I don't know how this will come across, but I have serious reservations about the suggestion I've seen in a few places that libraries can take advantage of Wikipedia being down to promote the library.
I mean, yes, we can do that, but if libraries are only useful when Wikipedia's down then libraries are pretty crappy. And yes, I know that's not what people are meaning when they're suggesting/doing this, but it's what it comes across like to me at least. I envisage hordes of students desperately trying to finish their assignments grudgingly admitting, "Okay, for that one 24-hour period in a lifetime when Wikipedia's down, the library's kinda useful. Apart from being slow and clunky and not giving me enough or up-to-date enough information. Thank $Deity Wikipedia's back up tomorrow!"
Because to be honest, when it comes to ready reference, everything sucks compared to Wikipedia. I'm a librarian, I know my library's resources, and I'm also a geek and know how to search the web at large, but if I want a quick introduction to almost anything I go to Wikipedia. If I want to figure out what model my cellphone is, if I want a description of a database that isn't a salespitch, if I want a listing of all the episodes of White Collar, if I want a summary of King Lear, if I want to decode a biochemical reference query I've just received by email so I can start answering it...
If I want to know something and I want to know it now, not in two minutes time, I go to Wikipedia. Because none of the library's references resources is anywhere near as convenient, easy to use, up-to-date, or thorough.
(If I need to know for certain I'll double-check elsewhere. But that doesn't happen nearly as regularly as needing to know it now.)
So to me, the blackout as an opportunity to promote the library as a replacement for Wikipedia is just an opportunity to show people one of our greatest weaknesses. The strengths of a library are so much more than that, but we can't promote them by setting up this comparison.
The real opportunity of the SOPA blackout is to educate people about intellectual property and freedom of information. You know -- that thing which the blackout was supposed to be about.
Beyond the simple ethics of not hijacking an important cause (and btw, I have even graver misgivings about using the blackout to promote the databases sold to us by the publishers supporting SOPA!), teaching people about this stuff is a much more important part of our mission than pointing them to the encyclopaedias. And fulfilling this mission will do far more to promote our real strengths.
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Monday, 9 January 2012
How US intellectual property laws affect the rest of us, and what we can do about it
How can it affect us?
Imagine a New Zealand website which sells (eg Fishpond) or gives away (eg NZETC - Eric Hellman discusses Project Gutenberg Australia) ebooks of material in the public domain. Now imagine that a law in the US allows for this site not only to be blocked from the US, but also to be removed from search engine results (search engines widely used throughout the world) and blocked from receiving any revenue from the US (including revenue for legitimate sales of in-copyright books).
Wait, what?
New Zealand's copyright law puts books in the public domain 50 years after the death of the author (which is bad enough - I'm a fan of our original copyright period of 28 years OR life, whichever was longest); US copyright law currently means any book published after 1923 won't get into the public domain until 2019, if ever (see also the Mickey Mouse Protection Act). The difference between the two means there's a whole bunch of books which are legal for anyone to freely distribute in New Zealand, but illegal to distribute without permission from the rights-holder in the US. Currently we just cope with the disparity. I mean, the authors have been dead for at least 50 years anyway. However...
What are the proposed US laws?
The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is written such that if any foreign site that is "US-directed" (defined as any site that doesn't actively prevent people in the US from accessing it) distributes anything against US law, then the US can hit it with a bunch of sanctions. Theoretically these sanctions are probably intended to just prevent the site trading with people in the US; in practice, they'd prevent people in most of the world being able to easily access or use the site.
I'm not sure of the relationship of SOPA to the proposed Protect IP Act (PIPA), but that seems to have similar intentions. "Don't Break the Internet" at the Stanford Law Review Online discusses the potential effects of these two bills.
If that's not bad enough, there's the proposed Research Works Act (RWA) which is designed to make open access mandates illegal - and thereby cut down on the amount of open access material available to researchers worldwide. (The rationale is that private publishers publish it, so it shouldn't be free to the public. But if the public is funding the research grants and paying the salaries of the researchers and the peer reviewers then why it shouldn't be locked behind a paywall benefitting only the private publisher, either.) Here's a thorough roundup of blogposts on RWA.
