Communication mash up

I have just been appointed to a new committee on campus that is investigating unified communication. Our aged phone switch is dying and it seems like a good point to look at whether we can update communications systems on campus by bringing together your desk phone, cell phone and your computer and also introduce all kinds of features like converting voicemail to e-mail, integrating instant messaging and web conferencing.

This has the potential to be of great interest to the library. Many of the librarians are feeling somewhat trapped at the reference desk. they like to roam, but the Meebo chat window and the askalibrarian e-mail inbox, never mind the phone keeps drawing them back. If they could use smartphones to deal with all those media of communication they could roam a lot further, into the stacks, the labs, and into other buildings.

I would like to hear your comments about this project.

New bookstore in town

On my long run today I passed a new bookstore -- The Book Worm -- on the corner of Bumby and E. Washington. It was closed when I went past but I took a look in the window and it looks like a reasonable used book store. Worth a visit I think, and yes Bill, they sell comics.

It is right next door to a Mexican restaurant so I think I hear a lunch time road trip coming up.

More on mobile computing

This was an issue at ALA Midwinter. I saw an interesting mention in the New York Times today.

The article starts out about the Kindle 2, but quickly moves on to two other issues, reading books on mobile phones and then who gets to make money from same -- the device vendors or the publishers. Here are some quotes about the former (links added by me).

"Perhaps most significantly, Amazon said it would start selling e-books that can be read on mobile phones and other devices, although Amazon did not say when it would do so or which devices would be compatible."

"Amazon also announced a new feature, Whispersync, which would allow readers to begin a book on one Kindle and continue, at the same point in the text, on another Kindle or a mobile phone."

"Amazon faces a serious challenge from Google, which has scanned some seven million books, many of them out of print. Google said last week that it would soon sell books from its publishing partners for reading on mobile devices like the iPhone from Apple and phones running Google’s Android operating system."

"Several companies have created e-book programs for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, which have been downloaded more than a million times."

The section ends with this prediction from Jeff Bezos. "Reading on these kinds of gadgets might be fine when waiting in line in the supermarket, but that most people would want a dedicated device with a specialized screen for reading."

I don't think Bezos is right about that, but we shall see.

What do we do with the shelflist?

If you have taken a look at my recent Facebook photo album recently (who am I kidding, why would you?) You know that we recently closed the shelflist. At the end of the semester we will dispose of it --cards and cabinet.

So, the question is: what do we do with it? Here are some ideas:

Cards

1. Give the faculty cards representing their own books.
2. Give people cards for favorite books.

Cabinets

1. Auction individual sections off as wine cabinets.

So what ideas do you have?

Weird social networking moment

I just realized I had five tabs open in my web browser: A Multipoint Interactive Videoconferencing session from NITLE, a private wiki from Pbwiki about cooperation amongst academic libraries in Florida, Flickr, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and now Blogger.

Synchronicity? Overkill? Just the way we work now?

Midwinter -- 5 Communicating with users

Here are a few things I want to find someone to try at Olin.

Set up a Flickr account, take a couple of dozen photos per week of people in the library, services, resources, events, etc , tag them, and add them to the site and see if it drives traffic to our website.

Create a Youtube video of the same kind of stuff every week, embed it in the website front page, and see what happens.

This is something that Bill and Paul have talked about before; the Libx Firefox plugin -- get it on all lab machines, staff PCs, do some training, maybe a Captivate file and see how people use it.

Midwinter 4 -- Mobile computing

I have been interested in computing from cell phones and PDAs for a while. I think the reader device of choice will be the cell phone. Not because it is the best, but because it is the most convenient. People are already reading vast quantities of text from their cell phones via texting and in some cases e-mail. But phones like the iPhone, with reasonable browsers are making reading even more from that little screen a real option for more and more people.
Now OCLC is in the game -- see http://www.worldcat.org/m/ for WorldCat from your cell phone. If your phone has GPS capabilities (like the iPhone) then it will even show the library closest to you that owns the book. Olin Library really needs to make a mobile friendly version of its website. Like the Washington Post for example, which is my current favorite phone reading site.

