Library Voice

Scott Douglas’ latest writing is sure to grab some attention, especially since the post was highlighted on Library Stuff. I am sure many will raise issues about the stereotypes of librarians. However, I was more interested in Scott’s exploration of a social software called Myspace. Scott describes his first experience with MySpace:

I saw many other disturbing things, but I honestly can’t say I saw anything very interesting, and yet I stayed for a full hour reading profiles of people that I, for the most part, had never met. I discovered in myself a voyeuristic fetish I never knew I had.

Scott explains why he joined MySpace.com:

I started a Myspace account recently in an effort to cure my boredom while sitting at the reference desk waiting for someone to ask me where a book was. I figured if high-school kids had so much fun on it, then why couldn’t I? Plus, it’s my duty as a librarian to be informed about what people are doing at the library(emphasis added).

What is interesting about this is that Scott has gotten a little radical, perhaps without even knowing it. In his curiosity, he has gone to where his patrons are and he has been hanging out in their virtual world. While some may call this voyeurism, others will see this simply as behavioral observation. In order to know what makes folks tick (in this case, high-school kids), it is important to go where they are. Perhaps as a lurker in these social software environments, we can learn more about what interests the kids. If we know what they like, perhaps then we can buy books that they will actually read or learn other things that will help us to understand how to make the library work for them.

In the academic library world, TheFacebook is a similar social software environment. Thefacebook is an online directory that connects people through social networks at colleges. For more detailed information about TheFacebook, take a look at the FAQ page. Very recently, several of my colleagues and I have joined TheFacebook for similar reasons to Scott. We simply want to know what all the hype is about. In looking at how students are using the site, I imagine we’ll be educated a little more about how our students communicate, what their interests are, and what makes them tick in general. That’s more than enough to keep me from being bored.

This is probably old news to most, but a WordPress update is now available. This fixes some security issues with the software. Upgrading is easy, but you have to overwrite your existing files. This can be a little scary, but if you follow these directions for upgrading, your update will go smoothly.

I have updated my two personal blogs, but I still have about four more of our library’s blogs to update.

Rochelle Mazar has a nice post about providing radical reference in which she states:

The future of reference service is not behind a desk. Truly radical reference is coming out from behind that desk and bringing that crucial resource of answers into real life, into that space between having a question and the topic shifting over to something else, into the space between half-way done and handed in. Radical reference is not about waiting for the question. It’s not about simply being as good as we are and being the only ones who know it. It’s about handing out those answers where they’re needed. It’s about being there with help at the point of need, not under the “info” sign. It’s about being a part of the process rather than an appendage that might be useful if it occurred to you to put it to use.

I definitely agree with this statement. One of my biggest fears (perhaps unfounded) is that one day my job as a reference librarian will become obsolete. This is really scary, as I really love what I do. I don’t have a fear of being replaced by the Internet or some super computer in the very near future, but I feel that if I am complacent with the status quo, I may one day wake up and see that I am not needed anymore. Granted, I may still have a job, but I may be just as obsolete if I no longer provide academic support by teaching or answering questions. Sitting at a reference desk and talking to no one, or attempting to teach classes that no one attends really does not appeal to me. The answer: as Rochelle says, we must adapt with our users while changing current reference paradigms. However, change does not come easy, as there can be several potential barriers to change. Time, culture, technology, and personal limitations, to name a few, can all be barriers to changing the way we do business.

When attempting to change the way we do things, time can be a factor that hinders our progress. I realize that we often try to change processes, procedures, and behaviors because to do so will be more efficient. However, time itself can keep us from trying new things. If you already work the reference desk, perform collection development duties, serve on committees, and try to keep up with professional issues, then when do you have time to try new things? It takes time to try something new and innovative while also trying to keep up with your current daily duties. While challenging, if you really want to try to change something, you have to make time to do so. For example, when I am gearing up for fall quarter library instruction classes, I make sure I take time to look at ways I can improve over the last time I taught a class. It takes very little time to prepare if you only give the same demonstration. However, if you spend 15-30 extra minutes trying to change 1-2 things about your presentation, you never know what sort of impact that change might have. By taking the time to try something new, you might be able to reach the student/patron better.

