October is National ***** Month

As a genealogist, I’m well aware that October is National Family History Month.  As a librarian, I was sadly unaware that October is also National Cyber Security Awareness Month.  With the advent of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, sometimes the joy and excitement of connecting with old friends and making new friends online blind us to the hidden dangers to our security lurking on these pages.  It’s so easy to get caught up in taking one more quiz, or participating in one more poll that your friends have taken and then posted.  But have you ever really read the fine print associated with some of these applications – I mean REALLY read it?  The word “Share” is prominent in all that I’ve read lately, and I’m just not that much of a sharing kind of person.

For years I’ve cautioned my sons about divulging too much personal information to strangers online.  Recently, my oldest son took me to task for my Facebook profile.  He works for the State Department (If he told me what he did, he’d have to silence me) and the first thing he was required to do was to “scrub” all social networking sites associated with his name.  He removed all personal, educational, social and work-related information from each of his profiles.  He then strongly advised me to do the same for mine.  While I haven’t followed his instructions completely, I have taken a second look at the information I’ve given out for the world to view.  Much of it I’ve removed and some I’ve changed.  I’ve stopped blissfully taking every new survey or quiz that pops up in a friend’s posting.  In other words, I’ve become much more cyber-security conscious.  Celebrate National Cyber Security Awareness Month by reviewing the personal information that you’ve posted for friends and others to see, and make sure you’re comfortable with your choices.

Upcoming Internet Librarian 2009

In just a little over a month, I’ll be boarding a plane for Monterey CA to attend the annual Internet Librarian Conference.  I’ve been privileged to attend every year but one since its start, and each time I go, I return to Michigan with lots of enthusiasm and new projects for our Library.  I know this year’s conference will be no exception! 

I find the Preconference Sessions especially valuable since we are in small groups and focus on a topic for several hours in a row.  Last year I was disappointed to learn that the Digital Photographer Boot Camp was cancelled, but it is being offered again this year and I’m signed up to attend.  As an avid photographer who loves to “play” with my photos in Photoshop Elements, I can’t wait to learn more from presenters Michael Porter, Michael Sauers and Amanda Hollister.  The next day I’ll be in the Preconference Session called Open Source CMS Playroom.  In this class I’ll have hands-on practice creating web pages using Drupal, Joomla! and WordPress and then compare their features.  After this experience, I’ll be able to recommend which CMS we’ll be using at Plymouth for our Intranet…. and eventually our public web page.

These two classes are just the start of what I anticipate being another info-packed week of library technology.  Then I get to return to reality and see which of my new proposals will “fly” at work.  Be on the lookout for my updates from Monterey since I’ll be an official Blogger for the conference.

Ponderings about On-line Learning

In a past life, over 30 years ago, I spent a few years working for a now-defunct computer learning school.  You know the kind I mean – you see their ads on the channels that show re-runs of Bonanza and Gunsmoke.  I was in charge of filing VA forms for the veterans who were taking classes there but still had much interaction with the instructors who taught programming languages.  We had many heated discussions regarding the possibility of using the computer for teaching classes online.  While I’m now ashamed to admit it, I was the person who argued against this ever happening.  I said that a machine could never replace a live person in a classroom setting.  Those programming instructors would certainly be laughing at me now!

Last week I taught two sessions of my Intro to RSS class to a group of librarians from two different states using Centra software and VOIP technology.  My first few years of using this technology were hard since I didn’t teach frequently enough to become comfortable with its features.  I think I’m finally at ease switching between text chat and live talk while running my web presentation.  My students are unfailingly patient when a new window doesn’t show up on their own computer monitors.  I always have lots of interaction during the course of the two hours.  I’ve asked myself if this would be better done in person – and I’m not sure of the answer.  Certainly, seeing people face to face leads to a natural exchange of ideas and comments, but we had a pretty lively conversation online last week.  The over-riding feature in teaching online is that a librarian from the U.P. in Michigan and two librarians from western Indiana could join with other librarians from the metro Detroit area in discussing the advantages of using RSS without leaving their desks.  That alone makes a huge difference to me in judging the merits of on-line vs. in person classes.

With the threat of widespread H1N1 flu in the upcoming months, colleges are requesting their professors to plan ahead and put their lectures online so that students may view them from home or dorms.  I wonder how many of these teachers have the skills and/or desire to do this.  The image I’ll always carry with me from the various universities I’ve attended is that of  an older professor either pointing to something on the board, reading out of a book, or sitting on a lecture desk earnestly discussing a topic.  Other than actually watching my teachers waving their arms in the air to get across their point of view, most of these other activities will easily lend themselves to the on-line technology.  My mother and my brother were both college professors.  If they were still alive, I wonder what they would think of this shift in the method of educating their students.  Personally, I love it!!