Other vendors, like ProQuest and SerialsSolutions are talking about this, but I see no evidence of progress yet. Our students should be able to download fulltext on to their cell phones, or send records via text message or otherwise to their phones. From our catalogs they should be able to download a record to their phone (or search the OPAC directly from their phone) and then wander the aisles of the stacks until their phone beeps when they are close to the location of the book. they should be able to access a database via their phone from the classroom and share the results with other phone users in the class.

Midwinter --3. Google for libraries?

At the Serials Solutions breakfast they introduced a new beta product, Summon.
Jane Burke described federated searching as a, "mature technology" well if that is mature then it is going nowhere because it sucks. But this new product is quite cool.
They want you to think of it as Google for libraries or a 'unified discovery tool." Lots of people have said that before, including many federated search fans, but this really is impressive. They pre-index your content (since their Knowledge Base already knows what databases you have access to and what digital content you subscribe to.) The user searches in a very Google like interface and gets immediate access to fulltext with one click. Expect to hear more about this. Now it just depends on how they price it. If we can ditch MARC records for digital journals in the catalog, the federated searching module, and perhaps iLink for our OPAC, this might be worth it.

Blogging from Midwinter -- 2

Saturday was open access day for me.

SCOAP3 is an emerging Open Access (OA) project. In which the money previously directed to publishers for High Energy Physics (HEP) journal subscriptions is redirected to SCOAP3 (at CERN) which then negotiates with publishers for peer review costs and the publishers agree to provide open access the resulting articles. Libraries initially pay the same money,in the future they may pay less.
Sounds wacky to me. It depends on the fact that authors of HEP articles are placing their research in ArXiv.org and readers are reading them there. The only value provided by the publishers is as organizers of peer-review and as the final standard archive for authors, Promotion & Tenure (P&T) committees, funding agencies, etc.
It may work in a highly organized field of scholarly communication like HEP,but I doubt it is model for many others. Ultimately you have to ask yourself, if no one is reading the final journals why are we publishing them? Why not take the money and instead of transferring it to publishers,just organize the peer review yourselves? After all, the HEP researchers at CERN and elsewhere are the heart of the peer review system. The publishers are just managers and paper pushers. Also the journals' role as standards and archives has been built up over many decades because they are read. They are the way this scholarly community communicates. If that is no longer true then P&T committees etc. will eventually look elsewhere (e.g. ArXiv.org) for evidence of quality. Why not speed the process along?

Later in the day I was at the SPARC Forum on the OEM (Open Education Movement) think of this as OA to textbooks, syllabi, course materials, etc. Here are some links that might interest you:

The Cape Town Declaration
Flat World knowledge
Connexions
Open Courseware at MIT
Make Textbooks Affordable. A PIRG that works to make textbooks more affordable.

All interesting stuff and worth a look.

Blogging from Midwinter 2009 -- 1

For the next few days I will be adding some entries from ALA Midwinter in Denver.

Library Workforce Development Really no crisis here. Employers -- libraries -- will adjust. They will stop doing certain things they can't find suitable candidates for at the right price, reposition others as non-MLS positions, and find automated solutions to others. In the meantime library schools will ramp up production of new MLS students if they have students clamoring to get in. Students will only do so if well paying jobs are out there with a good ROI for the cost of the degree (which means an expection of a career,not just a first job.)

The inauguration

We had a wonderful event in the library on Tuesday January 20th. About 50 people showed up. We just gathered around the plasma, since the cable in the Bib Lab was inexplicably not working, turned up the sound, and watched the historic events unfold on the Mall in Washington.

This was the latest in a series of political events in the library that started soon after I arrived with a viewing party for the 2006 mid term election, continued with the Super Tuesday primary. I was then delighted to work with the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership on campus on a big election night viewing party on Mills Lawn in November. But this one was special.

