LibrarianInBlack

Evaluating VR Transcripts

Speaking of virtual reference, check out the PowerPoint slides for "Seeking Synchronicity: Evaluating Virtual Reference Transcripts", a presentation given by Marie L. Radford and Lynn Silipigni Connaway at the 2006 ALISE Annual Conference.  The presentation discovers what behaviors on the part of the librarian tend to result in a better virtual reference experience.  I think the findings apply to all types of live online reference: web-based chat, IM, Jybe...you name it.  What works and what doesn't work is different from phone or in-person reference, and it's good to be reminded of those differences.

found on ResourceShelf

New QuestionPoint Flash interface: countdown to deadline begins

Stephen Francoeur and I share some concerns about the new QuestionPoint Flash chat interface that is replacing the current QuestionPoint and 24/7 interfaces.  It's due to be done in a couple of weeks and there still seem to be many bugs that need ironing out.

I'm still having massive problems with the Flash chat client (especially with co-browsing, which has yet to work for me).  The patron still can't use the Enter key to send a message--the patron has to click on the "Send" button each time.  There is still a 5-10 second delay between the time a message is sent and when it shows up in either the patron's or the librarian's window.

In looking at the new interface as a current 24/7 interface user, I'm finding that we're losing a lot of functionality in the migration and wondering why.   

• We used to be able to conference at the end of a call (you + new librarian + patron) instead of simply transfering them over.  That has been lost. 
• We used to be able to see a list of scripts by category, and preview the entire script easily.  Now the scripts are simply listed one by one in no order and you can only see the first dozen or so characters of the script message.  I think that will result in people simply not using the scripts. 
• We're losing the ability to forward the message for followup to subject specialists (or so it seems in its current iteration).

I also find it most distasteful that the first time a person uses the service, if (s)he enters an e-mail address, an account is automatically created for him or her and an e-mail is generated saying "thanks for creating a QuestionPoint account."  First, the patron isn't going to recognize the name QuestionPoint.  Second, it's universally recognized as bad service to create an account for someone without asking them if they want to do that first. There is nothing on the entry page that indicates this will happen, or how to avoid it (e.g. don't enter an e-mail address).

Nevertheless, I too hope that everything will be done in time. 

For training staff, I'm asking them to use the tutorials that QuestionPoint made available, and then if they want, to schedule a follow-up training with me where we walk through the interface together.  So far, that seems to be working well.  Staff have had a lot of questions and a good number of complaints too, which I've passed on to the QP team.  Hopefully this kind of feedback will help make the product better.

Sideways Books

Has anyone seen these sideways books?  To me they look like a frustrating neck cramp waiting to happen.  Bed Books is selling books that are printed sideways so you can lay on your side in bed and read the book without folding the book in half or craning your neck.  My thought is that staying on one's side for very long isn't comfortable either...we need books that can change orientation at a moment's notice (eBooks potential here).

The 25 or so books they're selling right now are all in the public domain, or as they call them, "literary classics."

found on the J-Walk Blog

Grokker in the news

Stephen Francoeur has pulled together some recent Grokker stories on his Digital Reference blog.  Grokker's engine can be used as a metasearch tool; Stanford is trying this out for themselves; EBSCO is using Grokker for their upcoming visual search.  Keep an eye out folks--Grokker is making a footprint in the Library world, a swift and deep one at that.  And as footprints go, there are usualy more than one so watch for future Grokker-Library projects.

Amazon to offer downloadable video?

Amazon is apparently dipping its little footies in the downloadable video market, and are due to launch their product in late April.  They're reportedly working on a couple of different models to make it work well for consumers.  Again, libraries are left several steps (and about 5 years) behind.  When will we get quality content downloadable video content for our users?  Do I hear a bid on 2010?

Tagged by the 4 Thing Meme

I got tagged twice (by Dave and by Robin), so now I really have to do this.  Isnt' the blog equivalent of a chain letter?  Aren't I supposed to be annoyed?  Ah well.

