The Future

For the last week or so I have been working with a group working on a poster project about what the library of 2025 would be like. Despite the economy and decreasing of library budgets we all had positive outlooks for the future of libraries, which I think is awesome. No matter how bleak the future looks we will always have upbeat librarians, and with upbeat librarians come awesome libraries. We just need to adapt to the changing times and diminishing wallets, in fact librarians and libraries are a great resource to help with just that, we will just have to practice what we preach. And I will just have to accept the fact that at least in the reference section I will not always have a physical book in front of me, though it pains me...dearly. (Not against digitization, I am just not for  removing print resources, I think they are still a valuable tool that is far less corruptible.)

Academic Libraries

This week in 511 we were visited by academic librarians, one from Cornell and one from Bird Library. I went into the class being optimistic, actually keeping an open mind to considering academic libraries as a career path. I came out of it absolutely sure I did not want to be an academic librarian. The Librarians themselves were good people, I just found myself getting bored with the subject, which was the killing blow to my interest in being an academic librarian. It may have been the fact that they had slide presentations (one prezi, one powerpoint, the prezi presentation was a little more interesting and I have been meaning to try the tool out since a friend showed it to me last year. It is pretty awesome.), they are in fact the only visiting librarians that had slide presentations, maybe it was the fact that the other librarians didn't stand behind a pedestal and actually engaged us.  Is that just how academic librarians are? The psychology minor in me is peaking my interest in figuring out how librarians in different areas of the field behave and think (cognitive and behaviorist, talk about your oxymoron). Who knows, maybe it will help me figure out how to change how librarians are viewed. Its harder than changing my title as many have thought about, but I think it is more worth our time in redefining "librarian" than calling us something else. If you want to call yourself something else, go for it, but I would rather be called "librarian" and try to redefine it than to be call an "information specialist." That just sounds standoffish to me, something that would scare people away from asking me for help, which is why I want to be a librarian.
That brings up another point I want to make. I have been told several times that saying that you love books in a library interview is a bad idea, but I feel like that is wrong and denying your roots and yourself if you do in fact love books.  Loving books is what brought me to the library in the first place, and if I had never gone to the library, I would never have wanted to be a librarian. Yes that is one reason that I want to be a librarian, but it isn't the defining reason, and it isn't the only reason, but I don't think I should have to deny it or omit it just because some librarians have come to see "loving books" as taboo. The biggest reason I want to become a librarian is that I want to help people, something that I have realized before but not given much thought, but that does not make my love of books any less or any worse of a reason to be a librarian.

Therapy Dogs in the Library

Last week in 511 we were visited by a Librarian from the Syracuse area who brought a therapy dog that their library allows patron/user/member/owners check out for a certain amount of hours. This brought back to my head an idea I have had since my family got a therapy dog, a chocolate standard poodle (pictured on the right) we named Luna.  My mother is a Special ed teacher and she brings therapy dogs (Luna and five other standard poodles owned by a family friend) into the school one day each week of the school year and has students read to the dogs (with a handler in the room with them, usually my Pepere). This allows children to improve their reading skills in an environment where they won't be judged, dogs do not judge and are very attentive because they are getting attention from the students.  Other schools in the area have been working on starting a similar program, and one of our local librarians is training to be a handler.  I think this would be really cool to get started in public libraries, and even school libraries. It gets community involvement and offers a much needed service, and it does not just have to be children that take advantage of it.  There will always be that problem of people who are afraid of dogs, or allergic to dogs, or just don't like dogs but that is a problem that I think we just have to deal with.  That is one of the reasons we chose a Standard Poodle, they are highly intelligent dogs, that are hypoallergenic and though they are highly energetic they listen well and remain calm when they have to be. I feel like this is one service that many libraries can benefit from that will greatly benefit their communities.

I get confused about my train of thought

                This week in 511 we had two School Librarians from Syracuse area schools visit the class. I considered being a school librarian but then decided it wasn’t for me. I liked helping children, in fact much of my volunteering at libraries has been with children, but I think helping the entire range of people would be more for me. I don’t know if I could handle the school lifestyle like many of my friends can. I do find it interesting that the first thing I wanted to do as a kid was be a teacher and I avoided going into education because of my fear of public speaking, and I keep finding ways to get back to it despite myself.

