The BeerBrarian's Guide to... ALA Annual in DC!

Since I live in DC, I thought an insider's perspective might be useful for the upcoming American Library Association Annual Conference, which meets at the Walter Washington Convention Center from Thursday, June 20th to Tuesday, June 25th.

A brief word about the guide:

With a few exceptions these are places I frequent, or at least have been in.

7th and 9th are the main commercial streets near the Convention Center, 5th and 6th are more residential (8th Street gets cut off by the Convention Center).

Blagden Alley, off of 9th, is pretty cool, and there will be a pop up market on Saturday the 23rd.

Coffee is important. I'd go with La Colombe and Buttercream, both on 9th Street. There's a Compass Coffee inside the Convention Center. That convenience wins out.
So is beer. I vote for Lost and Found, also on 9th.

If you don't mind walking, the Shaw and Penn Quarter neighborhoods, along with what's left of Chinatown, offer a bit more. The same is true of private developments like City Center DC and City Vista.




Go forth, enjoy, and say hi.

Computers in Libraries 2016: The BeerBrarian Map

Since I live in DC, I thought an insider's perspective might be useful for the upcoming Computers in Libraries 2016 conference, which meets at the Hilton just north of Dupont Circle from Tuesday, March 8th, to Thursday, March 10th.

I'm attending on Tuesday, focusing on sessions about recent developments in discovery platforms and integrated library systems (ILS). Come say hi.

A brief word about the guide:
With a few exceptions, anything posted below have been vetted by me. These are places I frequent, or at least have been in. Not mentioned is that west of the conference there are many embassies, which would be a nice walk during breaks, or after the sessions have ended for the day.

The Washington Post's Going Out Guide is a bit unwieldy and probably needs to be updated, but remains useful.

I write for DCBeer.com on the side. Here's their guide to beer in the area, which also needs some updates.

Though it's a bit of a hike for lunch, 14th St NW has blown up in terms of dining and bars; there's something for everyone at multiple price points that would be worth the walk for dinner.

If you're familiar with Dupont Circle and think I missed anything, please let me know.

The BeerBrarian's Guide to Computers in Libraries 2015

Since I live in DC, I thought an insider's perspective might be useful for the upcoming Computers in Libraries 2015 conference, which meets at the Hilton just north of Dupont Circle from Monday, April 27th, to Wednesday, April 29th.

I won't be presenting this year, but I'll probably be around the expo hall, doing the lobbycon and firecon thing Monday and/or Tuesday. Come say hi.

A brief word about the guide:
With a few exceptions, anything posted below have been vetted by me. These are places I frequent, or at least have been in. Not mentioned is that west of the conference there are many embassies, which would be a nice walk during breaks, or after the sessions have ended for the day.

The Washington Post's Going Out Guide is a bit unwieldy and probably needs to be updated or taken offline, but remains useful.

I write for DCBeer.com on the side. Here's their guide to beer in the area, which also needs some updates.

Though it's a bit of a hike for lunch, 14th St NW has blown up in terms of dining and bars; there's something for everyone at multiple price points that would be worth the walk for dinner.

If you're familiar with Dupont Circle and think I missed anything, please let me know.

Slowdive, Live at the 930 Club, October 22, 2014, Washington, DC

Pic via http://dcmusicdownload.com/2014/10/24/review-slowdive-930-club-10-22-14/

Solo librarianship has taken its toll on the blog, but I did write up a review of Slowdive's concert in DC last week.

Slowdive seems, on record, to float away, barely tethered to pop and rock history, a contrast to other other shoegaze acts that make up the “big three,” My Bloody Valentine and Ride. MBV was and is rooted in the Beach Boys, 1960s girl groups, and the Brill Building sound, and Ride wouldn’t exist without the jangle of The Byrds and the mod scene of the late 60s. Slowdive only hinted at MBV’s guitar squall and Ride’s nod to influences, instead crafting slight, ethereal songs on Just for a Day, eventually becoming so ambient that the group recorded with Brian Eno, and dissolved while working on the experimental Pygmalion. 

In concert, however, the group rocked, combining the best of all worlds. “This is a pop song,” announced singer-guitarist Rachel Goswell, before starting Souvlaki’s lead track, “Alison,” and so it was, clearly indebted to The Byrds, as was concert opener, “Slowdive.” Torrential sheets of guitar–I counted over twenty-five pedals between Goswell, Neal Halstead, and Christian Saville, all of which got a workout on “Crazy For You”–filled the venue, grounded only by Simon Scott’s expert drumming, which focused on snares and hi-hats early in the set. Bassist Nick Chaplin alternated between the traditional rhythm section and threatening to blast off with the guitarists. 

Befitting the shoegaze moniker, the vocals were buried in the mix at times; one could barely hear Halstead’s flat, slightly nasal voice and Goswell’s was sometimes reduced to coos, especially when she contributed to the three-guitar attack. Saville turned the solo on “Souvlaki Space Station” into a slide guitar clinic, an alt-country, sci-fi, spaghetti western that exploded into ambient noise. Even the dream poppy “Catch the Day” and the hushed, folky “Dagger” got workouts, drenched in reverb and delay. 

Unlike MBV’s live struggles last year, Slowdive didn’t show many signs of rust. Goswell joked with Halstead throughout, and the only false start was corrected without tension. The band live-premiered the b-side “Albatross,” a post-rock song that follows the “loud-quiet-loud” formula they helped to pioneer. 

In 2013 I saw MBV live. This year I saw Slowdive. It’s your move in 2015, Ride.

Per usual, the full review is cross-posted over at Midnight to Six. Do check it out, and see how Slowdive compares to My Bloody Valentine, who reformed, toured, and recorded last year.

Edit this setlist | More Slowdive setlists

Elsewhere on this site, explore the music tag for more reviews.

We're Hiring!

Our reference librarian is leaving, and it feels kind of like losing a limb. What I'd like to do is make a smooth transition from something like this



To this



though hopefully with a happier ending.

