Nearly 10,000 library staff, supporters, exhibitors, authors, and guests descended on the Minneapolis Convention Center the last week of March for various workshops and discussions that focused on key issues such as technology; serving adults; youth and new Americans; gaming in libraries; library design; and collection development.
Best-selling travel experts and Authors Arthur Frommer and daughter Pauline Frommer spoke to a crowd of more than 700 attendees. Mr. Frommer stated that his boyhood public library was his town's "only cultural outlet, and it was there I began traveling in my mind." The Frommers also shared various tips and recommendations for traveling overseas and within the U.S. on a budget. They no longer publish “on $40 dollars a day”, instead publishing “budget” guides.
The program highlighting audio books featured best-selling author Jacqueline Winspear; actor, screenwriter and audiobook narrator Scott Brick; and Books on Tape Executive Producer Dan Musselman. Each speaker talked about creating audio books from their own perspective in amusing and informative manners.
In one of the sessions the presenter told about having special shelving for DVDs; it looks like a vending machine but displays the DVDs and provides security. The vendor was present in the exhibit hall so the machine could be viewed.
The conference also offered access to 800 exhibiting companies including top book publishers, who showcased the latest in products and services aimed specifically at public libraries and their users.
One of the best aspects of a gathering of this sort is the opportunity to informally exchange ideas with librarians from all across the U.S. and Canada. If you plan to go to Cape May, New Jersey take your own reading material; they do not allow non-residents/non-property owners to check out materials and all online registrants must provide ID when picking up their cards. Several libraries around the country have staff work only one weekend a month, both Saturday and Sunday. I was surprised how many libraries out there still do not have session management.
Many of the seminars I attended dealt with merchandising libraries; making sure the displays were secure, timely, and uncluttered. Another seminar dealt with preschool story time observations. This discussion was lead by librarians from Columbus, Ohio Public Library; there was a lot of interest in their formal procedure and forms for observing and evaluating preschool programs, in-depth training of new children’s librarians, and established traveling program boxes.
A highlight of my visit to Minneapolis was a tour of Minneapolis Central Library. This new 353,000 square-foot Library with a 2.4 million-item collection opened in 2006. It is a spectacular combination of architecture, technology, a separate teen center, and a really fun children’s room and discovery center. With this new building with all the extras, they seem to have spent all the money on the building and are left with half filled shelves. Items returned are put through a book slot that reads their RFID tags, puts them on the correct conveyor belt and then drops them in the appropriate box for shelving or delivery to another branch. The Teen Center is in its own area that floats over the street. It clearly is for teens and subtly discourages adults. It is the only area in the library that allows food and drink. (Drinks are allowed in other parts of the library) The book cases are gorgeous red stained wood for face out display, tile floors, special furniture and speakers for their games. Bean bag chairs were piled in the corner unused. One room has specially finished walls to allow the kids to write “graffiti”. Teens were sprawled around reading and plugged in. Not only was the building beautiful but throughout the library were fantastic pieces of art, mostly folk art reflective of the Minnesota heritage. The Children’s Room had a built in activity wall as you approached it and lively art work throughout. There is a “museum” within the library, a FOL store, and a coffee shop. Throughout the building are computers and study tables and rolling shelves accessible to the public. There is paid parking underground for and in the vicinity for $3 an hour payable at machines similar to the ones at Bethesda and Rockville libraries.
The day after I left they had several inches of new snow!!
Friday, April 25, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Great Books
On April 1, 2008, I attended "Great Books" in Baltimore. It is a two day annual event. Librarians, teachers, and other adults from Maryland attended one of the two days.
Prior to the event, each attendee read thirteen specific books published in 2007. At the event, the attendees met with with the "Great Books" facilitators, and discussed books geared to three different reading groups: picture books, children's books, and young adult books.
After a buffet lunch, we had the option of purchasing books by guest speaker Bruce Coville. Bruce Coville has written many children's books dealing with magic and/or fantasy. Mr. Coville's lecture, which followed, was humorous.
