Tame The Web

If librarians are ultimately responsible for marketing librarians and library services, then the schools that prepare future librarians must offer the necessary training. Right? Well, not really. Carol Tenopir of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, School of Information Sciences, stated that library schools tend to emphasize the skills and knowledge that a librarian needs to do the job. “Schools do not focus on how to market to a constituency.”(1)

From the ALA Marginalia Blog, Jenny Levine writes:

Just a quick note to say how happy we are about the response to ALA Connect. We’ve received many positive emails, tweets, and more about the site, but even better – folks are checking it out and using it. This can be difficult to see, as many working groups are not posting their content publicly, but we’re only a couple of weeks into this new endeavor, so we expect content in the working groups and communities will continue to grow, especially going into Annual Conference.

Here are some early numbers from the site’s first two weeks:

• 1588 people have logged in (1395 ALA members + 193 non-ALA members)
• # of new communities created by ALA members and staff: 22
• # of posts: 124 total
• # of online documents: 124 total
• # of calendar events: 125 total
• # of polls/votes: 14 total
• # of discussions: 32 total
• # of images: 24 total

So stuff is happening on the site – what’s happening in your groups?

Yesterday I took some time and explored the site, joined a group or two and created a community for LIS Educators and people interested in library schools: http://connect.ala.org/node/73593  This will also be my way of learning how things work within this blossoming online community. I posted a couple of discussion type things to see how it goes. Take a look.

Here’s my profile: http://connect.ala.org/user/23379

50. Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority.

Today, bloggers from all over the world are responding to the 95 points of the Cluetrain Manifesto, which is ten years old: “Cluetrainplus10 is a project to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the manifesto. On Tuesday April 28, 95 bloggers around the world will each write a blog post on one of the 95 theses.”

I chose #50, above, as one I might comment on because it speaks to the model I’ve been working on in my talks “The Hyperlinked Library” and because it makes me question how we staff and manage our libraries. In fact, it also speaks to LIS education.

Way back in 2006 (years ago in Internet time), I wrote about the Cluetrain often. I was usually commenting on using The Cluetrain Manifesto in my teaching at Dominican and in presentations. I’m still using my “Cluetrain slides” in long versions of “The Hyperlinked Library.”  Looking at the worn volume next to me, it strikes me as funny and brilliant that ten years ago Levine, Locke, Searles and Weinberger locked on to a perfect vision of the future – of where we were headed because of the Internet. The impact on business rings so true these days. And words like transparency, conversation, community, communication and the like were here long before a line up of bloggers at CIL. Flipping through the pages, with multi-colored highlights and scribbled notes to self (oh Lord, can my students even read what I write on their papers?), it strikes me how much this book has influenced my path and lead me to folks like Rheingold, Godin and further works by Weinberger.

The emphasis in the Cluetrain on being human sticks with me as well. “The human voice sounds human.” Stories and storytelling are extensions of this. Sharing is part as well. These things create connections and brings people closer.  Godin says in Tribes that people WANT to belong. People want to connect. I want to hear the story of the lady sitting next to me having tea at Hermit’s Rest at Grand Canyon who strikes up conversation. Turns out her son, who joins us, is director of the Sedona Public Library. The world is tiny, sometimes flat and is full of human stories and human connections.

Thesis #50 has been with me for sometime too. A post I revisited for this anniversary is one of mine at ALA TechSource called “The Hyperlinked Organization: Radical Transparency, Crummy Meetings & Micromanagement” where I urged librarians to do this:

Flatten that Chart Folks

One of my favorite quotes from this chapter is “The company org chart… is a map of whom to avoid.” I worked in the public library a long time and soon realized who you went to in order to get things done and who could take care of something that needed to be fixed. Sometimes, we adapt and seek out those people, and then when they transfer or leave the organization, everyone realizes all the knowledge went out the door with them. 

The best libraries will flatten their organizational charts, break down the layers of “permission” and “channels” to get things done, and look for ways to streamline processes, procedures, and the dreaded policies. These libraries will also have a plan for succession management and knowledge transfer—and not just use these terms as buzzwords to hide behind.

I’m anxious to see more libraries flatten the chart and move toward a more team-based structure. In the model, people might work out of a certain area – reference, technology – but might move to teams or groups, or even locations, as projects demand. The pyramid shape of the org chart would be different – probably still pointy because someone has to ultimately be in charge – but do we really need layers and layers of managers, coordinators, and director positions between our front liners and the decision makers. In this model – very much related to what Michael Casey and I have done in “The Transparent Library” – admin types are hands-on involved not just issuing edicts from an office somewhere in the library. 

Communication flows up and down, via all the methods you’ve seen discussed here and in our literature, including good old face to face. Conversations flows in and out of the library space, involving all staff, users, non-users and everyone else. Meetings WORK, they don’t just exist to give the higher ups something to do. Admit it to yourself only: have you ever let the meeting drone on because it’s almost 5pm?

And – experts and specialists thrive and work hand in hand with librarians. They learn from each other via knowledge exchange and planning. Alan Gray of the Darien library wrote a TTW guest post, including this insight into the library’s structure: “We need great people to make our library a success — we just don’t have any preconditions about who they are, or what degree they do or do not have, just what they stand for, and what they can do.”

What scares me is my JOB is to teach people to be librarians – to get the degree so they can go off and work in libraries. Job security is good right? Libraries without librarians is a scary proposition for many of us!  The model – and I think Darien is a good example of it in the field – has space for all not just librarians. We’ll need coders, marketing gurus, customer service stars and business managers, not just a bunch of folks who went to library school. 

Does this de-value the degree? I think not. Librarians will carry the core values and ethics of the profession. They will convey the mission of what we’ve done in libraries forever to all: staff, user, supporters, governing bodies. But they will also understand that nothing stays the same and innovation should be part of this library’s mission. What’s been called “my mantra” I guess is truly that: Learn to Learn, Adapt to Change, Scan the Horizon, Be Curious, & Bring your Heart with You.

