Fixing misuse of 246s; thoughts on ILS shortcomings.

Recently we have been tasked by our Library Director with fixing some past cataloging practices. In the past, our Catalogers helped our Special Collections department with highlighting local special collections in the catalog. I understand why they did what they did, but the method chosen was a flagrant violation of cataloging rules and misuse of MARC coding. Basically the 246 field (alternative title) was selected so that Special collection titles could be inserted here and would appear as an indexed, hyperlink-clickable title heading. It was a functional choice, a cheat, a short-cut. I understand completely why it was done.

In point of fact, the idea of local collections, near as I can tell, as such, falls through the specifications for existing MARC coding. I'm not opposed to the idea of having an clickable field in the OPAC display that is indexed and enables the user to access all the books in a local collection simultaneously in a results list. The problem is twofold. 1) there is no concise, already existing MARC tag that really captures this information; there needs to be. The only solution I see is coding some 901-907 field to capture this info and index it. 2) even if the info is successfully captured in a MARC tag between 901 and 907, the local ILS has to be able to index this information and display it, and this requires systems-level savvy that previously was lacking, which is why I suspect the 246 was opted for originally.

I don't currently know if Voyager is capable of indexing and displaying MARC tags 901 through 907. I would need to investigate this with my Systems Librarian. Our interim solution has been to code the "local collection" details in the 590 local note field. This makes them searchable only by means of careful keyword searching, done via quotation marks. It's not ideal but it nominally works. What it can't do is give you a clickable link that is indexed. A locally defined 901 through 907 MARC tag could, in theory, allow for this. I suspect Open Source ILS'es might more easily enable libraries to make better use of the 901-907 locally defined MARC tags, making them indexable and clickable.

This is what should have been done to begin with. But that would have required having a full-time cataloger and a full-time systems librarian who worked closely together and better understood the rules...a situation that hasn't been an accurate description of our personnel situation at our library for quite some time; until now, that is.

Learning more library tools.

I am beginning to learn more Library tools commonly used in Tech Services. I am wading my way through Error Reports generated by our vendor BSLW. With the gracious help of my E-Resources Librarian colleague, I've been learning the basics of using Voyager Select, MARCedit, and Record Reloader to do global-style edits to multiple records simultaneously. This enables me to do big fixes without having to do record-by-record editing, which is much slower and plodding.

I finally am getting the hang of this, and am now less dependent on my E-Resources Librarian colleague to make these kinds of large set edits. I know my colleague was always glad to help, but I'm relieved I don't have to keep asking her for every one of these jobs. It IS complicated, and it definitely deserves its own chapter in the Cataloging Manual because it's so essential to database management. I'm looking forward to writing that chapter, with plenty of screen shots.

I even managed to fix badly-coded MARC tags...610s that were mis-coded as 650s, or moving obsolete 440s to updated and validated 810s. It's also useful for updating children's LCSH to "adult" (i.e. standard) LCSH. Some of this is challenging because adult LCSH splits the terms into two distinct headings, and these have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis...which is a little frustrating, but it's also why it requires a professional cataloger such as myself to make those judgment calls.

The Error Reports also uncovered badly misspelled headings; even 500 field notes that were accidentally mis-coded as 650 subject tags. The original basefile reports also hoovered up a lot of records that no longer exist in the database due to withdrawal projects, etc. I've begun to clue in on what records are likely to be currently bogus and just skip over them; I'll mark through bogus bib numbers with a colored marker, usually at the start and finish of a suspected string, as a visual clue to myself that those which fall in between are also likely bogus.

I'm trying to approach some of these questionable headings with the ethic of "First, do no harm". I notice that on the theses and dissertations, some of the topics addressed are so specific that it falls between the cracks of LCSH. I try to test if I can re-code them as MeSH and achieve validation that way, or of not convert the field to a 653 rather than delete it outright. I tend to tread lightly in the area of natural science, in areas I'm less familiar with. I try to focus on topics I know best first.

I've also noticed that some things were coded as 650s that are more properly classed as uniform titles in the 630 field. Not all uniform titles have authority records but if it is justified by the chief source of information you keep it.

I'm saving the serials error reports for last, because that will get very complicated and difficult.

With less material coming into our door for cataloging, this more intellectual work of database cleanup combined with quasi-authority work is basically our fallback. We now have the opportunity to work on this because of the dearth of incoming materials and it will improve the performance of the catalog. I look forward to working with our new Systems Librarian to improve catalog performance and tweak the result sets, etc.

Backstage Blues

Right now I'm mulling over the original basefile reports we received back from our vendor, BSLW. To their credit, they have greatly helped clean up the catalog and improve our records, both bibs and authorities. However, there are limitations to what their automated processes could achieve, and I am currently juggling the error reports of things that were unable to be changed via automation but will require human scrutiny. I'm a little surprised at the limits, to be honest, and though they did take care of the lion's share of work, what we have left over isn't exactly kittens either.

We've also had 3 quarterly updates since the original basefile was run back in February as well. The procrastination is entirely my fault, not least for my not fully understanding what we needed to do; and even when I did understand it seemed so overwhelming that I dithered for a long time, not sure where to even begin. I mistakenly dove into the most recent quarterly reports, only to be gently corrected by my boss that we needed to attend to the original basefile reports first, that everything we did there would impact the later quarterly error-reporting updates.

I'm focusing for now on umatched headings...subjects (LCSH) in the 6XX fields and Names (with emphasis on Personal Names, MARC fields 100/700 in particular). There's some jaw droppingly bad cataloging fudges to be found from past ages, too. Yet more evidence of what can happen when your library administration thinks they can coast by without hiring a full time Catalog librarian for years on end.

We've also initiated a major cleanup effort to fix records that were making improper use of the 246 alternate title tag. It had been pressed into service as a hot-link to unite local special collections. I was actually sympathetic to our special collections personnel, trying to think of ways to both please my director and accommodate their needs (earning me the ire of my immediate superiors in the process). But ultimately we had to toe the line and come down on the side of scrupulously correct cataloging and relegate the local collection information to a 590 MARC tag (local note), with special formatting, findable via keyword searching in quotation marks. We fixed most of these today---We, as in, with the help of our E-resources librarian and resident Technology expert; for some reason MARCedit and some related tools aren't working on my machine right now, which makes me even more dependent on my E-resources colleague. There's still a few major collections yet to fix, especially the Women Airforce Service Pilots archive collection, which has more than one "creative use" of the 246 tag (e.g. they are all wrongly used) that will have to be regularized.

There's also quite a lot to do as a result of the 440 field becoming obsolete, and the fact that our E-vendors keep coding their records wrong by making use of this field instead of the more appropriate 810 field for series corporate names (like Ebsco, JSTOR, Project Muse, et. al.). These keep showing up in the quarterly reports.

We're also facing down a severe budget crunch for the remainder of this calendar year until at least February of 2010. Our newly approved library fee kicks in for Spring 2010, but we won't see any benefit from it until the Spring semester is well underway. Because our acquisitions budget has dropped to nearly zero, in a way, it's the best time to be taking on all these authority control projects since we otherwise would not have the time to devote to them full time in the way that we currently do.

We also finally hired a new Systems Librarian and I am so glad to have him on board. I have to cut my employer some slack on this one, though, since the last Systems person was on extended leave, dying slowly of a terminal illness, and the position could not be filled until she passed on. Even when she did pass, our director really had to negotiate long and hard with the university administration that despite the fiscal crunch this position was essential to library operations and needed to be filled ASAP; We are so very fortunate the Chancellor agreed and approved the position. Maybe now we can seriously begin addressing shortcomings of the OPAC and resolving some mysteries around searching and recall, especially in the "advanced search" features. It's an evaluation that's long overdue. But it will probably be an easier task to tackle once we've done the BSLW authorities cleanup first, I suspect. We also need to resolve and understand why there are so many duplicate authority records and what we can do to delete the duplicates so that only one record exists in the catalog. This will entail me learning the ins and outs of MARCedit, I have no doubt.

I am growing as a Cataloger, but not without a lot of angsty growing pains along the way, days where I feel completely overwhelmed and feel like I have no idea what I'm doing or what I should do next. I sometimes welcome days where I get to train other staff or handle the occasional odd reference query pertaining to Cataloging or Metadata. I feel less self-conscious doing those things, actually.

We're also retraining one of our acquisitions staff to become a copy-cataloger, something she will probably end up doing almost full time once our current Senior Cataloging Assistant retires at the end of this Academic Year. She seems to be catching on fast and has a lot of experience dealing with Bibliographic records in MARC21 format(plus prior experience in ILL). It's doubtful the library will allow us to hire a replacement for the retiring employee, so we will all have to shift around and retrain a bit to compensate for the reduction in force via retirement. Some of the other acquisitions clerks may have to pick up the slack as the more experienced one transitions over to Cataloging from Acquisitions.

Side note, completely random--it seems my machine is the only staff PC where one can read international fonts correctly on the staff side of the ILS. I must have more international fonts than anyone else, etc. It's strange. The OPAC displays these characters correctly on a browser, but on the staff side only my machine does.
Which by default means I get to handle all the "weird" cataloging.