Great Books is valuable because it requires you to be up-to-date by reading recently published books. This is useful as a reader's advisory. The individual book discussion sessions let you hear other people's reactions to the books in a nurturing environment.
Prior to the event, each attendee read thirteen specific books published in 2007. At the event, the attendees met with with the "Great Books" facilitators, and discussed books geared to three different reading groups: picture books, children's books, and young adult books.
After a buffet lunch, we had the option of purchasing books by guest speaker Bruce Coville. Bruce Coville has written many children's books dealing with magic and/or fantasy. Mr. Coville's lecture, which followed, was humorous.
Great Books is valuable because it requires you to be up-to-date by reading recently published books. This is useful as a reader's advisory. The individual book discussion sessions let you hear other people's reactions to the books in a nurturing environment.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
4 Stars for CIL 2008
Attending CIL 2008 was a stimulating, informative, and challenging experience. I’ve come away with some understanding of new concepts, inspiration from the activities and mindsets of other libraries, a list of resources to explore, several useful tidbits, and a very long list of things I want to learn.
My concept of tagging and folkonomies has broaden, and I’ve a new respect for this “democratic” development of descriptive subject terms. The librarian brain craves a system of classification and bibliographic control. The subject terms that emerge through tagging can be more representative of how people actual think, then what gotten laid down in stone by Dewey and the Library of Congress.
Speaking of the Library of Congress and community contributions to metadata, I found out about a great project that LC did in connection with Flickr http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/flickr_pilot.html . They posted 3,000+ photos from the depression and World War II. They said that they would “look forward to learning what kinds of tags and comments these images inspire” , and the results were far greater than they expected. People who viewed them on Flickr added updated information and photos on the people, buildings, and landscapes. This type of participation has given meaning to me to the term “social media”.
I was particularly inspired by the philosophy and services at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library. Their main library offers a “Virtual Village Communication Center”. It offers customers a full range of resources to support their participation in the creation of high-tech media. Take a look! http://www.plcmc.lib.nc.us/Locations/mainVirtualVillage.asp
One resource I learned about that is of interest to all of us is www.LibWorm.com . It acts as a search engine for the content of 1400+ RSS feeds from sites that cover our library world. As more library folks have come to use the web for their professional communications, the more valuable LibWorm has become. I gave it a try and checked for info on building libraries. Got a great hit for an slide essay from Slate entitled “ Borrowed Time: How Do You Build a Public Library in the Age of Google” http://www.slate.com/id/2184927 .
As for my learning list, I’ve just set up Google Reader to view RSS feeds I’ve selected, and have been migrating over to http://del.icio.us/ for my bookmarks. Next on the list is Flickr!
For me, CIL is the best staff development experience I can think for stretching my mind. I give it 4 stars! Gail - Silver Spring Library
My concept of tagging and folkonomies has broaden, and I’ve a new respect for this “democratic” development of descriptive subject terms. The librarian brain craves a system of classification and bibliographic control. The subject terms that emerge through tagging can be more representative of how people actual think, then what gotten laid down in stone by Dewey and the Library of Congress.
Speaking of the Library of Congress and community contributions to metadata, I found out about a great project that LC did in connection with Flickr http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/flickr_pilot.html . They posted 3,000+ photos from the depression and World War II. They said that they would “look forward to learning what kinds of tags and comments these images inspire” , and the results were far greater than they expected. People who viewed them on Flickr added updated information and photos on the people, buildings, and landscapes. This type of participation has given meaning to me to the term “social media”.
I was particularly inspired by the philosophy and services at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library. Their main library offers a “Virtual Village Communication Center”. It offers customers a full range of resources to support their participation in the creation of high-tech media. Take a look! http://www.plcmc.lib.nc.us/Locations/mainVirtualVillage.asp
One resource I learned about that is of interest to all of us is www.LibWorm.com . It acts as a search engine for the content of 1400+ RSS feeds from sites that cover our library world. As more library folks have come to use the web for their professional communications, the more valuable LibWorm has become. I gave it a try and checked for info on building libraries. Got a great hit for an slide essay from Slate entitled “ Borrowed Time: How Do You Build a Public Library in the Age of Google” http://www.slate.com/id/2184927 .
