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.

Ask a Question, Get an Answer

I'm not sure who put this sticky note on a picture in the basement of our library sometime between 11am and 2pm on Monday, March 11th, but they'd be better served by asking someone, maybe a librarian, about it. We handle a lot of questions that one might consider embarrassing on a daily basis, and we're happy to answer them.

"WHY?" is an interesting question. Why did someone donate these? Better yet, why display them? I tried to answer both those questions in a manner just as passive-aggressive as the question.

On Sunday, March 17th, someone took down my sign, but added this.

YOLO, indeed.



Here's a closer look at the plaque that explains the existence of this artwork.

Hey, ask a question, get an answer. But next time, please ask in person, or on the phone, or via email, and not in a way that puts sticky notes on items in the library. Items can be damaged by such notes, and we don't want that. Thank you.

Dear Aspiring Librarians (On MLIS Program Rankings)

Every so often, someone comes across this space because they are interested in learning more about graduate programs in library and information science. Recent searches that led to this blog include "mlis jobs," "job market mlis," "mlis entrance essay," and "mlis graduate admissions essay," and that's just in the last week.

With that in mind, US News and World Report has released their 2013 rankings of the best programs for graduate study in library and information science. Here are the top fifteen programs:

Screenshot from here.

I'm number ten!

How did US News and World Report get these rankings? Did they toss a bunch of papers in the air and then pick them up in this order? Did they conduct a rigorous, scientific study taking into account curricula, graduation rates, job placement (wouldn't it be nice if the American Library Association made MLIS programs release those rates?), and reputation? Sadly, it appears to be the former.

The library and information studies specialty ratings are based solely on the nominations of program deans, program directors, and a senior faculty member at each program. They were asked to choose up to 10 programs noted for excellence in each specialty area. Those with the most votes are listed. (Source)

Um, yeah. That is poor social science. What we have here is a lazy, crude metric that attempts to get at something like "reputation," but the magazine's staff doesn't know how and doesn't care to know how to really do it. Those numbers on the right-hand side of the table above are based on a "peer assessment score," with 5.0 being the highest; the numerical result of asking the aforementioned small, incestuous sample. Just one more reason why there's a Wikipedia section devoted to this magazine's rankings.
Sportsball analogy alert: these rankings are to library and information science what the USA Today Coaches Poll is to college football.

You don't know about this series?  Bad librarian! Bad!

Through analyzing a Coach’s Difference Score (CDS), we found that coaches had a positive bias towards their own team. That is, they vote their own team higher than their peers. We also discovered that coaches tend to vote schools from their own conference higher than do coaches from outside that conference. Finally, we concluded that coaches from the six Automatically Qualifying (AQ) conferences were biased against schools from the smaller N-AQ conferences. (Source)

If you're going to choose an MLIS program based on these rankings, please reconsider. Don't do it. Look at course catalogs. Talk to faculty in the program. Talk to deans and administrators. Ask them about job placement rates and opportunities for real world experience in a variety of settings. Are there opportunities to publish and present at conferences? To learn marketable skills? Talk to librarians. We're a friendly bunch. Talk to students in these programs. They're training to be a friendly bunch. Find programs that feel right, that have a "fit." And take a course or two in research methodology, so you don't graduate and then publish misleading, faux-authoritative rankings like this one.

Scotch Whiskey Barrel Aging and Beer

That picture on the left is of Schlafly Beer's Single Malt Scottish Style Ale. From the brewery's description:

"brewed with a single variety of barley, Optic, from the Cook family farm in Scotland (owned by our co-founder’s in-laws). The flavor of the Optic is balanced by British hops for bitterness and a UK yeast strain for a fresh, bready flavor. We age the beer in freshly-emptied Highland Scotch Whisky barrels from the Glen Garioch Distillery only 10 miles from the farm where the barley was grown."

It is also one of a few beers I know of that's been aged in Scotch whisk(e)y barrels. Why so few? Two reasons, as I see it.

The first is that barrel-aging is a "crime of opportunity." Scotch barrels are harder to come by than bourbon or rye barrels, at least for US brewers. There are distilling operations in Virginia (Wasmund's Whiskey, from Copper Fox Distillery) and Oregon (McCarthy's Oregon Single Malt Whiskey from Clear Creek Distillery), among others, making something like Scotch-style whiskey, but it is much easier to get a bourbon or rye barrel in the US, because those two types of whiskey are more prevalent.

The second is flavor profile. Scotch, like beer, starts with malted barley. But many Scotches are peat-malted, meaning that the malted barley is smoked over peat moss, imparting a (drum roll!) smokey flavor. Anything aged in a Scotch barrel that held peat-malted barley thus becomes smokey. There is a family of beers called "rauchbier," based in and around Bamberg, Germany, and indeed, Schalfly makes an excellent one of these, but smoke beers are not very popular, so it may be harder to market and sell these kinds of beer, or at least harder to match up with what one normally expects from beer. Bourbon, on the other hand, might add vanilla, caramel, and/or toffee flavors that complement a wider array of beer styles. Those flavors are present in many Scotches, too, but are often less noticeable.

UPDATE: Bartender extraordinaire and homebrewer of some note Erich Streckfuss points out a third reason: Bourbon barrels can only be used once in the production of bourbon, after which they are "retired." Scotch barrels can used over and over again, further limiting the supply.

