It seems that federal libraries are always under attack from various foes. First the EPA library was almost dissolved, but SLA helped save it. Now the National Agricultural Library is being threatened by huge budget cuts which will limit their services and perhaps reduce it to EPA levels. Here is some more information about the proposed cuts, and here is a story from the Washington Post (registration required) providing more background.

What can you do? Write you congressman and senators and let them know this will be a huge travesty- especially with the global food crisis and a growing dependence on our crops for food and fuel. The NAL is a great resource and unique in this country. It will be a shame if it loses funding.

Yesterday I went to a session at SLA 2008 with a conversation about new “info pros”- talking about their jobs and their expectations. The audience was about half “experienced” librarians and half “fresh librarians”. The perspectives of the three panellists were interesting, but they weren’t Millenials- the generation range people seem most leery of.

The thing that struck me most about the session, other than how important charisma and confidence are to moving up in the world, is how much antagonism there exists between veteran librarians and the newcomers. Why? I think there are a lot of weird expectations and sore feelings on both sides. One person said that the kids don’t respect printed sources and think anything that isn’t digital is obsolete. I can’t say that those people don’t exist, but most people in my cohort aren’t like that. I think if people don’t recognize the value of old sources, then it’s the obligation of the experienced librarians to impress that upon the younger generation. I’m pretty sure they had similar experiences when they started out in the field, but they must have forgotten about that. (Again, I think that’s just a cranky subset- most of the librarians I’ve worked with are excited to help new comers to the profession.)

A little bit later, one of the panellists commented on the supposed job boom from imminent retirements. That’s been rumoured for the last 15 years, and it’s not really happening. Newer librarians are dissatisfied they can’t find jobs because people aren’t retiring as early as before. Now, I don’t think people should necessarily have that much of a sense of entitlement for a job, but with the ALA using this myth to promote library school, it’s understandable why people are frustrated. I’ve met a number of people either just out of library school or ready to graduate that are having a hard time finding a job, and it’s hard because in some areas I know there just aren’t many jobs to be had.

I don’t think that the generation gap is terrible, but I do think people need to stop pointing fingers. If the veterans treat the younger librarians like punk kids and don’t trust them, then the new generation will look at them as hanging on and an impediment. If my cohort of recent grads are arrogant and don’t listen to people with experience and wisdom, then the veterans won’t bother helping us learn. I think it’s like this in any industry, but of course libraries feel constantly threatened- which makes this antagonism even more annoying because we shouldn’t be fighting with ourselves. I also know that it’s probably dependent on the individual library, and I’m fortunate that my colleagues have been a wonderful source of information and an asset to my education as a librarian. I should thank them for that.

I’ve been in something of a fog recently, which is why this blog is dead. Every time I had and idea for a post, I either wouldn’t have access or time to actually write it.

I’ve not got much time now as it is, as I’m flying to Seattle tonight for SLA 2008. I’ll try to blog about things there, though I’ll be swamped the next two days with fun stuff from the Transportation Division.

This week MPOW took part in a group of presentations about the Affiliated Libraries at UC Berkeley- small subject speciality libraries that are not part of the main library structure. It was nice to see people interested in our little corners of the world, but one thing that struck me is that the ability to sell yourself is really important. Not sell yourself in a way that would compromise your integrity, but be willing to promote what you do to garner attention. This hit close to home because I’ve been trying to add new features and services to our library’s website, but I haven’t publicized any of it beyond our library’s staff. I should probably let more people know, but I don’t want to be obtrusive. It’s interesting then, when people start talking about some new thing- syndicating and RSS feed on their front page, creating a Facebook group, and everybody is awed by it. I would be nice to get some recognition for efforts, but I’d prefer if people didn’t regard such things with awe, and more with the gumption to try things for themselves.

Don’t you hate a loud library? I can’t say I do, as I’m currently listening to Sido at the circulation desk. Wired Campus is reporting of an alarm that will go off when it gets too loud in the library. Behold the Deluxe Yacker Tracker!

• Perfect for controlling sound levels in libraries and classrooms!
• Set the dial to the acceptable level of sound and when it goes over, the flashing yellow light gives a warning.
• When the noise level goes over by 15 decibels, red light and optional siren come on indicating too much noise!

Wow! Instead of telling people to be quiet, you can have a cute, moderately expensive gadget do it for you! It seems that if you want your library to be a quiet one, then you should be willing to ask people to keep it down. Despite the transportation theme of the Deluxe Yacker Tracker, my library probably won’t be purchasing it- we usually have to tell patrons not to quiet each other, as we promote talking and group work.

Via It’s All Good.

