This morning I heard one of the most inspirational library-related stories I have encountered.  It was a StoryCorps segment on NPR’s Morning Edition radio program, and I feel that everyone who works in libraries should listen to it, if only to remind us of the power we have to transform lives.  Follow the link, and then follow the “Listen to the Story” link before reading the article:

Boy Lifts Book, Librarian Changes Boy’s Life

Note that the librarian didn’t follow the rules; she understood what he was doing and why, and then went out of her way to encourage the love of reading in someone who was under tremendous peer pressure to avoid it.  Recognizing those situations where allowing something negative to happen in order for an even greater positive to occur is challenging.  I hope I don’t let too many of those slip past me in life; the opportunities are fewer than we think, but all around us if we look.

p.s. As inspiring as this story is, it is not the most inspiring StoryCorp segment I have heard.  I recommend you dig through their archive and experience the power of oral tradition.

A few items of note to update yesterday’s post:

The Library is Now Closed (a.k.a. Shuttered Library) is a blog created by an Ohio librarian named Mike (didn’t see a last name) which is compiling links to a vast amount of information and resources for libraries and supporters in Ohio. (thanks Jessamyn!)

Save Ohio Libraries is a blog detailing actions that people and libraries can take to, as the title suggests, save Ohio libraries.

A couple of additional links to Pdf articles that I missed yesterday, both from the “Balanced Budget Framework” page.  Note that neither of these have been properly named; save them to your hard drive and add “.pdf” to the end of the file name so that your computer will know how to open them (or you can open your Pdf reader and open the files from the program’s “File” menu):

• Balance Sheet by Line Item (detailed budget information, including the Governor, Senate, and House versions of  budget allocations)
• Highlighted State Strategies (a list of a dozen states, with their approaches towards balancing their respective budgets)

The Internet Resources Newsletter is a British online publication listing items of interest for “academics, students, engineers, scientists and social scientists.”

They should add librarian to that list, because there are quite a few excellent resources in this month’s issue on the current issue, a couple that I recognize from this blog.  There are a variety of ways to subscribe, including e-mail and rss.

Disclaimer:  I am listed in their Blogorama section for April 2009; checking my traffic logs is how I found the newsletter for this post.

The debate has been going on for years, and has recently flared up again on PUBLIB : Does a person need the MLIS degree to do the work of a librarian?

LISNews has decided to take a poll (and encourage discussion)….

Comment : I have been thinking about this issue, and related questions, for many years.  Because of budgetary pressure, support staff have been taking on duties that in the past were considered the role of librarians.  Depending on the library (size, budget, structure, role) there are different answers as to what should and should not be done by various people.

I maintain that training is the key.  The better everyone knows everyone else’s job, the more efficient the library will be.  This means that there should be very few “walls” between job duties.  Personnel issues (hiring, firing, etc.) and certain confidential issues (financial accounts, security) should be kept within a walled garden (but never with only one person!).  Otherwise, everyone should know at lease something about all other duties performed in the library.

This leads to another point : training and knowledge need to be respected at all levels.  Understand and respect that which the MLIS librarian knows and applies to his or her job.  There are years of training behind that degree, and those of us who learn on the job (and on our own) would do well to keep that in mind.  Conversely, librarians should keep in mind that support staff bring a great deal to the table, and it is impossible to know just what we have to offer until you open yourselves to our input.

I worked as a technician in a pharmacy for eight years, and was mistaken for a pharmacist more times than I can recall. Each time was a sobering reminder to never allow my actions or speech to exceed my knowledge, because it carried far more weight than my simple certification could bear.

In libraries, we all need to heed that advice.  Understand what you know; more importantly, understand what you don’t know.  Being a librarian doesn’t mean that you know more about someone’s job simply because that job is support staff.  It doesn’t even mean that you know more about esoteric “library stuff” than someone without the degree.

The same goes, as you can guess, in the reverse.  The key is respect.  Respect each other.  Respect the job.  Respect the degree.  Respect the person’s training and knowledge.  Respect everyone, and expect the same in return.

Make that your mantra : Respect and Expect.

