Musings of an ASD male underemployed former librarian, now library clerk (and Texas A&M alumnus). Refocusing for now on the intersection of Manga & Anime with Librarianship. Older content was random rants about Academic Libraries and Higher Ed in general, brief forays into culture and politics as needed. I may still do that from time to time but mostly I save that for Twitter, Facebook and Discord. The world's very different now from the great Blogging era of the early 2000s.
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.
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.
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.
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.