There’s been a lot of discussion in library land about whether or not the masters degree makes one a librarian. Rachel Singer Gordon wrote a nice piece about how many people without masters are good librarians by virtue of their actions. Of course, to those with the degree it calls into question if the masters is required at all. The debate has made a lot of people look critically at the profession, though perhaps not critically at themselves, which is usually a good thing. Rachel wrote a follow up where she summarized her position and highlights other comments. The Annoyed Librarian took time away from her cats and martinis to weigh in, and The New Librarians blog has a very good examination of the debate.

I’ve been talking to some of my colleagues about this issue for a while. It’s interesting how many people told me I was wasting my time when I started my degree program, but I knew that for the type of work I wanted to do (be a reference librarian at an academic library), and MLIS would be required. It’s not to say that I absolutely need the degree to be a good reference librarian, but the institutions I want to work at would require it. I conceded that and enrolled at Drexel. I won’t say that library school has been intellectually challenging, and I agree with the others who say it’s a lot of busy work. I think that outside practical experience, there’s no way to really learn some of the important skills (like how to create complex search strings) without busy work- it’s sort of the nature of the work. I think I have a better understanding of what the whole point of it is before I started library school, and I definitely have a keener sense of how to serve the user and to focus on the user than I did before. I don’t think my philosophy has totally been shaped by library school, but I think it is has given me better skills and a better understanding that would have probably taken years otherwise.

Does it make me better than somebody without a degree? No way in hell. I do like that everybody concedes that there are people without MLISs doing the work of librarians who are fantastic, and there are people without MLISs who aren’t so great. Of course the same is true for degreed librarians- some are amazing and some make you scratch your head and wonder how they get by day after day. I think individual libraries can really impact how this divide is perceived. Luckily where I work, there is something or a meritocracy, though there definitely is a glass ceiling where people max-out without the degree. Overall though, good work seems to be recognized. Hell, UC Berkeley’s head librarian (and his no. 2) doesn’t have an MLIS.

Some people have suggested a year of experience before one can apply to the masters program, and I can see merit to that opinion. In Drexel’s on-line program, I’ve seen people struggle with concepts which seemed rote to me because I have to deal with it every day at work. I know not everybody is lucky (ha) enough to work in a library, but that experience really helps with library school. Internships should be required as well, giving future applicants not only concrete experience but references as well. Library school programs with an emphasis on practical experience in some form would definitely improve the profession, so that more time can be spent on the theory, and it would shake off the image of some places as degree mills.

Michael Sauers, The Travelin’ Librarian, has an interesting post today about 2.0 and staff workloads.

Maybe at an institutional level adding the new social tools onto an already overloaded workflow isn’t the answer. Granted, I firmly believe that some of the new tools can be integrated successfully and streamline the existing workflow, but what about larger tools like blogging. Instead of expecting staff to blog for the library in addition to their existing workload, how about redistributing the workload so the staff that will be blogging on behalf of the library have a little less of what they did before and now have the time to blog?

I’m not saying this would be easy, nor could I possibly claim to have a “plan” for something like that that you could implement in your library. (How could I, each library’s solution would be completely different from every other.) However, maybe we should not look at this as an addition problem, but more of a rearrangement problem.

It’s nice that people are starting to recognize and acknowledge that it will take more than access to the technologies to get librarians to really adopt 2.0 methods and products. It will take lots of effort and time to incorporate it into the current model, and perhaps the current model is already broken.

Jezmynne Westcott commented:

As one of those librarians who manage subjects, ref desk, outreach, instruction, appointments, a building, staff, AND 2.0 stuff, I agree it is a challenge. For me, it comes down to 2 things - prioritization and well, prioritization.

I think that’s also true, as well as the need to examine what’s important for each individual library. I still don’t know that every library absolutely needs a blog. My library’s been trying to blog and I think it’s been far from a success, mostly due to time issues and lack of interesting content. The people who have the time to write posts aren’t the ones who would write the most interesting, in-depth, and informational posts about transportation information. I would include myself in the former. People would really need the time to devote to learning how to use the tools and then the time to implement them, similar to professional development time. Sauers is probably correct in assuming that more staff would be needed to free up this time, or some sort of restructuring in many libraries. It’s also clear though, that these sorts of changes would be hard to implement because they would affect everybody, but I still think it’s needed in this changing world.

LIS News reports about three former library workers from Sacramento Public Library being arrested for over billing the library and receiving kickbacks to the tune of $90,000. I’m happy that my beloved Carmichael branch played no role in the scheme.

