Submitted by: Corliss Lee

All day RUSA preconference held 6/27/08 in Anaheim

featured speakers:

Cathy de Rosa (OCLC) (see some of her reports)
Michelle Jacobs (UCLA)
Caleb Tucker-Raymond (Oregon Statewide Digital Reference Service)
David Lankes (Syracuse University) (slides and audio)

See also: Description of preconference and Librarian Like Me blog on the presentations (scroll down past first posting)

Summary Notes: I pulled out some points and put them under following themes (my terms, not necessarily theirs): Privacy, Interactivity, The New User, and The New Library

Privacy

Jacobs:

• this generation doesn't care as much about privacy; avg American appears on tape or camera 200 times a day!
• privacy is a perception

De Rosa:

• users want privacy windows not privacy gates -- they want to be given a level of control (ability to change passwords etc.)
• what people didn't used to want to share: personal health information
• BUT: Google Health, Microsoft's Health Vault. Ways to store your medical records all in one place. Users might be willing to do this for the convenience. Privacy implications.
• (Q&A: Is this because they can get pharmaceutical advertising?)
• 5 years ago people felt this way about financial info
• report: Sharing, Privacy and Trust in our Networked World

Tucker-Raymond:

• Privacy isn't about privacy, it's about anonymity and trust and obscurity

Interactivity

De Rosa:

• technology that doesn't involve me isn't worth sitting still for
• the Internet: 2000 we were browsing; 2003 we were interacting; 2007 we were creating; now we are sharing
• how can we design the library so that users can participate?
• mashups allow you to choose the way you learn.
• books are very social things -- we share them, book groups, etc

The New User

De Rosa:

• by 2010 teenagers will outnumber Baby Boomers
• what users want is simplicity
• Q: what makes people willing to pay for library services? A: make a transformation

Jacobs:

• YouTube video: A vision of students today by anthropologist Michael Wesch
• huge impact: some conferences based on it
• today's child is bewildered when s/he enters the 19th century environment - in the 19th century information was scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns, subjects and schedules
• powerpoint is not the best way to teach but it allows our classes to be big and allows us to move students further away
• we have lost the concept of listening to what students have to say
• 97% of students will arrive with computers; 94% with cellphones; 200 plus million cell phones in the US;
• Information Now generation: they're used to information coming to them

The New Library

De Rosa:

• is it the library's role to build a social networking site?
• users: not sure; but agree that library should do book clubs, discussion groups, community events

Jacobs:

• UC Merced has 2 rules: if you spill something, let us know so we can clean it up, and don't use pizza for a bookmark (is this really engraved on a plaque there?)
• user-centered spaces, bulk of collections online
• no reference desk -- but they provide reference service (online, in their offices and Michelle did it via texting as well)
• It's not the desks that help people, it's the people who help people
• tagging is cataloging for everyone -- we should love this!
• UCLA started Texting reference service July 1
• when you think about an emerging technology, what factors should you consider?:
• is it innovative? what is the technology -- graspable by anyone? impact on education? user centered? shared experience? excitement?

Tucker-Raymond

• it's a mistake to think of virtual reference as a technology -- it's a service
• not trying to be efficient: trying to be effective
• he's not interested in change, he's interested in progress (See Librarian Like Me blog for his advice on planning a virtual reference service)
• define success: if you don't someone else will do it for you -- don't just track statistics -- have goals
• we shouldn't do marketing unless we have done usability testing: how do we name the service something that people will understand?

David Lankes

• technology is the answer: but what was the question?
• contexts are socially derived
• ex: the word formula: chemical combination? Mathematical expression? Baby food? Depends on context
• are librarians consistent? Do we point to reliable resources? (AskEric study -- yes)
• humans relate information together -- we don't store information as chunks
• he laughs when people say books are intuitive to use: takes 8 years+ to learn to read
• catalogs are easy for librarians to use because we spent 2 years getting MLS
• what is your job? Not to get someone to a thing (knowledge as a unit of commodity) but to get someone to an understanding -- to knowledge
• knowledge is about context and connections
• a reference interview is about trying to understand the context
• librarians serve as facilitators of conversation
• you can have a library without collections -- librarians are the library
• (there's much more: audio and slides)

Submitted by: Corliss Lee

The LAUC Statewide Fall Assembly was held at UCSF on December 3, 2008.