I am proud to be able to announce that Dorothy Mays has been awarded the Cornell Distinguished Faculty Award this year. One of three faculty members, the others being Ed Royce and Bruce Stephenson. Dorothy is the first librarian at Rollins to ever be awarded this honor.

Each year, the College presents up to three Cornell Distinguished Faculty Awards recognizing exceptional professional accomplishments in at least two of the faculty's three primary emphases of teaching, research and service. Because teaching is the first priority at Rollins, it is expected that all awardees will have established a record of excellence in instruction. With the exception of holders of endowed chairs, all tenured and tenure-track faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences are eligible for consideration.

This is richly deserved. Dorothy provides much of the best teaching we provide in the library and also teaches in other departments like History. Her research is excellent and very well regarded (I am looking forward to seeing her most recent work on Gatorland in print soon), and her service (most recently in connection with curriculum reform) is exemplary.

So send her a note and congratulate her.

Nightime launch

On Friday night, after the library closed, I went up to the darkened Tower Room at the top of the Library and watched the nighttime launch of the shuttle. The photos don't do the event any justice. I took them on my phone, but trust me it was magnificent to watch it light up the night sky, soar above the treetops first image), pierce the clouds (second image), and then see it pass by the moon (last two images.)

Another reason I am lucky to live in Florida.

Really, really good news

Rollins has been conducting a customer service study this semester. The people involved recently surveyed the A&S students (the residential, liberal arts component of our student body) about offices and departments on campus and rated their customer service on a scale of 1-4 (1 being lowest, 4 being highest.) Two departments on campus stood out head and shoulders above the rest in terms of how the A&S students perceived the quality of service provided.

Drum roll please .....

Olin Library was rated at 3.56 with a standard deviation of 0.6 (non-statistical translation: we rated very high and most respondents agreed with that high rating.)

Second drum roll .....

Only one other department on campus exceeded our rating, and then only by 0.06. If you have ever used the services of Doc and his team this result will not surprise you. They do a magnificent job of finding solutions rather than problems and have created a great atmosphere down in the basement of Mills. Do you know any other Post Offices you can say that about?

But enough about them! Congratulations to everyone in Olin. This is a great validation of all the hard work all the staff have put into improving service to our users over the last few years and fulfilling our mission --

Exceptional service, information resources, and a welcoming environment for the Rollins community.

When we brought in Leslie Bonner to consult with us on customer service a couple of years ago, I said I wanted Circulation to become a model for other service points on campus. I wanted other departments to come to us and ask us how we did such a good job. Well, Roger Casey wants to use the results of this survey to do just that. He will be asking Olin, and the Post Office to explain to other departments what we do and how we do it in an effort to help them improve their own customer service. Stay tuned for more details.

But for the moment, let's just bask in the glory .... and if you see an Olin person around, congratulate them. This is entirely due to their hard work.

ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008

ECAR just published their new report on undergraduate information technology use. Here are the key findings according to OCLC Abstracts (who produced a nice short summary in their 10/27/08 issue):