Always be aware of your local history, and keep an eye on popular culture.  My former stomping ground of DeKalb, Illinois played a pivotal part in the real-life tragedy that inspired the recently-released movie “Changeling“.  Kudos to historian Phyllis Kelley (full disclosure:  I worked with her daughter, Librarian Patsy Lundberg) for being a key member of the group which built the Joiner History Room collection that allows for such gems to be unearthed.

The DeKalb Daily Chronicle has the story, as does the Chicago Tribune.

Thanks to Patsy for the heads-up!

Jessamyn has the best overview of the Sarah Palin / Librarian debate that I have seen so far.  The key to this, and to any other emotionally charged story, is to check your facts, and remember that everyone gets it wrong sometimes (so don’t be so sure about something even if you are sure).

Unrelated, but soberingly relevant, is the United Airlines “bankruptcy” story from a couple of days ago.  The source seemed reliable, but the information was old.  Again, some basic fact checking in the early stages of this would have saved a whole lot of grief.

Update:  This New York Times article has a great overview of the UAL story… (thanks LISNews )

After more than a year, there has been a bit of activity at the Google Librarian Central site, though not what was hoped for when I heard that they were preparing an update.

What they announced in a post titled “Endless Summer” was that they were closing down the Librarian Central Blog and communicating via their newsletter. Comments and suggestions will be handled by a web form submission.

Ouch! Double-Ouch!! This is better than the dead silence of the past year, but just barely. We have been moved back in time, relegated to Web 1.0.

They could have kept the blog alive by posting the individual newsletter items one-by-one. They could have used the blog for items posted or discussed elsewhere, but posted there because of their interest to libraries. They could have opened things up a bit and asked for volunteers to coordinate topics and ideas for better incorporating Google into libraries. Any of these would have been about the same amount of work, and would have preserved or improved the dynamic and social aspects of the site. They backed away instead.

We are left to wonder why.

This post by The Limnal Librarian is, simply put, a must for everyone to read and understand (even if you don’t agree).

I worked in a pharmacy as a technician for 8 years. There were great, and not so great, times to be had, and I learned a lot (especially about working with and for people). One of those lessons was that the person walking up to the counter didn’t know that I wasn’t a pharmacist and didn’t care that I wasn’t a pharmacist; they wanted their question answered rightly or their medication filled properly.

Libraries are the same. We are all librarians. Any other unifying name or term to define those of us who work there is an attempt at futility: people see us all as librarians. This is not to take anything away from the MLS degree; I have seen the power that a good library program gives to a person inclined to help others find and use information… nothing can replace that (only reduce it). There is a very good reason why the MLS should be required for library administrators, and that it should be a generous part of any well-sized library’s staffing.

We all, however, represent the same entity to the patron. Nobody, in any position, should hesitate to say “let me get someone who can help you with that particular question”. That someone might be the high school page who you know to be a fan of graphic novels; or the support staff who knits as a hobby, or the director who’s husband has the same medical condition (though the patron never need know if the director doesn’t want them to).

The linked essay should be read, understood, printed out, posted, and perhaps even left on the desks of those needing the reminder most.

Tapping into your staff’s knowledge doesn’t diminish anyone’s position; only ignoring it does.

found via LISNews

(added later) — it may be that part of the original post that this post was a response to (I don’t know, it was deleted) involved Dean Giustini being upset that Tim Spaulding of LibraryThing won a Library Journal’s Movers and Shakers award this year.  If so, there is an added reason to strongly respond:  we are a profession that is seeking it’s purpose in an era in which much of our traditional purpose may be shifting to the internet (i.e. instant reference and access to information resources).  Anyone who can help to merge the two and provide a combined path forward is worthy of recognition; they needn’t be part of the traditional library family to do so.

This will be the eighth post today, possibly a record. Not that I was trying… there were just too many interesting bloggable items, and for once there was enough time to post them all.