So I guess part of the charge is also back on me – to teach the best I can, to point out the changes in our world since the Cluetrain was published, and to work with my colleagues in LIS edu to change curriculum to create more nimble, flexible learning environments for the librarians who will guide projects and manage collections in this model library.

But the charge is also on you, dear readers. What can you do today to start flattening and changing the chart? What can you do via your long range plan to realign services and people to better serve the interests and needs of your communities?

If you haven’t read The Cluetrain Manifesto – take a look. Or re-read it in 2009 with a new lens. Use it for staff book discussion or your strategic plan. LIS Students, please read it before you graduate. I’m counting on you.

Further Reading:

The Cluetrain is Leaving the Station: A TTW Guest Post by Kay Jacobson

Into a New World of Librarianship

TTW posts tagged Cluetrain 

TechSource Post

Screenshots from “The Hyperlinked Library”  

The Hyperlinked Library by Michael Stephens is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

 Each semester in LIS768 we take an hour and talk about Second Life and log in to see what it’s like. This is the first semester that we have actually chatted with a Reference Librarian and I was very happy the class got to participate. The librarian spoke with the class and told us she does a voluntary 2 hour shift weekly in world and gets a good number of reference questions from outside of LIS folk.

HeyJude writes:

So from the history of the internet to this refocussing on learning – a great interview from Michael Wesch about harnessing collective intelligence rather than teaching content. He is an advocate of ‘anti-teaching’, seeking too inspire with god questions. Google becomes a tool for testing possibilities. Social media is also about learning possibilities. But don’t get it wrong – it is also about more work! more commitment! more active involvement in collaborative learning. He also raises the use of RFID on a campus, for creating learning opportunities. This I like!!

“We learn more when we are sharing information…”

“How can I get all of their intelligence together to make something really interesting…”

Anti-teaching: Inspiring good questions, not just lecturing and giving them the answers. I heart this!

I’m sharing this with some colleagues and with my students.

I’m adding this article by Stephen Abram to my LIS701 syllabus.

http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/sep08/Abram.shtml

Abram offers various scenarios for the future of reference services, including this one:

Status Quo: A Recipe for Fossilization

This is the disaster scenario — at least for our profession. Suppose we don’t evolve fast enough. Most of us know the story of the frog in the boiling water. Will we be blind to the overall changes and allow ad-driven search results to dominate the important question space? Worse still, will we fall into the trap of demanding a Google-like experience? Will there be no event, no transformational experience that shocks us out of complacency? Will we ignore the Web 2.0 opportunity to revitalize distance user relationships? Isn’t every user not in a face-to-face moment with us a distance user? Consider a scenario where we continue to service a shrinking but needy market. I know that they continued to deliver coal, milk, and ice in my neighborhood well into the 1960s. There was a demand and visible proof that it was still needed. Nevertheless, despite visible evidence to the contrary, these services were still heading for extinction.

As David Penniman said, “In order for librarianship to remain what it is, it must change; if it doesn’t change, it cannot remain what it is.”

This and his other scenarios will provide excellent points for discussion. I hope reference classes use this article as well.

Via Lone Wolf Librarian:

The Networked Student was inspired by CCK08, a Connectivism course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes during fall 2008. It depicts an actual project completed by Wendy Drexler’s high school students. The Networked Student concept map was inspired by Alec Couros’ Networked Teacher. I hope that teachers will use it to help their colleagues, parents, and students understand networked learning in the 21st century.

Anyone is free to use this video for educational purposes. You may download, translate, or use as part of another presentation. Please share.

I’ll be sharing this with my classes and the Dominican faculty. This so speaks to how educators should be moving forward as well as the fact that librarians should offer access to these “emerging synchronous tools” to help guide the way.

I like this model. Maybe this is what LIS768 should become. I’ve already seen these things play out in the classroom: responses from authors, blog comments from big names in Social Media and a sense of empowerment in the students themselves.

I’m taught my last weekend of LIS768 in St. Paul at the College of St. Catherine last week. The final Saturday of class is always group project day. Take a look:

One group developed a Ning for librarians: The Library Lounge. They also gave a presentation of background info and their findings from theexperience.

Another group developed a library liaison portal for a fictional economics department using Pageflakes. Their presentation details the background of the prototype.

The next group learned Drupal to develop a Website for a small library in Minnesota in a project called “Extreme Library Makeover: Web Site Edition.” They started with this very small site hosted at the library system and proposed a complete redo with Drupal. The results of their learning is here (hosted at TTW).

Finally, two soon to be library media specialists proposed a revamped curriculum for 4th to 8th grade that tied using social tools to current learning goals. The presentation, with links to examples and prototypes, is here.

I am grading their final papers today – papers on academic law libraries and social technologies, the Cluetrain and reputation online, to name a few. Good stuff! If you want to check in on their class blogging, all of the LIS768 CSC bloggers are listed here.

Kirsten from the School of Library Studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta. writes a followup after a discussion at ILI in London:

Our discussion about the future of  library education made me think about what we are doing up in Alberta. Under the chair Toni Samek (LJ teaching award winner 2007), I sit on an advisory committee that SLIS has gathered members of the academic, public,and special library community together to meet with students and faculty from the SLIS to discuss what kinds of librarians we’d love to see come out of the U of A. We talk about project management skills, technology skills and the challenges of international student qualifications for the MLIS program. 

I like the idea that potential employers meets with faculty and students to help guide the program. Great stuff. Are other LIS schools doing this – with student involvement?

Promotional badges, originally uploaded by LIM Programmes @ Victoria.