Who would want to do such a thing?
The Association of American Publishers' Professional and Scholarly Publishing put out a press release in support of the RWA; here's a list of AAP/PSP members. One of the sponsors of RWA has received campaign contributions from Elsevier. So has the other.
Elsevier is also on the List of SOPA supporters (pdf) along with quite a lot of other publishers (academic and fiction).
What can we do about it?
If we voted in the US we could contact our representatives and ask them to vote against these bills. But they probably don't care much what foreigners think.
If this were really a free market we libraries could say "Nah, we're not going to buy from [Elsevier] this year, we'll give our money to some other science-publishing company." But publishers have a monopoly on their titles, and academics would generally have words to say if we didn't provide access to the Journal of Important Research in My Field.
But publishers don't only rely on libraries' purchasing money. They also rely on researchers (including non-US researchers, and including library researchers) providing them free articles to publish and providing them free labour in the form of peer review. So what any researcher can do is withdraw that free labour. And while we librarians are encouraging other researchers to take a stand, we can put our money where our mouth is.
(I'll create it for fun. But to give it away I require something more.)
Imagine a New Zealand website which sells (eg Fishpond) or gives away (eg NZETC - Eric Hellman discusses Project Gutenberg Australia) ebooks of material in the public domain. Now imagine that a law in the US allows for this site not only to be blocked from the US, but also to be removed from search engine results (search engines widely used throughout the world) and blocked from receiving any revenue from the US (including revenue for legitimate sales of in-copyright books).
Wait, what?
New Zealand's copyright law puts books in the public domain 50 years after the death of the author (which is bad enough - I'm a fan of our original copyright period of 28 years OR life, whichever was longest); US copyright law currently means any book published after 1923 won't get into the public domain until 2019, if ever (see also the Mickey Mouse Protection Act). The difference between the two means there's a whole bunch of books which are legal for anyone to freely distribute in New Zealand, but illegal to distribute without permission from the rights-holder in the US. Currently we just cope with the disparity. I mean, the authors have been dead for at least 50 years anyway. However...
What are the proposed US laws?
The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is written such that if any foreign site that is "US-directed" (defined as any site that doesn't actively prevent people in the US from accessing it) distributes anything against US law, then the US can hit it with a bunch of sanctions. Theoretically these sanctions are probably intended to just prevent the site trading with people in the US; in practice, they'd prevent people in most of the world being able to easily access or use the site.
I'm not sure of the relationship of SOPA to the proposed Protect IP Act (PIPA), but that seems to have similar intentions. "Don't Break the Internet" at the Stanford Law Review Online discusses the potential effects of these two bills.
If that's not bad enough, there's the proposed Research Works Act (RWA) which is designed to make open access mandates illegal - and thereby cut down on the amount of open access material available to researchers worldwide. (The rationale is that private publishers publish it, so it shouldn't be free to the public. But if the public is funding the research grants and paying the salaries of the researchers and the peer reviewers then why it shouldn't be locked behind a paywall benefitting only the private publisher, either.) Here's a thorough roundup of blogposts on RWA.
Who would want to do such a thing?
The Association of American Publishers' Professional and Scholarly Publishing put out a press release in support of the RWA; here's a list of AAP/PSP members. One of the sponsors of RWA has received campaign contributions from Elsevier. So has the other.
Elsevier is also on the List of SOPA supporters (pdf) along with quite a lot of other publishers (academic and fiction).
What can we do about it?
If we voted in the US we could contact our representatives and ask them to vote against these bills. But they probably don't care much what foreigners think.
If this were really a free market we libraries could say "Nah, we're not going to buy from [Elsevier] this year, we'll give our money to some other science-publishing company." But publishers have a monopoly on their titles, and academics would generally have words to say if we didn't provide access to the Journal of Important Research in My Field.
But publishers don't only rely on libraries' purchasing money. They also rely on researchers (including non-US researchers, and including library researchers) providing them free articles to publish and providing them free labour in the form of peer review. So what any researcher can do is withdraw that free labour. And while we librarians are encouraging other researchers to take a stand, we can put our money where our mouth is.
