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San Jose Library launches Text a Librarian service

Today our library, the San Jose Public Library, launched our new Text a Librarian service.  As far as I can tell, we're the first public library in California to offer text messaging services independent of a consortium model.  There are others who participate in the My InfoQuest cooperative, which we are not a part of.  Here are the details:

• The service is run through Mosio's Text a Librarian.
• Text your question to 66746 and start the message with AskSJ
• The library responds to the user through the interface of our choice (web browser, email, IM, or text messaging) and the answer shows up to the customer as a text message
• Customers are encouraged to add 66746 as a contact for easy future access
• The library currently is answering questions from 1-6pm, Monday-Friday
• The service is completely secure & private - customers are assigned random user IDs so the library staff don't see phone numbers connected with questions
• The service is mobile carrier certified, so we don't need to worry about Verizon or AT&T blocking our number from sending messages to customers.
• It's staffed jointly with the San Jose State University Library librarians and a number of our public library staff at our main King Library and at our many branches.

For more info on our service, see the San Jose Library Text-a-Librarian FAQ page. 

On our first day, we've received 20 questions so far (as of 5pm).

We have received an immense amount of interest from the media as well -- today I gave 3 radio interviews about the service and 1 television interview (along with SJPL's Head of Reference, Joan Bowlby).  Our press release also garnered a front page story on the San Jose Mercury News Local section today, as well as a brief 30-second spot on this morning's local Fox affiliate through a press release we sent out.

UPDATE: LOTS OF VIDEO, AUDIO, & STORIES

• 90-second coverage on CBS 5 television (including video)
  
• brief accompanying story from CBS 5
• story from KCBS Radio (including audio)
  
• story from KGO News Talk Radio (including audio)
• story from MetroActive
  

I'm very interested to see how much the service takes off in the upcoming week, as people have heard about it and start to use it and spread the word.

That's a lot of awesomeness for one day!  How do you spell H-O-T?

Blog with Integrity - take the pledge!

Do you blog?  Check out the brand spanking new Blog with Integrity website.  This site came out of concerns over many bloggers accepting free products or services in exchange for a positive review on their blogs, receiving free trips or dinners from interested advertisers, getting undisclosed ad revenues, never posting negative things (only positive things), plagiarizing others' work, and other generally skeevy things to do. 

The site asks bloggers to take the pledge (basically a sensible code of conduct), which you can read here.   If you take the pledge, you can put the "Blog with Integrity" badge on your site (I guess they know how much we like badges).  The goal is to have bloggers disclose who they receive stuff from to disclose any potential biases, to respect readers, to take responsibility for our words, to be honest, and respect intellectual property rights.  Basically, all the stuff that would happen if librarians and journalists had an intellectual baby :) 

Take the pledge...I did.

Interesting use of Twitter

Have you all heard the ads for the Twelpforce?  This is a Twitter service created and staffed by Best Buy. The one-line bio reads "A collective force of Best Buy technology pros offering tech advice in Tweet form."  You just add @twelpforce to the beginning of your Tweet, and your tech support question gets sent to the Twelpforce, and they answer.  They're nearing 4,500 followers already. 

So...basically this is free tech support, in Tweet format, from Best Buy.  What's in it for them?  Advertising and consumer exposure, of course.  Subscribe to their feed and not only do you get the Tweets of tech help, but you get product recommendations (carefully crafted in all likelihood) and re-directions from one product to others.  Advertising, advertising, advertising!  For more info, see the official Twelpforce page on the Best Buy website.

So, what could libraries do along these lines?  Twitter reference services, like many libraries are offering now.  We're doing this...we're just not marketing it very well.  We need to use jazzier social networking profile names.  Make our social network profile pages look cooler.  Advertise the service everywhere in the community, and not wait for them to come to some hidden page on our website proper to find it.  We can do this, people!  We just need to think faster and smarter.

New NPR site is full of awesome

 NPR's new website recently launched. Take a look if you haven't seen it yet!