Indeed, the title of Reference Librarian doesn't fully capture what this position might entail. At present, I function as something like Head of State for the library, representing it outside the building, to our community, to consortiums, and the like, whereas the reference librarian is the Head of Government, managing much of what happens in the physical library with regards to reference and access services, including our library instruction and information literacy efforts, and our admittedly meager interlibrary loan program. I've taught our outgoing reference librarian how to copy catalog, and I'm happy to do the same for any and all new hires.

If you have a sense of humor, curiosity, a desire to learn and experiment, and a commitment to higher education and justice for all (see what I did there?), well, then this job might be for you.

Actual webpage via HigherEdJobs.

In addition, we're also hiring part-time staff, either at the librarian level, or the intern one, aimed at graduate students in Masters of Library and Information Science programs. Both are paid. Details on this position, these positions, here.

A few notes on hiring:

• I don't know the salary range for the position of Reference Librarian, and I understand if this sets off all kinds of red flags for you. Our Human Resources department keeps me in the dark on such things, which is both a blessing and a curse. It will be enough to live on in DC, which isn't cheap. It probably won't be enough to allow you to buy a house without other sources of income.
• My place of work is a predominantly minority institution (PMI), as classified by the Department of Education, and we are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We take both of these very seriously. Representation is important. 
• If a job is posted and you apply for it six hours later, that sets of all kinds of red flags for hiring managers. It tells us that you may have a canned cover letter ready to go and not given much thought to who we are, what we do, and how you, the applicant, might fit in. Like buying a gun, give it twenty-four hours. Think it over.

Thanks for reading, thanks for sharing, and good luck.

Libraries, Beer, and Lobbying in Washington, DC

On Monday, May 5th and Tuesday, May 6th hundreds of librarians will descend on Capitol Hill to lobby Congress for funding. National Library Legislative Day is in its fortieth year, and one need not be in Washington, DC to participate.

But what if it were thousands? Tens of thousands?

Every year craft brewers arrive in DC to throw a party called SAVOR. The event takes place in DC in no small part because the brewers can have a legislative day, reminding Congress that breweries are small businesses that employ Americans and use agricultural inputs. The one year that SAVOR skipped DC, the Craft Brewers Conference was here instead, affording yet another legislative day.

I understand that politics, lobbying, and asking for money strikes some as distasteful, but if you are in a position of leadership in a library, or even if you're not, this is something you should be doing. The money you're asking for supports your communities and if you want to speak the neoliberal language of return on investment (ROI), libraries have you covered there, too.

• Every dollar spent on an academic library returns about four dollars.
• Every dollar spent on a public library returns between three to six dollars (page 3-4 of this pdf for both those numbers, though other dollar amounts are available elsewhere. Sorry, I don't know if there's research on special, law, governmental, and other libraries).

Lobbying and asking for things doesn't always work, but sometimes it does. For example, the Food and Drug Administration wanted to test the spent grain of breweries for various pathogens, and it wanted either breweries or the farmers who use that spent grain to feed livestock to foot the bill. Costs would no doubt be passed on to consumers, too. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY, and more importantly Amy Schumer's uncle) and Mark Udall (D-CO), among others, intervened, citing the economic impact to craft breweries that donate spent grain to farms. Two bills, the Small BREW Act and the BEER Act, probably won't pass, but to quote Lifehacker, "you don't get shit you don't ask for." Asking is important, as are building relationships within our admittedly broken political process.

And that brings us to the American Library Association. The ALA Annual Meeting, or at least the Mid-Winter one, should be regularly held in Washington, DC for the same reason that craft brewers come to town. We need more advocacy, we need it more regularly, and we need to build relationships over the long term. The Congresspersons in the House of Representatives are elected to two-year terms. What if at least once a term thousands of librarians from all over the country met with them?*

What's at stake?

• Net Neutrality
• Funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services
• Funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (these two via Rep. Paul Ryan's, R-WI, proposed budget)
• Open access for taxpayer-research
• Online privacy
• A whole host of education-related issues
• And much much more.

Speaking of SAVOR, here is DCBeer.com's coverage of the event, which takes place on May 9th and 10th. Craft brewers will be on the Hill on the 8th and 9th. The National Beer Wholesalers Association held their annual meeting, again, always in DC, last night. There was beer and ice cream.

Drinking beer in museums, National Portrait Gallery edition. Cc: @nbwabeer pic.twitter.com/CAgVR8Yhw1
— Jacob Berg (@jacobsberg) April 29, 2014

Beer and ice cream pairings, anyone? pic.twitter.com/aZug7kNrLI
— Jacob Berg (@jacobsberg) April 29, 2014

SAVOR Behind the Scenes: How the Brewery Selection Process Works
I also wrote a few profiles of some breweries:
Crux Fermentation Project
Funkwerks
Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery
Societe Brewing

Anyway, more lobbying and advocacy in DC, and in state capitals, which means state library association meetings in capital cities, too, please.

* And yes, as a DC resident, it is selfish of me to ask for this. I'd also add that DC has no "stand your ground" law, same-sex marriage, some of the more robust transgender protection laws in the country, a human rights commission, and many minority-owned businesses, among others. 

Computers in Libraries Day 3: Ebooks and Content Management

While my first day at Computers in Libraries had the discrete theme of discovery, and I returned to the library to get some work done on day two, day three was spent bouncing around between tracks.

I attended Jennifer Waller's presentation on Google Glass. I'm a noted skeptic, for reasons that are hard to articulate. I find wearable technology with a built in camera creepy (and I'm not alone in that; a search for "google glass is creepy" in that search engine is chalk full of the same sentiment), yet at the same time I understand that in the past peoples' reactions to then-new-now-ubiquitous technology mirror my reaction to Google Glass. Wearable tech may be a bridge too far for me (us?) at present, or, as Polly-Alida Farrington put it

#cildc perhaps real fear of ggl glass is the instant dissemination & persistence of data, not so much the photography itself.
— pollyalida (@pollyalida) April 9, 2014

I appreciate that the Glass is an ice breaker, a conversation starter, something that gets a community excited about a library, and even a tool to start discussions of privacy, but I'm not sure if these benefits outweigh the risks. Does using the Glass to teach privacy subvert Google or further empower it? There are some tough conversations to be had concerning giving a community what it wants when technology like this comes into play, and I appreciate that Waller not only raised these questions, but engaged them. I suspect I'll have more to say about Google Glass later.*

Miami's excellent Shelvar application also made an appearance. It has the potential to liberate our student workers from shelf-reading.