In addition, and the purpose of this post, I did some work on the back end of the blog:

• Updated to the latest version of WordPress
• Installed a decent blog statistics program
• Upgraded to a more powerful search tool

The last is something that might directly benefit you, the reader. The small search box is now more than simply a keyword search tool. You can:

• Search using wildcards (i.e. librar* to find library, librarian, libraries, etc.)
• Search for phrases (i.e. “web browser”)
• Use Required and Excluded terms in your search (+support -staff to get posts with the word “support” but not the word “staff”)

As this blog approaches its 500th post, finding information in past entries becomes more important, as well as more challenging. Tags are decent for rough groupings, but a good search tool becomes critical. Hopefully this upgrade makes LibrarySupportStaff.org a bit more useful.

The topic of Copyfraud has been on my mind for the past few months.  It is interesting how once you start noticing something relatively subtle, you can reach a point where you start seeing it all the time.  This has been one of those things.

Copyfraud is best defined by the above linked Wikipedia article, but what I seem to keep encountering is the overly restrictive assertions of copyright by those who should know better.  The most grating example I have encountered, more so because it is such an interesting publication, is the photocopy authorization statement in the magazine Strategic Finance:

Authorization to photocopy Strategic Finance.  Items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by the IMA to libraries and other users registered with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) Transactional Reporting Service, provided that the base fee of $3.00 per copy, plus 30¢ per page, is paid directly to CCC, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923.  (www.copyright.com) ISSN 1524-833X, $3.00 + 30¢.

For reprint information contact …[section omitted]…

For permission to make 1-50 copies of articles contact:  Copyright Clearance Center www.copyright.com or fax (978) 774-4470.

Read it carefully… it doesn’t quite state that an individual making a copy of an article for personal use must be registered with the CCC and pay the fee, but it really reads that way.  I read it as if an individual isn’t a library, then they fall into the “other users” category.  If that is correct, then registration and payment seems required.

Which is balderdash, of course.  Fair use is very well established for this behavior.  If restricting photocopies in the manner were allowed under copyright law, then Inter-Library Loan and much of the personal and professional educational research behavior as we know it would disappear.

Another example:  The other day someone told me of an experience they had in a library while doing research for their Master’s thesis.  They had an 18xx edition of a book that was one of their primary sources.  It wasn’t in the best of shape, so she decided to photocopy the entire book to save it from wear.  A library employee stopped her from making the copies because it was “against copyright”.  Buzzzzz, wrong answer… anything created before January 1, 1923 is public domain, and therefore free of any and all copyright restrictions.

Remember to focus not only on the restrictions, but on the freedoms of copyright.  I don’t know if the person who stopped her was a librarian, but remember that to most patrons, we are all librarians (which to me translates to “we are all information professionals”).  This means that we should be sure to have at least a basic understanding of individual freedoms when dealing with copyright, and should be sure to not overextend our answers beyond what we know.

Overly restrictive and slippery notices are just one small part of Copyfraud.  Start watching for this in your daily routines, if only to allow you to better answer questions for yourself and others.

the blog posting that pushed this entry to the front of my brain – read it! Open Access News

EZProxy, the proxy server created by a librarian for libraries, has been acquired by OCLC.

OCLC has been doing some interesting things in the past couple of years… and indications are they will be doing even more in the next couple of years.  This acquisition might mean some added functionality to WorldCat Local, perhaps?

from ResourceShelf

You have probably noticed the story in the news, but did you know that the winner of the ESPN Zone Ultimate Couch Potato Competition is a librarian from Manhattan?

from LISNews

The following links were posted to the Web4Lib listserv by S.Sripriya, a librarian for a dental college in Bangalore.  There are quite a few good links, many of them Indian-related, and I thought it was worth it to just post the whole shebang: 

Ohio Public Library Web Sites Information on this table has been supplied to the State Library of Ohio by Ohio public libraries.  http://winslo.state.oh.us/publib/libtable.html

Library of Congress : State Library Web Listing  http://www.publiclibraries.com/state_library.htm

Browse Lists of Canadian Library Web Sites and Catalogues  http://www.collectionscanada.ca/gateway/s22-200-e.html

Great Web  Sites for Kids (ALA)  http://www.ala.org/gwstemplate.cfm?section=greatwebsites&template=/cfapps/gws/displaysection.cfm&sec=22

Libweb currently lists over 7700 pages from libraries in 145 countries.  A global directory of library home pages.  http://lists.webjunction.org/libweb/

