Odds and Ends

Went and watched Coraline today with the spouse and 3 yr old. We all really enjoyed it. We haven't read the book yet - but the movie has piqued my interest so I think I may download the audio version of it from our OverDrive collection at work.

Initially I was not to sure about taking our daughter because I heard that it might be too scary. But I found a great site which helped us decide - Kids-In-Mind: Movie Ratings That Actually Work spelled out all the Sex, Violence and Language in the film and gave play-by-play spoilers so we would know if it would be too much. We also looked up other movies that she currently enjoys for comparison to see exactly how the rating system worked with what she already enjoys watching.

I liked this site because it does not throw in a bunch of self-righteous indignation regarding the films - instead it lists "just the facts" and lets us decide. A great tool for parents and reference desk librarians alike. (although as of the writing of this the site seems to be down...)

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Let's see what else - oh as many of you know I've been working with Openbiblio as a catalog for my other job. Well, it's been great - but I just don't have the time to develop it like I would like to or to learn all I need to learn. So I'm starting the slow process of migrating everything to LibraryThing - and to use that as our online public catalog.

So far it's a slow painful process. I have MARC records from our other system - many of them are skeletal. So I can't just important in ISBN for all 4,890 titles (many are too old to have ISBN and others that info was never entered into the catalog prior to my working there). So I started emailing tech support at LibraryThing a week and half ago. One person said they could upload my MARC records for me - but I've not heard anything from her since I emailed her the file. When you pay a couple thousand dollars for a database it's easy to call a vendor and demand service -- but in this case - since this was a non-profit pricing of less than $20...I really don't feel like I can just call and demand service. So I'm impatiently waiting for something to happen or someone to contact me so I can get all my titles added and can start the tagging process... The cool thing is once I get this up - I think we'll have one of the largest Jewish material collections on LibraryThing.

I really think it will be great once it's all working...but so far the tech support aspects of Librarything have been frustrating.

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Oh - I also got an email this week from Tim @ TCCL who had this to say:

I thought I'd write to tell you that based on the original program by The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenberg County, the Tulsa City-County Library System is embarking on our own "23 Things" program at http://tccllearning.blogspot.com. Sponsored by the New Technology Committee, this self-paced continuing education class will be performed over the course of 13 weeks, beginning February 2. Participating TCCL staff will work hands-on to learn about Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, online photo & video sharing, social bookmarking, & LibraryThing just to name a few. All staff will create their own blogs, be encouraged to comment on each others blogs, and perform such tasks as embedding a video, subscribing to RSS feeds, & editing a wiki.

On top of our current email, IM & text message reference services, we're hoping that TCCL becomes a hot bed of tech-savvy librarians. Check us out!

I'll be curious to see how that goes and if there's any pre and post testing they are doing to see if it actually helped the librarians become more tech savvy.

Reflections

You know the real reason I stopped blogging for several months was to give other Okie Bloggers a chance to be a nominee for the 2008 Okie Blog Awards. So if you haven't had a chance yet, go and look at the nominees and, if you are an Okie Blogger, vote.

Seriously though, just because I wasn't blogging didn't mean I wasn't tracking tons of Okie library related news. A lot of it I shared on my Google Reader page, of course not all of it is Okie library news - but some of it relates to what we do.

For instance, did you know Ginny, down at the National Weather Center in Norman - went with Evergreen as the library catalog? How fabulous is that? I mean take a look! I would be giddy to get hold of an open source catalog of this caliber to play - err I mean work with. Of course I do have our Joomla sites at work - which are fun.

I guess one thing which attributed to my hiatus from the blogosphere was the switch from Academic to Public librarianship. I've really been trying to find my footing among the personalities and I am still working at it.

Plenty of people ask about making the jump from Public to Academic and I've seen people mention the idea of a "stigma" in making a switch. Having switched from Academic to Public I've found a lot more similarities between the two than differences.