I jumped over to Track C for a discussion of students' use of ebooks. This presentation had an impressive amount of quantitative data that corroborates the qualitative data I've seen: students do not like ebooks. They'll use them if they have to, and some will use them if they deem it convenient. Purchasing both an electronic copy and a physical copy of the book is, based on the data presented, a waste of money.

Survey results from Delaware County Community College (PA), however, countered the first half of the presentation. Even though DCCC's students often use mobile technologies, they prefer either print or a choice between print and electronic. Im sum, different communities have different wants and needs, and it's important that we library staff ask and listen.


At the 1:30 session for Track C I (re)learned that what we ask ourselves and faculty to do in order to embed or link content to within a Course Management or Learning Manage System (CMS or LMS) is nothing short of sadistic, wrought with friction.

I grabbed two cookies on the way out and went back to work.

Elsewhere on this site:
Computers in Libraries Day 1: Discovery
The BeerBrarian's Guide to Computers in Libraries

* Full disclosure, Waller and I are friends and she bought me lunch. I owe her at least a beer.

Third Time's a Charm: The BeerBrarian's Guide to Computers in Libraries 2014

Since I live in DC, I thought an insider's perspective might be useful for the upcoming Computers in Libraries 2014 conference, which meets at the Hilton just north of Dupont Circle.

I'll be speaking about discovery services, vendor relations, and open access in the Expo Hall on Monday, April 7th, from 11-11:15am. It's a modified version of From Here to Discovery. Come say hi.

A brief word about the guide:
With a few exceptions, anything posted below have been vetted by me. These are places I frequent, or at least have been in. Not mentioned is that west of the conference there are many embassies, which would be a nice walk during breaks, or after the sessions have ended for the day.

There are some dine arounds, but they're at very pedestrian restaurants, though I've heard good things about Banana Leaves and Sette Osteria. I understand the distinction between a good meal and good food, so if you're doing one of these, it's for networking and the company, and not what's on your plate.

The Washington Post's Going Out Guide is a bit unwieldy, but comprehensive.

I write for DCBeer.com on the side. Here's their guide to beer in the area.

If you're familiar with Dupont Circle and think I missed anything, please let me know.


View Computers in Libraries in a larger map

For the second year in a row, the conference is supposed to coincide with the cherry blossom bloom. The Washington Post has information on the peak of the blossoms, April 8th to 12th, and a map, but note that the excellent Capital Weather Gang puts the peak a few days after the conference.

Beer, Museums, Archives

On Monday, August 9th, as part of DC's Beer Week, a homebrewer and DC Brau premiered a recreation of a pre-prohibition beer once brewed by Christian Heurich. The launch party doubled as a fundraiser for the Heurich House Museum, and yours truly was there.

Image of the Heurich house via the Library of
Congress and the Museum.

Image via the Washington City Paper.

The beer itself is an impressive feat. One might expect a late-19th century/early-20th century lager to be a bit rough around the edges. Instead, though it checks in at 7% alcohol by volume (ABV), it is smooth, crisp, and easy drinking, and appears a shade of gold. At a slightly higher gravity, the density of water and grain prior to fermentation as compared to water, it might qualify as malt liquor today, needing only a bit more sweetness from corn in the grain bill. As is, it drinks like a Kolsch-style ale, albeit somewhat "imperialized." Corn sugars, and lemon and straw notes from Czech hops, popular at the time, dominate the front end of the beer. The finish is semi-dry; a haze of lemon and corn syrup that quickly dissipates. It would be easy, but a mistake, to drink a lot of this as corn sugars and citrus hide the alcohol well.

Local homebrewer and DCBeer contributor Michael Stein put a lot of work into researching and recreating this beer, utilizing the Heurich archives as well as those of the Smithsonian and Library of Congress, which was then commercially brewed at DC Brau Brewing Company. We'll never know if the beer is a true replica, two-row barley is now far more popular than it was a hundred years ago, for example, but as a reinterpretation it works quite well.

L-R: Jan Evans, Christian Heurich's granddaughter; Ed McMahon;
Michael Stein; Director Kim Bender; DC Brau's Jeff Hancock; Asst Dir. Rachel Jerome.

A happy coincidence: the archivist of the Heurich House Museum is a recent graduate of my place of work. We recognized each other, always a good sign when a former student recognizes a librarian, and it was nice to catch up.

Heurich beer labels.

The bierstube, or drinking room.

Because every house should have a walk-in meat smoker.

For more of me drinking in museums:

At the Library of Congress, in April. Devils Backbone
Vienna Lager. 

Heavy Seas Loose Cannon on cask at the Air and
Space Museum in March. Source.

SAVOR-Y, 2013 Edition

That song never gets old.

Thanks to the Craft Brewers Conference, SAVOR, an annual festival that pairs American-made craft beer with food, has moved to New York City, where it's having a bit of trouble selling out. So a colleague and I decided to have some fun over at DCBeer.com, letting New York know that the District appreciates good beer, and that we brew our own.

many breweries... claim to be in New York City, but brew elsewhere. Brooklyn Lager and other flagships? Utica, New York, home of the steamed ham. Sixpoint’s cans? Scranton, Pennsylvania (see below). Bronx Brewery’s many pale ales? Pawcatuk, Connecticut. The only major New York City brewery that doesn’t do some contracting is Kelso, which has enough capacity that it has contract brewed for Sixpoint. Take a bow.

Garrett Oliver, Brooklyn Brewery's brewmaster, even took time to comment on the post, and we had a good chat.