• More than 80 percent of respondents own laptops, 53.8 percent own desktops, and one-third own both a laptop and a desktop.
• Laptop ownership increased from 65.9 percent in 2006 to 82.2 percent in 2008. Freshmen respondents are entering college with new laptops in hand—this year 71.1 percent have a laptop less than one year old.
• Ownership of Internet-capable cell phones is also on the rise, now owned by 66.1 percent of respondents. Most respondents, however, do not yet take advantage of the Internet capability, citing high cost, slow response and difficulty of use as primary reasons.
• Despite barriers to use, almost one-fourth of respondents access the Internet from a cell phone or PDA at least monthly, and 17.5 percent do so weekly or more often.
• Respondents report spending an average 19.6 hours per week actively doing online activities for work, school or recreation, and 7.4 percent spend more than 40 hours per week doing so.
• Almost all students surveyed use the college or university library Web site (93.4 percent) and presentation software (91.9 percent). Also used by most students are spreadsheets (85.9 percent), social networking sites (85.2 percent), text messaging (83.6 percent) and course management systems (82.3 percent).
• About one-third of respondents report using audio-creation or video-creation software and 73.9 percent use graphics software (Photoshop, Flash, etc.).
• Almost one-third engage in online multiuser computer games (World of Warcraft, EverQuest, poker, etc.) and about 1 in 11 respondents (8.8 percent) report using online virtual worlds (Second Life, etc.).
• Students are interactive on the Web, with more than one-third contributing content to blogs, wikis, and photo and video Web sites.
• Over 85 percent of respondents report using social networking sites. The striking change over the last two years was in how many respondents now use social networking sites on a daily basis, from 32.8 percent in 2006 to 58.8 percent in 2008.

It looks like the big winners are laptops, cell phones (but not their Internet capabilities), library websites, social networking, and graphics software.

No surprise that Second Life is the big loser.

Biblio Burro

This story makes you proud to be a librarian. Bookmobiles in the the US began in Hagerstown, MD in the early twentieth century. I remember using them as a child in rural Britain in the 1960's. It was the compactness, the warm smell of books and coachwork, and the miraculous appearance of the bookmobile on our housing estate that I loved most.

Shaping Liberal Arts College Library Collections

I am at the FDR Presidential Library at this conference, hosted by Vassar College.

I spend the morning touring the FDR Museum with friends. It is well worth a visit, particularly the special exhibit on FDR's first 100 days and the Eleanor Roosevelt exhibit. Such an impressive woman.

In her welcoming remarks to the Conference, the Director of the Presidential Library quoted FDR when he opened the Library in 1941. To build and maintain libraries and archives FDR said a, "nation must believe in three things. It must believe in the past. It must believe in the future. It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future." Words to live by.

I have come away from this conference more convinced than ever that, as I concluded in a recent post, our future is in consortia. What distinguishes us as a liberal arts college library for our users is our close relationship with them and our focus on student learning. Some of our collections, and how they are built and shaped, are related to that those liberal artsy distinguishing features. But mostly, in terms of information resources, our users want it all. Therefore we need to embed ourselves in large scale consortia that provide convenient unmediated borrowing and also join purchase licensing opportunities. Then we can concentrate on what we do well -- individual service to students and faculty.

What is this "Followers" thing?

Look at the top of the right hand column of this blog. Notice the widget for "discerning people who follow this blog." It is a new widget from Google that I did not know about until Jeff Scott became a follower of my blog. It is a nice little feature that enables me to sense my audience (at least some of them) and enables you to keep track of blogs that interest you.

So, give it a whirl. If you don't already have a Google account, set one up and follow this blog.

By the way, Jeff's blog, Gather No Dust, is worth checking out. Thoughtful comments from a public library director.

I wonder if calling this feature "followers" is a misstep on Google's part? There are no followers in America, only leaders. Just as more of us like to think of ourselves as writers than readers. Maybe they should have called it "members", "patrons" or "trendsetters."

How are we doing: Return of the Comments.

Even more comments. These were all left for us during September. Keep them coming.

Comments on our Service
"Tim in IT hooked up wireless for me & showed great service."
"The lady at the help desk was so helpful! I could not find this one thing, and she helped me find it and was just so great and cheerful as well. I hope to see her around and would love for her assistance at any time!"
"Great help!"
"Librarians Rock!"
"Steve V is awesome!"
Jonathan's Response: Thanks for all these great complements. When you gave me a name, I passed the complement on to the supervisor and to the person named.

Comment: "Would it possible to get a AED (Automatic External Defibrillator) for the library?"
Jonathan's Response: We passed on your idea to the Health Center. We will see what they think.