Speakers: Roger Schonfeld, Constance Malpas, Emily Stambaugh, Jacob Nadal, Brian Schottlaender

To see agenda, powerpoint presentations, etc., go to Fall Assembly Website and LAUC Assemblies (live) blog (worthwhile!).

• In addition to the presentations, there's a summary of Janet Lockwood's (UCOP) appearance via Skype, talking about the likelihood of UC employees having to contribute to their our retirement plans, the budget, enrollment growth and the UCOP restructuring. (sigh)

Re: the presentations: I know nothing about shared print and found the presentations fascinating. Some random moments:

Roger Schonfeld (Ithaka):

• Interesting statistics about the attitudes of faculty and the attitudes of collection development managers: how crucial is it to retain print copies of journals if we have reliable digital versions?
• Take a guess: is the % of faculty/collection managers at very large research institutions who feel this way higher or lower than the % of faculty/collection managers at smaller institutions? (see the Power Point for the answer!)
• I’m new to this topic so I didn’t know about the complexities of shared print. Do you verify the completeness of journal holdings page by page, and store them with minimal access (“dark copies”)? Or do you verify volume by volume and let them circulate? How many “dark copies” do you need to ensure preservation of the journals? If you don’t have “dark copies” how many “volume verified circulating copies” would you need?

Constance Malpas (OCLC)

• Did you know that California academic libraries own 9% of the nation’s academic library holdings and 8% of the unique print books? And that the largest part of these are held by non-ARL libraries?
• With the heavy degree of interlending between UC libraries and also heavy dependence on borrowing from non-UC libraries: just how much duplication is there among campuses?
• One study showed that 56% of titles borrowed via ILL are held by fewer than 50 libraries; and that 55% of transactions are requested once (in 6 years?)…so much for the idea that we have all this duplication

Emily Stambaugh (CDL)

• What are the UC Libraries doing about this? See Emily's powerpoint slides ...

Jacob Nadal (UCLA Preservation Officer)

• "when people with a preservation background look at the world, they see something rather different and more horrifying than the world you see."
• In preservation, we often look to the museum community; they look back to us as people engaged in intellectual preservation rather than object preservation. We have a larger connection to the wider world.

Submitted by: Pat Maughan

Librarians rank among the best careers per U.S. News and World Report:

The 30 Best Careers for 2009: US News's Annual List of 30 Best Careers Gets Updated for a Rapidly Changing Economy

Agree? Disagree? You decide ...

Submitted by: Ramona Matinez

Dr. Ken Haycock, Professor and Director of the School of Library and Information Science at San José State University, was the program speaker at the Affiliated Libraries Fall Assembly on November 5.  After spending 2 hours in traffic to get to Berkeley from San José, Dr. Haycock had a renewed appreciation for students who prefer distance education.  Under Dr. Haycock, SJSU’s SLIS program has grown from 700 to 2,700 students making it the largest accredited SLIS program in the world.  There is also a new Executive MLIS program offered to students already employed in a library looking to advance their careers without leaving their jobs.

Dr. Haycock has drastically changed the way the SJSU SLIS department is run.  At the beginning of his tenure, the entire department engaged in 3 days of strategic planning to come up with a Vision for 2010 statement including a key component of “contribut[ing] to the well-being of our communities.”  The faculty has grown considerably (38.5 faculty with 23 being full-time.)  Faculty meetings have been replaced with quarterly retreats.  SJSU is now nationally ranked by U.S. News and World Report.  In turn, student entrance and exit standards have been raised to 43 credits and a required electronic portfolio demonstrating 15 core competencies.  The average age of SJSU SLIS students has gone down.  Also, fees have doubled since 2005 but are still the lowest for an MLIS.  See slisweb.sjsu.edu for more information.

Classes are offered using 4 delivery modes:  1) fully residential; 2) fully online; 3) hybrid; and 4) the Executive MLS where a cohort of students stays together throughout the program, taking the same classes in core competencies and management skills.  There are 17 different program tracks.