We also posted the DCBeer.com consensus top 25 beers of SAVOR. It's hard to pick just 25, but there was a fair amount of overlap between our choices. Here are my 25, in alphabetical order. Compare with DCBeer's.

Allagash FV13, American Wild Ale - Just an excellent sour beer.  

Avery Odio Equum, American Wild Ale - Just an excellent extremely sour beer.
Ballast Point Habanero Sculpin IPA  - The best IPA in America, spicier! 

Bayou Teche Cocodrie, IPA  - This brewery has done some interesting stuff, so it's telling that they waited this long before doing an IPA. Come see how they did. 

Bell's Black Note, Imperial Stout - This beer is highly-sought after, for good reason. You could drink a lot of this beer. You shouldn't, but you could. 

Bell's Raspberry Wild One, American wild ale - A little tart, a little funky.

Bull & Bush Brewery Tunip the Beets, Field Beer  - I might want 2 oz of this, which is what SAVOR is for. 

Boulevard Saison Brett - Perhaps the best example of this style.

Crooked Stave Surrette, Saison - Well, maybe this one. 

Yazoo Brett Saison - Or this one.

Choc Brewing Signature Gose - Choc is single-handedly responsible for resurrecting grazter, a smokey, hoppy, Prussian wheat beer. They found a recipe, found the yeast from a Polish homebrewer, the smoked malt from a German producer, and brought it back from extinction. Their gose will be similarly authentic.

Full Sail LTD Bohemian Pilsner

Firestone Walker Pivo Pilsner - Not one, but two breweries are bringing Czech-style pilsners. Fans of American IPAs may be pleased with the hop bite these two bring.

Hops & Grain Brewing Bourbon Barrel aged ALTeration - A barrel-aged alt? 'Murica!

Kane Bourbon Barrel Aged Solitude, Belgian-style dark ale - Kane is new to NJ and they're bringing out the big guns at SAVOR with this beer. 

Lost Abbey Deliverance, American strong ale - "A blend of bourbon barrel-aged Serpent’s Stout and brandy barrel-aged Angels Share." I think there's going to be a line at this table. 

Lost Abbey Saints Devotion, Belgian pale ale - The reason people geek out over this brewery is because of beers like this.

Schalfly Kolsch - I'll put this here every year. Also, it's now available for purchase in NY. 

Schalfly Single Malt Scottish Style Ale - Beer that tastes like scotch, and beer. It's so good I devoted an entire post to it. 

Shorts Goodnight Bodacious, Imperial American Black Ale - It's from Shorts, so you'll know you'll want 2 oz of it.

Spring House Brewing Co. Big Gruesome Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout - Dessert is served!

Starr Hill Monticello Reserve Ale, wheat beer - A little bit of history in a glass, brewed using Thomas Jefferson's "recipe." 

Three Floyds Zombie Dust, Pale Ale - It's in your head, it's in your heaaaad, citra, citra, citra-a-a-a!

Three Floyds Tiberian Inquisitor, Belgian-style pale ale - Aged in Chardonnay barrels, this one could be a keeper from a brewery that know what they're doing.

Yazoo Embrace the Funk Series “Wild Child,” Smoked Porter - This is a collaboration with a beer blogger, which is every beer blogger's dream.

In addition, SAVOR bills itself as "an American food and beer experience." We thought these pairings would hit the mark. Personally speaking, here's what I went with, in no particular order.

Founders Brewing Company Rubaeus  • Table Group 5
Paired with Shortbread Biscuit with Stilton and Pear  

Denver Beer Co. Rauchbier  • Table Group 8&
Paired with Eggplant Caponata on an Olive Oil Financier  

Terrapin Beer Company Side Project 19 Mosaic • Table Group 2
Paired with Bitter Chocolate Bon Bon with Passion Fruit and Mesquite Salt  

Santa Fe Brewing Company Freestyle Pilsner  • Table Group 3
Paired with Tomato Rasam (Southern Indian Stew) with Coriander and Cumin over Lentils  

Willoughby Brewing Company Peanut Butter Cup Coffee Porter  • Table Group 12
Paired with Black and Tan Brownie with Butterscotch and Pretzel Bite  

Captain Lawrence Brewing Company Smoked Porter  • Table Group 6
Paired with Pulled Chicken Taco with Black Mole

The Bruery Sans Pagaie  • Table Group 1
Paired with Tart Apple and Brie in Puff Pastry  

Brooklyn Brewery Black Ops  • Supporter Circle
Paired with Chicken Liver and Chocolate  

Cigar City Brewing Jose Marti  • Table Group 12
Paired with Glazed Short Rib of Beef with Soft Polenta and Crispy Leeks  

Burnside Brewing Company Sweet Heat  • Table Group 11
Paired with Jumbo Lump Crab Cake with Corn, Sweet Pepper and Citrus  

Bonus pairing! 

Upland Brewing Company Dantalion Dark Wild Ale  • Table Group 10
Paired with Demisphere of Grape Wrapped in Goat Cheese and Pistachio

A full list of beers and beer pairings is here. Check back next week to see how we did.

Cheers.

In older SAVOR news:
http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2012/06/savor-2012-wrap-up.html
http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2012/04/savor-y.html
http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2011/06/savor-wrap-up.html

The 2013 Craft Brewers Conference Wrap-Up Post: Photojournalism!

From Monday, March 25th to Friday, March 29th, 2013, Washington, DC hosted the Craft Brewers Conference. Thanks to DCBeer.com, yours truly got to attend. This is what happened.

Tuesday afternoon I checked into the conference, as both Monday and Tuesday were pre-conference days and move in days for the exhibitors.

Every conference gives you a totebag, only this one
gives you beer. Pay attention, library conferences!

I opened this beer a few days later. There's a nice rye bite to this pilsner brewed specially for the Craft Brewers Conference by The Brewer's Art, DC Brau, and Devils Backbone.

On-site reception, courtesy of German hops growers.
The room smelled nice. 

Because, you know, science! 

