InfoSciPhi

I’m sure you already know about this, but in case you missed it, the most anticipated issue in the history of the Journal of Access Services has finally hit the shelves. On the morning it went to press, Librarians were lined up around the block at Haworth Press in Philadelphia waiting for the hottest dish from the Annoyed Librarian to hit the street. Some of them had even been there since 4 AM with thermos’ of hot tea and reading lights.*

Head of Access Services for Pickadilly Technical College, Sally Readsalot, was gushing, “OMG, I can’t wait to see what AL has to say about remote storage. It’s not often that we get a celebrity blogger, with such a sterling reputation for quality content, to write an ENTIRE issue of a peer reviewed journal.”*

On it’s website, the Journal of Access Services describes itself as “the forum where seasoned access services practitioners share their expertise and hard-earned knowledge about this fundamental concern of librarianship”.

So, it totally makes sense that the editors and referees at Haworth have now published ten chapters of featured articles by the anonymous blogger The Annoyed Librarian in the 2008, Volume 5, Issue 4 edition of JAS.

In fact, the vetting process for article submissions includes the following requirement for consideration of submissions”:

“an introductory footnote with authors’ academic degrees, professional titles, affiliations, mailing and e-mail addresses, and any desired acknowledgment of research support or other credit;”

This has led some library paparazzi to speculate that either the AL has revealed his/her place of employment and job title or the Journal of Access Services will now accept fake credentials from anonymous bloggers and not only publish them, but give them an ENTIRE issue. Where is Michael Gorman when you need him? Isn’t this exactly what the Annoyed Librarian is railing about when “she” complains about the degradation of the profession?

Colleen Harris started an “Unofficial Librarian Bio” meme that came out of a FreindFeed conversation that Iris began. Basically it’s the professional bio you would like to use, but understand that it’s not what would get you the job. Here’s my contribution.

Chadwick Seagraves, aka InfoSciPhi, has been kicking around in libraries since he was a young child when he was known to spout answers to questions in MARC format. While he used libraries mostly for catching up on sleep in his undergrad years, he rediscovered them as a student worker where he ironed newspapers to prep them for transfer to microfilm. It’s been a busy eight years since those days spent in the library sweatshops, but nowadays he makes a living as an IT mercenary, selling his skillz to the highest bidder. Specializing in InfoSci black ops, he has garnered quite a reputation as a ruthlesssly efficient “cleaner”.

Is your content management service, giving you fits? Chadwick can make the problem disappear. Seriously. If you need a drive-by training session on using your ILS, he’s your man. Have a cantankerous patron that needs shushing? You won’t find a library grunt who does it like Chadwick. Want to orchestrate a coup in Tech Services? No one gets rowdy Catalogers in line like he does.

An expert in the ancient art of Biblio Fu, he has been known to service multiple patrons at once while resolving ILS errors with his amazing powers of telekinesis. His trained acquisitions attack robots provide a well oiled machine to address your library’s top secret collection development agendas. Working with the state of the art to perfect the best techniques of guerrilla librarianship, Chadwick has perfected his reference interview by applying advanced CIA psi techniques so that the patron doesn’t even have to ask the question. One unruly patron was overheard to say, “Who is that long-haired guy and what did he do to my library card?.

If you got a problem, yo, he’ll solve it, check out the link while Chadwick resolves it.

There has been a great discussion on FriendFeed that I have been following about whether it is pretentious to include the initials of your degree after your name. Christa Burns began the thread with this, “question for the twitterverse - putting MLS or MLIS after your name (like PHD). yes, no, pretentious, useless?”

The dabate has gone on and many folks on both sides have been making valid points, but I feel it is worth my time to quickly reiterate how I feel about this, based on my experiences as a librarian.

I always include M.S.L.S. in my email signatures, business cards, and on Power Points when I teach class. Librarians get less respect in some academic settings and those of us who are also IT get less respect from front-line librarians who sometimes think we’re “just IT”. Nurses, counselors, therapists of all types, etc. use their credentials with their name. I paid a lot of money for my degrees, I’m entitled to use them as I see fit.

I noticed that a few librarians in our consortium changed their attitudes toward me when I started working here. It almost seems that my opinions on library matters are of little worth because I’m now just tech support and am not involved with day-to-day library activities and administration.

Some folks have expressed opinions that they do not believe that degrees count for very much these days. Others have argued that using the degree initials furthers the “us versus them” divides that already exist.

I personally think that if degrees mean so little, then none of us would have paid what we did & put the work in to get a Masters degree so that we could get paid a higher wage than staff & para professionals. I realize that the Masters being the terminal degree means that it is part of the system and thus is necessary whether or not it is of inherent value in and of itself, but I DO believe that it has value.