            One of the guests was talking about her iStaff, which consisted of student hires, and it got me reminiscing about my days as a library aide in High School at LFHS. Which got me reminiscing about my days volunteering at Treat Memorial Library. Which got me wondering: Why the hell did it take me until my last year of undergrad to figure out I wanted to be a librarian? I mean, I still would have done the whole creative writing program, doubt of that will never crossed my mind, but I could have planned this out so much better.

                This week in 511 we took a visit to the special collections in Bird Library. For part of it we were lectured by Professor Kenneth Lavender about Special Collections, what they had in Bird Library and what he does for them. It definitely seemed really cool, especially with the historical documents and books he showed us. I cannot lie that I got some nerdy enjoyment in being that close to books from almost the beginning of written language to the 20^th century. Is that enjoyment enough to entice me to go in that direction? Immediate reaction was that it didn’t feel like enough, but now that I have given it a week my thoughts are just as muddled as they were before.

            The second part of the class we met the people in charge of preservation and they taught us about what they do to fix books and other print materials that are brought in to them, including special collections books. It is definitely a cool job to have, though personally I feel like my hands are too shaky for the special collections side of preservation. It is definitely an aspect of librarianship that interests me though. Being from a State and town whose main industry is paper making it was definitely interesting to hear about the history of paper making and how we have been doing it “less right” than the Japanese have for centuries.

Probably a ramble

    Late again this week for my blog, sorry about that. I had no idea what I would be writing about when I started this so I will probably be rambling, apologies.
    I guess one thing that has been on my mind this week, again, has been where I am going with this degree. I know I want to work in a library, and that is all I wanted to do when I first came here. I just wanted to be a librarian, and I kind of still want to be a librarian.  Now though I have found myself deciding between cataloger (apparently the weird guys among the weird guys that are librarians), public library, or Cultural Heritage and Preservation.  Working on the Digital Library Wiki for Jill Hurst-Wall has added another interest to me. It would be pretty cool to work on a digital library, though I would be afraid to lose that physical contact with people that a digital library wouldn't give me. The more I talk about this, the more I am leaning towards public librarian working in children's or youth services. So you are helping me out a little bit this week.

Filtering: Good, Bad, or don't know what to do?

            A lot of people from this weeks 511 class are probably going to be talking about filters in the library; either that or I am a week behind on this subject. Not filters you put in the coffee maker mind you, internet filters.  As a librarian do you allow people to go wherever they want using your internet, or do you use filters? Senator John McCain pushed through a law that required libraries to put in place internet filters in order to continue receiving federal funding.  The law was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2006, to the celebration of McCain.

            This is a tricky and highly controversial subject. First, because it involves money, many libraries, especially small public libraries, depend on federal funding and grants in order to continue operations and pay for things such as computers and books, and would be severely curtailed if they couldn’t get that funding. Filters can be good in that they block people from being able to look at X-rated material in the middle of the library, ten feet away from children and other adults. (You have to have some sort of mental disability if you can look at stuff like that in a public place.) On the other hand, these filters might block sites that people might need to reach, that have nothing to do with such material.  Plus there are also ways to get around these filters, granted some of the people will not know anything about how to do that, but there will always be that one guy.

            If your all for open access, then you don’t really care for filters. I for one am one of those undecided people who is teetering between opting for filters and not having them at all. Eventually I will probably have to make a choice, but I feel this takes more research. Yay, research!