I really, really like it. I'm finding it much easier to find commonly needed items...you know, those patron questions about something they heard on some show on NPR but can't remember.  There is a ton of information on their site (just like library sites!) but somehow, everything is findable.  They even offer a video tour so you can orient yourself to the new site.

I have long believed that the NPR website is one of the great un-tapped reference resources on the web. Just about any topic you can think of, including current hot topics, is on NPR's site somewhere.

Reverse image search, Healthfinder tour, and a new view of email

TinEye: A reverse search engine.  Upload an image and find out where it came from, how it's being used, and obtain different versions of the same image.  Nice!  You do have to create an account to use it, but I've found it to be worth it.

Healthfinder.gov tour: Take a tour of Healthfinder.gov, learn how to use it, how to search, and what neat features the site offers.  This tour would work really well in any library teachable moments about finding health information.

Google Wave: Google's vision of what web-based email should look like today, reinvented and reinvigorated.  Does this look like something you'd use?  Better than Outlook?

Guv'mint feeds, hardware training, and text/video chat

GovFresh: a live feed of official U.S. Government information posted via YouTube, Twitter, RSS, Facebook, and Flickr.  The feed combines data from the House & Senate, the military, Supreme Court, White House, Democratic & Republication National Committees, various departments and agencies, and so on.

Computer Hardware in Plain English: We love Common Craft videos.  They cover software, Web 2.0, and more, including how basic computer hardware works.  Take a look - this might be the next tool you use in your basic computer classes.

TinyChat: A nice chat room tool, with video!  There are many of these services out there, but this is one of my favorites.  Fast, high quality, and easy to use.

Text Messaging Library Services, Pew Studies, and Info Overload

Some things to pay attention to:

My Info Quest: A brand new international consortium of libraries providing text messaging reference services for the public.  50 U.S. libraries are participating.  Users text questions to a number and librarians respond.  The service is free, provided through Altarama software, available from 8am-10pm Monday-Friday and 9am-5pm Saturdays, and the first of its kind.  The project is accepting new library members if you are interested.

Three recent Pew studies:

• The Mobile Difference: A Pew study of how Americans use their mobile devices.  In an ever-mobile world, libraries need to pay attention to how their users prefer to access information.
• The Internet and the Recession: How are people using the web differently due to the recession?  What information do they want?  How do they access it?  As libraries have redirected resources at user needs due to the recession, this report informs us of user needs and wants and can help us to improve services.
• Twitter and Status Updating: How are people using these social networking tools?  What kind of information are they putting out there and what do they want to get in return?

Xerox's take on Information Overload: Xerox has a humorous site dedicated to the effect of information overload on workers.  The site contains a cute video, discussion board, some serious resources on managing IO, and a cute "Information Overload Warning" email generator to send to colleagues.  Totally worth your time.

Creative Commons, User Generated Web Content, Mobile Learning, and more!

No need to rub your eyes.  Yes, this is a new Librarian in Black post.  As I have been blogging quite infrequently for the last few months, instead of writing out full-on single-issue posts with commentary, I'm going to throw out a number of things to pay attention to in each post--things that caught my attention in the last few months and made it onto the "blog about this later" list.  Think of it is a Blast o' Information, all at once, or if you like instead: "Highlights from mid-2009."  When I feel caught up enough to stop this nonsense, I will.  But until then, read on ... maybe you'll see something you passed up the first time you saw it in your feeds.

The Official Unofficial Creative Commons Facebook Application: Integrating Creative Commons licensing for your Facebook content is nearly impossible, as it is all spread out app by app.  However, if you use this app, it lets your page viewers know that your stuff is licensed through CC (a choice most libraries make for their online content).

Good Example of Website User Content: Emily the Strange has a lot of fan content on her site, including My Strange Cats - a LOLcat-esque area where fans can upload their cat photos a la Emily with titles/tags/etc., and other users can rate, comment, share, and tag the photos.  And the upload form is super-easy.  I'm looking at this as a good model for providing user uploads of library content such as book reviews, photos, videos and more.