Brenda Chawner writes:

This year we (the VUW Library and Information Management staff) have a limited number of promotional badges available for current students and graduates at the LIANZA conference – you can see what they’re like at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31689772@N07/2968120830/

They’re intended to help graduates and students recognise each other, and perhaps start some interesting conversations. Because we teach by distance, many students (and graduates) don’t recognise each other even though they may have had several classes together. This is the idea I came up with to help. It came in part from seeing people wearing long streamers of ribbons showing their various affiliations at ALA in Anaheim, and I turned it into something I could have made here.

The kind folks at SLA IT Bulletin Digital Focus have given me permission to reprint the interview they did with me last summer here at TTW as part of my digital portfolio. I really appreciate it.

Interview with Michael Stephens – Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dominican University

For those who may be unfamiliar with you or your work, could you provide a professional description of yourself?

I’ve worked in libraries and LIS education for 18 years. My public library career spanned 15 years, and included positions in Audio Visual, Reference,  and Networked Resources. Throughout that time I was using technology and teaching staff and our public to do the same. I saw the advent of our public library’s first Internet connection and jam-packed lecture-style “What is the Internet?” sessions all the way through launching the SJCPL blog in 2003. The opportunity to teach as an adjunct in the Indiana University SLIS program also put me on the path toward the PhD: in 2004, I was awarded an IMLS-funded fellowship to the doctoral program at the University of North Texas’ Interdisciplinary Information Science program. I joined the Dominican GSLIS faculty in the Fall of 2006a and just completed my second year of full time teaching. I love it! 

Running parallel to the professional timeline above is the fact I started my blog Tame the Web on    April 1, 2003. Since then, my blogging life has grown as well. TTW just turned 5 and I’ve been blogging for ALA TechSource since 2005. I also found my way to Flickr, my favorite social site of all, and to LastFM, Facebook, and YouTube. I still use Flickr the most and enjoy the engagement with others in the professions as well as others who share my interests outside of libraries.

I also do a lot of speaking around the US and internationally. It does my heart good to get to present some of my thinking to others and hopefully inspire them. I usually end my talks with something like: “Go forth! Make libraries better!”

I did seven presentations in five Australian cities this spring, sponsored by the library consortium there. It was truly life-changing to travel that far and get to interact with library folk. I learned a lot and also realized we all face many of the same challenges, no matter where we are.

As someone who is involved in library education, how are you helping to develop the next generation of librarians?  What do you believe the future of library education will look like?

One thing that brought me to Dominican was the emphasis on truth and service in the university’s mission and philosophy. I think it fits well with my personal philosophy of teaching. Preparing new graduates to deal with constant change, use emerging technologies to further the mission of their institutions, and meet the needs of library users while never losing sight of our foundational values and principles is very important to me as an LIS educator.

I wrote about this at TTW as part of a meme that asked educators to share what they want for their students. I want my students at Dominican and any of librarians I talk to to realize what great opportunities there are for libraries and librarians in this ever-changing world if we pay attention to these skills:

If we learn to learn, it doesn’t matter that this week’s hot technology is Twitter and next week’s even shinier tool is something else. We can still figure it out, use our foundational knowledge to make sense of it and decide if it works in our situation. I teach blogging in many of my classes but the real skill I want my students to get is that they can master any technology/system I put in front of them or their new employers may put in front of them and make it work. Blogging is just the vehicle, like using any of the tools we cover in tech-based classes. If we look at current job descriptions right now, some employers are asking for experience with  social tools, open source software, and “emerging trends.” If I can give students a learning laboratory or sand box to try some technologies in the context of meeting a library’s mission or designing a new service (complete with planning, implementation and evaluation), then I’m preparing them for what they will encounter in practice.

If we adapt to change, we aren’t thrown every time the world shifts. That’s one of the most important things I think we could do for students in LIS education – show them that everything will change. What we’re doing in now in libraries is similar but still very different than what folks did 50 years ago. Think about the next 50 years. What’s going to happen when models like the Maricopa County “Deweyless” library or user-based tagging in the catalog really go mainstream. Should we still be teaching curriculum from the 80s? The 90s? I think not. So this  one goes double for LIS educators. I need to stay on the curve (hopefully ahead of it) to keep changing course specifics to adapt to each shift we go through.

If we scan the horizon, we’re trendspotting for the future. I am so inspired by the librarians who try new things, who look outside the field and bring things back.  If we become trendspotters, we have a good chance of creating the next big thing.  We might simply ponder, for example, what the popularity of a certain technology might do to library service.  Or what bigger trends will mean to libraries in the next 10-20 years. I watch Apple, Starbucks and Borders right now amongst many others. Couldn’t we have a genius bar in our libraries (I know the library in Delft does!)? Couldn’t we tap into marketing the “third place” the way Starbucks does so well. And isn’t there a place for the new concepts Borders will be offering: digital downloads, media creation, etc.

If we make sure to be curious about the world, it makes all of the above super easy. Ask questions. What are things going the way they are?

If my students leave my classes as curious librarians ready to figure out the next big thing and make it work in their libraries, then I am doing my job.

The future of LIS education? Great question that I often wonder about myself. We go in cycles: an ALA president or two will make it a focus for their year in office and then the next president is on to something else. A library school will make great inroads into a new area of tech (like San Jose State University’s SLIS Island in Second Life) or improved distance education. And along the way we’ll have lots of conversations about the impact of technology on education in general. What does this mean for LIS education in 10 years? Library school needs a shake-up. Let’s do a complete review of curriculum. If we’re starting to rely more on outsourcing, do we need a full semester of AACR2? We should integrate ever-evolving technology into our courses and teach the students how to manage that change

Much of your work is dedicated to the use of technology in libraries.  What influenced your decision to focus on this subject?   Why did you decide to become active in the field?