4 Jobs I’ve had in my life:

• Secretary at a Jeep dealership
• Calligrapher
• Hostess at a pizza joint
• e-Services Librarian

4 Movies I can watch over and over:

• The Piano
• Star Trek: First Contact
• Beautiful Boxer
• Zatoichi (any of the movies, but the new one rocks)

4 TV Shows I love to watch:

• Deadwood
• The Daily Show
• Rome
• I really don't watch that much TV...no time.

4 Places I have lived:

• Hoffman Estates, IL
• Pullman, WA
• Urbana, IL
• San Rafael, CA

4 Places I have been on holiday:

• Maui (sweet, sweet sunshine)
• Portland
• San Diego
• Orlando (worst trip of my life--17, unhappy, and in theme parks)

4 of my favorite dishes:

• Brown sauce with fake chicken and bok choy over rice
• Soba noodles with peanut sauce
• Lou Malnati's deep dish buttercrust pizza with fresh tomato slices (huzzah!)  Anyone ever wants to kiss up to me big time, send me some of this via airmail.  The pizza in Cali sucks.
• Sliced heirloom tomatoes from the farmer's market with a touch of sea salt and quality balsamic vinegar

4 Websites I visit daily:

• The Animal Rescue Site (click to donate food to sheltered animals)
• Hotmail (I know, I know)
• Bloglines
• Library's website

4 Places I would rather be right now:

• Maui
• Sleeping
• Sleeping
• Does sleeping count?

4 Bloggers I am tagging (cuz it's fun to make them mad):

• Aaron Schmidt (Walking Paper)
• Karen Schneider (Free Range Librarian)
• Jenny Levine (Shifted Librarian)
• Rochelle Hartman (Tinfoil + Raccoon)

Home Delivery of Items

"My dream," said the LiB, "is to see a day where someone can do from home anything he or she could do in a physical library. That is my dream," she said as she lowered her eyes in reverance of serving the remote user as considerately as the in-person user.

So, have you all heard about the libraries in Illinois (quite close to where I grew up) that are offering home delivery of items to users?  I think it's a fabulous idea, and one for which I'm anxious to see the results. 

Here's my first problem with it.  It costs $4 per item.  That's really quite high, in my humble opinion.  One of the Library Directors notes that they're trying to compete with Amazon and NetFlix.  Well, at $4 per item you're not competing--you're going to lose. 

Here's my second problem: they're discouraging people to return the items via mail, but instead to use the library's 24 hour drop-boxes.  The reason people would use home delivery would be that they either have to or prefer to stay at home.  To say, oh yes, we'll send it to you, but you have to bring it back to us, defeats the purpose of the program.  If this was my project, I'd recommend an immediate pre-paid envelope or box model like NetFlix so people could simply drop the item in the mail when they're done with it.

There is a lot of potential with a service like this, but I think that some real improvements can be made before something like this can go mainstream and be as successful as we would like it to be.

New Search for FirstGov

I've been teaching an online reference sources course for a year, and every time I'm showing a government site I say "oh yes, and the site's search engine stinks, so you might want to rely on browsing or use Google's "site:" search to get what you want."  Now I can't do that anymore--at least not with FirstGov.

As the official gateway to all government information, FirstGov is necessarily huge.  That makes organizing its vast array of information and resources really tough.  Enter Clusty, the clustering search engine.  Gary Price has an extensive review over on the Search Engine Watch Blog, so I won't duplicate his content here.  But the new search engine (which has its own spiffy Google-like homepage) has impressed the LiB with every search she's run so far.  Gary seems impressed too.   Check out this huge improvement to finding online government information.
 

Ask.com's image search

AskJeeves (www.ask.com) launched pictures.ask.com.  AskJeeves used to rely on Picsearch's index and engine, but the new engine is built totally in-house. 

Ask Jeeves has fine-tuned its image-search algorithms. To rank image search results, Ask Jeeves measures their "authoritativeness" within their "topic community," and it employs image-recognition technologies to sharpen the relevance, according to the company. In addition, search suggestions specifically developed for image search offer users alternative terms related to their query, the company says.