Libdex – Index to 18,000 Libraries.  World index of library sites with over 18000 database entries. Includes a list of libraries by catalog vendor.  http://www.libdex.com/

Leeds University Library  Sites  http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/sites/

State Library Web Sites  http://dpi.state.wi.us/pld/statelib.html

Wisconsin Public  Library Websites  http://dpi.state.wi.us/pld/wis_lib.html

LibrarySpot.com, a free virtual library resource center for educators and students, librarians and their patrons, families, businesses and just about anyone exploring the Web for valuable research information.  http://www.libraryspot.com/

Virginia Public Library Web Sites  http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whoweare/directories/valib/libweb.asp

A to Z List of Useful Reference Sources  http://www.lib.utexas.edu/refsites/

Indian library websites  http://www.india-newsbehindnews.com/b-library.html , http://www.indiaedu.com/libraries/

NATIONAL LIBRARY WEBSITES  http://www.library.uq.edu.au/natlibs/websites.html , http://www.nlindia.org/collection.html

World Wide Web Virtual Library Sites  http://www.cwis.org/wwwvl/indig-vl.html

The best online library of references & facts  http://www.sandarbha.com/

Important Reference Sites  http://library.puchd.ac.in/ors.html

Library of Congress Office, New Delhi,  India … Other South Asian Materials Web Sites.  http://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/

Links to the latest news in the library and information science world  http://in.dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Libraries/Library_and_Information_Science/

Some Useful Resources for Library and Information Professionals in India  http://www.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/raja/lib-info-sources.htm

National Library of France  http://www.france-in-india.org/en/article.php3?id_article=929

American Centre Libraries in India – website of the USIS library network in India  http://www.india-newsbehindnews.com/b-library.html , http://americanlibrary.in.library.net , http://www.search4i.com/14806/Directory/American+Centre+Libraries+in+India.aspx

Important Reference Sites  http://library.puchd.ac.in/ors.html 

Indian Libraries  Websites Directory  http://www.dinesh.com/India/Arts%10Entertainment/Libraries/

The Library of Congress Office, New Delhi  http://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/

Worldwide Web Links  http://muscat.bl.uk/collections/orientalwww.html

Library Networks - India  http://www.information-professional.netfirms.com/directory/lanind.htm

Libraries in India  http://www.findouter.com/Asia/India/Reference/Libraries , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Libraries_in_India

American Information  Resource Centers in India  http://www.searchindia.com/search/Education/Libraries/index.shtml

In what has to be one of the most interesting comments without clarification in an interview, “Gene Ambaum”, co-creator of the Unshelved comic, states that Buddy the Book Beaver is real.

How much of him is real?  His checkered past?  His inability to read?  His unrequited love for the children’s librarian (Tamara)?  Or simply the ill-fated original incarnation of Buddy?  This shocking revelation raises more questions than answers, as he is one of the more colorful characters in the strip.

The Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) has just been made easier to set up and use.

The brief summary: create a page of links to web resources you feel are useful and appropriate for a given topic. Via Google, you generate a short bit of code that is added to the page, and you have a search tool that will let people do a full-text Google search on all of those resources — without you having to maintain anything other than the page of links. If you add or remove links, the CSE automatically adjusts the search to match. Techie description and details are here.

So if your library has lists of web resources, this may be a way to effectively let your patrons search them for the information they want.

from Google Librarian Central

Steven Bell – It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad Web 2.0 World : Hidden Treasure or Just More Pressure? (Powerpoint) (Handout)

The title is adapted from It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, the “epic comedy” film from 1963. He likened our (libraries) search for “Library 2.0″ to the frantic search for the “big W” in the film, even showing a couple of clips.

He recommended a Wired magazine article by Chris Anderson called People Power.

A manifestation of the second-generation web is User Generated Content (which strikes me as a good summation of the change taking place).

Business Week’s June 11, 2007 issue of Inside Innovation has an incredible set of charts showing demographics of those using and generating content.

He recommended an article from the v.25#2 issue of Library Hi-Tech called Taking the information to the public through Library 2.0 (abstract only; sounds like an ILL opportunity).

He pointed out a blog post by David Lee King called How Can We Change the Unchangeable, or David’s Rant.