We will also soon be scrambling to do our self-evaluations, to prove how we met our goals or at least tried really hard to meet our goals and perhaps met other goals not originally specified but no less important, blah, blah, blah. Not only do I have to wear my manager hat as a librarian, I also have to get on my own butt to churn out MY paperwork for MY boss. It's going to be pretty stressful around here until all that paperwork is done and signed in triplicate, etc, then we can all go home for Thanksgiving with a clear conscience and relax for half a week.

I really don't have time to blog actively right now, as you can well imagine, but writing this post has at least given me a little much needed clarity and resolve.

Apologies for the long silence; enjoy these videos while you wait.

This is a new phenomenon sweeping YouTube, and especially among those of is in the online Atheist community who deeply appreciate science. These videos fill me with awe and make me choke up with emotion as much as an inspiring hymnal does for religious people.

(features Neil de Grasse Tyson, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Richard Feynman, and Carl Sagan)



The above is actually a second installment. The original work that kicked off this phenomena was called "Glorious Dawn", featuring astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and the late Carl Sagan...



This first work is actually on my iPod. The artist who composed has generously been making the MP3 available for free download.

Very creative use of an Autotuner...apparently giving birth to this new genre of online music. There are also satiric songs poking fun at politicians, etc.

More on library stuff in a bit, just wanted to share these for now.

This and that

Well, whew, done with the North Texas 23 Things, and just ahead of the deadline, too.

I've been working hard this week on cataloging an entire book truck full of Children's Gift Books that we received from our SLIS Department, from a SLIS faculty member who is a official reviewer of new Children's materials, which she regularly donates to us afterward, at the end of summer. We have a children's collection owing to the fact that we have a SLIS program geared towards training future School librarians and also Public Librarians who may have to work with children as part of their primary work responsibilities. These donations are of value to us because it allows the library to acquire very recent titles at no cost, so that we can devote the money we otherwise would have spent acquiring these titles on other things, like more academically rigorous material such as new monographs, or another electronic subscription that we otherwise couldn't afford, etc.

It's not hard (copy) cataloging, just tedious; one has to be especially mindful of subject headings; We do not use LC Children's headings, but rather use the Adult headings with subfield $v Juvenile literature for nonfiction and $v Juvenile fiction for works of fiction. I often listen to music while copy cataloging mass quantities, to help pass the time. Or I listen to other YouTube videos of somewhat longer content, especially monologues from my favorite fellow users. It can be more entertaining than television at times, especially at home. Yesterday while finishing up the book truck, I caught up on a political research podcast that I'd fallen behind on in recent months. It helped relieve some of the drudgery. Unlike adult monographs, children's book cataloging can turn into drudgery because they are so small and there are so many of them that can be crammed onto a book truck. Last week I cataloged 113 titles, and that was only 1 side of my truck. This week I've knocked out 132 titles on the opposite side of the truck in question. I also had to physically remove little round stickers from the back cover that had been applied by the SLIS reviewer(s) but that are no longer needed.

There are probably more children's books requiring my attention besides these, and then beyond that there are always the un-cataloged vault materials that need attending to, etc. Job security, right?

Also have other projects in the works, and trying not to freak out about them.

Anyway, more later, perhaps.

Thing 23: Reflection

For the 23rd Thing of the North Texas 23 Things, we are asked to reflect on what we have done so far.

Congratulations! You’ve made it to the end of North Texas 23: A roundup of Web 2.0 technology! You’ve worked hard to complete each of the 23 Things. For this final Thing, take a moment to think about what you’ve done. What was your favorite or least favorite Thing? What was challenging for you? What did you learn? What new technologies will you use in your library? Write a paragraph or more, reflecting upon your experiences.

I think my most favorite thing was probably the Flickr Mashups and Image Generator(s), since that is one thing I had wanted to learn more about. I really like the parodies of the ubiquitous "motivational" posters, usually called "demotivational" posters because unlike the corporate, mass produced product, they are frequently sarcastic and critical. You can also do your own virtual "Read" posters that way, too, which is pretty cool.

Many of the other "Things", however, I was already familiar with, so it wasn't much of a learning experience, just a nod and a shrug. "Yep, been there, done that.", etc.

Obviously, I'm also a big fan of Xtranormal.com, which, though it was not a part of the NT23, probably should be.

I was least impressed with Ning, and didn't see the point of it at first. Only later did I find out that a social network that I was interested, and later joined, called Atheist Nexus, was in fact part of Ning. When I went to sign up for Atheist Nexus, it already recognized my e-mail address and asked for my Ning password, which I supplied, and thus my Ning info pre-loaded itself into my presence on Atheist Nexus, including my somewhat goofy nickname Aggiememenon. Ning is still "meh" to me, but I'm slowly getting the hang of Atheist Nexus and beginning to enjoy it somewhat.

I'm also glad that I already had this library-related blog in existence and didn't have to create a brand new blog just to participate in NT23. I don't update very often, but still, this blog sometimes comes in handy to explore my latest musings on the profession and Higher Ed in general, from time to time.

GoogleDocs is pretty cool, but it turns out that SharePoint, a new information management intranet system that TWU is adopting, will have most of the same capabilities of GoogleDocs. For all I know, SharePoint's functionality was partially inspired by GoogleDocs (or vice versa, maybe). In any event, the GoogleDocs demo fired my imagination, and I plan to exploit SharePoint's own GoogleDocs-like functionality to revise how we keep and update cataloging statistics. Rather than manually crunching the stats by hand from paper report forms supplied to me by my cataloging staff (always a pain!), I will move this Excel file online to SharePoint and have my staff directly update their own stats themselves each week, and I will just check the online document to make sure everyone has kept up and submitted stats in a timely manner. I may keep the paper forms alive for a time, as a backup, but I do foresee the potential to go "paperless" in this area. If people still want something to physically write on, maybe we could develop a laminated sheet and update with erasable china markers or something for the weekly tallies. Or perhaps a whiteboard and erasable markers? I can definitely see the need for a physical tally, if only to keep things straight in one's head, rather than relying on an online-only interface. But saving paper could help save money for the library, so we need to think of ways to compromise to make this work out best for everyone.

NT23 Things has been a worthwhile workshop, even if I was already familiar with over 50% of the material. I still learned things of value by participating.

NT23, Thing 22 : Developing your own 23 things @ your Library.

In Thing 22, we are asked the following:

Think about your own library for a moment. Perhaps everyone from your library participated in this program. Perhaps you are the only one. Regardless, write a paragraph about how you could adapt this program to increase the technology skill level among the staff at your library. Even if all staff at your library has gone through this program, there is so much more to be learned.

We seem to have good participation from our reference staff, and even a few people in tech services, like me, also participated. The 23 Things is a good, brief introduction to Web 2.0 technology, but much of it I was already familiar with from just being a citizen with an internet connection who already pays some attention to what is going on. But as discussed at TLA this past year, it's important for librarians to take time out of their work week to review blogs and take the pulse of what's happening in technology and information; not only from ALA sources but also places like Wired.com or BoingBoing.net, for example. I recently subscribed to the print edition of Wired Magazine using my "Coke Rewards" points, an online customer loyalty program created by the Coca Cola Bottling Company where users can input a code and rack up "points" which they can apply to various rewards great and small. One of these awards was the subscription to Wired Magazine. I normally wouldn't shell out the cash for it, but since I had plenty of points to spare and not much interest in most of the smaller awards on offer, I decided to go for it. I also got some coupons for free movies at Blockbuster (rent one, get one free and also a stand alone free movie offer). I don't use Blockbuster very often anymore, since I mostly watch Japanese anime via Netflix for my primary entertainment, but I do use Blockbuster to watch some of the newest Hollywood releases that I didn't see on the big screen.

Wired Magazine is great, but Wired.com is better for fast-breaking news, obviously. I also get an email alert from the Dallas Morning News's computers & technology column. I also get local headlines via email from the Denton Record Chronicle. I try to stay at least nominally aware of what's going on in the community and the world at large. During the run up to the Iraq War and the initial American invasion, I was definitely an internet news junkie, relying heavily on foreign sources and alternative news to get a fuller understanding of what was going on beyond the accounts given by mainstream TV news and PBS/NPR. I still am a news junkie to some degree, but not quite as intensely as when I was in library school.

The NT23 Things is a good way to introduce technology to library staff, and to encourage "technological literacy" among staff members. The most important factor for success, I think, is commitment and follow through beyond the initial "Gee whiz" enthusiasm. Otherwise you end up with lots of sizzle and no steak. A library blog can be a good way to disseminate information, but if it is seldom updated, users will ignore it and forget about it. Beyond internet technology, we are looking at using Digital Picture frames to display library info (fines, hours open, etc) in a dynamic fashion that will be more eye-catching.

Keeping abreast of current technology is essential to being an effective librarian, whether one works in Reference or Tech Services, Acquisitions or Cataloging, ILL or circulation. Technology impacts us all, and we have to help patrons mediate technology to fulfill their information needs.

Thing 20: YouTube

I found the most helpful YouTube search term to be "library services"; The term "academic library" yielded results that were ok, but the first few results seemed to be more visual tours of various libraries. The search term "library services", on the other hand, yielded more useful information that patrons could potentially use.