It's being suggested that we might have a rival to Google Image Search here--a next generation HotBot (remember when they were the hottest image search engine?).  The next time you have an image search to run, try both--see which one you like better.  After some preliminary testing myself, I'll say that I find the new AskJeeves engine to be at least as good as Google, and probably better...more of the higher ranked results seem relevant to my search terms.  What does everyone else think?

Neil Gaiman podcast

If, like the sad LiB, you missed Neil Gaiman on tour with Anansi Boys (traveling consulting job + Neil Gaiman reading in hometown same night = GRR!), you might be happy to see that there is a podcast of Neil doing a reading from the book.  Neil Gaiman linked to the podcast form his blog, which is riveting.  This is just the kind of thing podcasts were invented for.

Being Able to Write

Any writers out there?  If so, check out Karen Schneider's Free Range Librarian Post: "Being Able to Write."  She gives some very hard-earned advice about writing, learning from other writers, and actually being a writer.  The comments on the post from others are equally useful.  Thank you Karen !

Generations Online

Okay, mandatory reading for library managers--Pew has released a new study: "Generations Online."  While nothing in the study is overly surprising, I was a bit surprised to see that  26% of Americans 70-75 and 17% of Americans 76+ go online.  Pew prefaced this with an "only," but to me these numbers are high.  E-Services are often dismissed as being only for the young, but if in the age group with the lowest percentage you're still hitting 17%, that ain't bad.  One of the findings that is called out seems rather self-evident: those 29-69 are the ones using the internet for e-commerce (well yes, they're the ones with disposable income).  The study does confirm that younger users see the web as a dynamic place--a place to create, to interact.

Create PDFs, DOCs free online

Zoho Writer (found in Darlene Fichter's furl file) takes your text (all formatted and fancied up) and exports it as a .doc or .pdf.  It also claims that you can save/export the documetnt as an HTML file, but I can't seem to figure out how to do that.  I was pleasantly surprised though about their PDF-exporting--it went faster than Adobe's ;)  I'd recommend checking it out especially if you don't have the full version of Adobe and would like to create PDFs.

Safari Tech Books offers "Rough Cuts"

Safari Tech Books Online, a substantial eBooks collection with techie books galore, Safari, launched a "Rough Cuts" service a few days ago (in beta, but of course).  Rough Cuts feature lets readers get a preview of not-yet-published manuscripts.  From their news release:

The initial version of a Rough Cuts book will not be fully edited, subjected to final technical review, or completely formatted. Similar to the nightly build in a software project, the Rough Cuts PDF is updated every time the author and editor make changes as they progress toward the finished book. Using the Rough Cuts service's built-in Notes feature, readers can send feedback, suggestions, bug fixes, and comments directly to the author and editor."

Funny that my library subscribes to Safari, but instead of getting a press release from the company, the first I heard of this new resource was on ResourceShelf. 

Library podcast offerings

Is your library podcasting any audio content yet?  If not, that's okay...we're not yet either (though it is on my hit list for this year).  If you are, make sure your library is listed in the iTunes podcast search for "library."  Click here for a nice screenshot from Michael Stephens showing some of the variable content available from libraries as podcasts.

Chilean Library and Museum Websites

There are 5,000 brand-spanking-new library, museum, and history websites in Chile, thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Their $10 million gift helped fund Abre tu Mundo in partnership with the Chilean Directorate of Libraries, Archives, and Museums.  Some of the sites are quite informative and actually user-friendly (yay)!  If you speak a little Spanish, check them out--you'll be impressed.

found on Poynter Online

Opera Mini: cellphone browsing

Opera has launched Opera Mini, a free version of their browser for cellphones.  I've read nothing but good things about it--readable, fast, usable.  Good work Opera, as usual!  Me?  I don't actually have a phone with web-browsing, believe it or not.  I'm still in the dark ages of a phone that is just a phone--no camera, no web browsing, e-mail, or text messaging.  But hey--if I do get one, this is going to be my browser for sure.