IMLS Podcast Series for Jobseekers: The Institute of Museum and Library Services is now offering a Libraries to the Rescue series of five podcasts. The series consists of library folks sharing steps and success stories of how they have helped their communities.  There is a link for the audio and transcripts and also a separate link with resources for job-seekers.

Geek the Library: An innovative new library support campaign in Iowa.  Nice logo :)

ALA Emerging Leaders: The 2010 application to particpate in ALA's Emerging Leaders program is due July 31st, so if you're interested - do it now.

Free Mobile Learning Textbook: A new textbook, Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training, is available for free download in whole or in part if you're only interested in a particular chapter.  Open access publishing makes me happy.  [found via Reference Notes]

Hello. My name is Sarah, and I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

Librarian in Black readers have likely noticed that in the last several months I have been blogging less and less. I will continue blogging, never fear. But there is a reason for my less prolific activity. I am sick. I won’t die from my illness, but I am, nevertheless, sick. I have debated for years whether or not to share this with my professional contacts and readers of this blog.

I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), and since May is Ehlers-Danlos Awareness Month, I thought I'd take this opportunity to do some issue advocacy for something that is part of my everyday life.

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is an extremely rare genetic disorder that affects the body’s production of collagen. And you’d be surprised by how much collagen is in your body (overall, the body is 30% collagen). It’s in your skin, your ligaments, tendons, etc.

What finally made me speak up was a recent conversation with a young woman with EDS. She was just diagnosed and she needed to build a support network. Tearful in one conversation, she encouraged me to continue helping others to keep them from wanting to die instead of living with the disease, like she had when first diagnosed.

I am writing to raise awareness and to help explain my own erratic activity and involvement in library-land. I am not writing, however, to ask for sympathy and I most certainly do not want any pity-posts. Take this information and maybe you can help someone else in your life with EDS get a diagnosis faster.

If you want a quick, 5-minute video explanation of what Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is, try this video from the Discovery Channel:

Due to the EDS, every collagen cell in my body is faulty and is programmed to be too stretchy and ultimately becomes like an old stretched out rubber band.  Normal rubber bands are tight and when you stretch them they bounce right back to their previous shape. EDS sufferers have collagen that is already over-stretched, so when you stretch it out again, it does not bounce back to its original shape, but stays lax and loose. Therefore, we’re super-flexible…but pushing our joints to their limits (as with stretching, yoga, Pilates, heavy-lifting) does long-term irreversible damage.

Practically speaking, this means that my joints are all incredibly unstable and frequently dislocate. Some of my joints bend completely backwards (I can do neat party tricks like bending all of my fingers to touch the back of my hand) while other joints like my wrists and knees bend about 5-10 degrees backwards. The muscles around every single joint also tend to tighten way up, to do the job that my tendons and ligaments aren’t doing: keeping my skeleton in one piece. Dislocations and always-tight muscles = whole body chronic pain.

There’s a lot of collagen in skin especially (90% of skin is collagen), so my skin is super-stretchy and velvety which means two things: I have great skin that will keep me young-looking and wrinkle-free well into my life. But my skin (as well as other collagen-based tissues) bruises and tears easily and takes ten times as long to heal as normal skin does. This is bad for surgeries, and even for simple injuries like cat scratches. So, I'll probably look like I'm twenty when I'm sixty, but I felt like I was sixty when I was twenty. I truly, truly do feel like an old woman. My body doesn't work the way it should. It has betrayed me.

Below are a couple of photos that show what EDS patients look like, so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about (incidentally, these are not me):

Think of EDS like extreme rheumatoid arthritis in every single joint, with the addition of random dislocations. And “every single joint” means just that: fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, ribs, vertebrae (a particular bad set of joints for me), hips, knees, ankles, toes, etc.  People with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome experience acute chronic pain in some or all of their joints and experience neuropathic (nerve) pain in some or all parts of their body, and some even have heart defects that can cause sudden death. Most of us have additional problems with vision, digestion, migraines, pregnancy, and our jaws and teeth. It's an all-encompassing disorder. I have the "Hypermobility Type" of EDS, and my most serious symptoms are in my entire spine, hands, wrists, ribs, knees, and hips.  Thankfully, I do not have the "Vascular Type" of EDS, which can cause sudden and early death.