I’ve always been drawn to technology — all the way back to my first Apple IIc. It excites me to see how technology can help us extend ourselves creatively and socially. I used my first computer to write up my papers at IU and to participate in the not yet online fan communities I belonged to. I mailed things to people then!

The online services and the Internet made this oh so much easier. I vividly remember those early days of discovering what people put up on their first web page. My learning was framed by popular culture: X-Files fan sites, lyrics servers, movie pages, and the more personal pages of those early Web citizens. 

Look at how far we’ve come in a little over 15 years. The opportunity to participate and extend yourself online into a community based on your interests is there for the taking.

What does Library 2.0 mean to you?  In your opinion, will there be a Library 3.0 to follow?

Library 2.0 is a philosophy of library service discussed, dissected and diluted throughout the profession for almost three years. It’s a way of describing a conversation – a very important one that addresses how the physical and virtual space of the library is presented, how policies are created, and how services will be be evaluated and changed according to user participation. The name spoke to me – it worked. I’ve written about it. But it was also just a way to describe the conversation. We’ve come a long way in the discussions. I think the term will describe a moment in time when we realized how quickly the world was changing and libraries needed to repsond. It’s happened before. It will happen again.

I taught a seminar on Library 2.0 this last semester with three components: an exploration of emerging technologies in libraries, a focus on the physical space and library policy, and readings from LIS theorists and Web 2.0 experts. I was pleased to see my students discover Michael Buckland’s manifesto on redesigning library services, the way I did when I was writing my dissertation. What I wanted them to take away was a that “bigger picture” view: it’s not just a blog on the library Web site but capability for collaboration and participation behind it.

I’m sure we’ll see someone somewhere attempt to use Library 3.0 as a means to sell something, get people to a conference or some such. I don’t think it will stick like L2 has. I do agree, however, with Dr. Wendy Schultz, who also wrote a piece for OCLC NextSpace magazine where I wrote about Librarian 2.0 — it will be a progression to a more evolved space fully grounded in the library tradition – “the knowledge spa.”

Some libraries are slow to adopt technological solutions like Web 2.0 software because they question the value its use can contribute to an organization.  What are your thoughts on this? 

I would tell them to look at the library mission and vision statements. Is there a statement about promoting access or offering technologies to meet the changing needs of the user? If so, that’s a perfect reason to explore what 2.0 tool might work well for fulfilling that mission. Blogs work well – and you don’t even have to call them a blog. A blog can become an easy to configure content management system that hosts all of your content. To me, it’s a good fit for many libraries that want to save time with their Web presence. 

Another reason that libraries should be participating is because of the importance of content. In NextSpace, I urged library folk to understand content. “This librarian understands that the future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume and create content. Content is a conversation as well and librarians should participate. Users will create their own mash ups, remixes and original expressions and should be able to do so at the library or via the library’s resources. This librarian will help users become their own programming director for all of the content available to them.”

Seattle Public Library has a list of  aims to fulfill the library’s mission on the web site. One of them states that the library will provide:

Appropriate technology to extend, expand and enhance services in every neighborhood and ensure that all users have equitable access to information.

That says to me that the library should be striving to offer access to social software as well as use the same tools to put services where the users are working and living online. Some folks may be curious and want to explore YouTube or Facebook, others may want guidance in the form of a library program about the benefits and dangers of the new online world, while some may want to create something new and send it out into the social networks. All of these things should be an option at the library. It pains me to see the other side of the coin: libraries blocking access to social sites for various reasons: perceived lack of bandwidth, inappropriate use of resources, or because it was making teenaged users rowdy/aggressive. See my discussion of such a ban on teenagers in my hometown of Mishawaka, IN at Tame the Web.

How do you keep yourself informed about changes in technology and in the information profession?  What resources do you rely on most?

I rely on the web and my RSS feeds for a lot of my keeping up. I monitor a lot of librarian’s blogs because the conversation is so rich and deep as well as many blogs outside our field. Since coming to Dominican I’ve added feeds from higher ed resources as well. I read but not as much as I’d like. Summer 2008 is mine to get caught up with the stack of books I’ve been collecting. 

I also listen to as many folks as I can when I’m travelling to speak or attend a conference. Those conversations – voices from the field – are very important to me because each year the goes by I am another step away from practice. I can’t effectively teach if I don’t understand what it’s like in the trenches. 

I was sad to see Business 2.0 go out as a monthly magazine, but I religiously subscribe to Wired, Fast Company, MIT Tech Review and Entertainment Weekly. Each one of these keeps me informed in different ways.

Will technology ever replace the librarian?  If not, what influence will technology have on the future role of the information professional?

Librarians will never be replaced. The job titles, duties and locales may evolve, but the foundational values and ethics of the profession will stay the same. 

The most wonderful think about emerging technologies is many of them bring the librarian to wherever the user is online. So our humanity can come through – it’s not just a box on the library Web site – it’s a person you are talking to. The library is human is one of my favorite points about the evolving, hyperlinked library. Human conversations and the human touch are valuable assets to libraries.

Just as other professions evolve, so will ours. I’m excited to see libraries in 10-20 years. 

In your opinion, how can today’s librarian contribute to the innovation of the field?  What suggestions would you have for those who are interested in making an impact on the profession?

Today’s librarian in any library setting can contribute in many ways: exploring emerging trends and applying them to libraries is just a beginning. I’d advocate for librarians interested in creating change to find a social network – the Biblioblogosphere, Facebook, etc — and participate. Comment on others work, create posts or content, etc. I’d urge new grads and LIS students to find a mentor who’ll help and encourage. I’d urge librarians and LIS educators to be a mentor in every possible way.

To make this work I’ll address library administrators for just a moment: PLEASE create a climate of innovation, trust and forward-thinking in your libraries so your staff can innovate and try new things. Support and radical trust must come from the top for these things to be successful. You don’t have to know every little thing about technology just let your staff report out as needed, let them prototype and just say “yes.”

