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Another Library-related linkspam
May. 20th, 2011 05:33 pmMore library stuff, starting with what should be the basics - how to make your library Facebook/social media self more likeable and followable, why people in teaching capacities should be willing to blog and use the tools they're supposedly teaching, and why managers can make or break staff usage of media tools with their participation - because the people with knowledge are the ones who need to be using those tools to share and disseminate, and the tools that they regularly use will be the ones that their subordinates regularly use as well. From there, we move into why iterative design is better than a complete scrap-and-overhaul, especially for the morale of staff and users. Mind, that may mean that some back-end changes have to happen iteratively, too, so that you can get where you want to go, so don't discount your IT folks' workload either.
As an example of that kind of design, check out a project that basically nixed most of the reference collection and made it circulating, then built in more useful stuff with the space that opened up.
On the other hand, a nice way of crushing both morale and an effective program is to not replace librarians with librarians, announce what you're doing to them before having a meeting with them, and detailing a plan that's basically a Frak You to both the undergraduates and to the librarians themselves.
Four compelling and one frightening reason why libraries should not be on the e-book bandwagon just yet. Many of which I agree with - lack of control, lack of stability, and lack of format wars being resolved. (That said, Overdrive has announced they will carry Kindle format books in their collection, so the format wars department is a little less worrisome for us) The last one, though - a bit iffy. We might substitute a need to avoid signing non-disclosure agreements so that libraries can compare the deals they're getting with their vendors and advocate for better pricing overall. As for the kerfuffle with Overdrive and HarperCollins, get a summary and a dispatch from the ALA saying they're not asleep at the wheel on the issue. And then, take a look at a plan that not only spells out the right roles for each player, it also says there needs to be a lot more respect between publishers and libraries to resolve this thing amiably - publishers publish, libraries own, which means the publishers need to let go of the strings and not be able to arbitrarily impose new restrictions on something they've let out of their care. They can use the copyright law (which needs serious revision, and not in the direction that the content cabals and their politician patsies want it to go) they have now to enforce unauthorized copying. E-books need to be trated like actual books, instead of bits under a EULA. Libraries need to have the infrastructure on their side that lets them host and keep the content (as noted above), or at least have someone they trust host and keep the content (and publishers ain't it). What sort of role does the library have as a Content Guardian in the current US copyright environment? And why does the library world want to avoid getting into complete content distribution to their users through a service such as Freegal?
The perpetual debate continues on how much one should sandbag, as a professional, to ensure that the budget cuts don't make your organization run entirely by those without the degree, how much one should collaborate to get the paraprofessionals up to their limits, and whether it's possible to both bring the paras up to a professional level and differentiate enough between paras and professionals so that both are seen as valuable and necessary components.
And then there's the other debate - what sort of things should we be doing to LIS/MSI education to make it more relevant to the workplace and to take advantage of the New Media? And why, for the love of Prime, have parents not figured out what our policies actually mean when they sign their children up for library cards?
Last out, a library guide, written as a comic book, in which approaching waves of zombies serve as a foil for a research task, using QR codes to do a scavenger hunt, the power of a good sotryteller, and all the reasons why a pop culture person, a cheapskate, a frugal liver, or someone who thinks that the prices of books are too expensive should have and use their library card on a regular basis.
And perhaps the best defense of the public library I've seen written in a while. A lot of what we do should be common sense.
As an example of that kind of design, check out a project that basically nixed most of the reference collection and made it circulating, then built in more useful stuff with the space that opened up.
On the other hand, a nice way of crushing both morale and an effective program is to not replace librarians with librarians, announce what you're doing to them before having a meeting with them, and detailing a plan that's basically a Frak You to both the undergraduates and to the librarians themselves.
Four compelling and one frightening reason why libraries should not be on the e-book bandwagon just yet. Many of which I agree with - lack of control, lack of stability, and lack of format wars being resolved. (That said, Overdrive has announced they will carry Kindle format books in their collection, so the format wars department is a little less worrisome for us) The last one, though - a bit iffy. We might substitute a need to avoid signing non-disclosure agreements so that libraries can compare the deals they're getting with their vendors and advocate for better pricing overall. As for the kerfuffle with Overdrive and HarperCollins, get a summary and a dispatch from the ALA saying they're not asleep at the wheel on the issue. And then, take a look at a plan that not only spells out the right roles for each player, it also says there needs to be a lot more respect between publishers and libraries to resolve this thing amiably - publishers publish, libraries own, which means the publishers need to let go of the strings and not be able to arbitrarily impose new restrictions on something they've let out of their care. They can use the copyright law (which needs serious revision, and not in the direction that the content cabals and their politician patsies want it to go) they have now to enforce unauthorized copying. E-books need to be trated like actual books, instead of bits under a EULA. Libraries need to have the infrastructure on their side that lets them host and keep the content (as noted above), or at least have someone they trust host and keep the content (and publishers ain't it). What sort of role does the library have as a Content Guardian in the current US copyright environment? And why does the library world want to avoid getting into complete content distribution to their users through a service such as Freegal?
The perpetual debate continues on how much one should sandbag, as a professional, to ensure that the budget cuts don't make your organization run entirely by those without the degree, how much one should collaborate to get the paraprofessionals up to their limits, and whether it's possible to both bring the paras up to a professional level and differentiate enough between paras and professionals so that both are seen as valuable and necessary components.
And then there's the other debate - what sort of things should we be doing to LIS/MSI education to make it more relevant to the workplace and to take advantage of the New Media? And why, for the love of Prime, have parents not figured out what our policies actually mean when they sign their children up for library cards?
Last out, a library guide, written as a comic book, in which approaching waves of zombies serve as a foil for a research task, using QR codes to do a scavenger hunt, the power of a good sotryteller, and all the reasons why a pop culture person, a cheapskate, a frugal liver, or someone who thinks that the prices of books are too expensive should have and use their library card on a regular basis.
And perhaps the best defense of the public library I've seen written in a while. A lot of what we do should be common sense.