There is no cure for EDS. There are only limited treatments for the chronic pain and over-flexibility.  Due to the rareness of the disorder, there is no money to be made by medical companies doing research into medication or other treatments.  Therefore, like other rare diseases, we with EDS suffer with little hope for any changes.

What does having EDS mean for me on a daily basis?  I wake up in intense pain every morning and am in pain all day.  Literally, I cannot remember the last time that I didn't hurt.  I am on 5 different pain medications which have numerous side effects including memory loss, loss of verbal recall, and sedation.  I have limited mobility and strength. If I move too much, it hurts. If I don’t move around enough, it also hurts like the devil.  I usually walk with a cane to avoid hip, knee, and ankle dislocations.  I have half a dozen different doctors managing my care, which means a lot of time in medical offices, at the pharmacy, experimenting with trial treatments, and in general a lot of time spent on my illness instead of my life.  Last, but not least, my life will never, ever be what I wanted it to be as a little girl. My life will likely not be as long as it would be if I did not have EDS. I will always be in pain. I will always have limited mobility. I will always be unable to do the things I wanted to as a young woman: hiking, traveling abroad, painting, calligraphy, yoga, cooking, etc.

I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome in 2005, a year after I became symptomatic. It is common for EDS-sufferers to become symptomatic in their late 20s, as I did, and to have a hard time getting a diagnosis due to a general lack of knowledge about EDS in the medical community. Before being diagnosed, most of us are told that instead we have Fibromyalgia or that the pain is simply in our heads--never an inspirational thing to hear.

My first sign of EDS symptoms was (brace yourself) dislocating every single rib on my right side, in my sleep. After an unproductive ER visit, I saw a dozen different doctors and received several different diagnoses before finally being diagnosed with EDS by a geneticist. It fit…all of it. Every symptom, every physical characteristic, my family history, all of it fit.

As you might imagine, in the following week I researched the heck out of the disorder like any good librarian. I checked everywhere. The most useful resource I found was the Ehlers Danlos National Foundation (EDNF). EDNF provides a vast amount of information as well as support groups, research resources, and contacts for advocacy. If you want more information, I would recommend their site as a place to get caught up. You can also review the Ehlers-Danlos Support Group.

After my diagnosis and research, I followed up by trying every kind of doctor or health care practitioner who might be able to help me: acupuncture, chiropractic care, rheumatologists, massage, spine specialists, neuromuscular therapy, cranial-sacral therapy, sleep specialists, chronic pain specialists, support groups, biofeedback, nutritionists, homeopaths, naturopathic doctors. You name it, I did it (and had to pay for it out of pocket, too). I kept busy for a couple of years with doctors, paths of treatment, and hope for a magical cure.

But I never took a leave of absence. I went to work with dislocated joints. I continued to blog. I continued to travel and present. I continued to write. I did not take it easy. I even walked the 7 ½ mile Bay to Breakers Race a few months after my diagnosis to prove to myself that I was OK. But I wasn’t. And a magical treatment wasn’t to be.

In the last few years my health has continued to deteriorate. The last year has been particularly bad. There has been grief; I no longer have that possible magical treatment to look forward to. This is it. I will not get better, barring some spectacular advances in stem cell therapy, which is the only way to heal faulty DNA that produces messed-up collagen.

Living with EDS means that the moment I get home from work I get horizontal to take pressure off of my spine and I don't get vertical again until the next morning. The same is true at conferences or other events (where you won’t see me at late night drinking fests or early morning breakfasts).

Living with EDS means that I rely heavily on my loved ones (especially my caring husband) to take care of me because I'm frequently incapacitated and unable to take care of myself, whether it will be for a couple of hours, a couple of days, or a couple of weeks.