Personally, I would suggest to anyone wanting to make an impact on the profession that they do good work, learn from mistakes, play well with others, and report on their successes and failures. Library bloggers are alive and well and there will always be room for another reasoned and pragmatic voice. As for this interview, if it inspires librarians to share their ideas and “pay it forward”, I will be deeply satisfied.

Links:

Michael Buckland: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Library/Redesigning/html.html

Wendy Schultz: http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/6.htm

Stephens on Librarian 2.0: http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm

Stephens on Mishawaka Library Ban: http://tametheweb.com/?s=Mishawaka

Seattle PL: http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=about_mission

From Michael: Char Booth and I were at a dinner sponsored by the good folks from Darien at ALA this summer. Our discussion turned to library school and Char offered some ideas and opinions about her experience as a student. I’m always interested to hear how I might do my job better – and Char definetely had ideas. I seized the chance to ask her to put her thoughts into a guest post, that became “The Library Student Bill of Rights.” What do you think? What would you add?

The Library Student Bill of Rights

Like every other librarian, in order to function professionally I’ve had to teach myself countless things on the job. Librarianship is a craft, and crafts are best learned by experience. Librarianship is also contextual – much of what we do is about developing relationships to the users we serve and/or the organizations we join. That said, the skills that are becoming essential to the increasingly demanding, complex, and collaborative world of librarianship could and should be better addressed by the education we receive. There are many reasons why library school curricula doesn’t yet reflect the reality of the profession, first among these the widely recognized disconnect between teaching faculty and practitioners. Librarianship is undergoing a number of transformations, and it is more often experimentation than tradition that motivates our actions in the workplace. For all of these reasons, there is a widening gulf between what we are taught and what we actually do. 

It is my belief that systemic reform of the MILS curriculum is critical if libraries are to survive, beginning with aggressive adoption and progressive interpretation of the newly revised 2008 ALA accreditation standards by the 62 accredited North American MLIS programs. Said reform should be motivated by a recognition that criticism of library education is near-ubiquitous among those who have experienced it, and it should be focused on improving the student experience. Consensus is growing that the foundation upon which the profession is built should simply mean more - it should be stronger, broader, and better rooted in the tools and techniques librarians use on a daily basis, and that it should better connect us to the information needs of society. Above all else, the necessity for strong library advocacy is becoming increasingly crucial, and we should emerge from our training as more skillful champions of our field. 

From the perspective of a recent student and new professional, I submit the following as my impractical, idealistic template for a more practical, realistic library education. In full recognition that it is far easier to tear down than to build up, I leave it up to the faculty and administrators of the library school world to do something about it. 

The Library Student Bill of Rights

In order to create a more vibrant and resilient profession, the students of library and information studies programs should be entitled to the following rights:

1. The right to educate. Students should receive training in learning theory, pedagogy, instructional design, and assessment methods regardless of their areas of focus. 

2. The right to evaluate. Rigorous, realistic, and applied instruction in action research methods as well as techniques in environmental scanning and user needs evaluation should be available to all.

3. The right to challenge. Debate and critical inquiry between library students should be encouraged, while information activism should be considered alongside impartiality as one of the unique contributions librarians make to the information world. 

4. The right to innovate. Technology evaluation, selection, experimentation, development, and planning should be woven throughout the curriculum, rather than sequestered to the “information” side of learning. 

5. The right to experience.  Students should have access to formal apprenticing and mentorship programs in order to learn the skills of their trade actively and in ways that benefit institutional stakeholders and community partners. These programs should be available at the beginning of the MLIS experience as well as at its conclusion. 

6. The right to explore. Interdisciplinarity coursework should be required in order to invigorate the skill-set new librarians bring to the profession, while students should be encouraged to draw on the strengths of complementary fields.

7. The right to collaborate. Librarianship is becoming increasingly generalized; the lines between collection development, public service, technical service, and education are blurring. As such, information science and library science should not be strictly apportioned into tracks or cohorts, and a recognition of mutual strengths and complementary pursuits between specializations should be established. 

8. The right to redefine.  Librarians are changing as fast as their users. In order to learn what is truly necessary to thrive in the library environment, faculty and administrators should partner with those new to the profession in evaluating curriculum, hiring faculty, and revising accreditation standards.

9. The right to develop. Students should have the opportunity to test, modify, and produce the tools and technologies they may be called upon to use in a variety of professional contexts, and should further gain practical project management skills to help them sequence and evaluate said tools and technologies.

10. The right to advocate. In recognition of the growing importance of championing libraries to various stakeholders and educating users about library programming, students should be trained in public relations, message design, and marketing.

Char Booth is an E-Learning Librarian at UC Berkeley. A 2007 ALA Emerging Leader and a 2008 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, Char blogs about library futures, technology, media literacy, and instructional design at info-mational.

The first wave of Context Book Reports are coming in via the LIS768ers up in Minnesota. I have policy of not pointing to individual student work during the semester, but if you are curious about what students thought of various books take a look:

http://classes.tametheweb.com/768news/2008/09/13/roster-of-lis768-csc-blogs/

Thanks to the authors who replied to student emails for more information: Andrew Keen, the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto, etc. This blows me away.

Congrats to Jill on her new position as a Professor of Practice at Syracuse:

http://hurstassociates.blogspot.com/2008/10/ch-ch-changes-or-changes-in-attitude.html

While I have been influencing my “community” through writing, speaking and project work, I have decided to do something that allows me to influence the next generation of information professionals even more. In January, I’ll be joining the School of Information Studies(iSchool) at Syracuse University (SU). Some of you may know that I have been associated with SU since 2001. This year, I decided that teaching full-time would move me towards my goal of influencing the industry more, and SU decided that adding me to their faculty would be a good thing! As a Professor of Practice, I will be charged with connecting the iSchool to “the practice” (that which occurs outside of academia). That means that the things that you know me for — writing, speaking, consulting, and committee work — will continue. It also means that I’ll be looking for ways to connect students to you (the industry) in ways that are beneficial for them and you. And — yes — I’ll be teaching. I’ll be teaching three classes a semester (spring and fall). How will I continue to write, speak and consult with that course load? Carefully! 

