PVLD Director's Blog

Unplugging

For the past year or so I've been trying to stay away from communications technology (phone, cell phone, email, Facebook) for at least a few hours each Sunday with variable success.  I generally manage to spend at least a few hours walking the beach, working in the yard, or just taking a siesta untethered from modern communications, but I rarely make it through a full day.

I know that I am not alone in my addiction to my Iphone, or in my quest for some unconnected time, but I didn't realize it was a national movement until several of the blogs I follow had posts about a National Day of Unplugging being promoted by a very cool online movement called The Sabbath Manifesto.  Essentially they are encouraging everyone to "Put down the cell phone, stop the status updates on Facebook, shut down Twitter, sign out of e-mail and relax" for 24 hours starting at sundown tonight.

My plans for tomorrow will make it difficult for me to participate, so I intend to defer my participation by 24 hours and give it a go on Sunday.  Who knows, maybe this will kick-start me into a weekly day of unplugging...and maybe some of you will join me.

In that spirit I offer two quotes to inspire all of us  -

The first, from Annie Dillard via the Blisstree blog -

    “Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.”

And from Nicholas Bate via the Execupundit blog -

Sometimes it is remarkably productive to NOT "be productive."

Here's to an unproductive weekend for all!

Connected Learning

Michael Stephens posted this video on his Tame the Web Blog last week:

It's a fascinating description of the new world of learning.  While the focus is on a college student taking a formal class, a lot of the concepts resonated with me because they reflect how my own experience of learning and professional development have changed as I have become more comfortable using some of the "Web 2.0" tools.

It was interesting that the only mention of libraries was a brief reference to conducting research using "Google Scholar and the library's databases" while at the same time talking about how the "connected student" needs to learn to evaluate information and verify its validity (what librarians often call information literacy) and to develop skills in the "organization of knowledge"...both subjects that librarians think of as core to our profession.

What is the role of the librarian in a world of connected learning?  Is it merely, as the video implies, to be a research source? (And you have to wonder how long that role will last given all of the alternatives to proprietary databases accessed through libraries). 

The superficial reaction is that maybe librarians aren't needed in this new world of learning, but I think that's wrong! 

In a public library setting we could play the role that the college professor plays in the video -teaching, coaching, and guiding people in our communities to become networked learners by exposing them to and helping them use social networking tools, teaching information literacy skills, and  providing mechanisms to connect people with other community members with similar interests.   An example of this is PVLD's current project to build a social networking site for local busineses, which will enable them to use web 2.0 technology to share information and learn from one another.  The work some of us are doing on developing social catalogs is also a way of facilitating networked learning by enabling people to share learnings via the library catalog.  Of course to be effective in these roles, we also need to be effective networked learners ourselves, which is why efforts like the Learning 2.0 initiatives that we and other libraries have undertaken are so important. 

One thing's for sure, though - providing library services to support networked learning will require fundamental changes in how we do things.  Certainly staking our professional identity on answering "reference questions" would be a big mistake.....

News from the Public Library Association Conference 2008

Adult Services Assistant Manager Debra Petersen and Branch Manager Jennifer Addington attended the Public Library Association's biennial conference in Minneapolis last week and came back full of ideas and enthusiasm.

They are sharing what they learned and their thoughts on their PLA Minneapolis blog.  Check it out for some great ideas...and keep checking as there is more to come!

I think we might transform this blog into the "PVLD conference" blog as a way of sharing what we learn at the various conferences and workshops that staff attend. 

Web 2.0 and the Read/Write Library

I came across a couple of interesting items on the subject of Web 2.0 and libraries during my blog-surfing over lunch today.

First, courtesy of Michael Sauers at the Travelin' Librarian blog, is this video produced by British innovation and creativity expert Charles Leadbeater and colleagues about "Web 2.0" and its implications.

It's a good description of the social web and how it is transforming society, and while the Annoyed Librarian might call it another piece of "twopointopian" propaganda, it does at least acknowledge that for all of the opportunities it provides the social web also raises as-yet-unanswered questions and possible concerns.

I was just reflecting on the video when I got an email from Jackie Siminitus, "E-Rate Specialist and Library Advocate" of AT&T with a link to this very interesting post about how libraries in Chile are moving "from cataloging books to training users how to blog" from  the PBS Idealab blog.

In a world where all too often civilians (i.e. non-library people) think that the Internet is making libraries obsolete it was great to see a "non-library" blog recognize "...a larger trend taking place at libraries large and small from the southern tip of Chile to the Siberian tundra of Russia. Public libraries are no longer just points of reception; they are transforming into centers of transmission and communication, where local users take advantage of increasingly affordable digital cameras and free online tools to write and share their own local stories."

It was also inspiring to read that "nearly every library - from the southern tip of Patagonia to the northern border with Bolivia and Peru - will be equipped with wi-fi by the end of the year."  Wouldn't it be great to be able to say that about libraries in the U.S.?