Free SMS in the US

I read on Lockergnome about Teleflip, a totally free service that lets you use Outlook (or whetever other e-mail client you prefer) to send text messages to anyone in the USA.  It doesn't receive messages, but it lets you send messages...  How can we leverage this technology to help libraries provide SMS reference services easier and more cheaply?  Does anyone know of a comparable product that will, for free, convert SMS messages sent to you into an e-mail?  Sounds too good to be true, but perhaps in this case 1+1 really will equal free.

User Centered Checklist

Michael Stephens presents us with a very useful list of five things to think about when planning a new technology service or resource.  My favorite is:

Is it librarian-centered or user-centered in conception, i.e. is it born from complaints from librarians about users?

More often than I can count in my travels or my own work, I have come across libraries doing something new that seems really quite cool (I'm not naming names, so don't ask), but when I stop and think about it, the new tool or the new "thing" is more for the librarian than anyone else.  It's true that when we have the tools we need, we can serve our users better.  But there are also tools that simply are ways to make us have to deal with our patrons less. 

One example would be to stop the practice of requiring library users to have not only their library card numbers but also PINs to log in to view their accounts, place holds, use computers, etc.  That dropping of a restriction is to lessen the amount of time staff spend with patrons helping them get PINs, deleting forgotten PINs, etc.  What it does in the long run, however, is reduce patron information security--always a bad thing.

So, print these out, and the next time you or someone else suggests a new project, just spend a few minutes running through the checklist--it might make you think of things you hadn't realized before.

Stewart too old for Trek?

For the Star Trek Next Gen fans out there (or simply Patrick Stewart fans), Stewart has said that he fears he may be too old by the time the next Next Gen movie rolls around.  A Next Gen movie without Picard?  Say it isn't so!

Google Newsletter #2

The second issue of Google's newsletter for librarians is out.  It includes a wonderful article by Librarians' Internet Index's own Karen Schneider, "Beyond Algorithms: A Librarian's Guide to Finding Web Sites You Can Trust," and a second article by engineer Matt Cutts: "How Does Google Determine Which Web Sites Are the Most "Trusted"?."  I'll admit that I was a bit dubious about the value of this newsletter at the outset, but I like what I see--articles that not only explain how Google actually work, but articles with practical tips for librarians on the front lines.  Keep 'em coming! 

Stephen Abram on Library 2.0

Keeping up with Library 2.0 discussions is dizzying.  I recommend touching base with Stephen Abram's two posts:

• Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and Librarian 2.0: Preparing for the 2.0 World

• Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Librarian 2.0 Part Two

My favorite part is from the second post.  Stephen writes:

[S]ome people have dismissed some of the ideas discussed under this rubric by pointing out that "libraries have always done this stuff". Really? In my travels I see a lot of innovation in libraries and many libraries are evolving to address the changes in our environment. However, too many haven't moved into the next generation strategies. Many fail to recognize that the majority of their use is often coming in virtually and they haven't rebalanced their strategic efforts. Too many haven't put the librarian and personal services into their virtual environments. Too many haven't integrated the new tools that make the users tasks easier.

If you've never had occasion to hear Stephen speak, make occasion.  Not only is he insightful beyond measure, but he might just make you remember why you became a librraian in the first place.

Library webmasters Google Group

If you're the webmistress or webmaster or web guru (whatever you wanna call yourself) for your library, you might want to check out the new LISWeb Google Group.  The About page says that the group is geared toward librarians who are webbies "in a non-official capacity,"  but a good portion of the messages are quite technical in nature, so I think it's probably useful for both official and unofficial webbies.  There are 140 members currently.  As with all Google Groups, you can get notification via e-mail of new messages (if you are so inclined).

100 year anniversary of SF earthquake

In 1906 a massive earthquake and subsequent fire rocked San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area.  The Bancroft Library's fabulous site, The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, is well worth a look-see.  There is a huge online exhibit area full of essays and images, an interactive map, and a stunning 360 degree tour of the devastated city.  My very own Marin County was hit pretty hard by the earthquake too, particularly on the west side at the coast.  I'm working with our local history room librarians to put up our own exhibit soon in our California Room Digital Archive, which will include not only images and essays, but also audio files of first hand accounts of the earthquake.  I'll post about that here when it's up.