I left the convention center and headed over to Churchkey, which put on an event featuring saisons, ales fermented with Belgian and Belgian-style yeasts originally made in farmhouses for workers in the fields. Beer geeks will be pleased to know that I sampled offerings from Hill Farmstead, Crooked Stave, Tired Hands, Jester King, and more.

From there the next stop was the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, for the conference welcome reception.

I'm in the National Air and Space Museum!
Drinking beer!

Towards the end of the event I found Heavy Seas, out of
Baltimore. They claim to produce more real ale than
anyone else in the United States, and brought a cask of
their Loose Cannon IPA with Cascade hops in the cask.
Yes, please. 

Beer and rockets. That's what it's all about, kids.
"I feel alive, so alive."  

I was happy to see DC Brau’s Brandon Skall, who’s been coming to this museum since he was a toddler, pouring beer there. If it was a cool feeling for me, imagine how he felt.

Selfie of the beer I brought into the Air and Space
Museum, just to prove that I brought beer into a
Smithsonian Institution. No ducky face. 

The conference began on Wednesday morning with a general session full of facts about the beer industry and a keynote from Kim Jordan of New Belgium. Said facts:

• There are 2347 craft breweries in the United States, and they sold 13.2 million barrels of beer in 2012.
• 1254 more breweries are in planning.
• 409 breweries opened in 2012, though there were also 43 closings. 
• The most popular style of craft beer is Indian Pale Ale. No surprise there. (The actual most popular "style" is "seasonal," but that encompasses at least 4 styles, one for each of the seasons.)
• Amber lagers and wheat beers are on the decline.  

The conference schedule is posted here. At about 11:15am this session ended and the beer started flowing in the BrewExpo Exhibition area, which was overwhelmingly amazing. What better time for Deschutes Chainbreaker White IPA or a Sun King Cream Ale than 11am?

An Alsatian hop grower showcasing the finished product. Aramis, left, may
become a trendy hop. New Belgium is already using in in an India Pale Ale.    

Overall in terms of "it" hops, it looks like Mosiac will be the next big thing. Keep an eye out for it. It's already in use in a double IPA from Great Lakes and is the sole hop in a rye pale ale from Terrapin.

Local beer on tap in the Brew Expo.

A packaging company brought this. Sounds, delicious, no? 

I went to two sessions on the past, present, and future of malt and malting, and I feel like I took a 3-credit course on the subject. A wonderful experience. Here are my notes. Then it was back to BrewExpo.

As you can tell, they had a very good selection at this
station: Sweetwater, Dogfish, Left Hand, New Belgium...

Sly Fox Brewing's new can. Just peel back the lid.
The future!

Yeast man. There's no swag like mitosis swag.

On an eye-opening and perhaps disappointing note, I saw at least three vendors selling flavoring extracts, and one of these had a roster of craft brewers lined up for testimonials. So now I don’t know if there’s any actual chocolate in Rogue Chocolate Stout, one of the examples a vendor showed me, and I don’t know how I feel about that. Does it matter?

Over at DCBeer.com, there is some discussion about whether or not this conference was good for DC's beer scene and the local brewers, who may have been overshadowed by out-of-towners during that week. Praise for the week here, concern here. Cheers.

Computers in Libraries Wrap-Up, Or, How to Attend a Conference

Last week I was fortunate to attend the 2013 Computers in Libraries conference. Unlike the American Library Association annual meeting, which I often find unwieldy, CIL is just about the right size in terms of attendees, panels, and vendor exhibits.

From looking at list the presentations and panels I attended, you'll notice a few patterns.

• How information is displayed and presented on the library website, and how that information can be made more user-friendly. Often times this means thinking more like a school media specialist or school librarian than one who works at a university library, thus I attended a few presentations in that track. I find them a refreshing antedote to "big picture" presentations that we couldn't afford to do at my place of work. More on that in a minue. 
• Managing electronic resources is challenging, especially for someone like me who's charged with these tasks, but has nothing in the way of formal learning, and very little in the way of informal learning. 
• Demonstrating the value of said resources, and more, and then displaying and presenting that value in a way that is persuasive to stakeholders. 
• I also want to be if not on the cutting edge, at least slightly behind it in terms of larger trends in larger libraries. Though my current place of work definitely does not fit that bill, I've worked at R1 institutions in the past. Much of what's presented at these panels doesn't apply and can't apply, to my current place of work, but it's nice to know what's out there and who's doing what.

Monday

D101 ● BYOD: Bring Your Own Device
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
Jill Hurst-Wahl, Director, & Christopher Lawton, Program Assistant, Library & Information
Science Program, School of Information Studies, Syracuse University
Kateri Abeyta, IT Manager, Denver Public Library
Mobile devices are quickly becoming an essential element in both personal and workplace productivity. Library IT staff are faced with the challenge of maintaining network security with the flexibility of a mobile workforce. All types of libraries are being impacted by BYOD, whether they realize it or not. Do you have policies and guidelines in place regarding these devices? Our speakers share some insights, and then the audience shares their insights with their colleagues.

B102 ● Seven Deadly Sins of Websites
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Casey Schacher, Resource Discovery Librarian, &
Paige Mano, Web Communications & Social Media Coordinator, University of Wisconsin
Tony Aponte, Science & Engineering Librarian, UCLA
Is your library site all it could be? Far too often, library websites harbor major usability and design issues that prevent patrons from easily accessing the wealth of resources available to them. Speakers evaluate real-world library websites using authoritative guidelines and reveal the most common usability and accessibility sins being committed. Find out how your library website stacks up: Is it a sinner or a saint?

D103 ●
Innovative Library Tech: Practices & Services
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Carol Watson, Director; Maureen Cahill, Student Services Librarian; & Wendy Moore,
Acquisitions Librarian, University of Georgia Law Library
How is your library evolving? To meet changing demands at our institutions, many libraries have undertaken innovative technology initiatives over the past few years. Our libraries can develop best practices from sharing the results of our experiments with new services with each other. This is your chance to participate in an open forum. This session uses the “fishbowl” format to engage audience members in a discussion of creative library technologies. Speakers facilitate comments from audience participants in the fishbowl and encourage discussion from the audience as well on topics ranging from the latest whizbang gadgets to effective technology instruction tactics.