There are skills and theory that I learned in library school that even staff who have worked in libraries their entire lives might not have picked up. Most people can learn a skill and how to do a set task after being given a process or some training. That does NOT mean that they will understand all of the theory and underlying intricacies and elements that make up the framework that supports that process or requires that the task they perform is necessary.

Here is an example from my current job:

I work on the server via shell access using a VI client, SecureCRT. I am NOT a UNIX admin. I do not understand the mechanics of the work that our sysadmins do. I have a good general understanding of how the server architecture is setup and I know the commands and directories that I need to use to do my job. I am learning about UNIX and some day may have had enough experience and training to feel comfortable that I know what is really happening when I take an action.

However, for right now, I am using a process I was taught to perform a set of tasks that I do not really need to understand in order to execute. We all do this as librarians every day. This is the work that an average library staff worker or paraprofessional does. Forgive me if this is an oversimplification, but I think that you understand the point I am making.

A degreed librarian has been trained in the theory and mechanics of the working library. We understand the big picture about how bibliographic records have authority and holding records attached to them and how the OPAC uses those records to display the collection to our patrons. But more than that, we have had entire classes dedicated to integrating the whole of library processes into a cohesive framework that incorporates the management, acquisition, development, preservation, and maintenance of our collections.

Furthermore, we have been trained to understand the fundamental processes of collating and cataloging those collections so that we are able to adeptly navigate the millions of records available to us and locate the most obscure items in our collections.

Additionally, we have been educated as to the best practices for identifying the most authoritative and valuable information resources for a given question by interviewing our patrons so that we can assist them in actually defining what it is that they are really asking and what they truly want.

Degreed librarians are not “better” people than staff or paras, any more than doctors are better than nurses. There are some degreed librarians who perform more poorly than the staff who work under them. Just like there are some nurses who have the practical experience and on the job skills to make them excellent medical practitioners, there are staff who could teach librarians how to better do their everyday jobs.

However, librarians have spent a significant amount of time, effort, and money to go to school to learn everything needed to run a library. We didn’t just learn a step-by-step process, but rather were given the fundamental concepts and ideas that make up everything that is involved in library science and running bricks & morter, as well as digital, libraries.

That is the core concept behind any degree, but it is also the rationale behind offering and requiring advanced degrees. The amount of specialized knowledge that is attained in graduate degrees and above is worthy of the respect that knowledge provides.

I get frustrated with the line of thought I hear often that states that an MLS is worthless or overvalued. I think we are doing the profession a disservice by undermining a degree in a field that already seems to be stereotyped and UNDERvalued. Our credentials make us the experts.

The skills are great, and the knowledge that underlies that is incremental, but the credentials establish our authority in a credential driven world. It’s not just our profession that recognizes a credential. It is the “system” or world in general. If we lose that hold on our expertise, then Google has won.

I also think that this is part of what Greg Schwartz often talks about regarding our profession’s general inability, discomfort, or aversion when it comes to marketing ourselves and taking credit for who we are and what we do.

I put blood, sweat, and tears into the 7 years I have spent at university. I went to grad school full time year round and finished my degree in 3 semesters and a summer session because i needed to get back in the job market as soon as possible. I earned every letter of that acronym.

I do not want to contribute to any divide between the degreed and non-degreed. I don’t want to seem pretentious. I do want to take credit for what I’ve earned and what I know. I do want to present an image of librarians as information professionals whose contribution to society is a result of their receiving a quality education from an accredited academic program in an advanced course of study.

Geez, am I sounding like AL today? Heaven forbid. I’m way too twopointopian for that….

Meredith Farkas accurately summarized this conversation by pointing out that “it’s very context-specific, and no one should feel like they’re being pretentious for putting it (degree initials - my note) on anything if there’s a good professional reason.”

A standard disclaimer here would include my mentioning that this is just my opinion. I am quite happy if you disagree with me for your own valid reasons.

Well, I’ve finally redirected my site to point here, so if you’re here now, thanks for stopping. I’ve been writing more recently than I have in 10 years and I don’t see why this shouldn’t extend into my professional musing and observations as well.

My problem is that I tend to either microblog, or “write a book”. I’m going to strive for the former in order to actually put something out there instead of the “all or nothing” apprach I have had for the past year. Stay tuned.

Chadwick

I am continually struck with the fellowship and friendships I’ve developed with so many kind and wonderful people all over the world. I am truly honored to know so many people I respect and care for. Some of them are folks I’ve never met in person, but with whom I share intimate details of my life, love, and happiness. In turn, they share their experiences with me.