Blogs for Children's Librarians

Roger Sutton, editor of Horn Book, has a blog.  And the Your Fairy Bookmother blog is a great place to stay updated on children's literature.  I'd like to see more blogs by and for children's librarians...I think the YA, adult, and tech perspectives are pretty well covered...but there's a wide open space for some good J service blogs.

found on lis.dom

Libraries as Digital Community Spaces

Rochelle Hartman has a great piece over at TInfoil + Raccoon (one of my favorite blogs to actually read, not just scan) about the article "Libraries as Places to Linger and Mingle" from the Christian Science Monitor (written by Alex Wright, a blogging librarian).  While she agrees with the author about the necessity of libraries as community spaces, she notes an important point that he missed: digital libraries as digital community spaces.  All over the place, we're seeing digital community building opportunities for libraries--blogs, wikis, podcasting, annotations to catalog entries...and it's only going to get bigger and better, which is certainly a good thing.  The website of any library truly is a branch: its e-branch.  The sooner we all realize that and start devoting the same kind of staffing and money we would to a physical branch, the better.

Top Tech Trends from LITA

LITA's annual Top Technology Trends panel happened at Midwinter as planned.  You can read a brief summary of the trends on the LITA Blog, which also has posts from Thomas Dowling and me (two tech trends folks who put in our expert panelist two cents about trends in that format.  If only 10% of these things happen in the next year, I'll be happy.

Revive your intranet

I am not happy with our library's intranet, and I'm the one who designed it for goodness sake.  I'm planning on giving it a major overhaul the next time I have some time, and the most recent Alertbox from Jakob Nielsen will help me on my way.  Nielsen names the top ten intranets for 2006, and lists in some detail, the reasons they're so good--including usability testing (who woulda thought to test the intranet on your staff first?). :)  The article includes some very good practical advice for those of us designing, launching, and maintaining intranets--check it out.

MySpace and Facebook abound

So, Bill Drew is putting his library out there in MySpace and Facebook.  I'm seeing more and more libraries doing this (slowly but surely).  I'm still in the formative stages of doing something for our library.  Aaron Schmidt shares some thoughts about what his library is doing.  Any other sage advice from libraries who have already created profiles on these sites?

Talking about Web 2.0 to non-techies

Thanks to Michael Stephens at Tame the Web for the pointer to this useful article: How to present Web 2.0 ideas that resonate with non-technical people.  Are you the one who has to sell these new techie ideas to your library's management and staff?  This article just might help.

One great tip (one I remember from Speech 101) is to proactively counter any arguments against your position, bringing up the doubts and the worries from the outset--only to drive them back into the darkness with your hoary wit and guile!  Muah ha ha ha! Okay, it's really not all as sinister as that.  But if you help people understand why their worst nightmares actually aren't going to come true, they're more apt to approve a project.

Google, COPA, and LiB's $0.02

I've been asked by a few of you to comment on Google's opposition to the federal request for its records (under the guise of COPA-esque law enforcement).  If you're unfamiliar with the issue, I suggest you read the most excellent summary and commentary over on Confessions of a Mad Librarian.  So...what do I think? 

• I think it's encouraging that Google is not willing to hand over its records to protect user privacy (though I think it's more a case of not wanting to hand over trade secrets as they've admitted is their secondary reason).
• I think it's scary, though not surprising, that MSN, AOL, and Yahoo! did so without blinking.
• I think that Google shouldn't have been keeping records of which IPs searched for what terms in the damn first place.

NextGen Librarians book

If you're a NextGen Librarian (I am) you may want to read Rachel Singer Gordon's new book: The NextGen Librarian's Survival Guide.  It's being released in March (still time to pre-order it for your professional collections).  More info can be found on the InfoToday site.  The book is suggested not just for we NextGen-ers, but for those in management who supervise us (and pretty much any supervisor out there is going to have at least one NextGen-er working for him/her). 

Blog for library grants

Check out the Library Grants blog for news about grants of all types for our libraries.  They also list a coupon code for $10 off their book (at the top of the blog).