Such videos would serve patrons best if integrated into another platform, like a library's blog or at least its homepage or a link from its homepage. Just having your library videos "out there" on its own YouTube channel is not enough. You have to "push" them where your patrons are most likely to see them. Still, hosting them on YouTube is a good idea, since it frees up server space on local computing networks. Librarians do need to be mindful of copyright restrictions on background audio content, however. If you upload a video with a popular song from a recording artist as the main or even background audio content, it's highly likely that YouTube will find out (via automated process or user flagging) and either take the video down or at least silence the audio. Luckily, YouTube offers an "audio swap" feature if you should make this common user mistake. This will allow you to provide a substitute audio track with music specifically licensed for broadcast on YouTube; if your offending audio content was background music with a voiceover, you may have to completely rework your audio track so that only the voiceover plays, or swap the audio for a licensed track, re-download the modified file, and the add the voiceover manually with editing software, then re-upload the file.

It is also possible to create simple animations via the free website Xtranormal.com and then publish them to your YouTube channel. These might be useful for short animations describing library hours of operations, fine rates, checkout periods, etc. You could even use a particular character over and over and use her as the library digital spokesperson or mascot. Get creative! If you link your Xtranormal account together with your YouTube channel, the result is usually seamless interaction and it is easy to upload from Xtranormal to YouTube. You can also remix Xtranormal animations with live action for a library Q&A or FAQ type of video with actual patrons. Patrons could ask a question on camera, and this could either be answered by a staff member on camera, or else via an animated character.

YouTube is an amazing platform and many think of it as the "public place in cyberspace", sort of a virtual Hyde Park or other Free Speech Zone. However, YouTube is a owned by Google, a corporation. It has its own "terms of service" and rules. Most of these are common sense, but in more heated areas of public discourse, on hot-button topics, abuse of the rules has led to charges of censorship; Some terms you may hear include "false flagging", "false DMCA", etc. "False flagging" is a term used to describe a situation where a video is unfairly "flagged" as offensive, when the content is in fact fairly innocuous, but the flagger merely strongly disagrees with the content of the message. This restricts the video to users who are willing to confirm they are 18 or older. When done maliciously, it is a way to restrict the target audience of the video. "False DMCA" means filing a knowingly false DMCA copyright claim against a video, which forces YouTube's hand; They must immediately pull down the video; that's the law and they have no choice. It is possible to file a counter-notice if the video can be claimed to be Fair Use, or if the person who filed the DMCA did not actually own the copyright for the alleged infringing material. YouTube will restore videos if it is determined a DMCA claim is without merit; if someone gets multiple DMCA claims filed against them within a short period of time, this can lead to one's channel being suspended; not a good thing. It should be noted that filing a false DMCA is very serious business, as to knowingly file a false DMCA claim is to commit perjury under U.S. law. See the case of YouTube user "Venom Fang X" for an instructive lesson in this, especially the video "Venom Fang X apologizes to the Internet". VFX is/was a virulent "Young Earth Creationist" and notorious for all the censorious abuses of YouTube, especially the false DMCA claims.

I've been observing the ongoing "Culture War" on YouTube between the "Young Earth Creationist" Christian YouTubers (and some other religious creationists, but mostly those of the Christian variety) and YouTube's Atheist community. The YouTube Atheist community is often at a tactical disadvantage because they take the high road, while their opposition frequently resorts to "false flagging", "false DMCAs", and also something else called "votebotting". A "votebot" is a piece of software that generates massive amounts of negative (or positive) "votes" on YouTube (one star to five star) and drives down (or up) a video's visibility on YouTube. The YouTube Atheist community has repeatedly suffered "votebot attacks", where some or all of their videos are subjected to a flood of one-star "sabotage" reviews via these automated processes, effectively "burying" their video, making it very difficult for users of YouTube to find by merely surfing YouTube.

Full disclosure, I am not a disinterested observer, but an actual minor partisan in this conflict; I'm usually too camera shy to appear in person, but I do create polemical Xtranormal animations for our side. Most of the videos on my channel are old footage from my High School years, and old home movies at Christmas time, etc, but my more recent work has been my Xtranormal animations. Obviously if you are going to create YouTube videos for library work, you should create an official YouTube channel for your library rather than relying on the personal channels of library staff. You want to clearly separate the Library's videos from the personal videos of library staff, where opinions expressed may or may not accurately represent the view of the library or the host institution of that library.

In conclusion, YouTube has great potential for explaining library services to patrons in a fun, entertaining, and visually stimulating way. Use of comedy is definitely recommended, as in the video embedded above.

NT23: Still to be done...Things 20, 22, and 23.

Still on my agenda to complete in the NT23 are Thing 20 on YouTube, Thing 22 on Developing your own 23 Things for Your Library, and Thing 23, Reflections on NT23.

Thing 20 on YouTube I will probably try to work on this evening, when I'm more at liberty to peruse YouTube on my own free time. I've watched a scant few library-related YouTube videos in the past, but it will be interesting to see how much the YouTube universe has expanded for libraries and librarians over the past several months and years.

For me anymore, I sometimes have more fun spending an evening watching YouTube videos than I do watching Cable TV, especially if there's nothing but re-runs on, and I've run out of rental Anime DVDs for the time being. I'm a subscriber to several prominent "YouTube Atheists" including dprjones, AronRa, Thunderf00t, TheAmazingAtheist, etc, and watch with interest their trials and tribulations and ongoing culture wars with YouTubers who are hard-core creationist and/or homophobic Christians. It makes for very entertaining theater, I must say. I even take potshots in the culture war by uploading some animations from Xtranormal.com; Take a wild guess which side I'm on. I'm far too camera shy to appear on camera myself using my own face/voice...at least not without heavy special effects to obscure my face; I wish MovieMaker had a way to distort and alter voiceovers beyond simply speeding them up to x2 as fast or slowing them down to x2 as slow. If it can do this, I haven't yet discovered that special effect yet. Maybe it's available as an add on. Or maybe there is OpenSource video editing software out there that I need to check out and use instead of Windows MovieMaker. I don't know.

This isn't related to anything and is completely random, but I'm very annoyed that it's become increasingly complicated to create and play picture DVD slideshows on a standard DVD player. I recall when my girlfriend and I once bought a basic DVD player back in 2002 or 2003, and it was very easy to simply pop in a DVD-R or DVD-RW with only .jpeg files on it, and the DVD player would instantly play them as a slide show on the TV screen. That was the coolest damn thing we'd seen that whole year.

I have subsequently never been able to reproduce that. I even recently burned a picture CD at home using special software; it's supposed to play in DVD players but it doesn't--neither on my new DVD player or in my PS2. It only plays on my computer, which is like, big freakin' whup. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I suspect it's beyond the capability of a PS2 to do that, but I was really hoping my new DVD player (which is built-in to my new small-screen HDTV LCD 19") would be capable of handling it, but nope, no dice. My aunt and uncle have produced workable picture DVDs with edited music and credits that have pretty great production values, nice transitions, etc. If they can do it, so can I...but I just lack the time and motivational drive and funds to do it properly, I guess, plus all I have to work with are my photo album(s) on Flickr. I haven't taken any trips recently I'd like to showcase or anything else notable like that.

Anyway, it's getting about time to clock out for the day. More postings about Thing 20, on YouTube, a bit later on perhaps.

NT23: Thing 21, Podcasting.

I may do more than one posting on this topic, depending on how in-depth I want to go. I myself listen to several podcasts each week. My experience with Library-related podcasts are very limited however.

I found I really enjoyed the LibVibe podcast when it was still around; LibVibe was a brief, 15-30 minute weekly podcast devoted to breaking news in the world of Libraries and Information Science. I actually liked it better than the podcast associated with the blog "LIS News" which I follow periodically. I have an RSS live-bookmark in Firefox devoted to the RSS feed for LIS News, actually. The podcast for LIS NEWS is called LISTen; it's pretty good, but often pretty tech-y, too, and if you're a non-tech person it can sometimes be a little overwhelming. Sometimes I agree with them, sometimes I don't.

I even at one point downloaded the Audacity software and the MP3 extension mentioned. I had at one time considered becoming a guest contributor to a gun rights podcast that I followed out of Indiana with some frequency. I really only wanted to do one guest podcast on gun rights in Canada, something I had by that point acquired more than just a passing knowledge of, and thought might be of interest to other listeners of the podcast. I gave it a few dry runs, but found it was a lot trickier than it looks. Turns out I'm a bit of a perfectionist (go figure) and really REALLY dislike the sound of my own voice, and also, it probably helps to write a script and learn it until you can deliver from the script like a real voice actor and not SOUND like you're just reading from a script. So anyway, I still have the software loaded onto my desktop computer, but I haven't touched it in many months.

I can see how there might be good potential in doing library podcasts, but I would think a library would probably want to keep it pretty brief. Also, you would have to update often enough to hold the interest of listeners, give them a reason to devote space to your podcast on their podcatcher hardware/software as opposed to another MP3 of music or whatever. I like the idea of a down-loadable walking tour of the library. It is also possible to do video podcasting, though this is more complicated, since not all podcatcher hardware screens are capable of replaying video; only the more advanced iPods (8 gig and up) are capable of doing so, for example. And even then I can't always load video content onto my 8G iPod. Some of the formats are incompatible. I can watch them in iTunes, on my PC, but not on my iPod, for example.

I also like the idea of recording book talks and releasing them on podcast, but of course, this would require the written permission of the author; you wouldn't want to surreptitiously record a book talk and then release it on the library podcast without first securing permission from the author featured in the book talk.

