Saturday
Dutifully, I had pre-selected some possible sessions of interest in the advance catalog, and then narrowed them down on-site based on my mood and the proximity of the presentation. Partway through my first day, I realized that my selection of sessions to attend was not random after all; it was taking on a theme. Totally unconsciously I had embarked upon an exploration of digital rights.
Staying Alive: Books Through Print On Demand Technology
This session addressed who is involved in Print on Demand, what publishers are doing, in-house and outsourced print on demand options, as well what libraries should consider when binding print-on-demand materials. Speakers: Bruce Jacobsen, Executive Vice President, Bridgeport National Bindery; Lynn Terhune, POD and USR Administrator, John Wiley and Sons; Gary Frost, University of Iowa; Kristin McDonough, New York Public Library
The presentation didn’t tell me much new on the production of Print on Demand (POD) books. The relevance of POD seems more applicable to academic libraries and special collections that need one or two copies of a rare or limited title; POD is expensive and not viable for large print runs of high demand books. I didn’t get any clear answers to my questions about who protects the rights of the author when Mr. Jacobsen mentioned that Bridgeport Bindery would print and bind any document if a library provided them with an electronic file. Of particular interest to me was the New York Public Library’s public experiment with a Print on Demand machine at the Science, Industry and Business Library, which allowed patrons to select from a list of books then watch the Espresso Machine print and bind it for them. The machine looked like this:
They offered eleven books from the Open Content Alliance, and two contemporary books from authors who allowed their books to be printed this way. I had to smile when Kristin McDonough described the recognizable apprehension of circulation staff members who were sure they would be stuck helping with the machine. As it was, staff intervention was needed to reformat text and make decisions on size, paper, cover, etc., but I don’t believe that the circulation staff was expected to help with that This was a three month long exhibit set up as a demonstration. A long lead time was needed to set up the project and address concerns such as accommodating the weight, size, and noise of the machine. 1125 books were published. The Expresso machine might be a great way to publish limited runs of library in-house publications but it is very expensive. This blogger took some very good notes on the session.Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property
This IFRT sponsored screening of the film that shares the title of the session was followed by a panel discussion about fair use and free speech with co-producers Kembrew McLeod and Jeremy Smith, and others. Based on McLeod’s award-winning book of the same title (Doubleday, 2005— only 3 copies in MCPL), Freedom of Expression ® explores the battles being waged in courts, classrooms, museums, film studios, and the Internet over control of our cultural commons.
The film was entertaining and eye-opening. The speakers pointed out the problems with the extension of copyright under recent laws which open up the path for copyright to be used as a tool of censorship, and of our litigious society where exorbitant fees are charged for what should be fair use or for materials that should be in the public domain. These issues highlight the impact of copyright abuse on the flow of information to citizens which has a negative effect on democracy.
Here are some clips from the movie that give a very thorough overview of content.
Related links:
Illegal Art
Free Culture
By the way, a few years back University of Iowa professor Kembrew McLeod trademarked the phrase "Freedom of Expression"--then hired a lawyer to see if he could sue for infringement. I thought that was pretty funny.
Science Fiction and Fantasy: Looking at Information Technology and the Information Rights of the Individual
A panel of science fiction and fantasy authors—Cory Doctorow, Eric Flint, Vernor Vinge and Brandon Sanderson, all experts in the field of information technology, access to information, and the rights of individuals—discussed the visionary nature of their craft, how speculative literature suggests new ideas and technologies, and the possible impacts these developments could have on society in the future, especially what can happen to copyright, digital rights, and intellectual freedom.
Vernor Vinge, who writes high tech science fiction, mentioned an essay entitled “Googling the Victorians”, written by Patrick Leary(Journal of Victorian Culture, 2005) which shows what fortuitous intellectual connections can be made when the work of an era is digitalized and shaken up. This speaks to the positive benefits for research of digitalization that supplements what can be found in the library but which can be thwarted by jealously guarded copyrights. I discovered another example of that fortuitous connection myself in a New York Times on-line an article about the disputed authorship of the serenity prayer. This prayer is usually attributed to Protestant theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr. His daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, wrote a book on the subject which placed the composition around 1943:
“Now, a law librarian at Yale, using new databases of archival documents, has found newspaper clippings and a book from as far back as 1936 that quote close versions of the prayer. The quotations are from civic leaders all over the United States — a Y.W.C.A. leader in Syracuse, a public school counselor in Oklahoma City — and are always, interestingly, by women.
