, echoes back
in millions of waves
from different points
on the expanding sphere encircling
each speck, each tiny spot
each one of us, infinitesimal
members clinging to the web
for dear life

Raymond A. Foss

The Competitive Edge for Libraries

All the survey's say information seekers routinely turn to Google because its fast, simple and familiar. One of the reasons libraries have struggled to provide a definitive role in this new information jungle is their failure to adopt competitive strategies such as simple search results. Today's library users must navigate through a haggard collection of information silos scattered virtually across a website and physically across a building. In addition to selecting a silo the user must recall how to execute the search function for a variety of interfaces, some offering the full content others requiring additional tricks to discover the golden text.

While libraries diligently offer assistance in navigation and continually seek improvement of current information portals and traditional catalogs, much consternation is being wasted when really what we should be doing is uniting behind a common interface and search mechanism for the entirety of a library collection. WorldCat offers the size and scale needed to compete and as Mark Dahl (2009, 7) highlights " With WorldCat.org, OCLC takes a lesson from Google and Amazon and understands that Web scale matters. In order for library content to be noticed on the Web, it needs to be presented by a global player, not in a diluted fashion from thousands of separately managed library catalogs."

By adopting a standard interface such as WorldCat, libraries can offer conventional search features much in the same way as Google and provide well created metadata for everyone on the web Libraries benefit from mimicking strategies of their competitor but at the same time enhancing that which must be their core competency: providing quality descriptive metadata and facilitating understanding of it.

While others may have lost faith in the role of libraries in my own experience I can still identify the necessity and importance of providing access to information and information literacy instruction to the public. There must always be an alternative organization offering access to proprietary information resources and offering assistance in making sense of it all.

Libraries adopting standard virtual spaces and forming networks at the size allowable with today’s technology would mean increased satisfaction rates for constituents and increased buying power with vendors. The ability to provide specialized collections through libraries which are searched again in a familiar manner will also strengthen the competencies of libraries.

Libraries failed to recognize the changing modes of information production and lost their comparative advantages to innovative business models and competencies such as those offered by Google. The slow and at times moralistic fight against adoption of new modes has left the library at a disadvantage. However recognition of core competencies in accordance with the changing information environment could provide the competitive edge libraries need.

Dahl, Mark. 2009. The Evolution of Library Discovery Systems in the Web Environment. Oregon Library Association Quarterly 15(1): 5-9

Full Circle - Why we do it

Wow so I just wrapped up another session with my new volunteer. She's just getting started in community college and is helping out in the library to gain volunteer hours for the Tulsa Achieves project. So far I think its going to be a great opportunity for us to learn from one another. She's helping with tasks like shelf reading and weeding. Meanwhile I'm helping her get trained up on computer and information literacy with hopes she might be able to help us teach other students and better understand how students use the library. Today she went through some Word and Ebscohost tutorials and then wrote up a little review. I must say I almost cried upon reading it. How awesome to see it from her point of view and to see her learning! Yay its all coming full-circle this is why we do it!

Libraries and Competitive Intelligence

In my recent class discussion regarding the differences between strategic intelligence, and competitive intelligence, the statement that libraries should act like businesses reminded me of why they are not, but how they can make use of knowledge management tactics for decision-making.

Strategic Intelligence most accurately describes a information related to the plan of action of competitors (i.e. basis for decision-making). Competitive intelligence seems to be a more codified approach to gathering and making-use of information to make one more competitive. Codified in the sense that clear ethics are defined and policies adhering to best practices for CI are implemented. Because strategic intelligence is often invoked in a National security setting, realist principles of behaving dominate at times blurring the boundaries of ethics.

In regards to the library an important reason why it is not run like a business is its role as providing accessing to information. While a public library may supplement its funding through books sales, and community fundraising, decision-making cannot be based on a profit motive. The same is even more true for academic libraries where knowledge generation is the priority. Because places like Barnes and Noble or Blockbuster may at times censor certain materials to acquiesce to shareholders acting like a business is not always desirable. After all a library as an arsenal of liberty cannot be beholden to corporate interests.