For instance - more than once at the Public Library I've had an idea shot down with "Well yes, but you think like an Academic librarian". And while at the University I would hear "Well, I don't know that's sounds too much like a Public Library thing". See - they are both afraid to try anything too outside the box! ;-) Another thing about having worked in both settings (and don't forget my specialized library too) I've realized they are the same type of work just to different extents. I know Academics do research and perform subject collection development and Public librarians do readers advisory and story time. But honestly it's the same thing - the audience just varies in age and the depth and direction of librarian/patron interaction is slightly different. Unfortunately for those who take the step between the types of librarianship - many of our colleagues don't realize the similarities between the two - because they have never spanned the gap between the types - so we will always hear remarks towards the "other".

Anywho - forgive me while I get all misty-water-colored-memories on you - but starting this year I will have been a degreed librarian for 10 years. I know I hear the "whoopty-dos" from my more seasoned colleagues - but that's precisely it! I'm 34 and still have a very long way to go before I can retire (unless my hubby finds that cure for IBS). But I'm still too young for the Boomers half of them think I'm a Millenial (it's the chubby face - hides the wrinkles). And I'm too old for the Millennials who view me -- well I don't know how they view me - either fear or confusion probably. I think worst of all - I'm not even a viable advertising demographic group! What's a Gen-Xer girl to do?

Also, I think librarianship is still strange to me because Librarian was not something I always aspired to. Rather it was a "Well, heck what do I do now? I guess I'll go to grad school" - sort of decision (a proud Gen-X decision process). Mind you it was a natural progression - I worked and volunteered in libraries my entire life - but I never saw it as anything but having fun. Work what my family did - harvest every summer Texas up to Canada. Spending time in the library was hanging out, putzing around and having fun - why would it ever be work? I mean sure - I get stressed sometimes when things go wonky. And I'll swear, spit and turn strange colors - but that's because I'm an INTJ and have issues. In the big scheme of things I get paid to do something a lot of fun and to help people have the tools necessary to better themselves. Isn't that what we all do regardless of library type?

So talk to me. What do you think? I only said I would post once a week - I never guaranteed to make sense. ;-)

OH! Also, if you live in or near Cleveland, McClain or Pottawatomie counties - think about becoming a literacy tutor.

Open Minds, Open Books, Open Source

From Inside Higher Ed | Open Minds, Open Books, Open Source

...some libraries, fed up with software that doesn’t fully meet their needs, have decided to take matters, figuratively, into their own hands. With a bit of grant money and some eager developers, institutions have begun creating their own open-source solutions that are fully customizable, free for others to use and compatible with existing systems. The result has been a whole crop of projects that, when combined, could serve as a fully integrated, end-to-end open-source solution for academic libraries, covering the interface, search mechanism, database system, citations and even course management.

Meanwhile, the increasing availability of open-source software has nudged some libraries to reconsider the role of their in-house technology gurus, and to wonder whether it would make more long-term financial sense to hire more developers than to continue paying for products over which they have limited control.

“If we truly want to remain relevant, it’s what we have to do,” said Susan Gibbons, an associate dean in the University of Rochester library system.

The code4lib conference, for example, has seen its popularity grow from some 75 attendees in 2006 to a cap of 200 this year, according to Andrew Nagy, who is on the technology management staff at Villanova University’s library....

So what OSS products are your Oklahoma libraries working on?

Invitation to beta test

So I've been a little busy at work -- which has cut in to my blogging time. Every minute I'm not teaching/prepping for class, at my "other library" or tending to my family I'm working on Mario. I guess for the next couple months I could call myself Princess Peach -- with all the fiddling I've been doing on Mario...wait that sounds bad. Scratch that -- perhaps I'm more Bowser -- wait that's not much better. Oh forget it -- on with the post.