As for my learning list, I’ve just set up Google Reader to view RSS feeds I’ve selected, and have been migrating over to http://del.icio.us/ for my bookmarks. Next on the list is Flickr!
For me, CIL is the best staff development experience I can think for stretching my mind. I give it 4 stars! Gail - Silver Spring Library
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Great Books Consortium 2008 -Baltimore
This year's Great Books guest speaker was Bruce Coville. He was very entertaining, inspirational and thought provoking. He talked about putting the joy back into children's literature;how librarians can help by encouraging children to read and write, keeping a journal and how important it is for men to read to children. He spoke of his love for children and his elementary teaching years. He's a wonderful storyteller. He told two stories-"Prince of Butterflies" and "The Great Debate". I was very interested to hear him say we have to put back the spirituality in our children and their culture. He pointed out how the media destroys children. How we make reading so important the first 18yrs and then take it away when the kids get to college.
He emphasized the gender gap in reading. How boys are taught by women to read, but very few male role models read to them. This should be changed. We need more male teachers at the elementary level.
My three breakout groups were excellent. My favorite was the historical fiction- Kids session. We all enjoyed Peak -Roland Smith. It’s so good to be in a group where everyone enjoys the same genre. Other books in this group were Close to the Wind: The Beaufort Scale, Iron Thunder: The Battle between the Monitor & the Merrimac by Avi and Night of the Howling Dogs by Salisbury.
My Teens book session included Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, Re-gifters, Rucker Park Setup and Dramarama. Re-gifters is a good graphic novel for teens, with a Korean girl as the main character. Finally the picture books were The Golden Rule- Cooper, Help! A Story of Friendship- Keller, This Is Just To Say-Sidman, Nothing But Trouble-Stauffacher and My Friend is Sad and Today I will Fly-Williams.
Attending this workshop helps me keep abreast of current children’s and YA literature so I can do readers advisory at more age levels. I enjoy the open discussion in the breakout groups and hearing different opinions. I have suggested titles for us to buy from attending the Great Books Workshop.
Ginger Wilson, Twinbrook
He emphasized the gender gap in reading. How boys are taught by women to read, but very few male role models read to them. This should be changed. We need more male teachers at the elementary level.
My three breakout groups were excellent. My favorite was the historical fiction- Kids session. We all enjoyed Peak -Roland Smith. It’s so good to be in a group where everyone enjoys the same genre. Other books in this group were Close to the Wind: The Beaufort Scale, Iron Thunder: The Battle between the Monitor & the Merrimac by Avi and Night of the Howling Dogs by Salisbury.
My Teens book session included Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, Re-gifters, Rucker Park Setup and Dramarama. Re-gifters is a good graphic novel for teens, with a Korean girl as the main character. Finally the picture books were The Golden Rule- Cooper, Help! A Story of Friendship- Keller, This Is Just To Say-Sidman, Nothing But Trouble-Stauffacher and My Friend is Sad and Today I will Fly-Williams.
Attending this workshop helps me keep abreast of current children’s and YA literature so I can do readers advisory at more age levels. I enjoy the open discussion in the breakout groups and hearing different opinions. I have suggested titles for us to buy from attending the Great Books Workshop.
Ginger Wilson, Twinbrook
Computers In Libraries
Go to http://cil2008.pbwiki.com/ or the official site http://www.infotoday.com/cil2008/ to see what was covered. The emphasis of this annual conference (the 23rd) was: INNOVATIVE CHANGE: Integrating High Tech With High Touch.