The one thing that sticks out to me is that we all experience and share so many of the same sorrows, tragedies, regrets, as well as the happiness, satisfaction, and successes. It is this shared life experience that inspires the pathos that gets at the very root of what it means to be human, alive, and conscious.

I sent the following thoughts to a kind and compassionate soul who shared some of his life experiences with me today. I hope he won’t mind me reposting here.

Each time I mention the tragedies I encounter in my life, so many wonderful folks share their experiences with me and I know I (we) am (are) not alone in our sorrows and travails. I strive not to focus solely on the negative things that happen in my life, but they can’t help but come out at times.

The shared human experience is the bond that unites us when we are able to allow ourselves to care. There is so much pain and suffering in the world that it is impossible to feel empathy for ALL of the hurting folks without succumbing to anomie, misanthropy, and cynicism - the abyss that is the dark side of the human condition. So, in knowing the worth of your sympathy, I place great value in the empathy and commiseration you, and so many others care enough to give to me.

We do so much for family, but it’s often not enough or even the right thing they need.

Many of the sorrows we see our loved ones go through are the result of a long chain of bad choices, mixed with varying degrees of mental illness, unhealthy doses of plain old bad luck (karma?) and frequent evidences of Murphy’s Law. However, like the existentialists claim, we may not always be able to control what happens to us, but we control how we deal with it and what we place value on.

Not that saying this means that actually managing our value assignment is easy. No, far from it. The will power and fortitude required to be a truly authentic person eludes many of us a fair amount of the time. We do the best we can and hope to look back with as little regret as possible.

After my brother’s suicide, the great tragedy of my life, I spent a lot of time dealing with PTSD and contemplating anxiety, grief, and sorrow. One realization I had concerns fear. I’ve come to look at things this way:

Regret is Fear of the Past. Anxiety is Fear of the Present. Dread is Fear of the Future. I just want to eventually be able to live life with as little fear as possible.

My 7 year asked me what I am afraid of last week. He was holding a fake bat behind him, so I know the answer he wanted, but it made me think. I’m not afraid of snakes, spiders, heights, war etc.

The only real fear I could think of was this: I’m afraid of losing the people I love - the only thing that is inevitable in life if you let yourself feel love. After saying that, and telling him I loved him, I told him I was also afraid of bats and promptly had one thrust in my face. That’s the way life is, if you’re afraid of bats, you should expect them to be thrust in your face. It WILL happen.

Thank you for sharing your stories with me. It’s amazing how many of those tales run parallel to mine. I have sometimes thought that the average person, if they had the writing skill, could compose some of the best comedies and tragedies ever just by sharing a lifetime of the experiences we all go through at some point in our existence. Many talented artists, actors, dancers, and writers do this for a living.

The Dalai Lama said, “Basically we are all the same human beings with the same potential to be a good human being or a bad human being … The important thing is to realize the positive side and try to increase that; realize the negative side and try to reduce. That’s the way.”.

I have been ill all week and almost canceled my workshop because of it. My Doctor told me this morning that I have pneumonia. My wife and younger son have stomach flu. I’ll post the rest of my notes and thoughts as soon as I stop feeling like death. I’ll be posting my workshop notes and documents this week as well and will send them via email to the wonderful folks who attended. Thanks for your patience.

A good time was had by all…

Session B102 – Fast & Easy Site Tune-Ups

11:30 AM – 12:15 PM

Jeff Wisniewski, Web Services Librarian, University of Pittsburgh
Looking for ways to speed up, clean up, and optimize your site with minimal effort? These 35 1-minute upgrades show you how to fine-tune your sites code, design, and structure to make your site faster, more flexible, and more standards-compliant. Do one, do 10, or do them all to maximize your sites performance in minimal time.

Use scripts to update your copyright statement.

Add “last updated” code or script to your pages to increase user trust in your information.

Add photos to your contacts. Evidence that putting a face on your contact info increases user trust.

Use microformats to turn boring old contact info into exciting hCards. Add those tags to your contact info and pull semantic web info on your staff. Search for “hCard Creator”. Can do the same things in Dreamweaver.

Replace all instances of the phrase “click here”. It’s “scanhostile” – a term he coined.

Harness the power of a 3 question survey. Were you able to complete your task today? What was the purpose of your site visit today? If you weren’t able to complete your task, why not? Survey monkey lets you embed.

Use the “/” after the last character of your url links to make it easier on the server.

Use Icons effectively. Librarians are text centric.

Try to get your library’s info into a users cache to help pages load more quickly.

