6 Small Things You Can Do When You Lack Discipline is a post on the zenhabits blog which addresses the stress we go through as we try to accomplish projects and achieve goals.

I like that he stresses that discipline is an illusion; what we need to focus on instead is motivation.

The only thing I might add to this would be that we often times set ourselves up for failure in our projects and goals.  Evaluating what we truly want, what can realistically achieve with the resources we have (time, money, energy, etc.), and what is actually worth doing can make all the difference.

found via Journey of a Kitten

A somewhat rambling essay, but one that is important nonetheless:

Joe Wilcox has posted an interesting essay at Microsoft Watch regarding Google’s merger with DoubleClick, the internet advertising company.  I strongly disagree with some of his interpretations (he tries to have it both ways, and by defending Microsoft and chastising Google, he simply muddies the water), but the essay has me thinking about the good and bad of monopolies in libraryland.

First, is the love-hate relationship I have with “monopolies”.  Oftentimes a monopoly reduces choices for the user/consumer, and oftentimes the litmus test for this is whether the company/organization channels its energy towards preventing competition, rather than out-performing competition.  Efforts towards providing a better product/service than one’s competitor are rarely in vain.  Even if a company fails, the level of product/service is usually improved across the board.

Next, the concept of open standards is, for better or worse, tied up with monopolies.  A group with a monopoly is able to set standards much more effectively.  If the standards are set in a fair manner, i.e. not simply to prevent competition against one’s own product/service, then the monopoly can actually be more efficient.  If not, it isn’t truly an open standard, as much as it is a proprietary standard.

Libraries, then… we are swimming in a sea of standards, and companies that create them.  We are living with standards that work only for us, such as MARC, and aren’t of much (if any) benefit outside libraries.  The bibliographic information contained within them is of great benefit and value, but the standard is not very useful.

However, so much of our energies are tied up in this standard (and others, if we think about it), and it is dragging us down.  It is important to understand that the information is what has value; the value in how we store and access it is reflected in the ease of use, and the interest in using that storage/access method.

MARC has lost it’s luster, and we should move forward.  The information, however, is more valuable than ever, and we need to figure out how to maximize this value.  Making it easy for everyone to use, not only libraries, should be our top priority.  When Amazon or Google (or companies/groups like them) really want to access our bibliographic records, and use their structure, this will be when we know we have fixed the worst of our problems.  Is FRBR/RDA the answer?  I suspect not, simply because a new way needs to be much easier to describe and apply.

Google is, and has been for a while, the 800 pound gorilla in the search business.  This came about because their search tools were, and are, simply better than their competitors.  I don’t think this will last forever, but there are many benefits to their dominance.  They are able to set “standards” for web design that encourage compliant web site design and discourage  link farms and spam sites.  They have mastered, to a large extent, the art of interpreting the keyword search.  People now think in keywords when they search (which is why the natural language search engines are languishing in obscurity).

In libraryland, OCLC is our 800 pound gorilla.  When they come out with something new (and the last couple of years have been fantastic, with WorldCat leading the way), libraries pay attention.  If they set a particular course, it makes a great deal of sense to follow that same path.

Is this the best way, though?  Should the 800 pounders lead the way in information discovery?  How might they prevent innovation from happening, or are we doing that to ourselves already?  Is the slow pace of FRBR/RDA a reflection of the size of the beast as it slouches towards Bethlehem to be born, or simply the complexity of the solution?

One thing I have noticed on many blogs and listservs is that we love to talk about what is wrong and right about libraries and technology and search, but it is usually individuals and small groups taking the lead and deciding to blaze a new trail.  Open-ILS and LibraryThing are but two examples of dozens where people saw a need and decided to take charge of fulfilling it.

Why haven’t we come up with a new way to deal with bibliographic information?  Does one person, or a group, need to simply decide to do it?  The library community seems to be spinning its wheels on the issue, so perhaps this is the case.

Who wants to take on the challenge?

The Really Modern Library is a project undertaken by the Institute for the Future of the Book.  They are soliciting comments from all quarters, and holding meetings in Los Angeles, London, and New York, in order to define how our analog libraries can and will fit into the digital world that is increasingly becoming a reality.  This will potentially lead to “outlining plans for a major international design competition calling for proposals, sketches, and prototypes for a hypothetical ‘really modern library.’”

This sounds like the genesis of a library X-Prize, and it may just be the shot in the arm we need to focus on the future.  We have come a long way, but oftentimes it seems that we use up our energy and resources on a) talking about the future, and b) sticking with the previous generation of technology because it is what every other “one-step-behind” library is doing.

And so I challenge you:  think about your job, your library, libraries in general.  What does the future look like?  What do we need to build that bridge, to let human beings, books, and digitization co-exist in a complementary way?  Let them know… it is as simple as leaving a comment on their blog.

I’ve left a comment suggesting that granularity and structure is the key to online data… make it as easy for people to get to the information and present it in various ways.  Our current generation of OPACs are very nearly the opposite of that philosophy, even though our catalogs contain some of the richest data in all of cyberspace.

Thanks to Eric Lease Morgan for posting this to the NGC4Lib listserv

Writing at Five Miles per Hour is a post by the always interesting Karen G. Schneider. Reading it makes me feel as though I have been given a glimpse at a piece of my future.

Let me explain: in writing, as with any project, finding the time, energy, and correct frame of mind is all-important. I have moments, even days, where all three come together and I am, as I like to say, Productive.

However, some days, even weeks, just won’t give the time that is needed for proper writing. On top of that, one needs to have enough energy left over from the other demands of the day. And finally, the phrase that I often use for the frame of mind is “the ability to wrap my brain around” whatever I am creating.

Hitting that trifecta is tough unless one’s environment can be adjusted. I have been working on making such an environment for myself over the past year. It hasn’t happened more often than it has, but it is getting better. Oftentimes there are things left undone in other areas (“Hey… there’s a floor under this stuff!”) and there always seems to be stress. I understand why so many books are dedicated to significant others… if they don’t help make the environment happen, the environment oftentimes won’t.

And so the book gets written slowly but surely, and blog entries continue to be posted. And it is good to know that other people struggle to make this work, as well.

No brand new flashy sites in this post; just a small collection of links on how one deals with the demands of time, projects and learning:

Big or Small? — Jen Riley at the Indiana University Digital Library Program has a post regarding doing a few big vs. many small projects.

Nicole’s Burnout Blues — Karen Schneider, a.k.a. Free Range Librarian, gives her tips on preventing burnout.

Three Hard Things — new guy at OCLC Roy Tennant’s follow-up to his Five Easy Pieces essay three years ago.

Each of these pieces speak to me, as I am preparing to start a relatively involved project that will require a fair amount of time management.  It could work, mainly because the time involved can be very flexible (and who needs sleep when you have a project?).

However, most everyone I know is trying to balance their time, effort, energy, and resources.  Perhaps there is a helpful nugget or two for everyone who follows the links….