Overheard Anachronism

While straightening up our computer area the other day, I overheard the following conversation between two high school girls who were using MySpace:

Girl 1: ...I hate John, he's creepy. I'm sure he watches my MySpace.
Girl 2: Yeah, he's weird.
Girl 1: No, don't comment on me - he'll follow your link back to yours and then read all your stuff, too.
Girl 2: I don't care, I don't have anything to hide. My life is an open book.

First, this exchange seemed underscore some recent articles stating that teens are not nearly as naive and vulnerable online as people think.

However, I wondered about the appropriateness of the phrase "open book" in this context. It's akin to television shows telling people "don't touch that dial," even though no one uses a dial to change channels anymore.

Perhaps it is only a matter of time until the hip screenagers and millennials replace the phrase "my life is an open book" with "my life is a public profile."

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Reference Question of the Week – 5/27

Last week I received a letter in my mailbox at work. It started:

Dear Sir/Madam:

I work for the U. S. Marine Corp Casualty Section. I am looking for a copy of three obituaries that might help us locate a next of kin. I am hoping you have a service that could help us get a copy of these obituaries.

The letter then went on to list three peoples' names, their birth and death dates (death dates ranging from 1977 to 1995), and their social security numbers, as well as the contact information to use to send her what we find.

Now, we get genealogical research requests like this all the time, but never from the Marine Corps. Hmm. And, the contact information she cited was a street address in Murray, Utah, and a Yahoo.com email address - both seemed unMarinelike.

I checked the Marine Corps website and didn't see any listing for a Casualty Section, but did eventually find a form to request casualty information. The resulting email was basically about recently injured Marines, and the Corps' next-of-kin notification policy.

Not, I need to say, that any of this matters. Of course we researched these three names and sent the patron what we found. Unfortunately, we found that none of the three died locally enough or recently enough for us to be able to find their obituaries. As part of the response, I gave the patron the contact information for the libraries in the communities where these people died, hoping that those libraries would have their local newspapers on microfilm.

But I still found this particular request just... odd. If it weren't for that line about the Marine Corps, I wouldn't have thought twice about it. Even though the information was already sent to the patron, I felt a need to keep digging a little further.

At the bottom of the casualty information email from the Marine Corps website, there was a phone number for the Corps' Personal and Family Readiness Division. I thought that if I called it, at least I could find out if the Casualty Section actually existed, and if they used freelance researchers based in Utah to find next of kin.

After speaking with a Public Affairs Specialist in that office for a few minutes, I found out that no, the Marine Corps does not have an office in Murray, UT, does not use freelancers for this type of work, and would never (in his estimation) do any kind of official work with a Yahoo.com email address.

So what does all of this mean? Nothing, I guess. We answered this question just like any other, because why patrons request certain information is largely irrelevant. I don't know why this person claimed to be from the Marines, because, true or not, it was not necessary.

genealogical research, genealogy, libraries, library, marine corps, marines, obituaries, public libraries, public library, reference question

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How Thin is Your Library?

I've thought of a new phrase that is quickly becoming my professional goal - I call it the "Thin Library."

By "Thin Library," I'm referring to libraries (and more specifically, library websites) that don't trap patrons in dead ends, nor require tremendous skill or experience to use. I think the old model for websites (or the business model) is to keep people on your website as long as possible. But libraries are just the opposite - we want a website through which patrons and information very easily pass on their way to finding each other.

Most people don't come to libraries just to interact with a library; they come here to find something. And since libraries don't actually create anything, our role becomes that of a conduit, and knowledgeable guide, to help connect patrons with the information they need. To best help the patron, we need to perform this function as seamlessly as possible.

My example for this is a third-party vendor (we pay for their content, but this is not a commercial). The company is called BookLetters, and they provide loads of readers advisory information - lists of best sellers, award winners, new publications, genre lists, book reviews, etc.

I prefer BookLetters to similar providers because they allow libraries to offer this information to their patrons by email, rss feeds, or, what caught my eye, integrated right into our website.

The Reading Room section of our website is designed around this service (any link that launches a window is a BookLetters page), and has gotten pretty good response from patrons. BookLetters lets us wrap their content in our website design, so unless savvy patrons are paying attention, they'd never know they've left our website.

And really, they don't need to know that. Patrons don't care where a book list or review is coming from, they just want it. If we can funnel it to them (or them to it), then all the better. Our goal should be reducing to an absolute minimum the number of steps it takes to get from a patron in need to a satisfied patron.

Library 2.0 tools offer this - a flickr badge or the LibraryThing for Libraries widget can be embedded right into a library's website. These tools let us pull together information from the wider world (where our patrons live) and put it all in one place (where, hopefully, are patrons are coming for information). I wish more traditional vendors would get on board with this concept. Federated searching is nice in that it eliminates a separate link and login for every database a patron might need to search. But beyond that, I'm trying to refine my own approach to how we offer services, so the library can be a portal to information and not a barrier to it.

bookletters, libraries, library, library 2.0, library2.0, public libraries, public library, thin libraries, thin library

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Annual Review & Reference Dept. Goals

I had my Annual Review last week, for which I had to come up with goals for the Reference Department for the coming year (my library is a July 1st-June 30th fiscal year). Since these goals pretty much shape my daily work life in the library, which in turns shapes what I end up posting here, I thought sharing these goals might be interesting.

I'm happy to report that I got a great review - I am very lucky to be working in a well-funded and progressive library. Something else I noticed while working on this: with all the talk about, and effort I put into, using Library 2.0 tools, there is still a heck a lot of a public librarian's job that Library 2.0 doesn't address. Which is a good thing to realize, I think.