            Also, something having nothing to do with filtering:

         

Musings

                Not really sure what to write about this week, nothing has really popped out at me this week. Well not much anyway. In 605 we learned about and created QR codes (in essence a square of code that can hold more information than the barcode you see on the products you buy at the store every week). As a nerd, I found them to be very cool, and fun to create and decode…if you have a smartphone.  I definitely think there are many uses for them, especially in a library, in fact we talked about several uses for them such as placing them on books and linking them to similar books, books the reader might find enjoyable, or the author’s biography or personal website. However, there is on big downside to them. They require a smartphone to read and decode them. If you don’t have a smartphone, you are out of luck. Also, it requires you to know what the heck these things are to know how to decode them.  I had not heard of them until I came to Syracuse and now after Thursday I am seeing them everywhere. Unfortunately, I do not have a smartphone, which is annoying when I want to nerd out and scan these fun little squares of data.

            On another note, I went to see Stephen Abram talk this week.  He is a very approachable person. Unfortunately I don’t remember what he talked about when he was actually answering questions, I will have to go watch the video again when I have the time.  What I do remember is him talking to us about how at conferences you can pick out what a librarian does from how they are dressed. One of my friends was apparently wearing a jacket that made her look like a library director, and I, wearing jeans and a t-shirt (I think the same one I am wearing now—relax I did laundry last night), apparently was wearing cataloger. Which is funny, because that is one of the directions I am considering going.

            That does bring me to another point, I am bad at making decisions (but I can say I made a great one deciding to come to Syracuse for LIS). One decision I am struggling with right now is which direction I want to go in with my LIS.  My first job in my internship for my undergrad at Treat Memorial Library in Livermore Falls, Maine (no, that isn’t Canada) was working in their catalog fixing the Dewey Decimal classifications (they were attempting to scare me as much as possible to test to see if I really wanted to do this, I think I passed that test) and in my oddness I actually kind of enjoyed working on cataloging, while everyone else seems to despise it. I am the weird nerd among the weird nerds, if that makes sense. I suppose if you are a weird nerd it does (side note: weird and nerd are compliments, not insults, it always confused me how calling someone different and/or smart was an insult). I am also considering taking the Certificate of Advanced Study in Cultural Heritage. CASs are cool programs that give you more training in a specific area of librarianship, they offer the CH, Digital Libraries (kind of speaks for itself), and eScience (no clue what the heck it is all about, and apparently neither do they as they have kind of put a generic name on it—at least for those in the information field, to those outside the web you could just as well call it “shiny stuff” and it would probably give them the same level of understanding—but I guess it is really cool). I am also very interested in Public Libraries, in which case I could go any number of ways, children’s services, young adult (or if you prefer teenagers or anyone of our generation that wants to reminisce or grab an easy read), or adult services (keep your mind out of the gutter please). I met with my advisor, and I am nowhere nearer to figuring out what the heck I am going to do with the next year and a half of courses.

I apologize for all of the asides, I write as I think.

Smartphones, eReaders, and Candy, Candy, Candy

The topic of eBooks and Smartphones are constantly coming up nowadays, and especially in my LIS classes.  For the most part, I have been able to get by with my Tracfone flip phone (free advertising for them?). I have been able to get by with just the ability to text and call people; it even has a crappy phone camera! So far I haven’t felt the need to surf the web while on the move (I don’t need to be on Facebook constantly like some people, I just happen to be on it a lot when I am on my computer. Okay, I might have a problem, which is probably why not having a phone with internet access is good for me, at least right now.) However, I hear of all of the apps and fun stuff that smartphones can do now and I find myself wondering, am I going to be behind the times? Am I going to fall behind technology and thus be less capable as a librarian if I do not fall into the trap of smartphones? On one hand I find myself hesitant to go that route, especially since tracfone’s pay-as-you-go system is all I have ever known, on the other hand I find myself wanting one so can keep up with the rest of the world.

            Now onto eReaders and eBooks. I personally will probably never have one as I do not care for reading off of a screen. I prefer a physical book in my hands and the tactile joy I get out of turning the page. I have nothing against their existence--I remember seeing a similar thing on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the hands of Captain Sisko’s son Jake and thinking it was cool. I think that people who enjoy them should be able to enjoy them and the cheap books, articles, etc. are awesome. I definitely think that they do belong in libraries, but physical books should still be part of library systems. As I kind of ranted on in my first post, I am against totally digital libraries and think they are a disservice to everyone even if they don’t realize it. (Add the bacon.) They are an awesome thing, I just prefer physical books. I do not, however, like how companies that sell eReaders are making physical books their enemy.  They belong to the same industry, they are just separate products. I feel it would be better for this industry if they teamed up together to further promote eReaders and physical books, but what the heck do I know I am only a writer and library student.