He showed several video clips of library staff scenarios (think of those training movies you see with acted examples):

• Library Director/Admin reacting to a librarian’s blogging
• Co-workers discussing the possibilities of a Wiki
• Instant Messaging as a library tool

His main points were to try out new technology, be open-minded about staff using technology, and recognize that much of Library 2.0 technology involves a time investment, but is otherwise low-risk (and low-cost).

His caveats were to focus on identifying problems needing solutions, find technology with the potential to solve those problems, learn about the technology, and practice.

He referred to an article in the April 2004 American Libraries titled A Dozen Solutions to all Library Problems (which makes some great points with a dose of humor).

Design thinking – libraries approaching problems like designers approaching problems

Library revolution: designers went directly to patrons – how they use library, what they want to do but cannot, etc. They did not use the library staff as a primary resource for the design.

Stages for implementing change:

1. Reflect, analyze, diagnose and design
2. Imagine and visualize
3. Model plan and prototype
4. Implement

Designing Better Libraries (one of Steven’s blogs)

He used an interesting prop to illustrate increased tension associated with technology: a block of wood with a bolt partly screwed into it… he uses a ratchet to tighten the bolt… increasing the tension.

“Reverse the Technology Ratchet”

• consider the opportunity costs
• Balance experimentation and investment of time
• pick your edge – leading or trail
• identify your compassionate pioneers
• reverse mentoring (relatively new library people training established people on newer methods)
• make a plan and let it guide (but there are exceptions)

Website: Steven Bell’s Keeping Up Website

We must learn to evolve

Example: Change. Deal with It. (a.k.a. Jim Carroll’s squirrel experiment)

He concluded with a quote from David Bishop, Charles Deering McCormick University Librarian at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois:

We have watched whole professions go out of business as a result of changes in technology. Libraries are not immune. Change must happen soon and across the board if libraries of all types are to remain viable.

Notes: This was essentially a keynote, and did not go in-depth on any topic. It hit many points, and used a great deal of humor to do so. It was a great start for the conference, and the end quote sets the tone for one of the later sessions.

Google Translate has a new feature:  it will allow you to search foreign language pages using your language’s search terms, and translates the results on the fly.

As with all machine translation, the results will vary; the interface is well worth trying out.

from Google Librarian Central

Jenn Riley recently posted an essay on the TechEssence blog titled Involving more librarians and library staff in technology projects.  It is well worth reading, and provokes a couple of thoughs of my own:

Every staff member, librarian, and administrator should be involved in projects.  More importantly, they should be involved in projects that involve skills they don’t currently use and information not directly related to their current job.

Why?  The more you know about what other people’s jobs entail, the better you will be able to understand how your own work fits into the bigger picture.  Additionally, you may come into contact with tools and approaches that can be applied to your area.  It is much harder to discover what you don’t know if you aren’t exploring new areas.

You also must be given room to fail.  A good administrator is not necessarily a good cataloger, and vice-versa.  Each will still benefit from working in the other’s area, and even ideas or effort that fall short will add to the organization.

Notice that I don’t specifically refer to technology, unlike the essay that inspired this.  This is because the issue is much greater than any one approach, and is helpful in more ways than we can know.

Everything is connected to everything else….

An article titled “My National Security Letter Gag Order” appears in today’s Washington Post, and although it isn’t written by a librarian, it puts a face on what being served a National Security Letter might be like.

I am not as concerned with the gag order as I am with the fact that there is no judicial oversight of the issuance of the letters, but each aspect troubles me.

Gag orders designed to prevent tipping off suspects to an investigation are sometimes necessary, but to make the gag order include not being able to question the process under which the order was served strays, in my opinion, into one’s right to petition, as well as stretching the Fourth Amendment beyond its intended meaning.

article link from MetaFilter

Bacon as a Bookmark?  Librarians Tell All is the title of Mike Hardin’s column in today’s Columbus Dispatch.  He details various objects found inside returned library books, as described by Columbus area librarians.

The “cat in the bookdrop” library happens to be located about one block from my workplace.

I know a librarian in Illinois who found a strip of uncooked bacon in a book, but I cannot remember who it was… can anyone jog my memory?