A library however can embrace the benefits of CI through understanding market forces and positioning the institution in a favorable manner. An example in which the library world needs to be most aware of the political, social, and economic factors affecting the progress of libraries is evident in the case of Google. Libraries as others have stated, should have long-ago sought to offer an alternative to the dominance of one corporation in control of the worlds information. Libraries have the ability to organize and coordinate efforts to ensure access to information whether it is digital or not. As we move forward academic libraries must be front runners in understanding how information is collected, organized, and decimated as this is their business and must seek to learn from the success of other competitors such as Google.

Librarians must realize it behoves us to market ourselves as information brokers. In addition to fulfilling the role as an alternative to a single corporation providing all access to information, we must realize our importance of information professionals in giving context to and making sense of the information.

Before the onslaught of technology the general public agreed libraries serve the public good by offering this access. This sentiment must be invoked once again to understand the monumentous but essential task of continuing to provide that access as well as making sense of the never-ending information flow.

Nerd Fest 2009

These last two days have exposed me to so much nerdom I feared whatever trace of coolness I had left would disappears never to return. Then again I've really enjoyed seeing nerds in their native environment and realize I wasn't so different but that was okay. Thursday night I went to see MC Chris with my best friend Catherine. The lyrical styling of MC Chris is of the Nerd Core hip-hop genre. Generally rapping about that which nerds find cool like comic books and video games.

The show was great, but with an interesting mix of teenie boopers sporting their hoodies and super-hero tees. The openers also followed this genre with the Nintendo rock group I Fight Dragons and a rap/punk rock trio named Whole Wheat Bread. Catherine bought me a t-shirt and after the show MC Chris signed it...as I told him I was a librarian...to which he replied "awesome very awesome" and thought "another crazy."

The next day I attended Tulsa Tech Fest 2009. Which was a total grown-up nerd fest. There were hundreds of people but probably only ten females. This made for an interesting day as the restrooms were never busy and gathering the attention of everyone in the room was an easy task. Really this was a great event, free aside from the two cans of food you had to donate. A pizza lunch was provided and there were a ton of "door prizes." I was amazed by the difference in funding where corporations have something to gain out of the event aside from the tax right-off. I learned a lot and enjoyed being around other techies which makes me realize what a nerd I really am. I can't help it, I love seeing the latest trends in tech software and hardware. Windows 7 Surface Touch Pack demonstrated their newest applications, which involved a young hipster who as design manage for Surface held a dream job of many in the audience. Overall good times and really Nerd is the new black!

My Julia Child Cliche

So I've been on a Julia Child kick lately and today I got very cliche. I watched Julie and Julia with my mom a few weeks ago and we both really enjoyed it. We love Julia Child and Amy Adams (although her character left more to be desired). The day we went to see the movie my mom brought me a first edition of Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In order to acquire the book, she hid it behind the shelves of the used bookstore until she could purchase it at a later time! She said it was for my birthday (which is in December and it was summertime) either way it was a really nice gift. I'm now reading the book the movie was based on...and so on and so on.

Tonight while grocery shopping I decided to pick up some leeks and potatoes having thought earlier how cool it is to create something out of so few ingredients. This is of course the first recipe in the book. I wonder if Julie really serendipitously came upon those ingredients or if it just worked well for the beginning of her book. Either way it sounded simple and tasty to me.

I picked up a couple of Idaho potatoes and some leeks. Chopped it all up, cut my finger once, called my mom to confirm what the tender green part of the leek really included, placed in pan, added filtered water, and some salt. I then let it cook for 45 minutes and resisted adding other ingredients (just a little garlic, maybe some chicken bouillon (my mom had a great suggestion of bacon)). When 45 minutes had passed I took my crank egg beater and gave it a beating. Worked well.

I added butter, pepper and more salt. After a few tastes in it is purity, I gave-in and added some shredded cheese and more salt. This time smoked Alder wood salt which just happens to make everything better. I also added a few plain lays potato chips and pondered the risk of mad potato disease. Sitting down to eat, I had a great dish at hand, and only had to fight one cat for bites.