Cites & Insights for March 2010

New stuff from Walt Crawford.  Always a good read.

 

Cites & Insights 10:3 (March

2010)<http://citesandinsights.info/civ10i3.pdf>is now available.

 

The 26-page issue, PDF as usual (with HTML separates for each essay),

includes two essays:

Making it Work: Philosophy and

Future<http://citesandinsights.info/v10i3a.htm>(pp. 1-22)

 

Two clusters--one on the philosophy and values of libraries and the other on

high-profile statements on libraries and their future.

 

Perspective: Writing about Reading 5: Going Down

Slow<http://citesandinsights.info/v10i3b.htm>(pp. 22-26)

 

Slow reading and related topics.

 

Handheld Librarian II - February 17-18, 2010

More people than 2000 people attended the first ever Handheld Librarian Conference in July 2009 which featured a wide array of collaboration, learning and networking activities focused on Mobile Library Services!  The Handheld Librarian 2 will continue the dialog with a 2-day online conference scheduled for February 17-18, 2010 and is now accepting registrations at  http://www.handheldlibrarian.org. The program -- sponsored by Alliance Library System, and LearningTimes -- will include a series of  wonderful keynote and featured speakers collection of available resources, discussions boards, and access to the recording of all live events for one year after the conference.  More people than ever are using mobile devices for a wide variety of purposes including communication, internet access, text messaging, and entertainment. It is important that libraries provide mobile services as handheld use increases.
The conference will feature four exciting keynote talks:

• Joan K. Lippincott from the Coalition for Networked Information speaking about "Mobilizing Libraries for Today's Students"
• Joe Murphy from Yale University speaking about "This is Now: The Mobile Library"
• Alison Miller, Internet Public Library, "Mobile Trends and Social Reference"
• Tom Peters of TAP Information Services, addressing "Morphing with Mobile"
  

Registration for the conference is $69 per individual or $119 for a group.  LIS students can register for $29.  LIS students need to contact Lori Bell, Alliance Library System, at lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com for a coupon code to register for the $29. 

"With the avalanche of new mobile devices and applications, the Handheld Librarian 2 online conference will be a golden opportunity for library land to cost effectively learn how to reach a whole new audience," said Kitty Pope, ALS Executive Director.

For more information on the conference, go to the conference site at http://www.handheldlibrarian.org.  If you have questions, please contact John Walber at LearningTimes at john@learningtimes.net or Lori Bell at Alliance Library System at lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com.

Powered by ScribeFire.

OCLC Americas Regional Council Service Groups

I am serving on a committee of the OCLC Americas Regional Council (ARC) looking at how to improve upon and move what has been called service groups forward in the new climate of social networking and world wide collaboration now possible.

Members of the committee include:

• Ted Schwitzner, Coordinator, Bibliographic Services, Illinois State University Library, Chair
• Shirley Baker, Dean, Washington University Libraries
• Morag Boyd, Head, Special Collections Cataloging, Ohio State University Libraries
• Bill Drew, Systems Librarian and Librarian for Technical Services, Electronic Information Resources and Serials, Tompkins Cortland Community College
• Patricia French, Manager, Collections & Technical Services, Multnomah County Public Library
• Michael Lacroix, Director, Leighton University-Reinert-Alumni Memorial Library
• Suzanne Lauer, OCLC
• Siôn Romaine, Assistant Head, Serials Acquisitions, University of Washington Libraries
• Suzanne Schriar, Associate Director/Library Automation & Technology, Illinois State Library
• Gregg Silvis, Assistant Director, University of Delaware Library
• John Teskey, Director, University of New Brunswick Libraries-Fredericton
• Rich Van Orden, OCLC

The service groups serve to (quoted from charge document):

• The service groups have served an important function in two-way communication between OCLC and members regarding existing products and services
• They also provided an excellent opportunity to explore new ideas and possibilities
• Under the new ARC structure there is an opportunity for broader participation from all member libraries, including multiple participants from a given member library
• Web conferencing offers possibilities to conduct Service Group meetings throughout the year and to increase participation both synchronously and asynchronously
• Some topics of greatest interest to the largest number of members may be appropriate for presentation at annual meetings of the ARC
  

The committee met via conference call on January 11, 2010.  I have included the minutes in this post as they explain what we are doing and also explain the past history of the groups.  I will be asking for input from the general library community as to how these service groups should evolve.  Please send me your input and ideas.  I have permission from the committee to do this.