Librarians could also interview students with digital voice recorders, compiling audio content containing students' frequently asked questions and complaints, followed by a voice-over of the library director or a reference librarian later addressing these questions and concerns. It should not take the place of a physical Q&A board in the library, but rather, it should augment such an existing feedback system already in place.

Podcasting is another Web 2.0 technology that *could* potentially impact and enhance library services, but it would depend on librarians providing quality content on an ongoing basis, along with a responsive patron base who comes to value such content from the library on a recurring basis. Library podcast content must be not only of high quality but also actively promoted to students, competing for their time and attention in an increasingly hectic academic work/study environment. As with other Web 2.0 applications, what a library can get out of Podcasting depends very much on what librarians are willing to put into it.

I think that's all I can think of to say on the intersection of Podcasting and Libraries.

As far as generic podcasts go, my favorites are German-language news media podcasts (usually actual excerpted re-broadcasts from radio & tv), which I tend to listen to of a morning while getting dressed for work, and also a select number of interrelated atheist, humanist, skeptic types of podcasts, including Chariots of Iron, the Non-Prophets, American Freethought, Dogma Free America, FFRF's Freethought Radio, CFI's Point of Inquiry with D.J. Grothe (who is also a Facebook friend of mine), and Reasonable Doubts, just to name a few. I will listen to these podcasts while doing chores (such as folding clothes after taking them out of the dryer, or washing dishes), or while just lounging around on my couch playing Playstation2 or doing nothing in particular. I also have a cassette adapter that lets me plug my iPod into my car's tape deck (hey, it's a 2002, so cut the lulz) and listen to podcasts while I drive around town running errands (grocery store run, post office trip, etc). I even sometimes listen to my favorite podcasts when going out to eat (though sometimes I prefer to read).

To my knowledge, there aren't too many general interest library podcasts besides LISTen these days. There are a few others, but I'm still missing LibVibe, which was by far my favorite.

NT23: Thing 19, GoogleDocs

Ok so this is an experiment with GoogleDocs. I've watched the instructional YouTube videos and I can definitely see the advantages for online collaboration and the reduction of email clutter, which is always a good thing. In library applications, I would imagine this being of greater use to large libraries with large numbers of staff members, while work in a relatively small academic library. Still, we have branch campuses in Dallas and Houston, so GoogleDocs might offer us advantages for communicating and collaborating with our librarians at those campuses in ways we have not considered previously. It is an exciting time to be involved in Librarianship, and workshops like NT23 show us these kinds of Web 2.0 tools that we can use to help us do our jobs as LIS professionals better.

It would also be a handy way to inexpensively keep a resume online instead of constructing one as a webpage and paying money to a ISP.

You could also save your PowerPoint style presentations online and free yourself from the worry of loosing your jump drive en route to your next presentation event, etc. You could also embed the presentation in a web page or blog later; Kind of cool, eh? As long as you had a computer you could use with internet access, and as long as you had your username and password memorized (or written down), you're home free.

GoogleDocs is definitely thinking outside the box; a good way to reintroduce a fairer division of labor, etc, especially with spreadsheet questionnaires, which was the coolest thing by far that I saw in the intro videos.

Could potentially be helpful in sharing circulation statistics as well as cataloging statistics across the library.

Also helpful for those who can't afford MS Office on their home computer and aren't tech savvy enough to download open source alternatives like OpenOffice from Sun Microsystems.

Those are my tentative thoughts on GoogleDocs and its potential for work in the LIS world ahead.

NT23: Thing 17 - LibWorm

Well, it's certainly better than using Google. Nice way to tightly focus search results to get a gist of the current chatter in LIS circles on topics of interest to library and information professionals. I even saw results from this blog pop up, which was frankly a little embarrassing, but I'm very self-conscious in that way.
I guess I should think "hey, neat!". But on the other hand, I update so infrequently, I was a little surprised that I turned up in the first page of results on some queries, as high as result number 3 in one query. Odd.

I'd probably still use Databases and peer-reviewed journals for "serious" research and publication (such as, say, for tenure requirements, if I had that here, which I don't).
But still, as a quick way for measuring the "pulse" of the LIS world, LibWorm delivers the goods, I'd say. Nifty tool. Thanks, NT23, for introducing me to it.

NT23 : Thing 18, Wikis, an addendum.

Completed Thing 18 on Wikis.

My sample wiki page here.

It also has 2 "sub-pages". It was a little tricky because I had to pick a name for the sub-pages that noone else had used or else it wouldn't "take" (I tried multiple times before figuring this out). Maybe just a hiccup with the pages, who knows.

We also use a Departmental Wiki at work, and I have fooled around on the LIS Wiki and in Wikipedia itself. Wikis can be good for collaborative efforts, but for example a library Wiki would need to be restricted to staff members only, or at least certain parts of it would need to be walled off from patrons. Most staff wikis tend to be internal documents, not intended for public display and consumption, much less editing.

Wikis are based on the logic of the "wisdom of the crowds", or more simply, "two heads are better than one".

NT23: Thing 16: LT, part 2

Ok, found the upper limit for Library Thing; freebie members are limited to 200 books. If you want to add beyond that to your personal profile, you have to pay for it. So rather limited compared to Amazon.com in that respect. LT pulls their info from LoC and Amazon, after all. It costs them money, so naturally they have to have a subscription model to absorb beyond 200+ items, to pull paying members in, because once you start adding books you find it hard to stop.

The site is a little buggy at times, especially shuffling books between collections, etc. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, even after repeated attempts.

I next went to join groups of possible interest, though as yet I have not encountered an upper limit on those, but I suspect it also probably exists on Freebie accounts.

It does seem like it would be a valuable tool for reference librarians, acquisitions and collection development librarians...again more so than someone in Cataloging like me.

I have my Freebie account and will have to mull over if I think it is worth my upgrading to a paid account; Will it really enhance my professional skills enough to justify the investment? Hard to say.

I won't be upgrading anytime soon, though I'll consider it again maybe come Fall semester.

NT23: Thing 16, Library Thing

Ok, so in truth I already had a LibraryThing account long before I started the North Texas 23 Things, but also true is the fact I did next to nothing with it. I did have a dust-up with the LibraryThing head honcho when he dissed the Dewey Decimal System, and he came on and joined AUTOCAT and promptly got his *ss handed to him by the more experienced catalogers there, IMHO. Fun was had by all.

But yes, LT is fun to play around with and certainly easier to manage than "Wish Lists" on Amazon.com, which is where I have been storing my "for future reading" book lists; This has worked as a crutch, but over time this becomes unwieldy as the lists become increasingly huge and difficult to navigate easily.

LT offers a way out of this conundrum, at least in theory. I'll have to play around with it more, but it seems like a fun, harmless diversion for bibliophiles. It will never replace rigorous cataloging standards as practiced in libraries, however.

Will publish more later on LT if anything inspires me further.

NT23: Thing 15 - Digg / Dugg

So anyway, I gave Digg.com a try; It was easy enough to set up a Digg account via Facebook, actually, which was awfully convenient & painless.

I poked around on Digg, "dug" a few stories, which then appeared on my Facebook 'wall'. I even found a story I had read earlier on Inside Higher Ed this morning which I decided to "dig" as well. It had only 1 Digg, but at least it was there, and I added my Digg as well.

It seems to be inspired by the whole "wisdom of the crowds" Meme that's going around these days, and seems to have some validity too it. The most active users are apt to be the most techno-savvy and for bleeding edge technology news, Digg is probably very useful. Ditto stuff that is all around "Cool". But I can't say that it's necessarily more interesting than, say, BoingBoing.net, for example. I bet the editors at BoingBoing.net probably use Digg.com as a research tool, among many others, but for the end user, unless you have a home built PC running on Linux, or have similar levels of techno-moxy, I don't know if the lay user will find much that is appealing about Digg. It's like a massive web-wide popularity contest. Sometimes it pays to heed the word of the Vox Populi Digitalis, other times, less so.

As a lay user looking for "cool stuff", I'll let the editors at BoingBoing do their work on my behalf and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Regularly perusing BoingBoing keeps me hip and cool. A nice antidote to BoingBoing on the other hand is the blog Stuff White People Like, which holds up a fun mirror to my own existence and lets me laugh at myself. It's scary how much SWPL pegs me, deflates my ego, undermines my hip pretensions, nearly every time.

Reference librarians will probably find Digg.com more useful than I do as a cataloger, since they deal with the public much more directly. No doubt it can be helpful at the reference desk as a jumping off point.

Anyway, on to the next "thing". Digg/Dug/done.

On my agenda for later, Things 15-17

I will get to things 15-17 a bit later on. Right now the library staff are all pitching in to go count volumes on the shelves so we can compile accurate statistics. Everybody has to pitch in, including Tech Services, so I've got to be signing off here and lending a hand the rest of the day. Toodles!

Thing 14, Delicious

Been there, done that. Broke down and set up my Delicious account not long after Texas Library Association annual conference 2009, user name "Aggiememenon". It was convenient to consolidate my bookmarks from all my home PCs, and from my Work PC. But I don't tote my laptop around very much, so I really don't have a huge use for Delicious, but I could see where it would be handy for people who move around a lot for their jobs (Consultants, etc) or Reference staff who don't have assigned terminals, etc.