D104 ● Metrics, Value, & Funding
3:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Rebecca Jones, Managing Partner, Dysart & Jones Associates
Moe Hosseini-Ara, Director, Service Excellence, Markham Public Library
This interactive session starts with an overview of what metrics to look for and how to develop them from experienced librarians. It then proceeds with a whole-room discussion and brainstorming on how to get the right data to make an impact to funders and stakeholders

E105 ● Misinformation, Autopilot Thinking, and Credibility:
Teaching Information Evaluation
4:15 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Debbie Abilock, Co-founder, NoodleTools, Inc., Palo Alto, California
How does misinformation originate and spread? What cognitive factors come into play when students evaluate sources? And what can we do to teach them to de-bias their judgments? Ignite your teaching by learning to model quick-and-dirty “rules of thumb” that students can use or revise when they evaluate sources during short research tasks. And, conversely, learn when to add “points of friction” into your instructional design, so that your students will be willing to think deeply when their research project is “worth it.”

Tuesday

C201 ● Metrics That Work
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
Karen Krugman, Chief, Research Library & Archives, Export-Import Bank of the United States
Kris Vajs,Chief Librarian, Research Library, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Karen White, Senior Librarian & Team Lead, USAID Knowledge Services Center
Are senior leaders getting the right message from your management reports? Are your reports a useful vehicle for your department or just part of the routine information you deliver to your manager? Do you want to learn how to communicate the importance of all of your library’s contributions to your organization but find that your metrics lack substance? Join our experienced leaders for this practical session to learn why management reporting is so critical for libraries, discover current management reporting trends, hear about management reporting at three federal libraries and see sample management reports, learn what statistics to track, how to turn them into real management information, and how to present your metrics effectively. Included are a list of metrics you can use in your own management reports.

B202 ● Creating a Culture of Usability
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Krista Godfrey, Web Services Librarian, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Paulette Hasier, Manager, Research Services, &
Jessica Sanders, Research Specialist, ARTI (DOD Contractor)
Library websites are slowly transforming into powerful, and more importantly, easy to use tools. In order to develop the latter, it is essential to perform constant and consistent usability testing. Hear how Memorial University of Newfoundland is trying to create a culture of thoughtfulness toward our users through the establishment of a web usability team. Learn why usability is important, how it implemented the new team and directions the schools are going in. Then hear how one library paid attention to the evolving needs of users, employed user-friendly open source tools to engage clients, created collaborative spaces, and improved the UX with new information delivery functionalities and mobile solutions.

A203 ● Negotiating Econtent & Tech Licenses
1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Mike Gruenberg, Gruenberg Consulting, LLC, & Author, Buying & Selling Information: A
Guide for the Information Professional & Salesperson That Ensures Mutual Success
Richard Hulser, Chief Librarian, Natural History Museum Los Angeles County
By setting clear goals and expectations, information professionals can make the most of the meeting and develop a mutually beneficial relationship with the content sales people. Get tips from a long-time salesperson, supporter of libraries, and recent author and from a librarian who has been on both sides—sales and purchase!

A204 ● Institutional Repositories
2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Julian Aiken, Access Services Librarian, Yale Law School
Hollie White, Digital Initiatives Librarian, Duke Law School
Duke and Yale Law schools have two of the most successful open access online institutional repositories in North America. Delivering more than 12,000 objects and 2-million-plus downloads to a global audience, the Yale Law School Legal Repository and the Duke Law Scholarship Repository are turning into indispensable resources for scholars and practitioners across the world. Join our speakers to hear how these two law schools are using their repositories to extend the global reach of their scholarship, and enhance their value within the academic community. Topics include platforms, permissions, staffing, workflows, outreach, and publicity.

E205 ● Open Educational Resources and the Open Web
4:15 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Heather Braum, Digital and Technical Services Librarian, Northeast Kansas Library System,
Lawrence, Kansas
Gary Price, INFODocket and FullTextReports, Washington, D.C.
Join two experts on the vital subject of finding free educational resources online. First, Heather Braum discusses open educational resources, a rising trend in classrooms, in libraries, and in DIY education circles. Learn how you can make the move from traditional textbooks and classroom resources and discover the what OER has to offer your library, school, and community. Then, hear veteran web resource locator Gary Price discuss discovery and finding tools, techniques, and even the necessary mindset you need to unearth the best digital content for education—so you can serve up just what’s needed for that social studies class, just when it’s needed.

Wednesday

B303 ● Evolving Tech Services to Manage & Discover E-Resources
1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Li Fu, Digital Services Librarian, &
John Coogan, Systems Librarian, University of Maryland University College
Candice Kail, Web Services Librarian &
Colleen Major, Electronic Resources Librarian, Columbia University Libraries
Both of these libraries are transitioning their technical support functions to ensure access, discovery, assessment, sharing, and development of digital content and applications. Hear how these libraries are shifting their approaches to authentication, link resolvers, discovery tools, cataloging, usage statistics, web technology, the relationship between e-resources and virtual library environment, and the influence this is having on staff in systems and technical services.

A304 ● New Face of Reference
2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
David Stern, Associate Dean, Public Services, Illinois State University
Crystal Shiffert, Reference Librarian, Monroe County Library System
Shari Clayman, Internet Reference Librarian, &
Abbey Gerken, Assistant Library Network Coordinator, ASRC Primus, EPA
Krista Schmidt, Research & Instruction Librarian/Science Liaison, &
Joel Marchesoni, Technical Support Analyst, Western Carolina University
Stern talks about shared workspace collaboration tools and describes the use of a shared workspace for manipulating multiple media materials and the sharing of real-time workstation screens to understand and demonstrate more sophisticated search methods and to facilitate the mastery of more advanced tools and techniques. While increasing collaboration and interaction at a distance, remote control is also the next step in offering advanced instruction, assistance, and collaboration. The next two presentations include reference librarians who partnered with a library technical support analyst and a vendor to develop a tablet-based app and a mobile app to extend reference service. The last talk focuses on how an ask-a-librarian service leverages the time and expertise of EPA librarians across the country to present a unified service to all EPA staff. It shares lessons learned during the last 3 years and future plans.