I’ll also note at this time that the Carmichael branch is across the street from the Crocker Bank the SLA robbed and for which Sara Jane Olsen was recently released from prison. Interesting since I’m going to SLA2008 this summer.

There was a discussion last week on the SLA Transportation Division’s listserve about everybody’s favourite virtual envrionment: Second Life. The discussion was prompted by a webinar for the transportation community that showed how Second Life can be used to help people access information from around the world. I’ll admit I was a little biased before the presentation, not being a fan of Second Life, but I really didn’t think it was effective in showing people why they should actually use Second Life. I wasn’t alone, and some members opened up the dialog. I won’t post their messages, but basically they asked why is Second Life the best choice and why should they expect people to use it. One of the proponents made the argument that it’s because young people are there, which prompted me to write this:

I find this discussion about Second Life to be very interesting because it’s quite a hot topic in Library Schools. The argument that we should participate in Second Life because “high-tech youth and young adults” are there rings false. Second Life itself is 18 and over, which excludes teens, and Teen Second Life isn’t widely used. To be honest, I can’t think of anybody in my age group (20s) who actually uses Second Life. Many have tried and then opted to play Warcraft or chat online. (Maybe we should take transportation libraries to the World of Warcraft? Horde, of course.)

I think it’s good that we’re actively looking at new ways to connect with users, but that also means we should look at where the users actually are and where they want us to be. Our users are not the same as some public library in an area with lots of people on Second Life. Do we even know if transportation engineers and planners use Second Life as a means of connecting for work? I know when I ask our grad students and researchers about Second Life, they look at me like I’m crazy or they don’t know what I’m talking about. In our instance, Facebook seems to be a more effective tool, but the most effective has been free candy. (It’s sad, but true.)

The other problem that I have with Second Life is that it reinforces an old fashioned way of conceptualizing information and data. Computers and the rise of the internet have made storage, retrieval, and transmission of large amounts of information possible and much easier. We’re able to look at things more abstractly to foster new connections and store information in a structured and logical way. Second Life allows for some interesting structures to be made with information, but it obscures the underlying data. It seems like there’s more effort put into the presentation rather than making it easily digestible. It’s important to look at new ways we can utilize information visualization for our users, but we also need to make sure that the underlying data is transparent and easily extracted.

It’s exciting to see librarians do anything new with technology and think about how we can stay relevant in the new, digital age. We’re still at a point, though, where we’re not sure of what’s the most effective tools are, and it will probably be different for each library. If you can connect with your patrons effectively in Second Life, that’s great. I guess it’s not for everybody.

My WoW joke fell flat, but I hope it’s even handed. That said, I did sign up for Second Life this weekend. My avatar is Tofu Youngblood, she wears burlap, and I gave up after 20 minutes. I was bored and wanted to watch the soccer.

Today my partner, Joe Gebis (future Ph.D.), received a box of science fiction novels from his brother in the mail. I asked him why didn’t his brother give the books to a library, rather than pay for shipping to send them here. Apparently public libraries don’t need lots of science fiction. I told him that was impossible since most librarians are nerds. He laughed and said they’d rather spend money on Rock Band. He seemed bitter, but he had a point. Of course I work in an academic library so the only frivolity I delight in are the odd articles talking about penis envy in transit operations.

Joe’s imminent graduation reminded me of something else that I meant to blog about last week- people who sign their name with their degrees. For some reason, I’m fine with Ph.D.s signing their names with their degree, but librarians who do so flag themselves as possibly pedantic. I know that’s not really fair, and I will cut slack to solo/corporate librarians working in a non-library environment, but when I get an email from somebody on campus or my branch of SLA signing off as, “H. J. Blaume, MLIS”, it annoys me. I would assume most people have the degree, or it seems to be obvious. I know when I get my next set of business cards they’ll say “Kendra K. Levine, MLIS, MSIS”. They’ll also say I’m the grand poobah of public services and probably never actually exist. I think you should be proud of getting an MLIS (no matter how easy it is), but people should detect it from your level of competence, not your email signature.

I was listening to NPR this weekend, and Cambridge Forum had the authors of The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America to discuss their research and their solutions for making the class just above the poverty line more stable. One line stuck with me when they said that teachers are not respected and often have to settle for that position, which makes the U.S. education system weaker. It’s true that many school teachers fell into that profession after not enjoying other avenues.

The same is also hugely true for librarians. I know many people act like it’s a calling, but how many librarians entered university saying, “Someday, I will be a librarian!”? I don’t know any. I know I had dreams of being a high school chemistry teacher, then a Germanic linguistics professor, before I decided/settled on library science. Saying it’s settling is sort of depressing though it may be true. I hope it’s not.