- The Library Loon has compiled a list of library and information science journals published by Elsevier which librarians can strike against.
- Or you could even take the Open Access Pledge. Here's a bunch of Open Access LIS journals.
- Anyone in a position to proclaim a Journal declaration of independence gets super bonus points.
(I'll create it for fun. But to give it away I require something more.)
Thursday, 22 December 2011
French open data and historic monuments
Way back I had this idea I'd keep up with library blogs in French (and another couple of languages I was semi-competent at, at least with the help of Google Translate) and feed back the occasional roundup of interesting stuff into the anglophone world. I did it a bit, then ran out of steam, then the rss feeds I followed got out of date so nowadays I've no idea where the really interesting conversations are happening.
But I still see the occasional tidbit, such as (via Des Bibliothèques 2.0) the launch of the official French Open Data website data.gouv.fr. (A nice touch is that down the bottom of the page they link to Open Data initiatives in a bunch of other countries too.)
And even more cool, (via the same), Monuments historiques, a mashup of data from data.gouv.fr, OpenStreetMap, INSEE, Wikipedia and DBpedia, and Yahoo! (see more on the sources and process) which lets you search or browse for nearly 44,000 monuments in France by type, historic period, region, Metro stop... and gives you data, description, and images about each monument in a really pretty interface.
But I still see the occasional tidbit, such as (via Des Bibliothèques 2.0) the launch of the official French Open Data website data.gouv.fr. (A nice touch is that down the bottom of the page they link to Open Data initiatives in a bunch of other countries too.)
And even more cool, (via the same), Monuments historiques, a mashup of data from data.gouv.fr, OpenStreetMap, INSEE, Wikipedia and DBpedia, and Yahoo! (see more on the sources and process) which lets you search or browse for nearly 44,000 monuments in France by type, historic period, region, Metro stop... and gives you data, description, and images about each monument in a really pretty interface.
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Closing panel #lianza11
Key messages the panel noticed
* Karen Coyle: We're all in the same boat. And we're all working toward solutions.
* Andrew Booth: The power of stories. Everyone has a story - every user - can we harness that power?
<small earthquake happens (possibly a mag 3-4?) and I get briefly distracted>
* Michael Houlihan: Passion is important, and confidence is important. These go together. Librarians as leaders.
* Martin Molloy: Spent so much time trying to survive and look after colleagues. Tend to forget what this is all about, and being here is a good reminder. Also, we're all in the same boat but not necessarily rowing in same direction! Need to use the strength we've got, our comaraderie.
* Jenica Rogers: Concerned that might be minimising difference between countries, but pleasantly surprised that we are very similar. (But downside is we don't have magic solutions to her answers either.) Very encouraging that we've got people all around the world working on these problems.
* Audience #1: Each one of us has the power to transform something at our own libraries.
* Audience #2: Climbing hills and not giving up - as long as it's a hill worth climbing.
Issues for next 5 years
* Jenica Rogers: Concerns about readiness of librarian leaders. We're not supporting as much as we need to. Moved up early because she chose to. But many wanting to do this aren't finding the path or the support to do that.
* Michael Houlihan: Disagrees. Thinks many are preparing. Not sure the things we care about are always the preserve of professional librarians. Have brought in professions from elsewhere - can be in danger of isolating ourselves. Libraries sometimes pushed into slow lane.
* Martin Molloy: If David Cameron has his way won't need to worry about younger generations because older ones will always be there unable to retire. Politicians are a key area for the next five years, and the advice they get from their policy offices re which services are vital/expendable. Librarians haven't stepped up to the mark in managing corporately and advocating for libraries at the same time. Need to get more economists (etc) speaking for us.
* Andrew Booth: In past thinking about challenges have always thought about externalities, but Jenica's presentation reminded that restrictions in our own head are the big challenge.
* Karen Coyle: We have many practices that are hundreds of years old that we need to transform into new technologies - and to do this we need to understand them (the practices) better. Have to re-examine what we take for granted, to transform for a new information-era.
* Sue Roberts: We have a strong professional collegiality and association that helps us work on these together and we shouldn't underestimate that.