I have a few comments (of course) on the various goals, which are footnoted. This is also available as a non-footnoted pdf.

Reference Department Goals for FY2008

1. Improve patron access to library materials¹
   • Look for ways to improve access to the collection
     • Weed and refine print reference materials for better coordination with non-fiction collection (possibly interfile reference books with non-fiction books)
     • Keep reference collection weeded, shelf-read and up-to-date
     • Continue to work with Tech Services to improve standing order list and procedures²
     • Implement a continual review of non-fiction collection, including assigning sections to staff members for weeding, shelf-reading, straightening, ordering suggestions, etc. Try to find an automated tool (perhaps FileMaker) to make weeding easier and more accurate
     • Improve organization and access to periodicals collection by creating a comprehensive, up-to-date and dynamic periodicals listing, referencing both print and online access³
     • Add more website "Subject Guides" in a format most suitable for patron “findability”
     • Continue promoting database usage through existing methods (bookmarks, signs, links, staff training, etc.) as well as new technologies (federated searching⁴, etc.)
   • Continue with website improvements, both to Reference section and all of website
     • Look for new tools or technologies to make adding and maintaining content easier⁵
     • Strive for entire website to meet both design goals and accessibility standards⁶
     • Continue to offer direct work and assistance on other areas of website (Reading Room, Children’s Mural page, etc.)
     • Evaluate "site search" feature
   • Provide better indexing of and access to the Vertical File
   • Look at options to improve security in and use of the Oversize area
   • Work with Barbara Morrison on patron-related technology issues, such as timer software for public computers, internet access issues, printing from wireless computers, etc.
   • Continue to refine tax forms offerings and organization
2. Continue to improve desk area and operations
   • Ensure all procedures and policies are documented and easily available to desk staff
   • Review new technologies to see if paper-based methods can be improved upon⁷
   • Continue looking for areas of the desk that can be cleaned or better organized
3. Concentrate on professional development
   • Keep current on journals, literature and blogs, for articles, book reviews and library trends
   • Attend MVLC, NMRLS, NELA and other regional reference meetings⁸
   • Participate in staff, local, regional and national training opportunities
     • Promote training opportunities to staff⁹

Brian Herzog
Head of Reference
5/24/07

Footnotes

1. This year, I am making no distinction between print and electronic sources when it comes to "library materials." Last year I did, but I think that is unnecessary and does patrons (and ourselves) a disservice - back to note 1
2. Perhaps this is blasphemous, but I really don't enjoy doing selection very much. I find standing orders very efficient, which leaves me more time to find the valuable but unusual and oddball reference works - back to note 2
3. I wish our catalog was better at this, but it's just not. Hopefully, when we migrate away from Horizon, we'll get an ILS that works the way a library needs - back to note 3
4. Ditto from note 3 - back to note 4
5. We've just begun this process, and have gotten most of our current homepage design reworked using XHTML 1.0 Strict coding standards - back to note 5
6. My goal here is to find a content management system that allows people with no coding skills to update our website. This should be an easy thing, as there's lots of software options, and it would make everyone's jobs easier (and our site look and perform better). However, just getting staff buy-in has been difficult - people are reluctant to give up The Way Things Have Been Done, because they're comfortable with them - back to note 6
7. These two points really go together - everything done at the desk should be documented, and also be documented in a way that i easily findable (as in, a wiki rather than our never-up-to-date three-ring binder) - back to note 7
8. This one won't be a problem this year - I go to more meetings than ever, it seems - back to note 8
9. Staff training might actually be the biggest goal of the year. Updating and changing things is great, but I need to keep my staff current and comfortable with everything, too; which is often the biggest challenge, as our staff is so large - back to note 9

annual review, department goals, goal, goals, libraries, library, public libraries, public library, review




Tags: annual review, department goals, goal, goals, libraries, Library, public libraries, public library, review



See Also

• Staff Performance Review Time
• Reference Question of the Week – 11/11/07
• Reference Dept. Goals for FY10
• Reference Question of the Week – 2/24/08
• Reference Question of the Week – 12/9/07
• Providing Access to Information, with a Shovel

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Reference Question of the Week – 5/20

Better than any question I got this week were two blog posts I read. The first is just funny, and the second might also be a tool to help people.

The First comes from librarian.net, about an reference question gone awry due to spell check (slight warning: potty library humor involved).

The Second comes from Google's Librarian Central, with a story about how their web-based translator helped a patron (for who English was not their first language) have better access to English-language web pages. I usually use Alta Vista's translator Babel Fish (because it's been around awhile and for the Douglas Adams connection [note: Towel Day was yesterday]), but it is nice to have a second source for things. Even if it is Google.

alta vista, babel fish, google, google translate, libraries, library, public libraries, public library, reference, reference question, spell check, translation, translator

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Saugus, MA Library Closes

It's been a threat for a while, and now it looks like the time has arrived: the library in Saugus, MA, has closed until further notice.

A friend of mine lives in the town, and I'm a librarian in Massachusetts, so I've heard a lot about this. At some point the town found its budget could not support the library's $500,000 cost. Various fees and taxes were proposed to preserve library funding, but none got support when they came to a vote.

The Library Director closed the library over the weekend due to a staff shortage, and now it is closed indefinitely. The staff who have not already left for other jobs have been told by the Town Manager to use up their vacation time before they all get fired.

Ever wonder what it would be like to live somewhere without a public library? Move to Saugus. Perhaps if enough people do, voting on library funding will come out differently.
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