I take notes, share those notes, and build a community with my peers – just by using twitter -it’s really quite simple.

This is how I feel about Twitter in the classroom.  But the 9/18/08 article over at Techdirt, and the comments in particular, paints some different hues (see: “Should you live blog/twitter a class?“).

Last weekend I was engulfed in one of three weekend intensive sessions in Michael’s “Library 2.0 & Social Networking Technologies” class.  As he went through his well-honed version of “The Hyperlinked Library”, I thought, “man, it would be cool to capture some of this and my reflections.”  At this point some might be saying, “yes, Kyle, you should be taking notes.”  But I took it one step further.

I hopped on Twitter, signed up for a quick account, and started tweeting(?) my heart out with every thought and quick reflection.  I also linked my tweets straight into my class Wordpress MU blog.  Soon enough, a classmate had seen my twitter and we became reflective friends.

But at lunch time I timidly asked Michael, “yea, would you be mad if I Twittered class?”  Those of you who know Michael would know that angry would not be his response to this.  He was more intrigued and interested and happy than anything else.

If you’ve read the Techdirt article you know that this is the complete opposite reaction than that of the NYU journalism professor.  But I will admit, I’m just as guilty as most students who zone off in class and dive into the ether that is Facebook – and I’ve done it in Michael’s class, too (*sorry :/*).  But I turned my lust for technology and social networking into a productive method by writing my reflections in Twitter.  On top of that, I got to know some of my classmates before even saying a “hello” to them.

As Brian Rowe, a commenter in the article, wrote:

Sharing what you learn or don’t learn is an important part of being global citizen and helping free culture

I couldn’t agree more.  But some couldn’t agree less, as in this comment by Vince:

I can’t defend this. I believe this material should not be posted outside of the classroom…this material is not owned by the student.

He continues to say:

Universities usually have some sort of internal CMS such as Blackboard or WebCT that allows them to share classroom material and most professors actively use these systems. Theres [sic] no excuse.

I agree with Vince, students shouldn’t and legally can’t copy their professors’ academic work for public access unless that is their wish.  Michael posts “The Hyperlinked Library” here at TTW, but I still wouldn’t post any other of his materials without permission.

What I’m doing is taking brief reflective notes – similar to how I would do it in a notebook – and providing my classmates with an opportunity to respond to my reflections.

I’m curious:  Any grad students (or any student readers for that matter) who blog or use Twitter in class?

~Kyle Jones~
TTW Contributor

A wonderful post by Eric Schnell caught my eye last week.

http://ericschnell.blogspot.com/2008/09/library-innovation-requires.html

His words are so well-chosen and ideas so spot on IMHO:

To move towards a move innovative organization requires experimentation, trial and error, doing new things, and breaking rules.  Libraries looking to become more innovative are confronted with reality: it takes 100 crazy ideas to find 10 worth funding experimentally in order to identify 1 project worth pursuing. As it has been said, that it takes a lot of acorns to grow an oak tree.

“Talking, looking, flying, searching: information seeking behavior in Second Life” by Margaret Ostrander, MLIS, has been accepted for publication by the peer-reviewed, academic journal Library Hi Tech. The article is based on original research Margaret completed to investigate how users seek information in virtual worlds. Margaret’s work will appear as the lead article in the “Best Young Professionals” themed issue in December 2008 (vol:26 iss:4). Margaret completed this research as part of a self-designed independent study under the direction of Dr. Michael Stephens at Dominican University while a student on the College of St. Catherine campus.

WooHoo! Congrats Margaret!

I’m trying a new assignment in LIS768 this semester. One of my favorite things to do is read current technology-related or cultural books and apply the concepts to how libraries might adapt or tap into the trends. This semester we’ll try it as a group.

Context Book Report: Students will read one book selected from a list provided in class and write a 200-300 word reflection relating the topic and focus of the book to libraries, technology and participatory service. 

Below are the books I’ve selected. What would you add? What would you delete? 

• Anderson, Chris. The Long Tail
• Beck, John C. & Mitchell Wade. Got game
• Bernoff, Josh. Groundswell
• Breakenridge, Deidre. PR 2.0
• Carr, Nicholas. The Big Switch: rewiring the World, from Edison to Google
• Collins, Jim. Good to Great
• Frankel, Alex. Punching In
• Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat
• Gee, James Paul. What Video Games Have to teach Us about Learning & Literacy
• Gilmore, James & B. Joseph Pine II. Authenticity
• Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink
• Godin, Seth. Small is the New Big
• Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture
• Jenkins, Henry. Fans, Bloggers & Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture
• Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad is Good for You
• Kelley, Tom with Jonathan Littman. The Ten Faces of Innovation
• Kusek, David & Gerd Leonhard. The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Revolution.
• Levy, Steven. The Perfect Thing
• Martin, Patricia. Ren Gen Renaissance Generation
• Meyer, Danny. Setting the Table
• Palfrey, John & Urs Gasser. Born Digital
• Penn, Mark J. Microtrends
• Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind
• Reynolds, Glenn. An Army of Davids
• Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs
• Rushkoff, Douglas. Playing the Future
• Scoble, Robert & Shel Israel. Naked Conversations
• Senge, Peter. The Necessary Revolution
• Shirky, Clay. Here Comes Everybody
• Solove, Daniel. The Future of Reputation
• Sunstein, Cass. Infotopia
• Tapscott, Don & Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics
• Weinberger, David. Everything is Miscellaneous
• Weinberger, David. Small Pieces Loosely Joined
• Zittrain, Jonathan. The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It

I start my first class tomorrow: LIS753 Internet Fundamentals & Design.