Anywho, Mario is the beta website for work. We are currently in, what I'm calling, "Closed Beta" with staff. That is until January -- when we go "Open Beta" with the patron public for 2 months. For the past year we (that would be my colleague Kevin and myself) have been learning how to use, configure and ricadoo Joomla. We've tested it (with various levels of success and headache) on the Big Read and Red Dirt Book Festival sites. And we have been slowly prepping staff to be able to contribute to a CMS by using a wiki for staff sharing of information (again with various levels of success and headache).

My work's current site was cutting edge back in the day -- or at least I pretend -- to get me through the scotch-tape fixes and updates we are doing until Mario comes up out of those internet tubes. Working with Joomla has required Kevin and I to think differently about developing a website for a medium to large size library system -- and to critically analyze the online library needs of patrons in our area and the trends regarding people's use of the internet and the virtual library's role in meeting their instant gratification information needs. And based on that we are going to try some things that people will either love or hate

Luckily some of what we are going to do will happen in Phase 2 of our site development - Phase 1 is basically getting the most used and required by law items out -- Phase 2 is where we add a lot of the fun stuff.

But having said all that -- I want to ask you, the LibraryStories readers, to help with the beta testing. Many of you are library professionals or use libraries heavily and even though you don't work for my library system you still would have valuable insight. So please, stop by Mario and to drop me a line using the comment form there on what you think. The other contact information on Mario is for staff dont' worry about those email addresses.

Right now we are working on content and functionality -- not look. So please pardon the nekkidness of Mario -- we'll put his overalls and cap on towards the middle of December when it get's colder. Also, if you happen to be a patron of my work -- please know that most of the "Services" (ILL, Ask a Question, etc) are not working from Mario yet. We'll have those up in January -- all the current "Services" information is a place holder or template under review. So please please please dont' submit anyting you really want through the forms - because that ain't working

Alright, I'll patiently wait for the avalanche of criticism. Oh and Thanks! :-)

Campus Edition of Firefox

The Chronicle reports

It’s the time of year to stock up on school supplies — new spiral notebooks, pens, and … a new Web browser. Last week Mozilla, maker of the popular Firefox Web browser, released Firefox Campus Edition for free download.

A key feature of the new browser is the Zotero citation system developed by George Mason University’s Center for History and New Media... The system is designed to help students and scholars mark and manage information on the Web that they want to cite in research papers.

The campus edition browser is not all work and no play, though. It also includes a plug-in called FoxyTunes that helps manage the soundtrack to cram sessions, and StumbleUpon, a service to quickly jump among favorite blogs, online videos, and photo Web sites.

Are you the MasterKey?

Librarians are Gatekeepers of information -- well in spring 2007 we may finally have our Key master.. err I mean Masterkey. (found via catablog)

This is an early prototype of a new metasearch technology developed by Index Data. It is scheduled for general release during the spring of 2007. It enables efficient metasearching of up to hundreds of databases at the same time using Z39.50, SRU/W, or proprietary protocols. It is a powerful, open-source-based alternative to proprietary, closed-source metasearch alternatives.

The technology supports on-the-fly merging, relevance-ranking, or sorting by arbitrary data elements. It also supports any number of result facets for limiting result sets by subject, author, etc.

Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Second Life Goes Open Source - Should It Be Non Profit, Too?

I'm a huge fan of OSS -- but not as big of fan of Second Life. Here's a nice TechCrunch look at latest Second Life development.

Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Second Life Goes Open Source - Should It Be Non Profit, Too?:

Second Life made their client software open source today, sparking near rapture among its hard core users (see comments to their blog post). The first two paragraphs of the announcement talk a lot about about the inevitability of destiny. And they mention Second Life in the same breath as Mosaic and Mozilla.

I’m a Second Life fan, but sometimes the hype gets to be a little too much. At any given time up to 20,000 or so people are logged in to the service. That’s not enough adoption to justify putting Second Life in the same sentence as Mosaic and Mozilla just yet. Today, it’s the playground for just a few hard core users who can live with an annoying server lag...