Still, if the result is going to taste anything like this, more brewers need to do it. A smokey, meaty flavor is present, but so are notes of figs, golden raisins, and maybe even coffee, mixing sweet and savory. It's a sublime beer. Last night I paired it with lamb sliders and grilled vegetables marinated in Greek yogurt and onions. Cheers!

Open Access: A World Without Database Vendors?

As a thought experiment, let's say we "win." Professional and academic associations go open access, as much of physics has. The Directory of Open Access Journals is able to capture the far majority of these newly free works, and in turn these are snapped up by library catalogs thanks to link resolvers and discovery services. The same happens with the Directory of Open Access Books with regards to chapters in edited volumes.

But there's a catch: DOAJ's search function is not, to put it politely, robust. And there's a larger problem behind search functionality thanks to incomplete metadata. Link resolvers and discovery services that pull from that search, culling that metadata, will lead to frustrated end users who cannot access and discover what they're looking for.

In addition, the DOAJ is overrun with new items to catalog in this scenario, creating a backlog of epic proportions.

This is not my desk, but it feels like it sometimes. 

There are roles for vendors in this universe: generating better metadata for these newly open access items; designing stronger, more relevant search functionalities; and creating attractive and user-friendly platforms; among others.

There's a less maximalist, more realistic, "winning" option here, too: more journals, and more publishers, allow for pre-prints to be housed in institutional repositories, which are cataloged by member institutions, and perhaps shared via consortia, and with a wider audience via interlibrary loan.

However, these repositories do not solve access problems, in fact, they exacerbate them by creating not only a patchwork network of databases, but also at least two discrete classes of items: pre-prints and final products, each with a different symbolic value attached to them despite containing the same information. Vendors can solve the first of these, a coordination game, by designing, creating, and implementing databases that allow access to the pre-prints among and between libraries, including negotiating licenses and usage rights with publishers. Only vendors have, as of now, been able to create inter-library databases with robust network effects and positive externalities. That is, the more libraries, the more repositories, that join an inter-library database containing items that might otherwise only be found in a repository, the stronger, the more useful said database is. Some of those vendors in our current information ecosystem were founded by libraries, such as OhioLink, JSTOR, and OCLC, as well as The Digital Public Library of America (perhaps), though they have now taken on lives of their own.

As for the latter, pre-prints versus final products, I have no solutions other than to hope that academics "get over it" by incentivizing open access. Giving preferences to OA publications as part of tenure and promotion, for example, would be an important and powerful signal.

Thus, academics hold their chains in their hands, but there are no worlds, no futures, without database vendors. I write this not only to reassure vendors, but also to argue that we librarians are inexorably tied to vendors, even knowing that vendors do not always behave as we wish them to.

An Open Letter to Male Librarians

Sorrynotsorry for the profanity.**

Dear fellow men who work in libraries,

Cut that shit out. You know what I'm talking about*. Stop making women feel less human, less valued, than their male counterparts in the profession. In any profession. In any interaction. It's bad enough there's a hegemonic discourse out there that tells women to "be nice" or to apologize in situations in which they shouldn't. It's bad enough that women make up over eighty percent of librarians, but a lower percentage of directors (note: data is woefully out of date and disputed); just like how mom makes everything better when you're sick, but more doctors are men. Or how women cook more at home, but  there are more male chefs.

Lest you think this is just some blog post designed to capitalize on an issue that's in the news in librarianship, here's an email I sent to a male librarian in June of 2012. I will call you out on this. Trust.

You send out things like this  

[redacted tweet] 

And then you wonder why you're blocked. As I'm typing this [redacted twitter user] is sending out a few more examples. I can't speak to a conversation you did or did not butt in on between two women, but I assume your audience, like mine, is made up of many librarians. More librarians are women than men. And so here we are. Tweets like the examples given above, and I'm sure others, come off as creepy, and I'm using this word in particular because it's the one that, based on your blog post, bothers you the most. The tweets that are or contain sexual overtures, even if you think those are just witty banter: please don't send them, don't retweet them. Or, go ahead, but don't be surprised if you get blocked and/or labeled a creep.  

The blog post overall features an apology, but the tone of the post also sounds like you feel victimized. No doubt you are frustrated by getting unfollowed without some sort of tweeted explanation, but twitter isn't real life where we're owed that. People come and go, some of them come back, and I've accepted that. I urge you to as well. The "lol" and whatnot responses to some of the tweets may not really be people laughing out loud, they could just be humoring you, trying to deflect/redirect/absorb the awkwardness. There's a tendency to not confront people when offended, whether it's face to face or online.   

You say that you're "here to joke," but your joke becomes harassment to someone as soon as that someone feels harassed. It's not about your intent. You seem to understand this towards the end of your blog post, which I think is a good thing.   

So, that's my two cents on the issue. If there's something I could make clearer, please let me know.  

Best,  

Jake (@jacobsberg)

Here are (other?) interesting, non-troglodyte, takes on this from men.

* It shouldn't have to take me three minutes of googling to get all those links.
** I know why people are treating other people this way. Power imbalances, the hegemony of sexism, people being assholes...