Books are such a racket

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Many think libraries are about books.  But that’s as big a myth as housewives — don’t get me started.

While some cultures focus on book in the name of their libraries in ‘English’ the etymology is a variant idea of deconstruction, re-purposing.. on books that I think of often. translating, loosely from *leub(h) (“to strip, to peel”) Proto-Indo-European base… from liber (“the inner bark of trees, paper, parchment, book”).  — Wiktionary 

I am a media librarian.  Never has my work been steeped in paper books, well never say never.. buuuutt … more often than not un-book: video, newspapers, cultural property, digital repositories.  I am suspicious of the book, the distance in my career they have put between us and the library as an institution of liberty. The stereotyped dusty book warehouses they brook us.  Book as brand a concern.  Librarians should be the best at putting the book aside, not the worst. It is needed now leadership and too often we trail. The book is NOT a universal good.  Perhaps that’s just my secularism talking?

It is the package of knowledge that I want.  The creation + content a light hand to form.  Heavy hand to diversity and relationships inside.

I know this is barely a post. Full disclosure I write it up here as ‘loong tweet’ to respond to this conversation with @sleslie and @clintlalonde two very bright guys who have worked with the books I hate the most — TEXTBOOKS.  Textbooks, those are like the nails on the chalkboard of books for me, like a school uniform. Anathema to my very alt 1970′s educational orientations.

Yep a librarian openly disparaging books.  Something I like to do.  Thanks for letting me do that guys.  And no.. I don’t agree that ebooks are especially bad ..

@maryakem @clintlalonde, no, “Ebooks” are such a racket.

— Scott Leslie (@sleslie) May 25, 2013

…. it is the whole racket. Books are a racket.  For one last contour I have to add is what Dave Cormier taught me with this quote (even if it was a long time ago):

For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of  those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise. — Plato’s Phaedrus

Reminding myself, not to be hard to get along with.

Five Floors to an Ideal Library System

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On a sunny day in the park last summer I had a wonderful conversation with one of my most important professional partners Jon. Jon and I have not shared an address on our pay cheque for more than 15 yrs but he is my co-worker. We were talking about library design and what makes a library. For the months since I have consistently hid that talk … for a standard shameful librarian reason, I lack a citation. But as the discussions of how to work out a virtual learning commons for BC begin I have to be honest about my hidden framework, so here goes.

Once upon a time there was a library design and idealization written that I cannot cite. This design is probably is 99% responsible for what drives me in library work. It’s lays out the essence of a library to be five-part. Sure it is monumental in its ideas of upward knowledge frameworks, but pardon me this time, I am a medivalist after all.

FIVE PIECES to LIBRARY

1. A library is at its base a Fiction Book collection. First floor should be where you find stories.
2. For the 2nd level ‘bookshelves’ file the information, stereotypical non-fiction collections, the research arms.
3. At the 3rd floor find a source of energy for design. A place to be taught how to make from what is inspired by story and/or learned from the non-fiction collections.
4. For a fourth floor look to studios. This is the next level, a space where an individual should be able to access group spaces for learning and teaching.
5. Level five is the presentation space, the exhibit space for what is made from all this upward mobility.

Black-figured neck-amphora, signed by the potter Andokides; attributed to the painter Psiax

Five floors to an ideal library system. One example, enter on level one and read an epic Greek story. Level two learn how pottery is made. Up a level take a class to learn to be a potter and up the next floor use a studio to create. On the fifth floor find gallery space present your work out in the public, from your library.

Borrowed Exhibit Pic from Emily Carr Library website

Ying Liu’s Ice Cream Spoons.. game 2009 Photo Sheila Hall. From ECUAD http://www.ecuad.ca/library/about/exhibition

This I claim is my framework for libraries and learning commons. Would you agree? Does this physical manifestation suggest guidance for digital workspace that is humane and powerful? I think it agrees with the components of a learning commons that say the library is a space to share your work, to access resources of multiple forms, a conduit to peer and expert learning support. What are the components in your mind and experience?

(…..And if anyone has the citation for this idea, which I think was from the 20′s, I would appreciate it.)

What we said and what we did

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DataCamp had a number of really great ideas, hacks, questions and projects to tackle. These eight gave an intense four hours of work by campers shape. Urgent thanks to the ideas people who convened all the talks and the lovely and radiant scribes who took our notes. We’re pulling notes into a wiki space for library camps to come; we all agreed much work to be done.  Work we are ready, set to move on.