Librarianship a good career to pursue...

A U.S. News & World Report article says that our very own career of librarianship has a good outlook for 2006.

Librarian. This is an underrated career. Most librarians enjoy helping patrons dig up information. They learn in the process and keep up to date on the latest books and online resources. The need for librarians, unfortunately, may decline because search engines make it easy for patrons to find information without a librarian's help. The job growth for librarians will be in nontraditional settings: corporations, nonprofit organizations, and consulting firms.

Search engines make it easy for patrons to find information without a librarian's help. That's true.  What they're missing though is the thousands of thousands of patrons who want help learning how to use a search engine, use it well, and find reliable resources in their interest areas (many of which are part of the invisible web and not findable with search engines).  Oh well.  We just have to wait I suppose for the rest of the world to realize what it is we actually do for a living.

AL Direct

So, I've been getting these really irritating, poorly-formatted, super-big-font e-mails entitled "AL Direct."  I thought I was the only one who was annoyed by them, but apparently they've gotten under Jessamyn West's skin too.  Like Jessamyn, I immediately looked up the FAQ on AL Direct to try to figure out what the heck this is.  The first sentence of the FAQ states:

AL Direct (American Libraries Direct) is an electronic newsletter sent to ALA personal members by e-mail as a perquisite of membership.

Okay, so after I looked up "perquisite" (I thought they'd misspelled prerequisite, but it turns out it means "freebie" or "bonus"), I thought--gee, who uses the word "perquisite"?  Did a Civil War veteran write this? 

Also, is this really a perk?  The newsletter doesn't include any actual content, it just includes links to content that's already online in one form or another (sometimes some irritatingly huge PDFs).  Jessamyn also noticed that the newsletter includes web bugs (nasty little identity trackers).

ALA gets a big fat F from the LiB on ALA Direct.

Interested in Library Education?

The New York City Radical Reference folks are helping organize a forum to address the current state of library education.  More information is available in their press release.  I'd actually like to see a similar forum being held virtually--a webcast with participant chat.  This is a crucial subject, and one that shouldn't be limited in scope or input by geographical availability.  Any volunteers?

Libraries 411

Libraries 411 is a useful interactive mapping tool to find libraries near you.  The interface is a little glitchy (I tried it in both IE & Firefox), and for our system which has no "central branch" it showed all 11 of our libraries as "branches" (and thereby with smaller less noticeable icons), which was pretty stinky.  Still, it's a good tool. I think this could prove most useful to travelers trying to find libraries close to where they're staying (free internet access, y'all).

Found on ResourceShelf

Library holdings showing on Amazon pages

Just in case LiB is the only library blog you read (because otherwise you will have heard about this already), Edward Vilmetti (AKA Superpatron) has re-tooled a Greasemonkey user that makes links to his library's catalog's book titles appear on Amazon.com pages.  Here's his script: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/2592.  Maire re-worked the script for her own library: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/2601

By the by, Superpatron is a pretty nifty blog devoted to patrons who love libraries--you might want to plug it to your own patrons in your libray's blog or e-newsletter.

Emily the Strange joins the ALA

ALA Graphics just released a new READ poster and bookmark featuring Emily Strange (a character near and dear to LiB's heart). 

If you've ever seen LiB, you know she wears quite a bit of Emily clothing and accessories.  The Emily character is a perfect extension for a little goth girl librarian who loves cats. 

If you haven't heard of Emily, check out her website.  She's very popular with teens and twenty-somethings.  She has a couple of books and a comic book too--you should consider them for your library's collection.   Our copies circulate pretty darn well.

Intro to digital rights management for librarians

Mike Godwin from the Office of Information and Technology Privacy has written a 44-page primer to Digital Rights Management for librarians. As we know from recent Sony incidents, DRM affects the items we lend out, our ability to archive items, and our patron's abiilty to use the darn things on their devices.  If you're the person at your library responsible for digital copyright or technical services, this is mandatory reading.  But...this is not just for techies--it's for any librarian who orders (or helps patrons with) DVDs, CDs, databases, eBooks, or any other item that may have DRM embedded in it.