The Joys of Shelf Reading

One of our annual events each year is the shelf reading blitz that happens after summer reading is over and before school starts.  Librarians take this task in stride and rush to claim their own subject areas to put into order prior to moving on to other collections.  Not only do we put the materials in correct Dewey order, but many of us take this opportunity to weed our area as well.  Since I purchase materials in the 004 – 006 area of computers, my books and DVDs tend to need frequent updating and discarding.  Last week I finally got rid of my Windows 95 and 98 books as well as the DOS books.  Wouldn’t you know it – - the minute I weed these items, we have requests for them!!  That DOS for Dummies book hadn’t circulated in several years.  Now I was forced to interloan it thought Michigan eLibrary.  If I had waited to shelf read just one more week, we would have had this book in stock. 

Thankfully,  another area of my collection duties is genealogy & local history.  Since many of these books deal with historic topics, they tend not to go out of date.  I’m familiar with my dedicated genealogy patrons and know better than to discard their cherished favorite books!  Other than slipping thin volumes of local cemetery records back into order, my patrons keep close watch on the order of the books they use for their research. 

It’s a joy to have such diverse collections, including my new favorite – the video games for adults.  There is no shelf reading there since 90% of them are constantly out in circulation.  My six Nintendo DS game systems have never remained on the shelf for more than an hour at a time, so this is a mute point.

Summer is ending and my shelf reading / weeding is done.  Now we anxiously await the happy pitter-patter of middle schoolers’ gym shoes and cell phone ringtones and will know that another school year has started.  This is our last week of peace and quiet for many months to come!

Save Library of Michigan

I’ve never gotten into anything political in my postings before, but there comes a time when an issue just can’t be ignored.  Our beloved Library of Michigan is about to come to an end.  We have already lost our state Department of History, Arts and Libraries with a single penstroke from Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm.  All parts of this department having to do with library matters have been moved under the Dept. of Education.  Now, the Library of Michigan – a huge building which takes up an entire city block in Lansing – is about to be stripped of all books, documents, microfilm and serials and turned into a proposed center of innovation.  It was deemed that innovation didn’t need such mundate things as library books.  As a professional genealogist, my heart is breaking at the loss of the genealogy collection- the 10th largest in the country.  We have already lost free access to the Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library.  Researchers must pay a fee to walk in the room and conduct research.  Now we are about to see our other major repository of family history materials disbursed around the state and country.  Only a last minute effort on the part of our elected lawmakers can keep this from happening.  Genealogists have already staged a huge show of support for the library.  Now it’s our turn as librarians to travel to Lansing next month and make our voices heard.  We can’t just give up and watch this essential resource crumble under an executive order.  For more information, visit Michigan Libraries for the Future.

Using Google Books in Reference

It seems like there are fewer and fewer real reference questions these days.  You know, those that challenge us to use every single tool of librarianship that we know- the ones we really love.  Well, lucky me, I’ve had several of them lately and I have used Google Books to aid in my quest for an answer each time.  I must confess, while I use most Google apps in either my classes or personal life, their Books app was one I tended to overlook.  Never again – I’m a confirmed user of Google Books  when I need to find an obscure citation, especially if it’s over twenty years old. 

Using this tool yesterday, I was able to locate the exact date and page numbers for an article a patron needed for an upcoming lecture.  She had an old photocopy of the article, minus everything but the name of the journal.  It turned out that the journal had changed names, but I was still able to use the author’s name in Google Books to track down the bibliographic information needed to get a copy of this 40 year old article through interloan.   This same article had been cited in a book that appeared on Google Books – and this is the third time recently I’ve been able to track down older article citations using this tool.  I am certainly adding it to my favorite tools list when I am faced with a challenging reference query.

Wowbrary at our Library

This morning I spent an hour or so configuring a new service for our web page called Wowbrary.  I’m sure you’ve seen it on many different library sites – - the book covers that happily scroll across the little window, showcasing the newest library acquisitions.  Click on a book jacket and wow – you’re taken directly to the item in the online catalog.  Well, we’ve now joined the legions of other libraries in having Wowbrary not only on our home page but also on our Teen Zone  page.  The Teen widget was a bit harder to configure since I wanted only teen titles and a heading proclaining “New Teen Arrivals.”  Harder is relative, I must confess – it took a mere ten minutes to change size, title, target books, and number of items to display.  When all is said and done, this Wowbrary is pretty nifty – and a great price – free!!  Did I mention that patrons can sign up to receive free weekly e-newsletters letting them know what new items have just arrived.  Among the many lists to choose from are DVDs, music CDs, children’s books, non-fiction on a variety of different topics, and audio books.  So far we’ve gotten positive feedback from the staff, which is generally a tough audience.  For a little bit of work, you get a lot of “bang” with Wowbrary!