Present:
Morag Boyd, Bill Drew, Michael Lacroix, Suzanne Lauer, Siôn Romaine, Gregg Silvis, Ted Schwitzner, John Teskey

Regrets:
Shirley Baker, Patricia French, Suzanne Schriar


1.    Brief Introductions

  --  Ted Schwitzner, Coordinator, Bibliographic Services, Illinois State University Library, Chair
  --  Shirley Baker, Dean, Washington University Libraries
  --  Morag Boyd, Head, Special Collections Cataloging, Ohio State University Libraries
  --  Bill Drew, Systems Librarian and Librarian for Technical Services, Electronic Information Resources and Serials, Tompkins Cortland Community College
  --  Patricia French, Manager, Collections & Technical Services, Multnomah County Public Library
  --  Michael Lacroix, Director, Leighton University-Reinert-Alumni Memorial Library
  --  Suzanne Lauer, OCLC
  --  Siôn Romaine, Assistant Head, Serials Acquisitions, University of Washington Libraries
  --  Suzanne Schriar, Associate Director/Library Automation & Technology, Illinois State Library
  --  Gregg Silvis, Assistant Director, University of Delaware Library
  --  John Teskey, Director, University of New Brunswick Libraries-Fredericton
  --  Rich Van Orden, OCLC


2.    Minute-Taking Responsibilities

Siôn Romaine agreed to take minutes for the group. The group agreed that it's OK to blog/twitter about this group as another way to get the word out about the group and generate feedback from members.


3.    Overview, History, Purpose of Service Groups

Various Committee members gave a brief overview of the history and purpose of Service Groups. At one point there were two kinds of groups. The first kind of groups, organized by type of library, did not - except for the public library group - seem to be particularly productive or highly rated. These groups were put on the back burner about two years ago and eliminated last year.

The second type of groups - the product/interest groups based on large product portfolios such as WorldCat Service, OCLC Programs, E-Content etc. - transitioned into the familiar service groups. These were rated highly, tended to be more productive, and were more helpful to OCLC staff. Their purpose was to look at the big picture, although they did sometimes discuss products on a high level at times. These groups provided interaction between OCLC staff and delegates and worked well. One drawback was that delegates would have liked to have attended more than one group [note: virtual meetings would allow delegates to attend multiple meetings].

The service groups spurred a lot of discussion and gave delegates the chance to hear from product managers, ask questions and clarify things. One Committee member noted that the Research Group, for example, was fascinating in that it went beyond what OCLC was working on and brought forwards ideas and needs from the membership that could generate new services. The Library-In-A-Box concept for smaller libraries was discussed and fleshed out, as was the idea that you could put WorldCat in a portable network and take to developing areas to assist libraries in that area.

The WorldCat Public Service Group was almost like a focus group and provided a chance to see what was coming down the line and what the implications are for how members think about OCLC products/services.

The tricky part for this Committee becomes how many groups to constitute and what they will cover. Previous service groups include:
  --  Resource Sharing & Document Delivery
  --  WorldCat Public Service
  --  Cataloging & Metadata
  --  Programs & OCLC Research
  --  E-Content

One of the problems currently is that many people don't understand how people are appointed to General Council; hopefully, that will change with the work of this Committee. Similarly, some people question whether OCLC is really a not-for-profit. A more open process, more like ALA elections, is expected.

For the Americas, anyone from a member institution could attend the meeting in June in DC (in person or via webex). The same would be true for any service group - a virtual meeting will be available. This is where democratization will show - it will allow for members to attend sessions that they otherwise would not have and brings the meetings closer to the people using the products. Unlike the General Council, where everyone who participates is elected, ARC encompasses everyone (note: there is an elected Executive Committee to oversee everything). One of the goals of this group is to educate and bring in people who felt they couldn't access it before.



4.    Review of Charge & Timeline

Charge:
The charge was reviewed by the Committee. (The Executive Committee is open to adjustments if there are parts that need fine tuning or rewording.)