Most inspiring of all was this video of Enzo Abbagliati of of Chile's national library network talking about how Chilean libraries are embracing the world of Web 3.0 (not 2.0!) as a catalyst for social change and to support participatory democracy:

Enzo Abbagliati from BiblioRedes

And his term "Catalysts for opportunity" is about the best description of what libraries and librarians can provide that I've heard!

Another bit of evidence that Web 2.0 et seq. is something to be embraced, not feared!

 

Twitter for Libraries

People who follow this blog or visit my Facebook page may have noticed that I have been putting information out on Twitter .  A few weeks ago, during a period in which I was sending out "tweets" much more frequently than I have been doing more recently, my kid brother sent me a Facebook message asking "What is Twitter and why are you doing it?".  Good question!

For those who don't know, Twitter is what is known as a "microblogging" application.  It allows you to use either the Twitter website ( www.twitter.com ) or your cell phone to send out very brief (only a couple of lines long) messages, sometimes called "tweets".  You can elect to have these messages appear on Twitter's "public timeline" or use "widgets" (downloadable mini software applications) to have your Twitter posts automatically appear on your blog or Facebook account.  You can also "follow" other people who have a Twitter account and receive their Twitter messages either as messages in your Twitter account online or as text messages to your cell phone.  Likewise, people can "follow" you and automatically receive your tweets on their cell phones or in their Twitter accounts.  Finally (at least as far as my knowledge of Twitter is concerned...there's probably more you can do!) you can set up Twitter so that you are notified every time a tweet containing a certain word or phrase, like "library"  or "Palos Verdes" is issued by anyone.

That answers the question "What is Twitter" but not why I use it!

As an individual, I've been experimenting with Twitter as a way of adding brief updates to my blog and Facebook without having to actually log in to Typepad (my blogging software) or Facebook....and it updates both at once!

As a Library Director, I'm interested in exploring how we can use social networking technologies to offer library services or promote the library.  Back in October I wrote a post about my initial experience with Twitter and some early thoughts about how libraries could use it, and last week I was excited discover how the Brooklyn Museum is using Twitter to promote museum events and activities (sorry I can't remember whose blog pointed me to this one!)

Not only does this allow someone to join Twitter and "follow" the museum, staying up to date on its activities, but the "tiny URLs" (which Twitter creates automatically everytime you include a hyperlink in a tweet) link back to the museum's blog and website so you can get the full story if you want.   And because the tweets appear on the public timeline its another way of letting serendipity work its magic.  Who knows who will find their way to the museum via this path!

A very cool idea!  Now we just need to find the time to set up the PVLD Twitter account and telling people to "follow us"!

The Library of Congress and Flickr

From the Library of Congress blog – the Library of Congress is partnering with Flickr to "help address at least two major challenges: how to ensure better and better access to our collections, and how to ensure that we have the best possible information about those collections for the benefit of researchers and posterity." [And thanks to David Weinberger over at Everything is Miscellaneous for sharing the link]

The Library of Congress blogging? Posting to Flickr? Tagging? How cool is that!

I love the idea of The Commons – using Flickr to share the world's public photo collections. We've already used Flickr for our 40families project site, and it would be great to get all of our local history photos into The Commons.

This quote from the end of the post is also great -

"From the Library's perspective, this pilot project is a statement about the power of the Web and user communities to help people better acquire information, knowledge and—most importantly—wisdom. One of our goals, frankly, is to learn as much as we can about that power simply through the process of making constructive use of it."

To Matt Raymond and the folks at LoC – thanks for helping light the path through the social web.

Why I Blog

Various colleagues have asked me why I do it…and I sometimes have wondered myself! Back when I started this blog in October 2006 I said in my first post that I wanted "…to create a dialogue - with our Palos Verdes community, with PVLD staff and volunteers, with colleagues in other libraries, and with other interested and interesting people.  I plan to use the blog to share information about what is going on around PVLD and the communities we serve, to share my thoughts about the challenges and opportunities I/we face as librarians, as managers and leaders, and as citizens of today's networked world, and to get input from those who are interested enough to read and respond."

That still is one of my goals, but as the blog has passed its one year anniversary with growing readership, I've been thinking how much I have gained from the experience.

Once you start a blog there is a certain obligation to have something to say! This as much as anything has motivated me to make a real effort to read about and think about issues affecting libraries and librarianship beyond my former rather cursory scans of Library Journal and American Libraries. It has also pushed me to experiment with things like social networking, mobile computing, etc.

Also, writing has always been my vehicle for learning and for developing understanding. There is a famous quote (which I have seen attributed to both Raymond Carver and E.M. Forster) that describes my learning process very well - "How do I know what I think until I see what I've said?" Something about the act of turning thoughts into words on a page or screen helps me turn pieces of information into coherent thoughts and real knowledge.