C305 ● Data: Digging Deeper & Displaying
3:45 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Jeff Wisniewski, Web Services Librarian, University of Pittsburgh
Data you gather is just data until it is analyzed, interpreted, and conveyed in a meaningful way. With Google Analytics incorrect conclusions can be drawn without doing an in-depth analysis. Wisniewski provides a framework for accurately assessing the data to make informed design decisions in combination with other user tests, surveys and focus groups. See how Pittsburgh is mining data to learn about user behavior.

My notes on these sessions may or may not be useful to you. They're not as good as these notes. But here they are, all the same.

Computers in Libraries 2013 Notes

Here is a link, via Storify, to my tweets during the conference. I'm a big believer in using the back channel during conferences.

A full conference program, in pdf, is here.

It's baaaack! The BeerBrarian's Guide to Computers in Libraries 2013

Since I live in DC, I thought an insider's perspective might be useful for the upcoming Computers in Libraries 2013 conference, which meets at the Hilton just north of Dupont Circle.

A brief word about the guide:
With a few exceptions, anything posted below have been vetted by me. These are places I frequent, or at least have been in. Not mentioned is that west of the conference there are many embassies, which would be a nice walk during breaks, or after the sessions have ended for the day.

There are some dine arounds, but they're at very pedestrian restaurants. I understand the distinction between a good meal and good food, so if you're doing one of these, it's for networking and the company, and not what's on your plate.

The Washington Post has a guide to the area. It's a bit unwieldy, but comprehensive.

I write for DCBeer.com on the side. Here's their guide to beer in the area.

If you're familiar with Dupont Circle and think I missed anything, please let me know.


View Computers in Libraries in a larger map

Cherry blossom season in DC will hit its peak between April 3rd and 6th, right before Computers in Libraries. The Washington Post has put together a handy graphic on the Tidal Basin area.

January - February Beer Roundup

There's been much 'brarian-ing in this space, but not much beer-ing. In large part, this is because much of the latter is taking place over at DCBeer.com. Here's what I've been up to.

The most exciting news is that DC is getting yet another brewery. Hellbender Brewing Company has a location, and, like other DC breweries, they're taking advantage of DC's surfeit of industrial-zoned space on the east side of the city, not too far from where I live. In fact, this may be the closest brewery to my house, no small feat given the locations of the other three. You can read more about Hellbender here, and stay tuned for more updates on this brewery.


View Washington, DC Breweries in a larger map

The second bit of news is that we all got together to make a Kolsch-style ale. It's lagering as I type this.

Temperature control! Pic via DCBeer.

In addition, it's Girl Scout cookie season. They're delicious, beer is delicious, so why not pair them? Here's a sample:

Trefoils: Deus. Bubbles cut the buttery fat of the cookies basically treating this like sparkling wine and brie. Saisons tend to have higher carbonation than most kinds of beer, and would also work here Sierra Nevada's Ovilia saison and Ommegang Hennepin. Another option is to go with a more mild, flavor-wise, beer, like kolsch (Reissdorf, Gaffel, Schlafly or a pilsner on the lower end of the bitterness units scale for that style, like Eggenberg.

It's also hoppy beer season. Hopslam has come and gone, but the next round of Stone's "Enjoy By" IPA will hit shelves soon (April, 1st, 2013 edition) in Maryland, and Troeg's Nugget Nectar is plentiful. I wrote about these beers here.

Next month the Craft Brewers Conference comes to DC, which I'll be covering for DCBeer. Watch this space as well. Cheers.

New Year, New Library: New Library (kind of)

It's been quiet here for the last month as we train new staff and bombard the campus with information literacy one-shots. In addition, much of my free time has been taken by volunteering for a local charter school that, like many schools in Washington, DC, lacks a school librarian or school media specialist.
To wit, for the 2012-13 academic calendar there are approximately sixty (60, 6-0) schools in DC that lack a librarian or school media specialist, covering between 16,000 to 17,000 students. There's plenty of blame to go around, starting with the Mayor, Vincent Gray (sample inflammatory statement from the mayor, "[W]e decided we would leave education to educators"), the Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, and individual principals, who decide whether or not to staff a school library. There is more sadness this way:

The results of a Freedom of Information Act request show that in FY11 and FY12, the money appropriated to DCPS [DC Public Schools] for library and media services was overwhelmingly used for other things. It paid for other things like building repairs, maintenance to HVAC systems. More than $400,000 was used for testing. DCPS used $80,000 of these funds to pay for a San Francisco-based consultant to develop a strategic plan for its Office of Family and Community Engagement.

This school, which one of my children attends, moved into a new facility last year, and this year finally has space for a library. But no librarian or school media specialist, and that's where parents like me come in. I suddenly find myself a Chinese-language cataloger (it's a Chinese-immersion school), blindly fumbling around, guided by ISBNs that may or may not lead me to a record, relying on Library of Congress Subject Headings that may or may not exist, and eyeballing the height of books to make a cataloging judgement. I've cataloged in Cyrillic before, with the help of a cheat sheet, and in Japanese, which I used to speak, but Chinese is a whole different animal.

On the plus side, the school has selected Follet's Destiny as an integrated library system, and it's easy to use. Within about fifteen minutes I felt comfortable with it, and this ease of use will allow teachers to check out materials to students. Double plus, some other parents are also librarians, and we've all taken active interests in the new school library.

In addition, the school is going to experiment with giving students raspberry pi (not pie, though that would be good, too), so I may be talking a bit (more) about programming in this space.

In the meantime, if you'd like to help DC's schools, please sign this petition. Thanks.

August Local Beer Roundup

Emphasizing the "beer" part of "Beerbrarian," there have been a few noteworthy developments in Washington, DC beer news lately. In a warehouse not too far from the Takoma Park Metro station, 3 Stars Brewing began to make and sell beer. 