Our ability or willingness to try new things can be hindered by the culture at our institutions. Rochelle hinted that one such barrier can be the academic culture, as “instructors are unlikely to want us sitting in on all of their classes, looking over the assignments and offering advice regularly.” In this example, it can be very difficult to change that mindset, but there are things we can do as librarians to tie us closer to the classroom. One such thing is to offer to teach a 1-2 hour instruction session to the class. Make sure that there is plenty of time to cover the project topic, and make sure the search examples are relevant to what the students will be working on. While a class might not seem like a good idea to an instructor, simply making yourself available (rather than waiting for him/her to contact you) shows that you are interested in what he/she is teaching and what the students are working on.

Our own culture as librarians can hinder change as well. Let’s say that you have some great ideas about how to take your services to where the users are. You might be interested in setting up shop in one of the academic buildings, dorms, or computer labs for a few hours each week. What’s stopping you? Well, time may be an issue, but also your existing work culture. The status quo may dictate that you are supposed to work the reference desk on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 to 2. You are also supposes to be available to handle walk-in patrons who have questions in your specific subject area. How in the world can you be across campus as well? A pilot program might be a good idea, as that will allow you to investigate if a service is needed, while also letting you test the waters of your own culture. Folks are generally pretty receptive to a pilot, as they know they can pull the plug if things don’t work out quite right.

Another barrier that we may have to overcome in shifting the paradigm is technology. The argument has been around for quite some time that technology makes a number of things easier. One should just simply begin using the technology, right? Well, the problem with technology is that there are many times when it is not used as intended, or as effectively as it should be used. One example of this is with course management tools such as Blackboard and WebCT. I know that there are many instructors who do a great job of managing their classes with these systems, and they are incorporating creative measures into changing how they teach. Unfortunately, there are also a great number of instructors who just use the system to post class readings, notes, and quizzes. In this example, technology really has not improved the teaching of the class, but rather has only made it more convenient to get the class content.

I have been guilty of a similar situation in the library world. A fine example is with my research guides/pathfinders. These basically used to be word documents that were handed out to business students. These are now online in html format, but are they any more useful because technology made them more available? I would guess no, as the content can be terribly boring to read, and it does not focus on a specific topic at hand. My solution to this has been to compliment my research guides with a blog. When students have a specific industry analysis or marketing plan to do, I can write about the project in my business blog and point them to relevant resources for the project, while also pointing them to the subject guides. In this way, technology has allowed me to deliver more timely and needed information, while also allowing me to still use more traditional methods as well.

I have mentioned three external factors that can hinder one from shifting into radical reference. I am sure that there are quite a few others. However, I believe the most difficult barrier to overcome might be our own personal limitations. These can be a variety of things, such as a fear of change, fear of failure, or perhaps a fear of not knowing where the future may take you. As cheesy as it sounds, you can really accomplish some cool things when you recognize your personal limitations and confront them. I used to be afraid of trying new things in the classroom, because I was afraid that I would fail in front of 25 students. I got over this fear by introducing small changes in different classes. Some would work, others would fail miserable. The students didn’t really care, because they had never seen the way I used to do it. Only I knew that things didn’t work out as I intended, but at the same time, I learned something by taking a risk. We can often learn a great deal about ourselves when we take risks, step outside of our comfort zones, and try to change our “business as usual” approach to doing things.

I’ll try to write more about this topic, because I find it interesting how libraries and librarians are redefining their roles while conquering stereotypes, fears, and the status quo. I believe that libraries and librarians will be around for quite some time, but we will need to adapt to our users needs if we are to be successful. As Rochelle states: We can’t keep replicating traditional reference service; we need to radicalize it. I am sure the same thing can be said for a variety of library services. The question is, how are you getting radical and what barriers have you faced in getting radical?

If you are using WordPress to run your blog, you might want to check out these links to understanding WordPress Themes.

[Link via WordPress Planet]

Are you using blogs to supplement or compliment library instruction? Then take a moment to fill out this survey.

The purpose of this survey is to find out how librarians are using weblogs (blogs) to interact with and teach library users. The results will be presented at the Off-Campus Library Services Conference in Savannah, GA in April 2006. Your participation is greatly appreciated.

[Link via Library Stuff]

Meredith was able to round up a few librarian bloggers for a quick snapshot. It’s good to put some faces with the names. I was unable to go to ALA this year, because my wife has a conference at the same time. She leaves for a couple of days tomorrow, so it’s just me and the young’un. I’m sure I am one of many living vicariously through the blogs of others, so you bloggers at ALA need to make sure we get our money’s worth.