Dr. Haycock opened the floor for questions and a lively discussion ensued.  Regarding jobs for graduates, Dr. Haycock noted that SJSU turns out the top-earning graduates from “L” schools.  Interestingly enough, the Department of Homeland Security was the largest employer of SJSU graduates.  Creativity and mobility are essential for a successful job search.  As an example, Dr. Haycock related a story about Sun Microsystems.  Sun closed its library and let 4 librarians go.  However, they hired 4 graduates to train in Second Life.  Dr. Haycock expressed the opinion that librarianship is a business and we need to get better at marketing.

In response to a question about archives education, Dr. Haycock said there is a program track offered in archives and that there is a real need in the corporate and government sectors for people educated in archives management.  A Master of Archives and Records Administration (MARA) degree is also offered as a cohort program at SJSU.

Finally, in response to a question about funding, Dr. Haycock explained that his program has a melded funding structure where the regular session is state-supported but the special session is fee-based and the revenue goes straight to the school.

Submitted by: Pat Maughan

4-7 August 2008, Seattle, sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries, University of Washington, and University of Virginia

MAJOR THEMES

Assessment fundamentals

• What do we measure?
• Why do we measure it?

Library accountability is local.

• Therefore libraries need local assessment plans and approaches.
• Accountability is largely local at present.
• Borrow methods from others, not data.
• Consider where your campus is going and how the library fits in.

Library assessment must be institutionally based.

• Understand where your campus is headed and measure how the library is contributing to the overall campus directions.
• Library assessment shouldn't be marginalized.
• Engage everyone in the process.
• Consider partnering with graduate students looking for projects.
• Shared experiences push the institution forward.

INTERESTING PROMISING APPROACHES

Emory University

Rochester University - focus on qualitative approaches

Gave disposable cameras to students with request they photograph:

• What do you always carry with you?
• What parts of the library do you find most confusing?

Gave students a print copy of the top level web with request to:

• Circle what you do use
• Put an X next to what you don't use
• Add a sticky note for anything you think is missing

Gave students a campus map with request to:

• Chart where and when you travel across the campus

Senario writing

• Asked graduate students to imagine they have a magic want and could create any tool possible with it. What would that be?

PROMISING TOOLS

MINES for Libraries: Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services

• an online, transaction-based survey that collects data on the purpose of use of electronic resources and the demographics of users
• adapts a long-established methodology to account for the use of information resources in the digital environment determine the indirect costs of conducting grant-funded R&D activities adopted as part of ARL's New Measures program in May 2003
• Sixteen libraries in Canada have implemented MINES for Libraries through a contract between ARL and the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL). Additional institutions are involved in more extensive, campus-wide, cost analysis.

Counter Project: Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources

• an international initiative serving librarians, publishers and intermediaries by setting standards that facilitate the recording and reporting of online usage statistics in a consistent, credible and compatible way
• The first COUNTER Code of Practice, covering online journals and databases, was published in 2003 coverage was extended further with the launch of the Code of Practice for online books and reference works in 2006.

University of Pennsylvania's Data Farm Initiative

• a repository of quantitative information developed to aid the measurement and assessment of library resource use and organizational performance. In its design, this repository is multipurpose, providing space to assemble, process, integrate, analyze, and disseminate data in a range of topical areas including e-resource tracking, gate counts, interlibrary borrowing, web log analytics, research and instructional services, library quality and impact, staff census and more.

Library Dynamics

LEADING THINKERS INNOVATORS IMPLEMENTERS

EMORY UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

• Rick Luce, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries. Email: rluce@emory.edu
• Jude Keimel, Baldridge Award Examiner and Consultant to Rick Luce, Office of Planning and Assessment

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

• Brinley Franklin, Vice Provost, University Libraries. Email: brinley.franklin@uconn.edu

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LIBRARIES

• Joe Zucca, Director of Planning and Communications. Email: zucca@pobox.upenn.edu
• University of Pennsylvania Data Farm

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA LIBRARIES

• James Self, Director, Management Information Services. Email: self@virginia.edu

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

• Steve Hiller, Director of Assessment and Planning. Email: hiller@u.washington.edu

Other libraries mentioned for their library assessment methods:

• New York University
• Syracuse University
• University of Minnesota

RECOMMENDED READINGS

Designing Ideal Web Pages.

Stevens, Dannell D. and Antonia Levi. Introduction to rubrics : an assessment tool to save grading time, convey effective feedback, and promote student learning. Sterling, Va.: Stylus Pub., 2005.