Some refer to the prayer as if it were a proverb, while others appear to claim it as their own poetry. None attribute the prayer to a particular source. And they never mention Reinhold Niebuhr.” (Serenity Prayer Stirs Up Doubt: Who Wrote It? Laurie Goodstein. NYT, July 11, 2008)
Without digitalization, these connections may never have been made, yet, as might be expected, Sifton has a rebuttal that, in part, derides the technology used to reveal these instances.
Vinge points out that assaults on fair use can also come from those who depend on their work for their income. This is a bad thing? I wondered. Two authors on this panel, however, stated that they had posted entire works of theirs for free on the Internet and found it not only didn’t take away from the sales of their hardcopy books, it even increased their sales by winning them new readers. People like to have things in multiple formats was the consensus. I found this blog post about releasing books under a Creative Commons license to be relevant to the speaker’s words. Vinge did say, though, that you should be careful what software you digitalize into because if the software is proprietary, that in itself can take away access from others.
Fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson talked more about his own work than the others did: he says he adds magic that works scientifically to an imaginary world and then explores its impact. He elaborates that most fantasy is set in a euchronia—an idealized time period (Steampunk, Merry Olde England, and Regency Romance were cited as examples). His says his wizards are really scientists in an idealized time. I then had to come home and figure out how to spell 'euchronia' so I could look it up. Sanderson had some excellent insights into Fantasy despite being the youngest author there. Fantasy talks about what we wish would happen rather than science fiction which predicts based on what we already know. The Hero King in fantasy speaks to our need for unification—and is what we really look for in modern politics. The wizard used to be more mysterious but in recent times more often becomes the viewpoint character indicating that knowledge is power. That the common boy can become master of the magic (information) means that we all can. Based on his experience of not becoming a reader until his teens, he said that if we teach people to love information then they will seek information themselves. Give a kid a book he will enjoy and he will find the classics for himself later.
Eric Flint writes alternate history and is editor of the on-line magazine Jim Baen’s Universe. He says that times threaten a Dark Age of Information. Much of what he had to say echoed the film Freedom of Expression ®, such as: copyright terms are too long—The Bern Convention states life plus 50 years, and in the U.S. it is life plus 70 years. He referenced two speeches to Parliament on copyright by 19th century British politician Thomas Macaulay as relevant to this topic even today. They are available on-line from the Baen Free Library if you click the "Prime Palaver by Eric Flint" link in the left sidebar .
The panelists agreed that current copyright law benefits large companies, not individual authors and artists and their families. As in the film, Flint talked about the intellectual land grabs made by large corporations like Disney who profit from preventing material from entering the public domain (ironically even though Disney plundered the public domain for his material). Copyright law can force a book out of print and destroy a writer’s heritage because it has become too hard sometimes to track down who the legitimate copyright holder is. (Only today I read an article about the dispute over the rights to Andre Norton’s copyrights) With the advent of the digital era, people are snatching up the rights to what they can, distorting the concept of fair use and revising the definition out of existence. Also, creators are too defensive of their rights. I am guilty of this myself. I was upset when several websites posted a whole story of mine without permission under the impression that it was a legitimate “first chapter” sample of a short story collection. My feeling was that it infringed upon my rights and the ability to sell the story in the future. If I listen to these speakers, however, then maybe I need to revise my thinking, because they are telling me that expanded fair use allows people to discover you and decide if they like you. They may not buy the short story collection for my story but they might buy one of my novels.
Last to speak was Cory Doctorow author, co-editor of the popular blog Boing Boing, as well as Fellow and spokesperson of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the leading civil liberties group defending rights in the digital world. He says that copying is not what the Internet is best at. What it’s best at is being a cheap way to take collective action. In an era in which we have access to all human knowledge, the Internet is a perfect enlightenment machine. He describes copyright law as part of the fight for the future of collective action—whether we will have the tools to control our fate. We don’t want others to take that away from us.
The anarchist in me was totally in tune with what the presenters at this and the previous session had to say about the evils of copyright—yet the author and copyright holder in me was screaming—OMG! It made me realize that a balance must be found.
A perk of this program was that everyone received a bag of books, courtesy of TOR Books, and we were able to have them signed by the authors.