I do have my own Desk in Tech Services that I sit in every day, so it's really not that much of an issue for me. I didn't even bother to bring my laptop to TLA this year, too much hassle to tote around. While a few lucky people had iPhones and iPod Touches, most did not. I'm envious of the people who have the smaller notebooks, those seem more portable and handy/useful.

So again my reaction to Delicious is mostly "meh". I see how it could be useful to some people, but as a practical matter it has little to offer me.

Thing 13, Tagging

Yes, I use Flickr, and yes, I use tagging on my photos. I also add tags to other people's photos to aid in their being found by other users. I have mixed feelings about allowing user tags into the catalog. I guess I'd be okay with them if they were indexed separately from LCSH and could be excluded from searches at the user's discretion. Those that want to find "something, anything" will be happy, and more serious researchers will appreciate being able to tune out the "noise".

Slightly OT, but I recently offered some Metadata consultation for our Special Collections, who host various Digital Image collections. They typically use the Thesaurus for Graphical Materials (TGM?) controlled vocabulary but expressed some dissatisfaction with it when it came to one of their newer collections. I showed them what traditional LCSH had to offer via LC's ClassWeb, and they were impressed with the expanded range of descriptors that they could put to good use.

I'm also learning more about "tag clouds" and how to interpret them, but I confess I still don't really use them all that much.

I still like the old OPAC default display and I hate it when libraries install new "Discovery tools" that either bury or remove the default OPAC. I hate OPACs and Discovery Tools that don't index subject string searches to make them list browsable but only generate and re-generate such searches as keywords; I don't care if that's how "most" users prefer or if most users "don't care", *I do*.

For sites like Flickr, tagging is admittedly fun to play around with. I think LibraryThing sort of gets into that as well, but I haven't played around with that site. The advantage of tagging is that the terminology is up-to-date, while LCSH always lags behind a little, of necessity. I've also floated the idea in the past of Amazon marketing their SIPs and CAPs Metadata to libraries, or making it available for free in exchange for an Amazon link; I suppose a clever programmer could just mine the data from Amazon.com outright, but I'd rather get their permission and acknowledgment first. SIPs = Statistically improbable phrases and CAPs = Capitalized phrases/words. These give you good "snapshot" metadata that convey more of the "aboutness" of a book. This metadata is much more valuable than the anemic, vague "subject cataloging" provided by Amazon.com itself. Amazon.com also allows user tagging, besides the SIPs and CAPs generated from the actual text of the book proper (provided to Amazon by the publishers). Amazon also allows "user images" of their products, which is especially useful for non-book items like toys and tools. User interactivity is definitely a sign of the times. Some libraries also link in Amazon.com book reviews straight into the display for bib records in their OPAC. With enough clever programming, this is easily done, though it is frequently a "hack" rather than a vendor-supplied feature. The only vendors flexible enough to permit this are the Open Source pioneers like Evergreen and LibLime (Koha). Before you "hack the OPAC", you do definitely need to know what you are doing, because you could stand to really royally screw things up, too.

Tagging has its place, but it is no replacement for professionally chosen Controlled vocabulary; it is an augmentation of existing Metadata schemes.

Thing 12, Twitter

So I signed up for Twitter and started "Following" a few people. A bit later on, some people started "following" me. I don't Tweet much, or very often. Neither do they, though sometimes I get an annoying flurry of email alerts from Twitter, but mostly not.
My user name over there is Aggiememenon. Twitter seems like Facebook for people with chronically short attention spans. It's like the ADHD sufferer's social network tool.

As if said before in the past, it might serve limited useful purposes in limited contexts, like live-blogging an event in real time, or using it to communicate at an event where simply calling the person would be a breach of etiquette (such as both of you attending separate sessions at an academic conference, yet needing to relay important information to each other in a quick burst of text).

But day to day, I just can't be bothered to fool with Twitter much. I don't even log into Facebook nearly as much as I used to, and only once in a blue moon will you catch me online at MySpace. I've been adding more stuff to my YouTube channel lately, mainly unused NJROTC footage that I can add new music audio tracks to, and that sort of thing. I don't even bother to upload the unedited footage to Facebook, since it's utterly boring without the music soundtrack.

I've also been having fun with the animation site Xtranormal.com and finally broke down and bought a premium account, so that I can create more diverse animations, which I also upload to YouTube as well as the Xtranormal site itself, where these animations are "born". I could see a library doing an Xtranormal video animation explaining library services, for example. You can sign up to have your Xtranormal animatons "tweeted" on Twitter (and YouTube allows the same thing), but I don't bother. I don't have enough "followers" to care.

To those who "get" Twitter and use it effectively, my hat's off to you. I suppose a library could sent out "Tweets" advising about new books arriving from cataloging, or when books are returned that were on hold, etc. I'm not gaga for Twitter, but in limited doses I suppose it has its uses.

An Historian's Conscience

As I make my way through our re-cataloging project, I know I'm handling a lot of mundane materials that are probably candidates for weeding (like many books on the sport of Golf from the 1940s through the 1960s); but every now and then I uncover a gem that we've been hiding from the world, such as two multi-volume sets of Documentary History of the American Labor Movement, one published in the Nineteen-teens, the second edition published in the late 1950s. Both sat in our online catalog for years with very minimal records and the generic subject heading (651) of "United States."; Holdings were NOT attached in OCLC, so WorldCat did not reflect our ownership of this item. I have brought in the full catalog records from OCLC and attached our holdings, so now the world knows we own these sets, and also, our patrons have better bibliographic access to these two multi-volume sets.

Basically, I helped to recover a fragment of American memory. These are the kind of things that keep me going, that affirm to me, yes, this project is worth seeing through to the end. Recovering buried history. It is my conscience as a historian, more so than merely as a librarian, that drives me forward in this endeavor. If I did not have my background in History, I question whether I would be as relentless and zealous in finishing this re-cataloging project. There were other catalogers before me who saw fit to ignore the problem or felt it was too overwhelming to tackle, or just didn't care, or most likely, some combination thereof.

In a related vein, yesterday at Recycled Books, I bought an old used NRA publication from 1969, written by the then National Rifle Association president, titled To Keep and Bear Arms. I bought it not that I expect any particularly new or useful insights for the ongoing debate today necessarily (though sometimes this is the case, by serendipity) but as a record of American intellectual history, the history of ideas. Published in 1969, this book would have come out in the wake of the Gun Control Act of 1968. It also notes that the author's grandmother once broke up a KKK rally by firing her .22 LR pistol in the air. The book also bemoans the decline in basic marksmanship in the U.S. military and it's alleged toll on the Vietnam battlefield as a result. While that probably overstates the case, it's an interesting wrinkle in military history, too. The book is important to me for the way it captures a snapshot of the American Zeitgeist, circa 1969. While no library would collect this book if they didn't already have it, and while a Public library would be right to weed it, an Academic institution by contrast would be well advised to retain it. The book may no longer serve its original practical purpose, but it serves as a snapshot preserving human culture and history from the time it was produced, like a fossil stuck in amber. It has become a cultural artifact. I am also re-cataloging old nutrition and hygiene manuals published by British and U.S. government agencies. While virtually useless for their original intended purposes today, again, these anachronisms serve as a window to the past, reveal the way the medical profession once thought about things, and serves as a contrast to present practices.

Recorded History is no less than the Foundation upon which Civilization is built. The good librarian must also be a conscientious Historian.

Thing 11 - Instant Messaging (North Texas 23 Things)

My first experience with "Instant messaging" was playing around with Internet Relay Chat (IRC) back in the late 1990s. I used to hang out on #germany (channel Germany) a whole lot, mostly to practice interacting with native German speakers online; it was a fun way to waste time; I'd sometimes have a beer in hand while logged on from my apartment in the Old Grad House on South Main in Houston, while I was still a graduate student in German Studies at Rice University.

I later watched over the shoulder of my friend Jase, who was an "early adopter" to America Online (AOL), and which had its own chat rooms exclusive to AOL users.

Today I sometimes use the "chat" feature of Facebook, which I was previously unaware of until a friend of mine from High School messaged me from her home in Alaska one evening. It kind of took me by surprise.

I also used to instant message a woman I was dating while working at AIG, via AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). This was technically against company policy, but evidently quite popular among bored night shift people. I had no idea, until this woman insisted I get on AIM so she could message me.

I also participated in online chats in Library school in the WebCT software platform, with varying degrees of success.

I find IM a somewhat frustrating mode of communication, though if you think IM is confusing, try Blog TV!! That's like IRC/IM and Live Video all rolled into one big confusing mess. It's like IRC but with eveyone having a webcam and a microphone.

Currently I have downloaded to my home PC (and work PC) the chat software from Google, namely Google Talk. I use my real name on it, John Ronald. I think that's my Google Talk user name, but I'm not 100% for sure. I basically got it because I have a photographer friend out in California who likes to chat, and I like her, so I broke down and did it. If I had it to do over again, I probably would've gone the Meebo route.