The Urban Farmhouse is a saison-style ale that is hopped, but not over-hopped, with Centennial and Cascade. Given that no other local breweries offer this style, Bluejacket’s saison is not yet a local brew, kudos to 3 Stars for product differentiation. Green, white, and a handful of pink peppercorns go into the boil, which also includes a generous amount of wheat. The former is obvious on the nose, and plays well with the spicy esthers from the yeast. The latter is clear in the body and appearance of the beer, which finishes with a vegetal aftertaste, almost like biting into a fresh red pepper. A cask of the Urban Farmhouse had orange peel and more Cascade hops, creating big citrus flavors towards the end of the beer, washing away the spices.
Neither Coleman nor McGarvey profess to like brown ales, another locally underrepresented style, but you wouldn’t know it from the Southern Belle, an 8.7% ABV stunner that tastes much closer to 6%. Toasted pecans were added to the boil, and complement the chocolate malts and delicate, effervescent carbonation. One cask of the Belle featured vanilla beans; the taste was eerily reminiscent of pecan pie, not at all boozy, and vaguely suggested lactose. Another cask used lightly toasted oak, adding hints of white pepper, sourness, and a dry finish.
The Pandemic Porter will probably attract the most attention, and have you hollering “two for $5″ as if you were in Hamsterdam. Both DC Brau and Port City brew robust porters, but 3 Stars doesn’t have much interest in that kind. Instead you get a 9.6% ABV imperial coffee porter, with a gallon of Qualia cold-brewed Yirgacheff concentrate added to each barrel. Vanilla and coffee dominate this beer, but there’s a quick, dry finish that doesn’t linger, and thanks to the skills of both Qualia and head brewer McGarvey there’s very little bitterness. One cask at Churchkey upped the coffee quotient to the point where I got the shakes. Picture Du De Ciel’s Peche Mortel taken to 11 and you’re somewhat close. Another cask utilized heavily toasted oak, which stood up to the vanilla and coffee flavors, drying out the beer and further hiding the alcohol content.

Meanwhile, over in Northeast DC, DC Brau collaborated with another local brewery that doesn't have brewing space yet, Bluejacket, on a grätzer. A hoppy smoked wheat ale native to what was once Prussia, then part of Germany, and now part of Poland. 

this style is functionally extinct in the wild, like a Dama gazelle. If you attended SAVOR in 2011, you may have gotten a taste of something like a grätzer from Bayou Teche Brewing’s “Bouncanee,” a smoked wheat ale, and Choc Brewing in Oklahoma has gone to great lengths (Weyermann smoked malt, yeast from a Polish homebrewer, and water replication) to brew a traditional version. Two of DC’s finest will take a crack at continuing to revive this style, calling it “The Embers of the Deceased.” At just 4% ABV, it joins Ground Wolf and Your Favorite Foreign Movie as sessionable offerings brewed at DC Brau.

In expanding market news, New Hampshire's White Birch Brewing has entered the DC market, initially with three styles.

Crown of Gold (Rye Pale Ale / 4.2% ABV)
From the brewery: English malts, toasted rye for spice, American ale yeast, and whole leaf Cascade hops. Sounds like a winner to me.
Hop Session Ale (American IPA / 5.1% ABV)
Somewhere between a mini-version of an American IPA and a hoppy red ale or American amber, this is the only year-round release the DC market is going to see for the time being. Citrusy West Coast hops playing nicely with caramel malts, finishing with some of that resin-y dryness you kids love so much.
Hop to Wit (Witbier / 5.2% ABV)
Puns! Witbiers aren’t known for being particularly hoppy, but this one is, with an additional juicy kick that comes from grapefruit peel and pink peppercorns (traditional witbiers opt for orange peel and coriander). Let’s thank and reward them for not calling this a white IPA.

Look for both 3 Stars and the grätzer on tap at finer establishments around town. White Birch will be in bottles at stores and restaurants.

Cheers!

SAVOR 2012 Wrap Up

Next year SAVOR heads to New York City, and in turn, DC gets the Craft Brewers Conference. It remains to be seen if this will be a fair trade, as SAVOR and the week before it have become something of, in the words of the head of the Brewers Association of Maryland's J.T. Smith, "not just a craft beer prom, but a craft beer South By Southwest." 

I wrote about SAVOR last year here, and this year my thoughts are over at DCBeer.com. Some impressions:

There are some breweries who really get what SAVOR is all about. Bells, Foothills, and Stone all had their regular offerings kick, only to put on rarer, more esoteric, and aged beers. When Bells ran out of The Wild One, an oud bruin style, perhaps the tartest, driest beer at SAVOR, they put on their Expedition and Double Cream stouts, and their 2008 Eccentric Ale. I walked over to Foothills to see if they had any People’s Porter left and just stared, dumbfounded, at a Sexual Chocolate tap handle for a good minute before stammering if that was what they were pouring. A sixtel of that [imperial stout] at ChurchKey didn’t last until sundown in June of 2010. I had three pours of it and walked around the building grinning like an idiot. When Stone’s unnamed IPA kicked, they brought out the Vertical Epics from 2007 to 2011. All three of these breweries went the extra mile.
 The sours this year were uniformly and singularly, for a style as a whole, excellent. It’s a very good sign for American craft beer that brewers and breweries from all over the country are not only making sour beers, but mastering them.
The food at SAVOR was significantly better this year, and most of the pairings I experienced were better matched and more intuitive than last year. Allagash Interlude with the Asian pear in phyllo, many sours with the roasted beet and chevre tartlet, and anything with the huckleberry and meyer lemon cream puff, in particular, were great.

 DCBeer profiles each brewery that attends SAVOR. My contributions are below.

A trendspotting piece on the IPAs of SAVOR.

Allagash Brewing.
Ballast Point Brewing.
Founders Brewing.
Full Sail Brewing.
Green Flash Brewing.
Ithaca Beer Company.
Magnolia Pub and Brewery.
Schlafly Beer.
Standing Stone Brewing.
Surly Brewing.
Two Brothers Brewing.

Cheers.