Saturday Night
I had dinner with some YA and children’s book authors who I know from on-line. It was fun to meet them in person and talk shop. After, some of us went to the Simon & Schuster desert party and had ice cream. Yum! Always working at these things, however, I listened to several authors chat up their books to me. The next day, one of them who felt we had a particular simpatico gave me a signed copy of his book.
Sunday
(And I want to assure you that I got out of bed much earlier than I ever do on Sundays, usually.)
Library 2.0 and Children’s Services
Lynn Hahn and David Lee King explored how Library 2.0 can make life in a children’s department easier--from the department’s website to planning and advertising programming. Library 2.0 offers a more user centered approach to library services and I was excited to hear what suggestions they had for implementing 2.0 apps. I was disappointed that far too much time was spent explaining what Library 2.0 was. Having already done 23 Things, I was well aware of what it was—I wanted to cut to the chase.
The first speaker was David lee King, Digital Branch & Services Manager at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. I was interested to hear him say that Web 2.0 parallels game development—interactive, collaborative, sharing of information, creating community. He confirmed what we have already begun to see, that Wii unites younger and older people.
I was mostly concerned with the demonstrations of how other libraries have utilized Library 2.0 for children, and although some examples were for adult use, I could usually see applications for children’s service.
The Ann Arbor library uses tags in their catalog as well as traditional subject headings. I wasn’t sure if the tags were staff or patron generated because I couldn’t see a way of adding a tag myself, but it would be a good way of making sure an item can be found by someone who doesn’t know library subject heading speak. Their main page is a blog. Hmmmmm! I wonder what a Kidsite as blog would look like? I thought. It would be constantly changing—that’s a good thing. What he didn’t mention is that Ann Arbor has a really cool interactive feature where patrons can scrawl notes on an old-fashioned catalog card. I bet kids love that.
Topeka Public Library has a website that is mostly blog, too, making it easy to update.
Teachers are using blogs to help their students writing and communication skills as well as track their student projects. Examples of blogs created by kids were shown—the ones by younger children were child/teacher collaborations.
It makes sense for us to include interactive features for children on our websites. They are already living in an interactive world. Children’s toys now sometimes include an on-line element. For example:
Webkinz—When you buy the toy you are given a secret code so you can adopt a pet on-line, create a room for the pet, and interact with other kids.
Neopets—Another virtual world for children
Build-a-Bear—Build your custom teddy bear, buy it, and take it on virtual adventures with you.
And there are Second Life type realities for kids, such as Runescape
Web sites for children should not be static. They should push out news and events and new materials, and provide ways to connect with others. I think our redesign of Kidsite needs to have content that can be changed easily and often.
The Saint Joseph County Public Library uses a wiki for subject guides. Patrons can add content under the “discussion” tab and the wiki format allows staff to quickly change information.
Wikis could be adapted for kids’ interests—such as a game cheat code wiki, or how to deal with problems at school.
Instant messaging provides a real time communication tool. With Meebo people can now even combine all their accounts into one master account. Meebo widgets can be embedded on web pages and can be used to answer questions from kids as soon as they come in—if staffed.
Podcasts and videocasts can add attractive content for kids. Podcasts can be set up on iTunes
and video blogs loaded to YouTube, then linked to or embedded in library sites. Kids already use these sites all the time. Some classes use video blogs to track projects.
The Thomas Ford Memorial Libraryhas Click-a-Story. When I clicked, the sound file opened in Windows Media Player which I have set as my default media player. The MP3 file is transportable to a portable player, also. The staff appears to be careful to use stories in the public domain.
Just think, a book review video cast could be embedded as a YouTube video on the library web page and possibly reach 1000 people rather than the 10 who might come to a local library. The web is now not only a user generated universe but is turning into a digital PLACE.
Lynn Hahn, children’s librarian, and a colleague of Ing Kalchthaler of the Bethel Park Public Library near Pittsburgh, filled in for Ing as the second speaker. She also presented examples of 2.0 use by libraries.
Hahn emphasized the usefulness of blogs for staff to communicate with each other which confirmed my feelings that we should use them much more. We should have a children’s services blog, and a summer reading club blog, and blogs for various committees to convey to staff what they have accomplished. (In particular I have found writing up this conference as a blog to be an extension of my learning experience, as I track down supplemental information on the Web and check out the links I noted at the presentations.) Here’s a good staff blog.
Blogs are excellent tools for our public, too. The speaker suggested we look at the Darien Library Children’s blog. There the librarians publicize programs and books. The Needham Free Public Library children’s blog is attractive, as well. Maybe we could even create something that had content beyond that. I can really see the Kidsite front page as a blog. We could have all sorts of topics and have the standard links to content on the sidebar.