I know I have colleagues working in Reference and virtual reference is a big thing, being available a certain number of hours a week for live "chat reference", as opposed to traditional F2F reference or plane jane email reference. I'm told it can be somewhat stressful, especially if you get multiple patrons hitting you up at one time with multiple reference questions. In the world of cataloging, we really don't use IM software that much. Email usually suffices. I have of late purchased a web-cam, as well as screen capture software, so that I can take a digital moving image of a book or other information object in hand and show it to a more experienced cataloger, say, and also show a screen shot of my ILS, or a part of ClassWeb, or whatever, and ask for advice in areas where I feel "stuck". I haven't done this yet, but I do plan to do so the next time I have to tackle a particularly thorny cataloging problem while handling original cataloging or advanced copy cataloging.

I'm not crazy about IM as a way to communicate. I'd rather either talk on the phone or email or write a regular letter. IM can be useful for conveying short, discrete bits of information, but it's not the forum best suited to long philosophical discourse. The level of conversation almost never rises above that found on your typical internet message board, if even that. I accept that IM has found a permanent place in the delivery of Reference service, and that this is on the whole a good thing, but outside of that context I rarely use IM in any form anymore.

iPod pondering, followed by a rant.

In case you didn't know, or hadn't thought about it, there is more than one way to use/enjoy an iPod besides with the standard earbuds jammed in one's ears, which is a method I almost never employ in public, and seldom in private, either.

I own an iPod (two of them, in fact) and though I have a little music on them, what I mainly use them for is to listen to (and watch) audio (and sometimes video) podcasts, mostly on topics of personal interest, but also from European news agencies like Deutsche Welle and the BBC (great way for me to keep my German-language listening skills sharp, I subscribe to many German, Austrian and Swiss news podcasts).

My car is a post-2000 Honda Civic but actually has a tape deck and not a CD player. I do have a CD-to-Tape player/adapter, which I was forced to buy when I could not buy a cassette tape version of one of Sarah Vowell's works that I wanted to listen to in audiobook format. When I listen to audiobooks, I prefer audiocassettes, but it is increasingly rare for publishers to offer that format anymore; I was happy that David Sedaris's last book was still available in cassette format, which is perfect for my car's tape deck.

While I listened to Sarah Vowell's book on CD, I noticed that the cassette-tape adapter that plugged into my portable CD player would also fit into the base of my iPod, I decided to try a little experiment. I copied the next audiobook into my iTunes library, added it to my iPod, and found it was much easier to listen that way than having to pull over and park to change a CD on long trips. I plugged the adapter into my iPod and the digital audio was able to play just fine over my car speaker system. I also listen to podcasts this way on the go, much more enjoyable than commercial radio or talk radio (except for maybe NPR).

Also, around my apartment, I have saved old computer speakers from past computers I have owned (most new computers you buy these days come with brand new speakers, so rather than throw out the old speakers, I found a way to re-purpose them), and I use these as stand-alone iPod stations that I can plug in my iPod to and have it play those German-language news podcasts while I'm doing chores like washing dishes, or folding laundry, or getting dressed for work in the morning. I also enjoy listening to Barnes & Noble's "Portable Professor Series", which is similar to (but less expensive than) The Teaching Company's lecture courses on CD (with The Teaching Company, I still obtain those on cassette tape whenever I make a purchase for myself, on those rare occasions when I find a bargain item I really like on sale).

There are also professionally made "docking ports" for the iPod that can give you stereophonic sound comparable to a "boom box", etc, but I'm satisfied with my low-tech work-arounds (old computer speakers, my car tape-deck & cd-to-tape adapter re-purposed as an adapter for my iPod to play over my car sound system).

Still, as long as the cassettes are in good condition, I'm perfectly content to continue checking out books-on-tape from the public library and listen to them in my car's tape deck on my commute or for long trips. At the 2008 Texas Library Association meeting, I listened to a number of children's librarians note that cassette tapes are much hardier and stand up to more wear and tear from kids than do CDs; One library actually hauled out old portable cassette recorders from the 1970s and began circulating them with books-on-tape for parents whose cars (and homes) only have CD players.

I remain highly skeptical of the "all digital future" for many reasons, and remain convinced the printed monograph book remains the true cornerstone of a genuine, well-rounded, humanistic education (which, I know, elicits snorts of derision from those in technology fields and sometimes those in the natural sciences as well). I use new technology, sure, but I also remain mindful of "low tech" work-a-rounds and methods. Another example: I'm always about 1 system behind on gaming consoles. I bought my PS1 when the PS2 came out. I waited to buy a PS2 until after the PS3 came out, and because it also saved me from buying a stand-alone DVD player. I get to enjoy the technology eventually (albeit a bit behind the trendy curve) without breaking the bank. I also added a DVR system to my cable television hookup, which gives me more flexibility in planning my social activities (and is admittedly simpler than programming a VCR), and I also subscribe to Netflix (I'm a huge fan of Japanese animation movies and tv shows in English translation). But I'm also mindful how much all this digital technology cuts into my available time for reading, so I have to go out of my way to carve out quality time with books from my busy schedule, time to still the digital chatter and distraction and devote myself to the printed word, in solitary reflection. I also realize I'm not nearly as disciplined in this regard as a colleague at a neighboring institution, who reads even more prolifically than I do. I'm kind of a "moody" person and if I'm not in the mood, I just won't pick up a book or stick with it for very long. I have to mentally prepare myself for sustained reading. It's always rewarding when I do, though, and there's seldom a feeling of satisfaction that quite matches the feeling I have upon finishing a good, informative, well-written book. The kind of (mostly nonfiction) books I read always have people scratching their heads and asking if I am reading it for a college class and when I say "no", they look completely baffled.

I'm also highly skeptical of California Governor Schwarzenegger's call for digital textbooks for California schools, which I view as a "cure" whose effects could end up being worse than the "disease" (budgetary shortfalls) it seeks to cure.

Perhaps I'm a walking anachronism (gee, I'm only 38, a Gen X member, who had a personal computer at age 12, an Apple ][+ with dot-matrix printer and without a modem, and my family owned an Atari 2600 gaming console before that; On my old Apple ][+ my favorite games were text-based adventures like Zork, Planetfall, etc; I did eventually graduate to games with better graphics like Ultima III, which is how I learned to type since the game makes use of every key on the keyboard for a function in the game) and our up and coming users may by in large feel like they "no longer need" the physical versions of books, etc, but I say we will be a society worse off if that ever becomes the reality and the norm. When my grades would slip in school, my Dad limited my "screen time" the old fashioned way...he took away the computer plug-in cord.

I view it as part of my ethical duty as a librarian to stand up and speak out on behalf of the virtues of "traditional" reading, with book in hand, even if it makes other people point and LOL or ZOMG! ROFLMAO, etc.

Anyway, thanks for indulging me if you all read this all the way through...it turned out a bit more ranty than I intended, but such is the nature of much blog fodder, no?

Library of Congress Agents Ask Lawmakers to Give Them Back Their Guns - Political News - FOXNews.com

Library of Congress Agents Ask Lawmakers to Give Them Back Their Guns - Political News - FOXNews.com

Posted using ShareThis

File this under "I had no clue". Who knew that LoC had investigators that packed heat?! How cool is THAT!! Give 'em their guns, back, Obie!

Seriously, what a dickish thing to do to Federal investigators.

Ongoing re-cataloging

I'm currently engaged in a long-term re-cataloging project that began last summer and, with any luck, will be concluded this summer. We truly are bearing down on the last remaining affected records. Apparently some time in the mid 1980s, as our library building opened in 1986, there was a rush to move all the books from the old library to the present one. Evidently in the old library, not everything had made it into the online catalog yet and were still controlled by card catalog. In the rush to get everything moved over and into the online catalog, a stop-gap measure was employed, namely student volunteers were used to create "brief" records, just to hurry up and get the item into the OPAC quickly, and I supposed it was imagined they would go back and fix them after the fact. The road to hell being paved with good intentions, these records have remained unfixed until, you guessed it, I came along. Here is a brief example of what I am talking about. (please click on the image for a larger view)


The record on the right is a "brief" record, created by a nominally trained student, on the fly. The record on the right is the actual Library of Congress record that I ended up replacing it with. Look at the subject headings in particular. This would be Laugh-out-loud funny, except for the fact that the record on the right sat like that in our catalog for YEARS and YEARS until I replaced it with the DLC record just recently. I also ended up having to update our holdings in OCLC so that they now show up in WorldCat. In other words, unless you searched our OPAC directly, nobody in the world would know we owned this book by just checking WorldCat.