I came across this quote from Danah Boyd and it crystallized why this blog is so important to me -  "In order to exist online we must write ourselves into being"

That is exactly what this blog has done for me – it has caused me to write my "librarian self" into being. I think the fact that this has been done via an online medium is key. I'm not sure I would have been able to learn as much, think as much, and grow as much as I feel I have in the past couple of years without the blog-driven obligation to have something meaningful to say. I've tried keeping journals, but usually find that when I write for my eyes only there is not the incentive to read or think very deeply or broadly and so what I write is pretty meaningless even to me…and that means that I quickly abandon the effort. It's not that what I write on this blog is particularly meaningful or profound - it certainly wouldn't be worthy of publication in the "old days" of print media - but for me the knowledge that at least a handful of people are reading what I write and my sense of obligation to provide those readers with something meaningful has been a powerful force for personal learning and growth…learning and growth that I don't think would have occurred without this new world of "web 2.0".

I have to think that I am not alone - that among the hundreds of thousands of bloggers, Facebook and MySpace members, and other citizens of the social web are others who are finding their voices and "writing themselves into being"; that among the Flickr and YouTube uploaders those whose learning is driven by visuals and imagery are picturing themselves into being; and that among the World of Warcraft players and 2nd Life avatars those who learn through movement and experiences are creating and playing themselves into being.

In the ongoing debate about Library 2.0 and the relevance/appropriateness of online social networking for libraries and for communities I hope that the profound role that these new ways of interacting can play in personal growth and learning are not underestimated.  They not only are a way to connect people with one another and, often through one another, to information.  They are a way of connecting with ourselves.

Information Without Shelves

I don't know exactly what they're up to at Kansas State University, but they really have their pulse on how the world of information - and the world in general - is being transformed by digital technology.  Thanks to Helene Blowers at www.librarybytes.com for pointing me to Information R/evolution by Michael Wesch of the digital ethnography program at KSU:

So what's it mean for libraries if "there is no shelf"?

Web 2.0 – from knowledge to understanding

I've been intrigued me for some time with Web 2.0 -- the interactive, "social" web -- and its impact on libraries. To date, however, my interest has been at an intellectual level, and apart from this blog and my devotion to Bloglines and RSS, my knowledge has been based more on what I have read and observed than on actual participation. This weekend I had a couple of experiences that took me from "I know I should pay attention to this stuff" to "I actually get it" at an emotional level.

First, I finally got around to signing up for Facebook. I did it because I had read some blog postings and articles about how libraries are using Facebook to reach out to new users and to deliver library services (e.g. virtual reference, links to the catalog, etc.). I'd tried to have a MySpace page before, but found it unrewarding.  With Facebook I quickly discovered is that it is going to be a fabulous way to stay in touch with family and friends. As soon as I set up my account up popped a list of people from my contact list who are already on Facebook, and a prompt asking me if I want to invite them to be my Friend. Among them was my niece, Rachel, who just started college and is living away from home for the first time. I've sent her a couple of emails to see how she is doing, and got either a cryptic response or none at all. On her Facebook page I was able to learn about some of the classes she is taking, and exchange messages using her "wall"…a much more rewarding way of staying in touch! Rachel must have let my sister know I was on Facebook, because the next day I got a Friend request from her…and through that connection was able to add my kid brother as a Friend. Jonathan is terrible about staying in touch through phone and email, but since he is a budding technology entrepreneur and already had a Facebook page I know that Facebook is going to be a great way for us to stay connected.

Then on Saturday my husband saw a news headline on our shared "My Yahoo" home page about a major fire in Tasmania, where we lived for two years. He was disappointed in the online news coverage, and then decided to check YouTube. Sure enough, there were already at least a ½ dozen video clips about the fire, with real time commentary. It was almost like being there.

For me Web 2.0 and social networking have gone from being important things to track professionally, to tools that are making a real difference in my ability to maintain connections with people and places I care about. I believe more than ever that libraries need to understand the power of these technologies and the way in which they are transforming the way people connect with one another. At PVLD we say we are "Connecting People, Information, and Ideas" – we need to understand and use the power Web 2.0 as a fundamental part of achieving this.

Serendipity and the Internet

Typepad, the blogging service that I use for this blog, has a feature that allows me to see how many times my blog is viewed each day and what web searches have produced this blog as a result.  Looking at the web searches certainly provides a great example of how serendipitous the Internet can be....Just look at these searches from the past 24 hours!

http://hk.search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&p=double+edged+swords&fr=FP-tab-web-t&meta=rst%3Dhk

OR

http://images.google.be/imgres?imgurl=http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/369296932_f9d6c9c40e.jpg&imgrefurl=http://pvlddirectorsblog.typepad.com/kathy/libraries/index.html&h=375&w=500&sz=151&hl=nl&start=0&sig2=g2X52Znr2IR8BdIf5uiz_A&tbnid=LxjK_7PHw_aW1M:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&ei=0bCvRpS9NZOc0gSL5oGQCg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Daadl.org%2Bgame%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Dnl%26sa%3DG

Who would have thought that someone searching Yahoo Hong Kong for "double-edged swords" would get a link to my blog in their top five search results - now that's what I call serendipity!