Saying Farewell to old ways

Today we’ll be having a farewell party for our Adult Services Coordinator as she enters retirement.  This good friend welcomed me to the Library staff when I started my career over 23 years ago – and tomorrow I bid her goodbye professionally.  I see her retirement as also an end to a style and model of library service.  This is neither a good nor bad thing — just a recognition of the changing face of librarianship.  Many (myself included) who received MLS degrees 20 or more years ago didn’t have technology classes as part of our training.  We had traditional subject area courses as well as collection development and cataloging.  As computers and the Internet emerged on the scene, those of us who naturally gravitated to those areas made it a point to educate ourselves through additional classes or hands on practice.  For other librarians, they preferred to stick to the time-honored duties of traditional reference service. 

Today’s graduates must find it very frustrating to hear about card catalogs, tickler files, original cataloging and other practices that we still refer to with nostalgia.  Older librarians may find social networking applications, video game programming and instant reference chat either confusing or not really library appropriate things.  Change is always difficult for us – yet we do it.  Our retiring Coordinator worked hard to help bring these changes to our staff, even though it was difficult for her to understand at times.  Whoever replaces her will most likely be part of the new generation of librarians who grew up using computers and accepted them as an integral part of library service.  I anticipate new practices and innovative ways of helping our patrons being introduced to the staff.  While I will dearly miss my friend and mentor, I also look forward to working with whoever replaces her.

Thoughts from my first ALA Conference (amost)

I call my recent trip to Chicago my almost conference since I was only there for one day – and then it was a preconference workshop.  None of the exhibits were open and I didn’t get much of a chance to network with either vendors or fellow librarians.  However, I was able to get a hint of what was in the works for the full conference opening day after I left.  That in itself was awesome!

My preconference workshop was sponsored by LITA , so I knew it would be highly technical in nature.  Karen Coombs was an excellent presenter and I’m thrilled to be signed up for one of her workshops at Internet Librarian in October.  Hopefully, I will learn more from that one than I did at the one I just attended!!  In all honesty, it wasn’t the fault of the presenter but rather my own lack of knowledge of XML, especially as it related to MARC records and OCLC WorldCat.  This is just something I’ve never worked with nor had a desire to learn.  Thus, much of the subject matter discussed in the API and Mashup conference went right over my head.

The fun part of myday came when we were introduced to Yahoo Pipes.  Again, another new concept for me, but it’s very easy to use and I can see practical reasons to use it on our Library web page.  While on the Pipes page, it occured to me that I must be a visual learner since looking at those nice boxes resembling flow charts looked much more appealing than the pages of PHP code that I later studied.  Using Pipes, I created a customized RSS feed combing four different science sites and then sorted them by date.  The resulting piece of code can then be imbedded into a regular web page.  I also made a mashup using a Google map and photos from Flickr tagged with specified subjects.  It was simple but looked impressive! While I will probably never be a huge fan of MARC XML , there is great potential in the information I brought back with me on creating web services for our Library using Pipes and mashups.

Past Projects Now Bearing Fruit

Although I started at the PDLibrary as a children’s librarian, I was always the designated genealogy specialist and local history librarian.  One of my first LSTA grants was to fund creating an index to our local newspaper.  Work continues on this project, now over 20 years old, and I’ve often wondered if it is worth the time and effort of the volunteers.  Last week, I got my answer!  An author from Florida spent seven days in our library researching the histories of the families that started the various air rifle factories in Plymouth.  He is writing a book on the topic and used our index to speed along his work.  Over and over again he thanked me for this wonderful tool.  I also showed him our photographs of the various gun factories, businessmen involved, and the homes in which they lived.  These historic photos were yet another one of those projects I spent a lot of time and energy developing.  I learned how to scan glass plate negatives and then digitally restore them before sending them to the Making of Modern Michigan project.  I had bemoaned how little they were viewed and questioned the wisdom of adding yet a second collection online.  My author used both collections while here in town and told me how much he appreciated being able to view them on the web from his home state.

When his book is published (due out in December) I’m hoping that he will send the Library a copy.  When I see references to our unique index and photo collections in print, it will be truly exciting!