I've been working on this re-cataloging project since last summer, when it was spun out of an authority control project and became the main focus after we decided to outsource our authority work to a vendor, Backstage Library Works, who have done an admirable job. I've concluded my first manual sweep of the catalog searching by author last name. Most of the offending records had either a blank or 19uu in the fixed fields for date, which made them easier to spot and isolate from legitimate records. They also were distinct in that they had a mysterious 035 $9, which is a nonstandard subfield; these were products of a database migration, from the previous ILS to Voyager, but no 035 $a (i.e. OCLC number). We commissioned a special report from Backstage to find all the records thus affected (all records lacking 035 $a); Backstage found approximately 14,000 records matching this criteria, about 3% of all our records; However upon closer examination, many of these were "false positives", as the Backstage report also yanked in ALL materials on Reserve, ILL, and even Acquisitions brief records. In the reports I have reviewed so far, only about 15-20% of the records (if that many) are true hits. I am now manually sweeping through the Backstage special report, once again separating proverbial wheat from chaff. I would estimate that the actual record count remaining to be fixed is no more than 6,000 records. Many of them either lack a 1XX field altogether, or have a 110 or 111 field rather than a 100 field, and thus would never have turned up in a Personal Name search. I'm glad to be restoring full bibliographic access to these items and thereby enhancing the functionality of our catalog, and also making more of our holdings accessible to scholars through WorldCat and potentially ILL. No doubt some of the materials I'm handling ought to be weeded, and so, it could be argued, I may be wasting my time with some of them, but that's not my call to make; our weeding tasks are a separate process handled by acquisitions, so I don't worry about it very much. Sure, I sometimes feel silly re-cataloging, say, a Phys Ed book from the 1940s, but on the other hand, when I'm re-cataloging tomes of History (D's, E's and F's) or Art books (N's), Literature (P's) or Music (M's), I feel a sense of gratification in conducting this restoration work. As I've alluded to jokingly before, it's sort of a "faith-based" initiative; I have to proceed with the belief that restoring full bibliographic access to these items will be useful someday to someone somewhere, but never knowing if that will ever be true or not in actuality. So much of what Libraries do are "just in case", for the long term, versus the "just in time" mentality of the Web-centric world.

The nit I'm picking with the above record is simply that the Boxer Rebellion in China had nothing to do with the sport of Boxing; it was simply a slang Western description of the rebel Chinese faction, who emphasized athleticism and martial arts prowess. I'm sure the student who added that LCSH was only trying to help, but in so doing displayed her ignorance of history, and mislead multitudes of library patrons until this year. No longer, thanks to me.

Texas Legislature Ajourned.

The Texas Legislature adjourned May 31st; some Higher Ed bills were passed, which I have no comment on yet. One TSRA-backed bill was passed, allowing Texans to purchase firearms in non-adjacent states. The more substantial bills (parking lot firearms storage and campus personal protection act) did not come up for a vote this session; They will have to be revived next session. Damn. I really had a good feeling about those bills at the start of the session. It also means I still have to come and go to work disarmed, while armed criminals roam free. What's a piss-ant weapons charge to a thug willing to commit armed robbery and/or murder; the only ones who obey the law are the law abiding like yours truly. That's the perverse nature of nearly all so-called "gun control" laws.

When I worked for my previous employer, the parking lot thing was a non-issue since my company did not own/control the parking complex, merely leased space for its employees to use. The company had no right to inspect my car or control what I carried in it. After car-carry became legal in Texas, I started keeping a .38 revolver in the glove box, and a semiauto rifle in the trunk. Our campus police similarly have stated they do not care if we keep firearms locked in our vehicles, but they have to enforce the law against concealed carry in university buildings.

I don't know what kind of legislative horse trading took place this session behind closed doors, but maybe in order to pass the other Higher Ed bills this session, the Campus Personal Protection Act was allowed to die quietly this session, to ensure bipartisan cooperation on the other bills. It's a disappointment, to be sure, but that's just how the legislative process works, and like they say in football, there's always next season, or in this case, legislative session. I'm afraid more idealistic goals like "open carry" will have to wait until we maximize the reach of Concealed Carry first, and pass the "Parking Lot Firearm Storage" bill similar to legislation recently enacted by the Oklahoma Legislature and upheld by the courts in Oklahoma. It's funny to see conservatives squirm and bicker over this last one, since to some property rights are so sacrosanct they trump even individual self-defense rights. Since I don't own any property, don't plan to own property (except if I inherit my parent's house in the suburban hinterland of Houston someday, which I fully expect to have to sell as quickly as possible--I sure don't want to live there or have to pay property taxes on it for very long), I'm sometimes rather contemptuous of property rights arguments, and I think personal self-defense rights are sacrosanct and trump ANY one else's property rights considerations. Or you can take the tac that one's own body is the ultimate form of property right, which is a nice bone to throw to the other side in this capitalistic, nominally democratic Republic we inhabit. Uses their argument and logic against them, as it were.

So as the cliche has it, it's literally one step forward, two steps back for self-defense gun rights in Texas this time around.

Oh, and a small piece of good news, via the Texas Freedom Network:

TFN Statement on the Senate’s Rejection of Don McLeroy’s Confirmation as SBOE Chairman

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 28, 2009

The Texas Senate today failed to confirm Don McLeroy as chairman of the State Board of Education. The 19-11 vote fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for confirmation. Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller is releasing the following statement:

“Watching the state board the last two years has been like watching one train wreck after another. We had hoped that the Legislature would take more action to put this train back on the tracks, but clearly new leadership on the board was a needed first step. The governor should know that parents will be watching closely to see whether he chooses a new chairman who puts the education of their children ahead of personal and political agendas.”

That perks me up some, for now.

Finally! Thing 10, Ning - a modest success.

Finally managed to subscribe to a few library-related NING social networks (pending approval), but it crapped out on me again when I tried to sign up for the last one, "Got Books?". The website must have been having issues this morning, because now the search engine works again. How bizarre.

Anyway, with any luck the Ning Mods will approve me to join their library related network grouping(s).

What I'll get out of doing so remains to be seen.

Thing 10, addendum

I think the site must be experiencing bugs, since it's not functioning currently as this tutorial describes it:

North Texas 23: Thing 10, attempt Two (Ning)

Ok, so I went ahead and took the plunge. Here's my Ning profile. Still not finding any explicitly library-related or librarian created groups out there. The suggestions were pretty off the wall; I finally joined the generic group "Geeks!", but once I joined it, I could not figure out how to Navigate back from "Geeks!" to what I term "Ning central". That is User-Friendliness FAIL, folks.

I am seeing now that Ning is like a Meta-Social-Networking tool, a Network of Social Networks, each an independent little Fiefdom all its own, customized by their creators, etc.

Ning is not for newbies or sissies; seems aimed at web-savvy geeks who already know what they're doing. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, if anything, but I am not finding ANY library-related Ning groupings out there, not a single one. If ALA has a Ning presence, someone let me know, o.k.?

Some of the groups are pretty broad, like "Geeks!", but others seem incredibly narrowly focused, too.

Initial impression post sign-up: Me no likey Ning.

Thing 10, first attempt (Ning)

So, the NT23 Things blog gives this helpful suggestion.

Go to the main page at Ning.com, and you will see a search box at the bottom of the page. Enter keywords for activities of interest to you. If you enter the search term “library,” for example, you’ll see the ALA network about halfway down the results page. Some networks require you to sign in to view content. ALA’s doesn’t. Ideally, on whatever network you choose, you’ll at least be able to view a list of members, see photos and videos, and read forum and blog posts.

Righty-o, tried that, got nowhere. I would cut and paste screenshots, but I'm too lazy to figure out how to do that. I infer from my various attempts that non-member searching has been disabled. Kept returning "no results" for keywords like Libraries, ALA, Libertarian, Objectivist, Socialism, Librarian, etc. Yeah, right.

So I decided to browse the Ning blog instead.
My instant impression is that it looks like it's heavily dominated by commercial interests, even more so than either MySpace or Facebook, aimed at the Yuppie demographic. I guess the only way to explore further is to take the plunge. No doubt other library "movers and shakers" already have. If I recall correctly, at TLA 2009, The Librarian In Black was less than impressed with Ning, or didn't exactly sing its praises at any rate.

I'll mull over it some more; I may eventually join just to see "what up?", but really, how many "social networks" need one join, really? There's even an entity out there that describes itself as a kind of "Facebook for Atheists" and I'm like WTF?! Meetup.com not good 'nuff for ya? Not a regular commentator on Pharyngula or GiFS? Maybe it's cool and all but the exponential explosion of all these myriad networks...ugh, you can't belong to ALL of them.

North Texas 23: Thing 8 & 9, Facebook & More Facebook.

I've been on Facebook for about a year now, ever since I accepted my current library job.

I'm of course a "fan" of ALA and other library groups. I'm even a Facebook administrator for the FB page of Progressive Librarians Guild.

I've gotten so many friends on Facebook, some professional, some from High School, some from previous jobs, etc, that it's really a diverse crowd. I actually find I am less boisterous or outlandish on Facebook because of the potential to royally piss off at least *some* of my FB friends. I have been retreating back to MySpace where I know fewer people in "real life" and thus feel more at ease to really speak my mind when I need to spout off. I don't make any reference to this blog on Facebook, and would not have mentioned my Facebook presence here if not for the requirements of the North Texas 23 Things project, nor will I mention it again anytime soon. Although I know I have regular readers of this blog (and am always slightly surprised to meet readers in person, amazed that anyone actually reads or listens to my rants here), I do find I avoid making overt linkages between my various online presences, whether on Blogger, or MySpace, or Facebook, or YouTube. I also recently started an account on Film Rookie under a screen name. Film Rookie is a YouTube-like video sharing site but newer and apparently less overtly censorious. I hold back from doing live personal rants on my personal YouTube channel because 1) I'm extremely camera-shy and self-conscious, especially about my own voice and 2) because one of my aunts just subscribed to my channel. If I do any live video rants in future, I plan to somewhat anonymize myself using camera special effects, and only upload it to Film Rookie and not YouTube. I'm an out-of-the-closet atheist to my parents & most of my friends, but not to my various aunts and uncles or cousins. It just doesn't come up in conversation. I guess my aunt on YouTube knows now about my atheism (I have some Xtranormal animation videos that admit as much and I didn't feel like taking them down), I'm going to refrain from posting live on-camera responses rants except in the form of animations from Xtranormal on YouTube.