Suskie, Linda and Paul Lingenfelter. Assessing student learning: a common sense guide. Bolton, Massachusetts: Anker Pub. Co., 2004.

Studying students: the Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester. Edited by Susan Gibbons and Nancy Fried Foster. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2007. (ANTH Z733 U868 .S78 2007, MAIN Z733 U868 .S78 2007). http://staging.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/acrlpubs/downloadables/Foster-Gibbons_cmpd.pdf or http://docushare.lib.rochester.edu/docushare/dsweb/View/Collection-4436

U.S. Department of Education. A test of leadership: charting the future of U.S. Higher Education. A report of the commission appointed by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, September 2006. http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/reports.html

Submitted by: Corliss Lee

A Cross_Cultural Perspective on the Concept of Information - November 18, 2008

A fuller summary will be posted when available. See Professor Burrell's Powerpoint presentation and her faculty web site.

Points I found fascinating:

• Rural Ugandans use cell phones to maintain connections within their existing social network, coordinate trade and business, and save money on transportation.
• They do NOT use cell phones as information delivery devices.
• There is no word in the Ugandan language for information
• Check out the Powerpoint for an example of an amusingly bad interview about the concept of information
• What they often want is a connection to a person who can offer advice, encouragement, training --  it's all about social connections
• Information needs emerge in context
• For information to be useful it needs to be actionable -- for which people often needed money and social connections
• Ugandan's key information technology: radios and bicycles!

Possible connections to our work?

• We can't take for granted that everyone, even Americans, have the same concept of information as we do.
• Many people, including students, still consider people to be their best information source many students, especially first generation college students, need not just information but advice and encouragement.
• Information should always be considered in context!
• We assume our users are lone researchers but what about the social dimension of information use?
• Ubiquity of cell phones -- should we be delivering services via cell phones?
• Technology and socioeconomic status -- a relevant issue even in the US
• Ethnographic methods of studying users -- how Prof Burrell observed rural Ugandan's information needs -- an interesting model for studying our users? And yes, some libraries are already doing this.
• What kinds of information needs and learning take place in Internet cafes?
• Not limited to Uganda: for information to be useful it needs to be actionable!
• Just another reminder that new technologies are not just information delivery systems but communication tools. The bicycle IS an information tool -- and sometimes, information technology lies!
• Who ARE those people behind those African Internet scam e-mails? Another of Professor Burrell's research interests. See the CV on her faculty website for the citation

In case folks haven't discovered this site yet, Library Related Conferences is a chronological list of upcoming U.S and foreign conferences of interest to librarians. Very simple and surprisingly comprehensive, it's maintained by Marian Dworaczek, a librarian at the University of Saskatchewan. For reference, she maintains an archive of conference listings for the past year along with links to the conference websites.

Link: http://homepage.usask.ca/~mad204/CONF.HTM

Submitted by: Armanda Barone

I attended the following session at ALA Annual in Anaheim:

What is the Future of Libraries?

The Washington Office Breakout Session, What is the Future of Libraries? is sponsored by ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP). It will feature a distinguished panel moderated by OITP Fellow Roger Levien, comprising:

• Joan Frye Williams, President, Joan Frye Williams Consulting,
• Stephen Abram, Vice President of Innovation, SirsiDynix
• Jose-Marie Griffiths, Dean and Professor, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

The panel will consider questions such as:

1. What might libraries look like in 10, 20, or 30 years?
2. Which trends in information technology or society are most important or most interesting for the future of libraries, and why?
   
3. Given the evolution in information technology and online services, what are the most promising opportunities for libraries in the coming decade?
   
4. What do the workforce trends today imply about the library services that are delivered tomorrow? And what can be done today to better prepare us for delivering relevant services for the library of the future?

Also at this session, David Lankes, Associate Professor, Syracuse University and OITP Fellow will talk about recent developments in "Participatory Librarianship," an important new direction for the field. Vivian Pisano, Chief of Information Technology, San Francisco Public Library and Alan Inouye, OITP Director, will introduce a new Program on America's Libraries in the 21st Century that will formalize the future of libraries as an activity of ALA.

I expected to hear about all the latest trends and technologies, but, instead, heard from all three the same thing ... connecting people with people is the future. People want to have opportunities to connect with other people.
More can we read about this session via Library Journal online.