We’re hosting all of our courses at http://classes.tametheweb.com/, via a WordpressMU installation. After considering and playing with Drupal, I was drawn back to Wordpress and its ease of use and multiple blog possibilities. Watching the excellent WP-based work of Casey Bisson and Alan Levine helped me make my decision to stay with WP. My ultra-cool grad assistant Kyle Jones worked on making the classes site functional and pleasing to the eye. Thanks Kyle!

We’re sticking with Wordpress now and hope to add the officially released version of Buddypress in the winter to further extend the community around these courses. 

Please take a look at the courses and let me know what you think.

I’m excited to begin my third year of teaching.

Last spring, I was interviewed for the SLA IT Division:

http://units.sla.org/division/dite/bite/2008/bITeSummer2008.pdf

One of the question was about LIS education, and I thought I’d include it here:

Question: As someone who is involved in library education, how are you helping to develop the next generation of librarians?  What do you believe the future of library education will look like?

One thing that brought me to Dominican was the emphasis on truth and service in the university’s mission and philosophy. I think it fits well with my personal philosophy of teaching. Preparing new graduates to deal with constant change, use emerging technologies to further the mission of their institutions, and meet the needs of library users while never losing sight of our foundational values and principles is very important to me as an LIS educator.

I just wrote about this at TTW as part of a meme that asked educators to share what they want for their students. I want my students at Dominican and any of librarians I talk to to realize what great opportunities there are for libraries and librarians in this ever-changing world if we pay attention to these skills:

If we learn to learn, it doesn’t matter that this week’s hot technology is Twitter and next week’s even shinier tool is something else. We can still figure it out, use our foundational knowledge to make sense of it and decide if it works in our situation. I teach blogging in many of my classes but the real skill I want my students to get is that they can master any technology/system I put in front of them or their new employers may put in front of them and make it work. Blogging is just the vehicle, like using any of the tools we cover in tech-based classes. If we look at current job descriptions right now, some employers are asking for experience with  social tools, open source software, and “emerging trends.” If I can give students a learning laboratory or sand box to try some technologies in the context of meeting a library’s mission or designing a new service (complete with planning, implementation and evaluation), then I’m preparing them for what they will encounter in practice.

If we adapt to change, we aren’t thrown every time the world shifts. That’s one of the most important things I think we could do for students in LIS education – show them that everything will change. What we’re doing in now in libraries is similar but still very different than what folks did 50 years ago. Think about the next 50 years. What’s going to happen when models like the Maricopa County “Deweyless” library or user-based tagging in the catalog really go mainstream. Should we still be teaching curriculum from the 80s? The 90s? I think not. So this  one goes double for LIS educators. I need to stay on the curve (hopefully ahead of it) to keep changing course specifics to adapt to each shift we go through.

If we scan the horizon, we’re trendspotting for the future. I am so inspired by the librarians who try new things, who look outside the field and bring things back.  If we become trendspotters, we have a good chance of creating the next big thing.  We might simply ponder, for example, what the popularity of a certain technology might do to library service.  Or what bigger trends will mean to libraries in the next 10-20 years. I watch Apple, Starbucks and Borders right now amongst many others. Couldn’t we have a genius bar in our libraries (I know the library in Delft does!)? Couldn’t we tap into marketing the “third place” the way Starbucks does so well. And isn’t there a place for the new concepts Borders will be offering: digital downloads, media creation, etc.

If we make sure to be curious about the world, it makes all of the above super easy. Ask questions. What are things going the way they are?

If my students leave my classes as curious librarians ready to figure out the next big thing and make it work in their libraries, then I am doing my job.

The future of LIS education? Great question that I often wonder about myself. We go in cycles: an ALA president or two will make it a focus for their year in office and then the next president is on to something else. A library school will make great inroads into a new area of tech (like San Jose State University’s SLIS Island in Second Life) or improved distance education. And along the way we’ll have lots of conversations about the impact of technology on education in general. What does this mean for LIS education in 10 years? Library school needs a shake-up. Let’s do a complete review of curriculum. If we’re starting to rely more on outsourcing, do we need a full semester of AACR2? We should integrate ever-evolving technology into our courses and teach the students how to manage that change

Download the PDF to check out the whole piece. Thanks SLA IT Folks!

So, you have a new laptop?  Read up:

Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go — there’s no need to rely on a single third party. What’s more, Adeona addresses a critical privacy goal different from existing commercial offerings. It is privacy-preserving. This means that no one besides the owner (or an agent of the owner’s choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. Unlike other systems, users of Adeona can rest assured that no one can abuse the system in order to track where they use their laptop.

Then, if you’re like me, you find ways to make the Blackboard CMS less time consuming.  This should include Professors too. (It could apply generally to most course management systems).

- Top 10 Reasons Faculty Fail When Using Blackboard CMS

- The Ultimate Guide to BlackBoard: 100 Tips & Tutorials

TTW: Lee

I’m teaching two sections of LIS 768 this fall. We’ll be using Library 2.0: A Guide to Participatory Library Service by Michael E. Casey and Laura C. Savastinuk as our text once again. I was pleased to find this review which sums up exactly why it’s such a useful book to promote critical thinking about change in libraries:

According to the introduction, the book is aimed at helping librarians, administrators, support staff and students to gain a greater understanding of what Library 2.0 is. For me this was achieved. 

I initially expected that the book would focus mostly on Web 2.0 technologies in the Library context, however this was not the case. Technology underpins many issues dealt with in the book but it is kept in its place! The book is really about our changing Library client base and how services can be developed to meet their evolving needs. According to the authors “the changes libraries need to make to keep up with their users involves much more than technology.” 