Living with EDS means that I still am thankful for every day that I do not have to use a wheelchair, days when I can still move and walk around.  I appreciate what abilities I do still have even more because I don't know how much longer I'll have them. Pain-free days don’t happen, but low-pain days usually result in a flurry of activity while high-pain days mean lots of resting, pain medication, and trying not to cry.

So, to conclude…please do not be sad. Be educated. That is what this post was all about, after all. So, what can you do to make my confession worth it?

• Remember what EDS is and what its symptoms are (hypermobile joints, fragile or stretchy skin, chronic pain).  Maybe someday you can help someone else who doesn't know what's wrong with them get an early diagnosis and treatment.
• Be patient with me as I have my bad days, weeks, or months.  I am not ignoring you, I just can't muster the energy or get through the pain to do what I have to do sometimes.
• Donate to the Ehlers-Danlos National Foundation.
• Buy flowers through EDNF’s FlowerPetal.com site and a portion of the sale will go directly to EDNF.
• And finally, if you want to learn more, watch this longer video about a woman with EDS, the effect on her life, and her process to diagnosis.

Thank you all for your support, especially those who have known of my disorder and support me through patience, kindness, and making sure I get enough rest at conferences (thanks Aaron!).  And as always a huge thanks to my husband for his daily support.  It means the world to me.

Watch Ehlers-Danlos Mystery in Educational  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Update: Rick Roche, librarian supreme, created a list of consumer health resources on Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Thank you Rick for adding to the information out there for those of us with this disorder. You've earned some serious appreciation and a hug.

"Creating Future Libraries" notebooks for libraries

If you want to inspire some creative thinking in your library staff, especially in these tough times of layoffs and a need for inspired solutions to difficult problems, take a look at these lovely "Creating Future Libraries" notebooks created by Aaron Schmidt.  You can get the standard notebooks (both sides pictured below) or you can order custom notebooks. 

I'd like to pass them out at a staff training day, ask people to record thoughts for the next month, and then come together again with all of our ideas.  What would you do?

See Aaron's site for more information on his inspiration and ordering information.  At only $3 each with discounts on orders over 20, can you afford not to buy them?

Emerging Library Technologies Study in an Academic Library

The always brilliant Char Booth has just published "Informing Innovation: Tracking Student Interest in Emerging Library Technologies at Ohio University" through ACRL's Digital Publications wing.  It's an interesting study in practical technology applications with a user focus.  And guess what?  It's based on hard data!  Can you believe it?  Librarians using hard data? :)  You can download the PDF of the study results, the study instrument itself, as well as a webcast by Char.

From the abstract of this 130+ page book:

This book by Char Booth examines one institution’s efforts to move away from technolust and towards a “culture of assessment." It presents findings from an environmental scan conducted at Ohio University, which investigated the convergence of students, libraries, and emerging information, communication, and academic tools. Survey data is used to test generational and demographic assumptions that often guide technology development in academic libraries. The identification of student behaviors related to emerging and social technologies and the implications indicated by those behaviors are central to this study. The need for local user assessment is a fundamental message in this volume, which shares practical research strategies and methods with the reader. University and college libraries can use this case study and its appended survey instrument template to conduct similar investigations on their campuses.

Two OHIONET presentations: Sutainable Tech & Info Overload

Below are links to two presentations (on Slideshare) from my sessions at the OHIONET Annual Meeting last week.  I had a lovely time there and met many friendly library people.  We are a friendly bunch, aren't we? :)  Please feel free to peruse and enjoy!

Sustainable Technology in a 2.0 World

Handling Information Overload

Sarah at OHIONET this week

I will be giving the keynote on Wednesday at the OHIONET Annual Meeting (in Columbus).  The talk starts at 10:30am and will cover managing sustainable technologies in the library.  I will also be giving a talk in the afternoon about dealing with information overload.  If you're able to attend either session, please stop by and say hello!

playlist.io

If you haven't seen playlist.io, check it out.  It's a place to drop music files and playlists and then access them from anywhere, using the website itself or a number of its applications.  They even have a premium account you can upgrade to in order to get more space to drop your audio.  This could be useful as a hosting platform for audio conferences, podcasts, anything you can think of.