Because two of my old High School friends who are Christian ministers are also Facebook friends, I tend to tone down the rhetoric over there, at least on my status updates. I used to have a big red Dawkins "A" on my front page, but it got buried in the last Facebook format update. Still, it's right there in my "info" page for anyone who bothers to look. Another High School friend handled his info on these topical questions more elegantly; For "Political views" he put "yes" and "Religious views" he put "No."; Wish I'd thought of that. Oh well.

And yes, I do think that Facebook, MySpace et. al. does make the job of a COINTEL type gov't program much easier, as we end up doing much of their work for them. Perhaps the Miranda warning needs an update for the 21st century; "anything you say or write, online or off, can and will be used against you in a court of law". No doubt unscrupulous prosecutors may quote you out of context, etc, to paint you in the worst possible light. This is some of the down side/dark side to all the boon of social connectivity these networking tools provide. The question you must ask is, is it worth it. I guess I'm a bit of a fatalist when I say, for me, "yes". I'm an "information professional", I have to be "out here", to show basic competence in these web tools, to "be where the users are", etc. It's what I do. I can't not do it, whatever (valid) reservations I may have that might keep someone else offline entirely. These are the choices I've made, and the compromises as well.

I blog here semi-anonymously under my initials, but as readers who have sought me out face to face at Library conferences know, I'm not hard to find in real life.
I've been posting very prolifically of late, but I often go for long stretches at a time where I have nothing new to say or have no motivation to write about whatever. Truth is I blog for me and me alone. If you subscribe to this blog expecting regular output, I promise to disappoint you eventually. Do not put me on your RSS, it won't be worth it. I get visited by Google spiders way more than human readers, I suspect. That's cool, I don't mind, I probably wouldn't read me either--too irregular.

I'm looking forward to the items on the NT23 Things that are actually NEW to me.

Wikipedia is a great place to START, not stop.

I suspect that Wikipedia is really taking off as a ready reference source in the business world for one main reason--it's (nominally) free. We used it extensively at American International Assistance Services (AIAS) in Houston, Texas. Before that AIAS had a subscription to Microsoft Encarta but let it expire. Wikipedia became the default reference resource by default, and in the main, for the kinds of articles we consulted in it, mainly foreign country info, it was pretty darn reliable. It was also good for information about diseases and injuries to give our assistance coordinators a lay understanding of what our clients needs were, when coordinating between the AIG Medical staff and our contracted Travel agent. I don't know if contributions to the Wikipedia Foundation non-profit are tax deductible, but they should be, and it is in the best interest of businesses to contribute to it, not only for the potential tax break, but also to support a valuable resource for all users.

Wikipedia is a fun way to pass the time on a slow, boring night shift. I used to look up obscure articles on British militaria, aviation, etc, and general articles on Eastern Bloc small arms, etc. It may not be as good as a subscription to Britannica Online, but it's nice for the Middlebrow person interested in self-improvement and self-edification; Though it may seem these values sound a bit dated, I still actively put them into practice, and Wikipedia is an excellent starting point, but by no means should people stop there (as younger generation is often tempted to do). Editorial control has improved over the years, but sometimes gets over-dominated by editors whom I call "Notability Nazis" who delete a lot of rich content about local info because they deem it "not notable enough". I tend to be more "Inclusivist" in my views. Wikipedia's "Talk" pages can also give one a feel for the status of the current debate on controversial issues, especially articles flagged for lacking NPOV (Neutral Point of View). Wikipedia is always a "permanent beta", always under constant revision. I only once tried to submit a complete article to Wikipedia, and it was quickly flagged for multiple failings. Luckily more capable editors stepped in and re-wrote it properly and now it exists in usable form (it was a frivolous article about the third person shooter game Syphon Filter 2 on the Playstation console). I mostly make small edits; a sentence there, a grammar correction there, a link here, a paragraph revision there. But I'm proud when these stand the test of time.

I also play with other Wikis out there, but Wikipedia is the ground breaking original. We also have a restricted departmental Wiki in the library (for Technical Services) that I only just recently joined early in the week last week. It is connected to the library-wide Staff Wiki, and it will all be integrated with the new Sharepoint system in the near future, which is still in the process of doing a "soft" roll out on the TWU campus. I've no doubt the NT23 probably has some upcoming things on Wikis; I don't expect to see much new, but I'll give it a try.

Ideally, Wikipedia should lead users back to the library, to continue their research started on Wikipedia, as the graphic above, featuring Wikipe-tan, the Wikipedia official (anime-style) mascot, seeks to demonstrate.

Thing 7: RSS readers (in plain English)

Good explanatory video on how RSS works and truly is the more efficient way of keeping updated with new content on the web. As I stated, I already use the Firefox add-on that lets you subscribe to pages and keep updated with the feed. I only subscribe to a very limited number of blogs that I follow very regularly. I also subscribe to a lot of LIS-related blogs, but in truth, I only actively follow a fraction of those. I'm subscribed more out of a sense of duty, that I *should* consult them, more than actually being interested in really consulting them all that often. I probably should just shift these to Google Reader and free up some space on my Firefox toolbar.

I would think you'd have to be a serious news/net junkie to actually NEED something as sophisticated as Google Reader to manage all that content, though. For me, really, Firefox does the job adequately, most of the time. Some blogs have links to other blogs, and that's how I get there, i.e. the "old" way. I follow one gun rights blog, Say Uncle, because he has a huge blogroll that serves as a gateway to other gun rights activism blogs that I follow less regularly. "Uncle" is plenty entertaining himself, and makes for a good "gateway" to the rest of the gun rights blogosphere.

So really, I use a combination of "old" and "new" to keep up with "what's new" in the world of news and blogs. Remember that a "feed" URL is not always synonymous with the "main page" URL; this is a common mistake that I've made myself numerous times. You sometimes have to dig around to find the "feed" URL, as sometimes the Firefox add-on won't be able to find it automatically (though in most cases it can). Now that I have an active Google reader account, I may start using it where I find the click-button newsreader options on certain pages.

For the time being, I'm sticking with the Firefox add-on for my top-ten blogs, but may use Google Reader to aggregate my lesser-consulted blogs and keep that content updated and ready to view should I chose to consult it. One option I positively hate is using the RSS reader option in MS Outlook. I did that once by accident and it really overwhelms MS Outlook pretty easily. I do NOT recommend the RSS reader featured in MS Outlook.

North Texas 23 Things; Thing 6, Blog Readers

I guess this works pretty well; I'm already "following" other blogs on my own blog here (see sidebar), and Google Reader imported these subs immediately. I also added the North Texas 23 blog, and my own, per the instructions given for Thing 6. My own preference in Blog Readers, though, is to use the live subscription links in Firefox, which I can consult on the fly as 'drop down' menu items. I will probably continue to use this option in Firefox instead of switching over to Google Reader anytime soon.

The Library is the Heart of a University.

The Phoenix Training at Southern Methodist University on this past Friday was pretty good, and I'm glad I went. Aside from the Keynote address, however, it was all pretty free-form and largely unstructured, basically a morning and afternoon "rap" session of all the attendees. The morning rap session was a general discussion about the keynote address and its implications for all of us. The groups were distributed at random, by attendee last name, so we had a mix of Reference, ILL, Tech Services, and Administrators. The afternoon talks were self-selected "Special Interest Groups", and I attended the session on Original Cataloging and Metadata, which was a session attended by fellow catalogers and metadata librarians. We talked some about ContentDM and MARC and other topics of current interest. I thought about bringing up RDA, but couldn't find an opportunity to slip it into the conversation. We were just getting on a roll when it was time to conclude and join an afternoon tour group.

There were actually two tours that we took, one before lunch and one in the afternoon. I opted to tour the Fondren Library (the main campus library) in the morning and the Art Library in the afternoon.

It was a little amusing to me as a Rice University alumnus to find another Fondren Library in Texas. I had done my SLIS student practicum in the Tech Services department of Rice U's Fondren Library way back in Fall 2004.

The Southern Methodist University campus was very beautiful, but my camera died early on in the day (I had rechargeable batteries in it, but had forgotten to recharge them the night before). Anymore I've pretty much decided that if you're serious about digital photography, you have to buy your batteries FRESH, the very day you plan a photo shoot. Too much time elapses between the time you put in new batteries and the time you pick up the camera to do a photo shoot to do it any other way, I'm discovering. You should also always bring a cheap, disposable analogue camera as a back up. Even in an age of digital photography, I still love to shoot with Black and White film with a disposable camera. Sure, you can always do ersatz "B&W" photography with a greyscale filter in digital editing, but it's just not the same; not to me anyway.

Now that I know better how to get to and from the SMU campus, I have resolved to go back one Saturday in the summer and plan to spend an entire Saturday exploring the place (and its surrounding neighborhoods). I will be one happy shutterbug that day. There's even a La Madeline restaurant right next to campus where I can get a hearty "French Country Breakfast", my favorite of their menu items. It really is a very nice looking, exclusive part of Dallas that reminds me a lot of the Rice U. and Museum District parts of Houston. Too bad it's a nominally religious institution, while Rice U. is unabashedly secular in nature.