Server config files – set certain file types to stay fresh/not expire. Image file types, css, etc.

.htaccess in the root and add a “FilesMatch” header set expires code.

Combine small images into a image map. Yahoo research shows this speeds load time. Only helpful if you have contiguous images.

Lessons the number of requests between the server and browser.
Eliminate Inline scripts. CSS, javascript, etc – call them from the server as includes. Makes it faster. Exception = Homepages. This is where they cache all of the site images and scripts.

CSS bloat – eliminate the extraneous little used aspects of your style sheets. Thin is in. Quicker to download.

Navigation – Banner blindness. Don’t put important info in the upper left corner. Put it in the body.

Get a Google Webmaster account. SEO tools.

Global Find and Replace – “Document Title| Section name| Library Site name” format helps search engines index your content.

Session B101 – Web 2.0 Services for Smaller, Underfunded Libraries
10:30 AM – 11:15 AM

Sarah Houghton-Jan, Senior Librarian for Digital Futures, San Jose Public Library
This session is for libraries struggling to provide innovative web services with little resources to devote to staff, software, or hardware. Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 sound great in concept but are seemingly impossible to implement in smaller, poorer, and/or under-technology-staffed libraries. But we too can offer excellent online services to our users! There are dozens of quick and free services that any library can add to its website. This session covers 20 easy steps that libraries can take to improve their websites with ease. If your library hasn’t yet implemented new technologies on its web-site but wants to, this is the session for you.

Libraries are changing and the growth of our online users is increasing. Sometimes at the rate of 20-30% a year. Sarah says to become advocates in your local system for your “e-branch”. She notes that costs for e-services are cheaper overall with a high return. If you can show that through your numbers it assists in selling your ideas to management.

Users sometimes assume that IM reference librarians are “robots”. “Skype a Librarian” service at Ohio University provides reference and research assistance through the VoIP tool Skype. Jan recommends using all of the free or Creative Commons images available for sites and marketing. Don’t pay when you can find it for free.

Tools and Mashups

Library ELF – library account tracking via email & RSS. This is very cool, but your feeds are public.

Library Lookup – bookmarklet to search by ISBN in your catalog when on sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
LibX Toolbar – Search by title, author, ISBN, etc. Students really can use this a lot..

Make Dynamic Lists

Use blogs and wiki’s, make an entry, and then tag it. She recommends making it available to all staff to provide reviews. You don’t have to be a librarian to write a good review.

Give your Library a Face

Use photo sharing sites to show what the library is about. A $25 annual Pro account w/ Flickr is affordable and a great investment. You can show what the library is really about and feature your events and more. Advertising capabilities as well. “Moo Cards” through Flickr are more likely to be used and kept. Make avatars for your Staff who work with teens. Check out Nashville Public’s website to see examples.

Audio – Podcasting

Whatever you do in audio in the library right now will work online in audio. Just digitize it if it isn’t already. Referring to library generated content here.

Everyzing
TextAloud
Odiogo

Video

Make tutorials on anything you can think of that your patrons will use. Post reviews for books. Then post it all on YouTube.

Exploit the blog as a format. Use the technology in creative ways to provide content to your users. The tool (blog) is irrelevant to the content. Examples of great ideas are:
Library Computer Class blog (Providence Public)

Gaming blog (SavePoint)
Western Springs History Blog

Go all out with your Facebook pages. Put search boxes there, and anything else you can think of to make it like another of the libraries pages. Free and low cost Web 2.0 services for libraries. EngagedPatrons.org This is super cool, sometimes free, always cheap.
Use Image generators to make fun marketing and promo images and content.

This presentation will be posted on her blog later today and later this week on the CIL site.

Lee Rainie of Pew Internet studies always has great numbers and stats to share. Overall the take home for me from the latest batch is that young people, ages 18-30 are “where it’s at” for libraries.

Here are some fresh stats that are to be released very soon from Pew.

60% of teenagers use the internet at libraries.
62% of Gen Y (18-30) used a public library in the last year.

This is the highest percentage of ANY of the other demographics for that latter stat. Overall, Gen Y is becoming a major source of support for libraries. Awesome, simply awesome!!!

The second most important set of stats, for me, indicates that besides young people, who seem to lead overall as users and patrons of libraries, minorities and the less educated are by far the next highest set of users.

What better news could we get? The folks who know us and love us best are the ones who are likely in economic and societal brackets that make them the demographics who are actually the ones most in NEED of our services.

Librarians need a motto like the police department’s “To Protect and Serve”. How about “To Provide and Serve” or “To Educate and Serve”? Either way, libraries remain vital and integral to maintaining a educated empowered populace.