1. Throwing Good Data After Bad: How to turn something that hardly passes for “data” into real usable stuff!

More info: Mixture of coding tools (a few lines of R and Python necessary to utilize Google’s Geocode API and others) and web-based data subsetting tools
From: Alex

2. How would public libraries use open data? Any practical examples?

From Kathleen and Jay

3. Engaging our stakeholders: the language & promotion of hacker culture

How do we engage the less technical among us, including stakeholders and funders? Is the language we’re using holding us back? The word “hack” brings to mind Matthew Broderick circa 1983. How do we make the movement more inviting and less intimidating, and ensure we’re engaging thinkers of varying technical ability?

From: Trish

Also framed as…. Professional development/digital literacy. All this talk about data, data viz, hacking is not something I’m familiar with as a librarian working for a public library, in terms of relevancy and skills. But I do sense it’s important. How do I get in on it? From May

4. What are the “skills to pay the bills” for libraries with respect to open data?

More info: Office is so 1997, web development is so 2006, learn to parse with python? find a needle in a haystack with regex? usable data is not merely viewable (I’m looking at you pdfs!) From Kevin

Also framed with… Basic programming for data handling. Basic perl?
From Eugene

5. What literacies do library staff need realistically – and for /all/ staff digital literacies?
From Sarah F

Linked by MAY further to what sarah put here. maybe we need to review this Belshaw MOOC on the topic — or this: Mozilla Web Literacies Rubric

6. Hackathon hosting toolkit for youth

More info:
We’ve developed a hackathon-toolkit aimed at early adopters in the library and educator communities; we’d appreciate the opportunity to talk about the toolkit and get feedback from librarians at the datacamp on how we can make it better. Thanks to Kyle and Liam for coming to #yvr for this.

Also in the frame as: Organizing hackthons for library folk. One way to build digital literacies for library staff. What is a hackathon? Isn’t hacking illegal?

3. Data visualization tools

More info: Some sample datasets were run and visualization work done. But we need to do more. How can we advance the work done and map cards or interlibrary loans. With  which data fields, who how, when and where will the datasets emerge and can data be crosswalked between library systems for sharing. From Kyle

Also in the frame as: sharing library data. Our internal library data can be used to demonstrate our impact on community development. We should be making that data available to our boards, cities, and patrons and use it to tell our story. From Kevin

4. Library metrics for service shift

Data catalogue of library activity, ebook downloads, circ, wireless stats, program, article click throughs, catalogue clicks what do we measure? Do we need a glossary of what is data, stats, a metric etc? From Maryann for public ref desk librarian who felt this topic did not reach realistic questions. (notes for this to come)

Ideas that started us looked like this in wordle….

what we said

And this the look of our after-wordle….

results of the live notes from eight sessions at datacamp

results of the live notes from eight sessions at datacamp

Welcome to Camp

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Welcome to the first of what we hope will be a great many BC Camps for library people. 

Image

This camp is called DataCamp after the trends and observations of library people who made up Open Data Summit and BC Libraries Inspire.

We are so glad you could come.  Here’s the rough plan.  If there is more to add to this conversation please speak up, we are all in this together.

Doors at 8am

1. HELLO: Please check in with folks at the door.  We have some name tag supplies is you did not bring your own.  Can you book on with us with your twitter handle?

2. VOTE the to do list: Sometime before we start please visit our questions and ideas up in the meeting room.  Do you have anything to add?  Feel Free.

Mark a maxiumum of five votes for a question/idea up for the morning’s to do.  We’ll table the others to follow up online or for next camp.  The core goal of the founding group was an event around open data literacy, that’s not cast in stone but we can take it as a frame

8:30 to 9:30 Breakfast and get to know

9:30 to 9:50 Welcome and Setting Group activity
Kevin, Maryann and May are your camp counsellors
These are the rules.

9:50 to 10:40 1st round small Group Work 4 conversations

10:40 to 11:30 2nd round 4 conversations

11:30 to 12:30 Camp results and next steps

We want to connect with you ongoing from camp.  You deserve a badge.  Please keep the conversation open on twitter and connect via the Commons site

This is a new sort of professional development for many of the members of the group today.  We thank you for trying out our ideas and bringing yours.

Stacks Up

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When I went to library school in 2001 I think we all believed that librarians needed to morph into some sort of computer geek. We would be studying new systems and functioning as fleshy index operators. It was a good 5 years since the Net was settling into it’s then publicly accessible.. INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY. La. La. Laaa! La. La. La. Laaa! then 2002 came and all that went on hold for 10 years.