In addition the book is largely around facilitating user centered services that empower the client rather than remain as passive recipients. This is reflected in the subtitle: “a guide to participatory library service.” The book has a strong client focus and includes tips for knowing your users and involving them in the planning for and delivery of services.

Review by Philip G. Kent, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia in Library Management, volume 29 issue 4+ 5, 2008

(Disclaimer: I wrote the Foreword )

http://www.udel.edu/smdc/

Spaces for students, faculty and staff in university and college libraries are evolving rapidly. Here’s another to add to the list: the Student Multimedia design Center at the University of Delaware Morris Library.

From the site:

 Make your PowerPoint presentations come alive with video and animation. 

 Practice your presentation skills in a studio. 

 Create a custom sound track. 

 Access a wide variety of computer hardware, software, and peripherals.

This speaks to me about the need for coursework that emphasizes planning, implementation and staffing for digital creation spaces in libraries.

I’m always happy to hear from former students. I just got a nice email from Mick Jacobsen. TTW readers may remember him from his info about LibGuides. He’s moved on to some cool stuff:

Our first gaming event is taking place later today (spearheaded by me).  We have a Wii and PS2 for DDR.  So far nearly 50 kids of signed up, luckily we also have lots of board games so no riots.  We will have an adult gaming event in the near future and I am working with the senior centers to bring the Wii to them.

The website is rolling along.  I added a new rating system to our blogs, 1-10 stars.  I am hoping it will bring more interaction and ownership of the website to the patrons.  http://www.franklinparklibrary.org

I created a Summer Reading Blog http://www.franklinparklibrary.org/index.php?q=blog/12.   The patrons can submit books using a form I built which emails me the submission and permission to post it on our blog.  I also check out our hand written entries and contact individuals with interesting, different reviews of items.  All the patrons seem pleased to see their reviews of items on the website (especially the elderly who normally don’t look at computers).  Our comments on these items are also stronger than the average blog entry.  I am wondering if I should continue the blog past the Summer Reading and make it just a patron recommendation blog.  I am not sure if the authorship would be there, but it would be a fun experiment. 

I had an article written about one of my projects in the local newspaper.  I am using Google maps to “map” Franklin Park.  I created an image and description Historical map and a modern Places of Note map.  I am in the midst of working on a map of all the road construction taking place in Franklin Park.   I embed the maps on our website and try to get  people involved.  

http://www.franklinparklibrary.org/index.php?q=node/292 for the Places of Note map
http://www.franklinparklibrary.org/index.php?q=node/291 of the Historical map

I am in the midst of a “Splash Page” experiment.  I know many are anti splash pages, but I think they could really work for public libraries and I am conducting a study to see if my hypothesis is correct.  It is not pure science, but does lead to some great conclusions.  

So I emailed Mick and asked if I could publish his update on TTW and would he answer this question:

What’s helped you be most successful with these projects?

His response says a lot about organizational culture, that important sense of play, self-motivation and the wealth of info available online:

In no particular order:

1.  An innate desire to try new things (why else go in to Library Science but to try new cool stuff).

2.  Complete confidence that I have the support from my management (top to bottom) to try new things.  How many libraries would let a new graduate (graduated in January) the freedom that I am given?  I got to redesign, reorganize, rethink an entire website in Drupal and much, much more (I have not told you about very important but not sexy stuff I have implemented e.g. email notices for nearly overdue items, pc reservation, print release, etc.).  Most of the time they have no idea what I am doing, simply trusting that I am doing something beneficial for the library.  It has become a sort of joke, “What have you added this week, haha.”  And I say, well this cool thing called LibX or rating stars or a suggestion form or a summer reading blog or an online sign up for programs, or Google translate, etc.  

3.  The willingness to fail in trying new things (these projects are not necessarily successes as of yet…).  And many grand ideas have failed and been buried, but not forgotten.  

4.  The joy in reading blog after blog ferreting out great info and trying to turn them to library uses.  

5.  Making the time to research, play with, and eventually (or not) implement new ideas.  

6.  Being able to enthusiastically bounce crazy ideas of coworkers without having them get annoyed.   

7.  Not being bogged down by bureaucracy.  

http://libraryclips.blogsome.com/2008/07/27/counters-to-enterprise-20-objections/

John at Library Clips weighs in on 15 Objections to Using Social Learning:

Objection #5: How Do You Know it’s Accurate?

What if someone posts inaccurate information (unlike email it’s visible to a lot of people), and someone acts on it?

I actually mentioned this in a previous post as the garderns job, to go back to old posts and re-edit them or use comments to correct situations. But this is self-organised as well, the ecosystem may correct itself to an extent, people are quick to catch people out and correct things. The blogosphere is self-regulating in this way, you say something that is bad practice, and you are knocked down…in the enterprise I would hope that you don’t lose your credibillty (once bitten twice shy).

Actually, these occurrences are lessons learned we all witness in the open blogs, so we all learn from it as it happens, we experience it together…it sticks in our minds.

I almost like the idea that the openess and informalness of blogs can reveal bad practice. If you want to stamp out bad practices start some internal blogs, people’s inaccuracies will come to light, we can all evolve and correct behaviour. It’s like the wound healing itself.

Kevin shares a story where a manager didn’t like the idea of non-authoritative people posting for all to see for fear of inaccuracy and the consequences that may follow.

“Leaving the meeting she walked by some cubes where she overheard one person describing an HR policy to the other person that was completely incorrect. And the second person took it as gospel.”

She suddenly realized, 1) How many times does this happen and I don’t know about it? 2) If they asked this question using the tools we were talking about, more people would be able to respond and the right answer would surface

What a great story!