Also, on one topic mentioned in class, most writers I know are library junkies aka we like libraries and if you run into a writer that doesn’t like their books being in libraries ask them how their writing career is going for them. Money is involved, but as a writer I would rather write for the enjoyment of readers and get my book out to as many people as possible, which means libraries are awesome. Call me biased because I am going to be a librarian but libraries are cool.

            Now to a more personal note, I will try to tie it back into libraries at the end but if I don’t I think that there is enough above to appease you. In 511 this week Professor Lankes passed around bags of assorted candy to explain cataloging and metadata (another reason why I love this place, they get creative with their instruction. And they hand out candy.)  Before he passed them out, he asked everyone if there were any allergies, and for those of you that do not know or don’t remember, I am allergic to red food dye. Specifically Red Dye #40 but I avoid all red dyes just to be safe. Obviously there was the given shock and awe, especially from Professor Lankes (who also kept bringing it up to make his points, which I was okay with as long as he didn’t ask me if I could slide on a red slide or use a red napkin like my high school friends did). The shock and awe I admit is annoying despite telling people my entire life, no one expects the red dye allergy (doesn’t have quite the same zing as the Spanish Inquisition but oh well).

            I hate assorted candy bags (as well as starburst and other variety candy packs). The “fun-sized” Starburst are even worse as there is no indication of what is inside so I could end up with two pieces I can’t eat and a waste of money (I once bought a package of Airheads because it only listed blue dye on the outer package but when I opened it, half of them were red or had red in them. Not happy was a bit of an understatement, though it does present instances to share with friends). In the Wonka assortments they have nerds but it is always the red or the purple, never anything I can eat, thank god for banana Laffy Taffy or I wouldn’t be able to eat anything Wonka. 2/3 of the time I cannot eat the candy in the assortments because candy companies suck at equal amounts (M&Ms I could get 20 pieces or I could get 3 and then have to give the rest to others, this is more common with Smarties, and then have to give the rest to somebody else. Being color blind doesn’t help, especially since the colors I confuse are always the ones that would have red dye and their non-red counterparts). Most of the time they only list out the colors at the end or beginning of the ingredients list and they don’t separate out which is which (companies that make popsicles are notorious for this). Companies that do separate the colors out are awesome, and companies that don’t even use dyes are even better (Lays is awesome for going the All Natural kick. Product placement, product placement, product placement). Bringing this back to libraries though, the output of catalogs is metadata, and the ingredients on the back of the packages of candy qualifies as this metadata. Candy metadata sucks.

                Okay, so I was a little slow with the blogging this week, but I am taking the advice from my nonfiction professor in undergrad, no apologies. So, even though we were told that we did not have to post about 511, I think this week’s class was just too good to not talk about, and not just because of bacon cheeseburgers.

            I know what you are probably thinking, “Bacon cheeseburgers? I thought you were in Library School not McDonalds College.” It is in relation to my groups blog thread pertaining to our professor, David Lankes’ book, The Atlas of New Librarianship. (Our thread is over, but feel free to join into the conversation on the next groups post at http://www.newlibrarianship.org/wordpress/?p=2348) One of the issues that was brought up during the conversation was the issue of Librarians improving society, one poster said it was wrong for librarians to tell society what to do (or at least that is the gist of what I got). So, for some strange reason I decided to be politically correct and say that we were merely facilitating the addition of knowledge to society through, if I may so myself, a brilliant analogy to a bacon cheeseburger, the bacon obviously being the added knowledge because obviously bacon is awesome (can you tell I have been craving bacon all week?). I basically said you can choose to add the bacon (knowledge) or not.