At the start of each day a keynote speaker addressed the crowd. On Day 1 we heard from Lee Raino, Director, Pew Internet and American Life Project http://www.pewinternet.org/
Mr. Raino discussed how the project paid “particular attention to those who have limited access to the internet and the ways in which libraries might serve them”. In the past year for example, 80% of the American population (169 million people), experienced at least one problem that entailed internet research. 53% of American adults visited a library in the past year. 62% of young adults 18 to 30 made the most visits. 60% of online teens in 2008 use the internet at libraries; up 36% since 2000. Wireless internet connectivity has grown from 0% in 2000 to 62% in 2008. There is no difference in use of libraries among ethnic groups. He concluded by saying that we need to market our services. We need to get feedback and give training. He said “your un-patrons are primed to seek you out”. This is an era of social networking – “aspire to be a node in peoples’ social networks”.
On Day 1, I attended the following presentations, mostly in the ‘Information Discovery and Search’ track.
Super Searcher Shares 30 Search Tips
Mobile Search
What’s New With Federated Search
Text Mining Open Sources
Library Staff Training: High Tech & High Touch
The keynote address on Day 2 was presented by members of the Shanachietour, a group of dynamic Dutch librarians who traveled the USA in 2007 seeking best practices in libraries.
http://www.infotoday.com/mls/mar08/Boekesteijn.shtml# http://www.shanachietour.com/
The rest of the day I attended the following sessions:
Next Generation Library Interfaces
Transparency, Planning, & Change: See-Through Libraries
Libraries as Laboratories for Innovation
Facebook Apps & Libraries Friendly Future
Video, YouTube , & Libraries
On Day 3 the Keynote Speaker was Elizabeth Lawley, Director, Lab for Social Computing, Rochester Institute of Technology. Ms Lawley spoke of the library as a “Center of Happiness”. She said we must put the ‘fun back into functional’ and said ‘virtual is not making tangible go away’. Gaming was a big part of her presentation, as well as a major component of the conference. I didn’t attend any of the sessions on ‘Gaming and Virtual Worlds’, but it does play a major role in how people, especially of the millennial generation, learn and presumably retain information.
Sessions attended on Day 3-
Speed Searching: Tips & Tricks for Speeding Up the Search Process
One Click Ahead: Best of Resource Shelf
Google Tracking: What’s New at Google & It’s Competitors
What’s Hot in RSS & Social Software
I’m not sure if I can or want to ‘aspire to be a node in peoples’ social networks’, but I was glad to see what other library systems and individuals are doing to make their services more innovative and open to the new technology and it’s applications that we must learn to adapt to, to remain relevant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX0-nqRmtos
“15 Insanely Useful Websites” (from Steven M. Cohen’s presentation).
Audiobooksforfree.com
Buyitlater.com
Executiveplanet.com
Gethuman.com
Gpoaccess.gov
Infomine.com
Citeseerx.ist.psu.edu
Metacarta.com
Mobileleap
Vtuner.com
Publicradiofan.com
Cooliris.com
Lyricwiki.org
Mortgageprofessor.com
Opencrsnetwork.com
Retailmenot.com
Michael Marx
Monday, April 21, 2008
Great Books Celebration 2008
On April 2nd I attended the "Great Books Celebration" sponsored by the Consortium of Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, and Howard County. The first hour the three committes (picture books, kids books, teen books) presented their favorites among the lists they compiled. Too many to ennumerate here but the lists also have annotations so I recommend getting them from a colleague who attended.
We then broke out into our discussion groups. I attended the "You're My Best Friend" picture group - books read were: "The Golden Rule" by Cooper; "Help! A Story of Friendship" by Keller; "This Is Just to Say" by Sidman; "Nothing But Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson" by Stauffacher; "My Friend is Sad" and "Today I Will Fly" by Willems. We discussed the pros and cons of the books and how they could be used and/or displayed to encourage customers to check them out. The second session I attended was called "Who Let the Dogs Out?" - books read were: "City of Dogs" by Michael; "Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam" by Kadohata; "How to Steal a Dog" by O'Connor; and "Marley: A Dog Like No Other" by Grogan. These were all juvenile titles. The books included fantasy, realistic fiction, historical fiction and nonfiction. Again it was useful to discuss the pros and cons of these titles. The last session I attended was called "Who I Was" - books read were: "Before I Die" by Downham; "Does My Head Look Big in This?" by Abdel-Fattah; "Parrotfish" by Wittlinger; and "Story of a Girl" by Zarr. These were all young adult titles. Again we discussed pros and cons of the titles and more importantly what audience they were intended for.