Initial Brainstorming:
The next couple of meetings will probably be brainstorming ideas of what models might look like, in terms of programs, topics, and who, what, when, why etc. What kind of structure do we need to manage the process of getting information out there?

  --  What kind of meetings work best? Virtual, Face-to-face? How do we want to market/coordinate?

  --  Many people don't know their institutions are members of OCLC (such as those that load holdings) or don't know how to interact with OCLC because they relied on the network for so long. Much can be done in terms of using virtual meetings to get this developed and make sure members know that they're members.

  --  We therefore need to be careful at how we construct agendas. At Members/Global Council, most attendees are already fairly well versed. Once we open things up to a large group, people may not be as familiar, which provides an opportunity to educate as to what OCLC does. We might want to consider tagging meetings at different levels - Basic, Intermediate, Advanced. So, for example, if you had an in-depth session on ILL, you could make sure your ILL person went, while a basic oversession on ILL might be more appropriate for your reference librarian. In other words, how do we gear sessions to the right individuals to ensure the sessions are worth attending?

  --  There used to be product updates that were done virtually from OCLC and there used to be the OCLC Hour - where network staff tuned in virtually and heard a stratetgic overview. So perhaps two sessions - Product Update and a Strategy Update.

  --  Structure the Service Groups to ALA Interest Groups or CLA Interest Groups, where groups are proposed by members interested in a particular topic and which have worked well for online participation. For example, ALA's LITA Section's Emerging Technologies Interest Group has designed content and programs for ALA.

  --  Discussion Group might be better name for the Service Groups. "Service Group" doesn't seem to mean much. Membership Discussion Group? Membership Interest Group? Focus Group may have a negative connotation. Membership Engagement Group - might capture the idea/spirit that will groups that will formulate discussions around a shared topic of interest but at the same time bridge gap between Dublin and someone sitting at their desk in Omaha.

  --  We need to stay away from naming the groups after the different products. There's also nothing that says we have to have 6 categories of groups. We could have a variable number, with topics changing as things change. It really needs to be much more fluid and we need to be more responsive. The convergence of products would be something to explore under the new structure (what does it mean for patrons, cataloging etc.)

Timeline:
January
ALA Boston: No scheduled discussion of this Committee. However, Committee members attending should feel free to obtain feedback from colleagues regarding the charge, and the types of programs people would like to see coming from OCLC.

February
Instead of submitting a plan by Feb.26, we will instead provide progress report to the Executive Committee.

April
The week of April 11-17th, we will provide plan to Executive Committee, in advance of the General Council meeting in Dublin April 19-22.
5.    Next meeting: TBD by Doodle Poll

' ACTION
  --  Ted will do a Doodle Poll to determine the next meeting time.
  --  Ted will try to craft a general meeting timeline for everyone - what he thinks we might consider for next couple of meetings (benchmarks so we're where we want to be in April).
  --  Sion will draft minutes & forward to Committee for review; after reviewing the minutes, the charge will be redrafted and submitted back to the Executive Committee.
  --  Suzanne will get a listserv set up.

OCLC

Powered by ScribeFire.

Library Day in the Life - Round 4

I am participating in Library Day in the Life / Round 4, January 2010 . I will be blogging and tweeting about my activities today.  The short ones will be on Twitter (tagged #libday4) and the longer posts on my blog with a tag of librarydayinthelife.  Tell the world what librarians do every day.

librarydayinthelife

Powered by ScribeFire.

Save Illinois Libraries!

Alliance needs your help TODAY!

No money has been received by ALS and the MITBC since June of last year …and now we are almost out of money. Many other state agencies are in this same position.

Payment decisions are made by the Comptroller, Dan Hynes and Governor Quinn. The problem is getting the attention of the comptroller and the governor. This is where you come in:

Take five minutes today, January 20, 2010 and go to www.saveillinoislibraries.com. An easy-to-use form is available on the front page. Put in your information and use it to send emails to Comptroller Hynes and Governor Quinn asking them to release the money for library systems.

Our goal is 3,000 e-mails each to Comptroller Hynes and Governor Quinn. This has worked for library funding issues in other states, and it can work here, too. To make this really successful we need to make it “viral”…that is sent by ,many many people…PLEASE pass along this request IMMEDIATELY.

Posted via email from billdrew's posterous