            In class we started talking about the thread and obviously this issue came up again and Professor Lankes went on probably the most inspiring rant I have heard. He said that we do tell society what to think because we are part of society and we have just as much a stake in it as anyone else and to say that we do not for whatever reason is an insult (paraphrasing I don’t think he actually said that in those words). I think one of my favorite parts is he called me “Burger” in order to get my attention (I was writing down another of his quotes but obviously it got cut off and it is incomplete in my notebook which kind of bothers me) and said “We add the bacon!” Meaning we add the knowledge, we tell society what should happen. Though, I think the most inspiring thing he said was “No one changed the world by standing around and waiting to be asked.”

       That bacon cheeseburger looks fantastic, why do I do this to myself?

            In my 511 class this week my professor talked about the word “radical.” He stated (if I am remembering correctly, my notes seem to believe so) that librarians are radical. However, radical in biology means core, as opposed to what we usually mean when we say radical, extreme.  He seemed to suggest that librarians are both radical in the extreme sense and radical in the sense that we are the core—of libraries, of society, of an apple, take your pick, though probably shouldn’t go with the apple, people might start thinking your weird like they know I am (I take weird as a compliment just in case you were thinking I was being negative).

            I have never considered myself radical, of either definition. As far as the core, I have just never stopped to think about it. Personally, I don’t like writing about myself and I don’t want to think more of myself than I actually am. This brings us to why I don’t see myself as extreme.  I always ere on the side of caution, sometimes to my detriment, and I take a long time to think and make a decision. That’s why I don’t go to restaurants very often…that and I am poor.  I guess I am a little extreme, I switched to a creative writing major in undergrad and I have taken the plunge into grad school, for Library and Information Science no less. Perhaps it just takes another way of looking at yourself, like we have to look at libraries and more specifically our mission as librarians.

            Another thing I want to talk about is something that got me riled up. One of my friends posted on her Facebook (mentioning another social network on a blog, what are the rules of that?) that in her life she always chose female jobs, one of which she listed was in a library. I half-jokingly responded that librarianship was co-ed. Then later another one of her friends, a guy no less, posts that maybe men just don’t want to be in a place of higher learning and that he has never seen a guy in a library except to get a book for a class. He may have just been trolling, but I had to defend my people, which include male librarians. I went on a rant of how there were plenty of men that go to libraries, and there were plenty of male librarians, including many of my professors and classmates. I did concede that it is a field dominated by women, but to deny the fact that there are male librarians is the same denial women have fought against for decades, most notably in the United States with the suffrage protests. Thoughts?

Where are we going?

           Yesterday in my 511 class the question was brought up whether a library could exist without a community. Also brought up was the idea that it was the librarian that made the library, and not necessarily the room with books. The general consensus in the class seemed to be that the physical library could exist; however, its purpose would not be served since there was no community. Therefore there would be no real need for the librarian. This brings up the question: can the librarian exist without the library? Does this mean we are moving towards completely digital libraries?

            According to our professor, David Lankes, our mission as librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in our communities. Our increasingly digital age certainly gives us a new definition of community. It could be as small as the 2000 person town I come from or as large as the world itself.  However, does this mean we are moving away from the room with the books completely? Yes, we need to change and adapt to the technological world, and though much of a librarians tasks may now take place on the internet. Take me for example, I was averse to adopting twitter and blogging (despite being a writer, there was just something about blogging that didn’t feel quite right for me, perhaps it was the lack of going through rewrite after rewrite) and here I am at Syracuse tweeting and blogging away. Okay, maybe not that much but something exists where it didn’t exist before. Beyond all this technology though, I do not believe that physical libraries are dying, we will always have community members that would rather read a book that sits in their hands, that get the tactile enjoyment out of hold a book and turning its pages, than reading it off a screen. In fact I am one of those people. And personally I feel it would be a disservice to the community, and though it may not necessarily be a detriment to society, it would not be an improvement and would be working towards a dangerous future. I feel I have gone off a rant that has nothing to do with the class though so I will end this here.

            If anyone has suggestions on how to improve my blog, they are welcome, as long as they are reasonable.