Hahn mentioned the Stevens County Wiki Project as a good use of wikis by a library that allows the public to contribute to content. “The wiki project is dedicated to creating an online wiki guide to Stevens County, Washington.” I have to admit that wikis look a little visually boring to me and I still find them a little confusing if not well done.
I asked Hahn what she would suggest for making a children’s library web page with the most impact. She said:
• Add something interactive right up front.
• Use animation.
• Let kid’s contribute
• Perhaps have a weekly question and post the (moderated) answers
David Lee King said he would post notes for the session on his blog but I don’t see them yet.
Exhibits
I hung out for a while at my publisher’s booth were I ran into authors that I knew and was introduced so some I didn’t know. The handy thing about being published is you get to know some of the sales and promotion staff at your publishing house and then when they move on to other publishers they still tell you about books and give you free copies. I came back with or mailed some advance reading copies to consider for the collection and made lots of notes on books that might be good for MCPS, and on sequels soon to be published. I had a look at the comics and graphic novel booths because it’s hard to judge those materials without examining them. One vendor emailed some fliers to my library in-box as I stood there with him.
I like to keep my eye out for subjects I’ve been asked for by staff but never seen in the catalogs or journals. I didn’t find any obscure treasures this time around, though.
I also like to walk down the aisles at the ends of the exhibits where the more obscure vendors are. They are so grateful! LOL Although, at one point, I found myself inexplicably having my hands massaged with cream by some nice young man before I knew what was happening. “If you order now you get two for the price of one, plus two more, plus these travel jars…” The glow vanished when he told me the price of the cream. It was like being in an infomercial, though.
Newbery/Caldecott Award Speeches
Brian Selznick (Caldecott winner for The Invention of Hugo Cabret) and Laura Amy Schlitz
(Newbery winner for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village) gave two of the best speeches I have ever heard at this event.
Brian Selznick started his speech by addressing the usual chestnut of “where I was when I got the call” by presenting a brilliant and hilarious filmed sequence of drawings in the style of the book. He went on the talk of his childhood favorite, Remy Charlip, who he finally met and was mentored by as an adult, then brought tears to many eyes by joyously proclaiming his delight that Mr. Charlip was right there in the audience that night to see him receive his award.
I wasn’t sure that Laura Amy Schlitz could follow that act—but I was wrong. The woman got up there in full children’s librarian mode and couched her entire speech in stories that held us as spellbound as are, no doubt, the children she sees in her Baltimore area school.
Look at your latest edition of Horn Book for the speeches.
Monday
Visual Literacy Ain’t Just Watching Ads
This is what the program book promised: Decoders, fluent readers and finally expressive readers and writers—these stages apply to visual literacy as well as to reading print. In an image-drenched world, we’ll look at the rhetorical situation of an image, examine some signs and symbols, and see how point of view is created by interaction of the reader, audience, and medium. We’ll consider some emerging issues and teaching strategies for various types of images.
Speakers: Debbie Abilock, Consultant/Co-Founder, NoodleTools, Inc.
This was very disappointing and nothing like how I interpreted the content from the description of the session. I thought the speaker would cover a range of visual art and would inform my purchasing of visual materials for children by cluing me in to the way that children of various ages interpret and decode what they see. Instead it seemed to be a primer for adults on how to interpret photographs (some too mature in content for elementary aged children) and how they might possibly convey those skills to children in a classroom setting. While some of the content was interesting, nevertheless, the presenter seemed to be parroting distilled information from a longer course and had a condescending and impatient attitude with the audience whom she cajoled into participating yet scolded when she couldn’t hear what they said in the room that was too large for that sort of interactive format.
I’ll check out her website to see if there is anything more useful there. Well, here’s her PowerPoint. It still seems somewhat incomprehensible to me and some of the images are different from those in the presentation. Oh, well.
So, there’s my ALA. I won’t tell you about my subsequent road trip up the coast to the San Francisco area with my college friend. Girls’ Road Trip! Woohoo!
I have to say that this was the most accessible ALA conference that I have been to. Everything I went to was in walking distance so I spent zero on cabs and never had to set foot on a Gale shuttle bus. And the weather was gorgeous. If you haven’t gone to an ALA annual conference, you should try it some time. Go on. I’ll tell you where the parties are.
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