There has been a great deal of chatter (pun intented) around the blogosphere about IM versus Web-based Chat. It began with Aaron at Walking Paper linking to an a blog post that analyzes an article that he co-authored with Sarah the LiB. Stephen Francoeur puts in his two cents here and links to another analysis here. My, how this stuff gets around. And on a Friday of all times.

There has been enough analysis of the article, so I’ll opt out on commenting too much on it. Overall, I think it was a good piece that briefly covers the two types of services. It is a good read for librarians looking to start a virtual reference service. Some have criticized the article as not being very deep, but, as Aaron mentioned, he and Sarah only had so much room to tell the story. Some critics are arguing against the either/or approach in support of using a combination of IM and web-based reference. Both services have their pros and cons, as the article clearly illustrates. For the time being, our library intends to try both services because at this time, it is our opinion that neither service delivers a true technical knockout.

Our library currently uses a web-base chat service as part of the OhioLINK consortia. We monitor a queue for our library, as well as take part in staffing the service for the state. The state service is staffed until 9 am-10 pm Sunday-Thursday, 9-5 Friday, and 1-5 on Saturday. When the service is not in session, the patrons will roll over to the public library’s statewide Know-it-Now program, which is staffed 24/7. While both services are working great, the results of Sherri’s survey and my library’s survey indicate that there may be a need to compliment web-based chat with IM. The data indicates that some patrons might be more likely to IM a reference librarian, as IM is something that they use anyway. So in our case, it is not an “either/or” decision, but a “both”.

Another reason that we are going the IM route is to serve our own patrons when the OhioLINK service is closed. We have an information commons that is open 24/5, and our nightime staff will be monitoring the IM service. It should be interesting to see how much business we get in the wee hours of the evening, and it will be even more interesting to compare daytime usage of both services. I’ll be writing about this as soon as we get more into the IM program, which is due to launch in the middle of July.

I, like many, could blast our current third party web-based chat service. When we first started the service, the software had all kinds of options. Automessages, pushing pages, co-browsing, and emaling transcripts were all possible. Now, for incompatibilities with browsers, pop-up blockers, and operating systems, co-browsing is no longer an option, and success is sporadic when pushing pages. Basically, we are now reduced to an inflated version of IM. Granted, the software works to communicate text messages, but that is about it.

So how come we don’t just abandon it? Well, basically, despite it’s flaws, the client we are using still manages to get the job done. Patrons still continue to use the service, and we are able to help them with the information that they need. Not everyone uses IM, so web-based chat may be the only option for them to Ask-A-Librarian in the virtual world. Will this be the case in the years to come? Only time will tell. Will our IM service replace our web-based service? We’ll just have to wait and see. One thing is clear, is that libraries are starting to investigate other options for reaching their patrons. As stated in the article:

Web-based chat software designers are going to have to massively rethink their products over the next few years or they will quickly become obsolete as more and more lihrarians realize that other alternatives, of which IM is only the first, offer a much better reference environment for their users.

How to Write Killer Blog Posts and More Compelling Comments[Link via Successful Blog]

How to Be a More Productive Blogger [Link via Micro Persuasion]

Some info about the survey:

This is a general social survey of the greater weblog community being conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Our goal is to help understand the way that weblogs are affecting the way we communicate with each other. Specifically we are interested in issues of demographics, communication behaviors, experience with weblogs and other technology, and the meaning of various types of social links within the blogosphere.

The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete, and we are asking anyone with a weblog to participate. The larger the sample of individuals we can get, the better our picture of the community will be.

I just completed the survey in 13 minutes. The questions are good food for thought for those designing similar surveys. When you finish, you can take a look at how your answers compare to other bloggers. It’s a great way to measure how normal or abnormal your blogging habits are.

There has been some discussion around the blogosphere about the lack of blogs that focus specifically on academic librarianship. It was very nice of Meredith to mention me in her post as one of the voices of academic librarianship, so I though I would attempt to spell out my reasons for blogging. I’m a little late getting to this topic, as I have been on vacation for a couple of weeks.

I started this blog in January of this year for the purpose of keeping up with current issues in librarianship and technology. I had been subscribed to a number of library blogs for most of last year, and I really liked what I was reading about. For me, it did not matter if the information was geared toward academic, public, or special libraries, as I found a lot of the information relevant to what I was doing, or to what I wanted to learn more about. Like many, I started out with just a few feeds, and now it seems like I am adding a new feed every week. I loved the immediacy of getting up-to-date information, and I loved being able to skim my feeds to see what I wanted to read, and what I just wanted to skip. I also began to appreciate the community that formed around blogging, as I thought it was really cool how blogs link to other blogs, and a topic is carried around cyberspace.