Librarians were trying to be happy. Not at all muttering behind their hands… “Oh man. The internet! Why didn’t we think of that!” Subscription databases you’re in charge, wha’. the. heck?

libraries

CGI rendering of coming renovation Stockholm public library

In 10 years since my degree and 20 years since I started in libraries I do get bemused when I think we have come full circle. After the 90′s obsession with getting out of closed bookstacks and getting people into the physical materials we are right back to locking knowledge away. This picture above has been my lens for library service for that past year and a half. Closed or open? Connected people? Or information zoo?

I am looking for the direction in library work. What are we supposed to do?

If you were cursed enough to have me assigned as your prof in library school you would have to endure this rant on what makes a real librarian already, here goes again….

We are NOT at large computer geeks (tho’ those who are I value most highly) we are more often instead… some intangible somethings else. We’re information tasters… I like to say.. curators, servants. Don’t cringe.. Many library workers are more like Casanova, than any geek. If you did not know that Casanova was a librarian. Well he was.

Casanova a personal librarian for a frustrating, uninspiring Bohemian Duke. A cautionary tale for librarianship indeed. Solo librarian largely unconnected toiling away in the employ of the privileged; meting out a sense of value to the wise or ill publications to meet Dukes developing mind, rank, etc. The ages old story of life in a time of information onslaught.

An odd fate. I do cringe, I’m honest, at the options in front of libraries right now. The rather baroque faux luxury of choice. Is it a luxury? Is there choice? I am sure I do want to avoid being some bitter servant worker in a library. I think there is still plenty to love about the job. And feel that when I don’t love it I know its because its the servitude that need be shoved off.

who are you geek or casanova?

Makerspaces

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At recent #yvr meet up was fortunate to tap the perspective of Scott Leslie for expedient library participation in the maker movement. Nothing less than the idea that multi-branch library systems go bookless in some of their venues to host local makerspaces.

Now which BC library system is gonna do that? Any takers… I’m looking at you GVPL? FVRL… !

I think for the last two years the constant.. “So whaddaya want us to do with makerspaces in libraries??” has been a fair question. Largely because administration are looking to these marquee services as something ‘high tech’ only. But a maker tool is – in more traditional – sense be a variety of tools low to high tech. If a library has a shaky infrastructure or tough IT Support complement it is tricky to simply embrace makerspaces.

And, as Scott so rightly put it… library people you don’t need to be expert in the stuff! Go with your strengths. Enable a multiplicities of maker movement actors to bring in gear like Vancouver Hackspace can or build out a project like DIY BookScanner. Brook the conversation and engage community learning ops — we can do that. Have a great project idea like librivox books in public domain release.

Cause we are good with access, sharing and multiplicities. Or we were.. and we should be again..

Giving up proprietary sources for Lent

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We’re getting ready for a new open data learning opportunity in Vancouver. This is a follow up on OpenData Learning Summit that was my dreamy conference experience for Fall 2012. I limit myself to one of those per quarter. When I was there I was heartened about the re-orientation of many public library enterprises to non-proprietary content. It is work that need be done.

Why is it important? Well because we are PUBLIC libraries. We need to be public and open to where data is instead of running info castles for only certain published content. I don’t know about you.. but I’m giving up databases for Lent.

OpenData. Is the step toward access services and the best move to distance libraries from the shifting sands of ‘book is brand’… Access, liberation that’s what libraries are for! In many respects if we don’t do these things then Terry Deary is right.

{seque}

At OpenData Summit was lots of generous sharing from the presenters but one of my favorites was this session Storytelling with Open data from @coppinr

I hope we’ll be stepping along with this at the March 15 DataCamp, can you join us? or submit a question, hack idea or project outcome from your perspective. Please look at the open spreadsheet to brainstorm publicly. Please, my library friends, choose open resources more often than not between now and the Ides of March… how much dependency can we lose? And how can we afford not to try? Do you have a favorite alternate site to subscription DBs to share. Something like Health Info Repositories, or Hathi Trust or Open Library or somethin’ Give us a tip in the comments. Libraries love our open resources but do we promote the favorites the way we do for-cost items??

ps.. If you are a library person and not using Twitter. Please consider adding twitter to your public library work in 2013. It is viable, popular way to open yourself, your library and the public up to the work at hand. See you.