The speaker this year was Bruce Coville author of many children's books ("My Teacher is an Alien", "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" etc.). Some of the more interesting points he made were that boys often do not have male role models at the elementary school level (men who read books) and the same could be said for Children's Librarians as most of us are women as well. He also lamented that U.S. publishers often are concerned with length in children's books but British publisher do not. He pointed out how kids will read lengthy books if it's something they are interested and excited about (i.e. Harry Potter). Side note - he is also a very entertaining speaker.
I know that the information I gleaned from these sessions will help me with reader's advisory questions, book talks, and I may use some of the titles in the children's book discussion group that I run at Fairland Library. I definitely recommend to other librarians who have an interest in children's and teen books to attend next year.
We then broke out into our discussion groups. I attended the "You're My Best Friend" picture group - books read were: "The Golden Rule" by Cooper; "Help! A Story of Friendship" by Keller; "This Is Just to Say" by Sidman; "Nothing But Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson" by Stauffacher; "My Friend is Sad" and "Today I Will Fly" by Willems. We discussed the pros and cons of the books and how they could be used and/or displayed to encourage customers to check them out. The second session I attended was called "Who Let the Dogs Out?" - books read were: "City of Dogs" by Michael; "Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam" by Kadohata; "How to Steal a Dog" by O'Connor; and "Marley: A Dog Like No Other" by Grogan. These were all juvenile titles. The books included fantasy, realistic fiction, historical fiction and nonfiction. Again it was useful to discuss the pros and cons of these titles. The last session I attended was called "Who I Was" - books read were: "Before I Die" by Downham; "Does My Head Look Big in This?" by Abdel-Fattah; "Parrotfish" by Wittlinger; and "Story of a Girl" by Zarr. These were all young adult titles. Again we discussed pros and cons of the titles and more importantly what audience they were intended for.
The speaker this year was Bruce Coville author of many children's books ("My Teacher is an Alien", "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" etc.). Some of the more interesting points he made were that boys often do not have male role models at the elementary school level (men who read books) and the same could be said for Children's Librarians as most of us are women as well. He also lamented that U.S. publishers often are concerned with length in children's books but British publisher do not. He pointed out how kids will read lengthy books if it's something they are interested and excited about (i.e. Harry Potter). Side note - he is also a very entertaining speaker.
I know that the information I gleaned from these sessions will help me with reader's advisory questions, book talks, and I may use some of the titles in the children's book discussion group that I run at Fairland Library. I definitely recommend to other librarians who have an interest in children's and teen books to attend next year.
CiL 2008
One of the more interesting presentations I attended at Computers in Libraries was Library Web Presence: Engaging the Audience. In the first presentation, entitled Penn State Libraries Research JumpStart: A Fully "Widgetized" Interface, PSU librarians demonstrated how library widgets (small, portable versions of library tools) allow undergraduates to take their favorite pieces from CAT, the PSU library catalog, and move them to other websites such as Facebook, iGoogle, or to any website they want them. The widgets in CAT were designed for use primarily by undergraduates and provide a clean and simple access to catalog searches, including Proquest, as well as quick links to university services. In the second presentation, entitled LibGuides, Temple University librarians described a subject guide management system known as LibGuides which was used to enhance Temple's subject guides. LibGuides incorporates dynamic content such as RSS feeds, widgets, audio, video, search forms, and user comments. Furthermore, LibGuides moved Temple from a Web 1.0 to a Web 2.0 platform, providing ease of use and editing, instant results, flexibility, modular content, and interactivity. Both presentations demonstrated how the use of widgets and interactive subject guides can greatly improve library web services and simplify user interface.
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