Comment: "I would appreciate free drinks and snacks!"
Jonathan's Response: Hey, who doesn't? But you will have to wait for exam time. During the week of exams we provide free drinks and snacks during the evenings.

Comment: "When I did my undergraduate degree in the 80's, it was possible to park in the back parking lot and enter through the back door. Now that I'm disabled, it would be wonderful to park out back and enter the back door."
Jonathan's Response: You still can, just ring the bell to the right of the loading dock door and someone will let you in when that office is staffed (Mon-Fri 7:45am - 4pm.) Also, both pathways round the library are wheelchair accessible. I suggest you take the upper or left hand pathway. It leads to the ramp on to the Library loggia and from there to the front door. I am looking into improving the signs near the handicap parking spots so that your options are more obvious.

Comment:"I would love to see "Mr. Holland's Opus". The library should own it. It deals a lot with music."
Jonathan's Response: Thanks for the suggestion. We have just ordered a copy. In future you can always suggest a book or DVD for the library here.

Comment: "USB drives for 24 hour use would be a big plus!"
Jonathan's Response: We have a bunch of USB sticks available for 4-hour check out for use inside the library. We will add a few more for 24-hour checkout for use anywhere. Thanks for the suggestion.

Comments on the Bookmark Cafe:
"If possible, could the Bookmark Café be open on Fridays as well?"
"No Dr. Java?"
Jonathan's Response: I am guessing that last one is about the same issue. I have passed these comments on to Dining Services and they will be testing some open hours on Friday over the next few weeks. This library gets kinda quiet on Friday's so we shall see how this goes, but if the demand is there, they will do it.

Comment: "I think you should put some of those brown comfortable chairs (that you have by the entry) upstairs in a quiet zone. Thanks!"
Jonathan's Response: Great minds think alike! One of our proposed unfunded capital projects this year was for exactly this. In fact I think all the furniture in Olin is showing its age and needs to be updated; with comfortable leather chairs figuring prominently in the plans on all floors. Unfortunately the key word here is "unfunded." You can rest assured that everyone will hear if we get funded for this. If you know someone who has somehow dodged the current financial meltdown in the global economy and wants to invest some money in a cool project in the library, let me know. We will gladly give them credit!

Comment:"The women's restroom by the 24 hour lab is missing its' sign! A little confusion."
Jonathan's Response: Thanks for letting us know. We have reported this and will get it replaced.

Comment: "The past three times I've visited the 3rd floor, particularly the Pillow Room for quiet study, I have had difficulty doing so with many students talking, joking and carrying on. Perhaps another plain text reminder could be posted on the wall of the Pillow Room, reiterating the quiet study policies."
Jonathan's Response: Sorry to hear that. We are preparing a poster for the Pillow Room to remind people that the 3rd floor is a quiet study floor and noise travels. In the meantime, you should always feel free to ask people to tone it down or move to another floor. If you want us to do this, just ask any staff person.

Comment: "Would it be possible to have the parking lot out back to be reserved 7am to 5pm, as its funny to see the parking lot today at 7:20 with 4 spots left and the night shift having to park across campus as midnight as there are no spots when they came 4:30."
Jonathan's Response: As everyone knows, parking is not easy on campus. I have passed this comment on to Campus Safety and they are considering it. But I have to tell you: the 4pm end to faculty/staff reserved parking is standard across campus. It will get real confusing if we just change it for one lot. Also Holt students trying to get to early evening classes need those spots as well.

Thanks to everyone. Keep those comments coming!

Publishers did not take the bait

C&RL just placed my latest article on their pre-print server. It will be published in the Spring 2009 issue of the journal. I originally came across the USOE policy while writing my dissertation, specifically when I got hold of Julius Marke's book, Copyright and Intellectual Property. There are obvious links to the current NIH Public Access Policy and I thought a historical comparison might be interesting. Let me know what you think.

By the way, I am really glad to see this open access pre-print server. ACRL: livin' the OA dream!