Awesome library catalog

North Carolina State University is using Endeca to improve their library catalog in terms of features, functionality, and usability.  There has been a lot of buzz about this in the last week (while I was sunning my pasty self on Maui) on listservs and blogs.  If you want to drool and get very dissatisfied within the space of ten seconds with your own library catalog, check it out.  Congratulations NCSU--good work!

Mozart's musical diary online

The British Library has posted a digitized version of Mozart's musical diary in honor of the composer's 250th birthday, err, is it still a birthday if you're deceased?  At any rate, you can click on the music and get audio clips for many of the works...which is very cool.  Fun, fun, fun from a library!  It's all part of the British Library's Turning the Pages online collection of original manuscripts and other materials.  It's the best example of interactive digitized works that I've ever seen.  I'm so jealous and would love to work on a project like that.

Librarians have more job stress than ER workers

Librarians are stressed out--more than emergency room workers, more than firefighters.  No, really.  And why?  Lack of variety in our work (I don't know if I agree with that one), no upward mobility in our careers, and not being able to utilize our skills.  The researcher suggests that library managers consider workshops and training for their staff on how to deal with stress--something that other high-stress professions already get de facto. 

Granted--this was a small sample.  I do think there is something to be learned here.  Dealing with crazy patrons isn't the only source of stress in our jobs.  Feeling unappreciated, underutilized, and overworked also contribute to job stress.  I think a lot of people can identify with that--not just librarians.  I like the idea of job stress training for library staff.  Recently I've seen a wave of "dealing with the mentally unstable" classes for librarians.  Let's make the next wave some "dealing with job stress" classes.

Virtual Reference Desk Conference proceedings

The proceedings from the 2005 Virtual Reference Desk Conference are available online.  If you were there and missed some of the sessions or weren't there at all, these presentations can really help those of us engaged in virtual reference of all sorts--web-based chat, IM, SMS, even e-mail.  There are a number of great presentations here--go have a look!

Fingerprints required for state aid

Found on LII's New This Week, California's Statewide Fingerprint                Imaging System is expected to reduce fraud in the state's public aid programs.  Somehow, I see ACLU and lawsuit written all over this.

Libraries and MySpace

Aaron Schmidt has a thoughtful post about libraries getting ourselves out into areas like MySpace to connect with our local users.  He's created a MySpace page for his Library (very swell)--an inspiration to me to do something similar for my Library.  Getting ourselves out there, where our patrons are, instead of asking them to not only find us, but come to us repeatedly just to see if we have anything new or useful for them.  Being where our patrons are, in the community and in virtual space, is definitely a feature of Library 2.0.

Free tool for finding medical and science articles

Infotrieve has announced that their ArticleFinder database is now available free online.  ArticleFinder is a bibliographic database with abstracts for science, medical, and technology journals.  They allow you to purchase individual articles as needed.  This may be a good resource for helping library users (especially in public libraries with small collections in these areas) find the resources they need.

found on the Search Engine Watch blog

Google Librarian in Chinese

The Google Librarian Blog announces that Google Librarian is coming soon in Chinese.  Nice!  How about a Spanish version?

Library 2.0 Discussion Continues

The Library 2.0 discussion continues.  Walt Crawford has a wonderful lengthy special issue of Cites & Insights completely devoted to exploring and explaining Library 2.0.  Many bloggers are responding to Walt's discussion and adding their own perspectives.  Even though my brief definition of Libray 2.0 has been bandied about quite a bit, I think it is lacking.  I don't think that Library 2.0 can be described in one paragraph or by one person.  The best thing I can offer is a recommendation to read some other people's perspectives: Jenny Levine's What is New about Library 2.0; John Blyberg's 11 Reasons Why Library 2.0 Exists and Matters; Michael Stephens's summary of Stephen Abram's Web 2.0 - Huh?! Library 2.0, Librarian 2.0; and Meredith Farkas's Let's make libraries better, ok? 