With that in mind, I wanted in on the action. This was not for selfish reasons, as I don’t plan on getting famous blogging (Currently Library Voice has eight subscribers in Bloglines, and one of those is me). Nor will I get a promotion or a raise by blogging (we don’t have faculty status/tenure at my library). Rather, I felt that something was lacking in my current role as a consumer of information. I wanted to give something back to the library blogging community. Hence, I started this blog in January to contribute in a small way to the community of library bloggers.

Now my small way of contributing has only been about 50 posts since January. Needless to say, I am not about to blow anyone away with my sheer quantity of thought-provoking ramblings. I have a tendency to neglect this blog some, but I am working on that. I generally don’t have time to blog while at work, although I do occasionally have time during slow periods at the reference desk. One of the more entertaining comments in the Inside Higher ed piece explains the time shortage that many librarians face:

My reaction to this observation about academic library blogs is “Of course! Who has the #%@&&* time to mess with a blog?!” My colleagues and I barely have time to stop and pee during the day much less blog. (I only saw this commentary because it was emailed to me by a faculty member outside the library, not because I pore over think-pieces about libraianship)

I have huge demands on my time as well, but I personally think I am doing myself an injustice by not keeping up with library-related blogs, current events, and technology feeds.

People tend to blog about what they are interested in, and I am no exception. In my blog, I tend to focus primarily on library and technology related issues, but I have been known to write about other things as well. As I wear many hats in my position, I am interested in numerous areas and may write about almost anything. In my job I do reference, instruction, collection development, and web management, and I am also a subject specialist. I am also very interested in technology and it’s impact on teaching and learning. I tend to write about these things from the perspective of an academic librarian, because that is what I am and is what I know. However it is important to know that I am one librarian at a single institution, so I try to avoid making generalizations about how all academic libraries/librarians do things. Therefore, there is no way that I can be an authority on all issues pertaining to academic librarianship, and I imagine that most other librarian bloggers would say the same thing–regardless of whether they are in the academic or public sector.

My academic librarian perspective also influences everything I read as well. I read a number of blogs by public librarians, and I am constantly reading their words and ideas in an academic librarian context. I have gotten a number of good ideas from quite a few blogs, and honestly, prior to this post, I did not really think about whether a blogger was an academic or a public librarian. I read stuff from people who have good thoughts and ideas, without lumping them into categories. They’re all just librarians to me.

Many librarians publish their research and ideas in scholarly and trade publications. There is definitely a need for this type of publication. In my current position, I do not have to publish, as we do not have a tenure review process. However, that has not stopped me from submitting an article or two (unfortunately, I have yet to get one accepted). Librarians are publishing some great articles, but these articles take a great deal of time to come to press. Also, one must subscribe or have electronic access to retrieve an article in a scholarly publication, which can be a barrier to accessing the information. The truly great thing about blogging is how instantly you can publish your thoughts and ideas. No one has to review what you write, so your words can reach many quickly, and without charging subscription fees. There is also the potential for getting a great deal of positive and negative feedback, which can add to your ideas and the thoughts of others. While there is no peer review process prior to publication, the potential for feedback can be a good review process for your ideas. In this way, blogging could be a useful method to generate ideas that may eventually become the start of a good article.

As Meredith mentioned, I suppose I am one of the voices of academic librarianship. However, my Library Voice extends beyond academic librarianship. In order for me to be a good librarian, I feel that I need to be up to date on a lot of issues. Technology, cataloging trends, issues in scholarly publishing, library marketing, blogging, instant messaging, learning behaviors, and budget problems are just a few of the topics that I might write about. Each of these topics can be addressed by both public and academic librarian bloggers. If I just wrote about my every day life in an academic library, well, that could be fun, but it could also make my library voice fairly monotone, and my library world would become pretty small. The beauty of blogging is that you can take the many voices that are out there, listen to them, digest them, and then exercise your own voice while expanding your view of the overall library environment.

Update: Believe it or not, I actually wrote this before reading the post from the Library Web Chic. I probably could have saved some time and said, “Yeah, what she said.”