I agree with a lot of what has been written, and I disagree with a lot of it too.  I'm not going to get into particulars; I don't see the point.  What I will do is throw my hat in the ring with Meredith, who says: "I really hope that Library 2.0 isn’t a polarizing force in the blogosphere because we all need to continue sharing our good ideas and success stories." 

I think that there are a lot of good ideas coming out of the Library 2.0 proponents' discussions.  In fact, I have goals for the next year or two that have largely come out of Library 2.0 discussions.  I also think there is some negativity coming out of these discussions (unintentionally): promoting services to youth while ignoring other service areas; making libraries who can't do these wonderful things right this second feel irrelevant; promoting technology over all else. 

I think there are happy mediums to be found here--things to take away from the Library 2.0 discussions to improve existing services and create new ones.  I do sincerely hope that everyone can agree (and I think that most of us can) that there are things to take away from Library 2.0 as well as some things to leave.  As Meredith points out, it's all about improving services for our users--that's it.  That's our goal.  Let's all work together to achieve that.

LiB unwired for a week

The LiB is taking a much needed vacation from 01/11-01/17.  I was forced decided on my own not to bring my laptop with me, so I will be completely unwired for a full week.  Life without e-mail, IM, Bloglines, and Firefox is going to be hard, but I'll manage.  When I get back, I'll try to catch up and post on the most crucial issues that came up during my absence, but you will be LiB-less for a while.

USB bracelet

Those little rubber wristbands are all the rage.  I only have two--one for my library and one for a health support group, and never wear either. If I was going to wear them, I think I'd pick these Nihilist wristbands from Archie McPhee (they also have the seven deadly sins wristbands).  But, what a cool teen summer reading prize would this be!  A fully functional 256 MB USB drive wristband for $34.99!  I think I'd wear that too :)

Library Video Content

Also in news from David King (who is fun to eat dinner with at conferences, by the way), is video library content.  They created an "Emotional Health" article about staying organized and such, including a link to David vidcasting about his messy desk.  In his post he discusses other possible uses for library video content.  I especially like the idea of capturing oral histories not just as audio, but video, and sharing that online.  YES!  That is a wonderful idea!  In fact, I'm going to suggest it to our history room librarian right now.  Thanks David!

Library subject guide used as newspaper article reference

David King posts about the local paper using the library's subject guides for research for an article.  Very cool! 

And he's absolutely right when he says: "[T]his is one example of what happens when you put original content out on the web. Your content might just get used."  Our most popular content (by oh so far) is the original stuff--local history materials, booklists, recommended movies, etc).  That's where I try to focus my web-time--getting that stuff up there and out there not only for our public, but for the public at large.

Caution Sign for the Cat Owner

A gift for every cat owner.  No, seriously.  If you have a cat you know that this would be useful (if only for your significant other who stumbles out of bed after you have at 6am who hasn't seen the pile yet in the dark on the hallway floor and unwittingly steps on it, screaming "gaaaaaaaah!" while you're busy in the utility room grabbing paper towels, spray, and a sponge).

found on the J-Walk blog

Creative Commons meets goal

The Creative Commons met its fundraising goal and also received a gift of $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor.  The CC can retain its U.S. tax-exempt status for another year...hurrah!

Library Thing adds RSS feeds

Library Thing (online cataloging for your private book collection) is a thing to love...now even more.  Library Thing has added RSS feeds for book reviews, additions, or tags.

New Morrissey Album

Morrissey has a new album coming out on April 4th.  With track titles like "The Father Who Must Be Killed" and "Life is a Pigsty" it sounds like a true blue Moz album to me.  The album will be followed by a UK tour (lucky UKers).  Get one for your library.  Book people seem to like Morrissey.

LiB Comments Feed

You know, I'd been putting this off because I figured it would take a while to get working, but Matthew Oliphant's code worked perfectly as it's written--no tweaks needed!  A BIG thank you to Matthew and others who pointed me to ways to create a comments feed for a Typepad blog (following my self-pitying post on said topic).  So here it is, the LiB comments feed: http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/comments.xml

You can see the button for it over in my sidebar (underneath Bjork's album cover).  I stole the button from Matthew too ;)

Fair warning--there are a few to several com