* Audience #3: "Nothing in this world is certain, all you get is the sun rising and setting." Retention of traditional knowledge. When we see everything coming at us it might be an opportunity to look at ourselves and see how we need to change ourselves to face the future.
* Audience #4: We've got challenges but we have to prepare the next group. The next level are saying they don't want the pressures. Need to look at doing things differently. We can get our message across if we position ourselves. Need to look beyond where we are and see if there's something else.
* Carolyn Robertson: Don't advocate a natural disaster to break the mould, but notes the "Other duties as required" - civil defense duty. As manager had to retrieve staff because they were so fantastic in other areas people wanted to hold on to them. Can take inspiration from INELI leaders.
* Heather Lamond: Has heard a few times that people don't want to be leaders. So those who do want to be leaders have to let people know that.
Advice on working politically
* Karen Coyle: Attend a non-library conference. Be the only librarian and speak up as a librarian.
* Andrew Booth: We see things through librarian glasses. Work out what buttons to press with those with evidence. "Slip out of librarian skin; slap down librarian biases; slop on some reality."
* Jenica Rogers: When making a case she's rarely doing it to librarians, so has to translate it to broader audience. Had to learn how to do this. Communicating to people without librarian background is hard and very important!
* Martin Molloy: Simple to explain and difficult to do: Politicians are just like us - they have things they care passionately about and you need to work out how they tick and what their agenda is. Need to work with people who work with politicians to find out who's doing what where. Politicians want to get reelected every four years, so need stories about how things change within four years. Local politicians are motivated by stories in their community; national politicians have more varied agendas. Time spent on reconnaissance is never wasted. Can't leave this to someone else - managers, etc - "I" need to do it within "my" role.
* Michael Houlihan: We're all holding a bird that says "Celebrate" (promo for next conference) - need to tell people what we've done and how we contribute. Show the relevance of what we do to the goals of people who control the pursestrings. Likes the "Turning knowledge into value for New Zealand" motto because it says so much.
Audience #5: Asking what panel will take away to change what will come back.
* Jenica Rogers: Has realised her actual staff have never heard her do this. (Sue says she might scare them!) Fear is a good motivator. :-)
* Karen Coyle: Will try to bring passion, humanness etc to meetings in future.
* Michael Houlihan: LIANZA is like a mini-IFLA - both contributions from worldwide and new innovators within NZ. Hopes to bring some of this to Wales.
And LIANZA 2012 will be in Palmerston North, 23-26 September with a theme of Ipukarea (referring to the ancestral homeland - a place that represents our history, where we go to be rejuvenated) Celebrate, Sustain, Transform.
[Waiata: Tu mai ra]
* Karen Coyle: We're all in the same boat. And we're all working toward solutions.
* Andrew Booth: The power of stories. Everyone has a story - every user - can we harness that power?
<small earthquake happens (possibly a mag 3-4?) and I get briefly distracted>
* Michael Houlihan: Passion is important, and confidence is important. These go together. Librarians as leaders.
* Martin Molloy: Spent so much time trying to survive and look after colleagues. Tend to forget what this is all about, and being here is a good reminder. Also, we're all in the same boat but not necessarily rowing in same direction! Need to use the strength we've got, our comaraderie.
* Jenica Rogers: Concerned that might be minimising difference between countries, but pleasantly surprised that we are very similar. (But downside is we don't have magic solutions to her answers either.) Very encouraging that we've got people all around the world working on these problems.
* Audience #1: Each one of us has the power to transform something at our own libraries.
* Audience #2: Climbing hills and not giving up - as long as it's a hill worth climbing.
Issues for next 5 years
* Jenica Rogers: Concerns about readiness of librarian leaders. We're not supporting as much as we need to. Moved up early because she chose to. But many wanting to do this aren't finding the path or the support to do that.
* Michael Houlihan: Disagrees. Thinks many are preparing. Not sure the things we care about are always the preserve of professional librarians. Have brought in professions from elsewhere - can be in danger of isolating ourselves. Libraries sometimes pushed into slow lane.
* Martin Molloy: If David Cameron has his way won't need to worry about younger generations because older ones will always be there unable to retire. Politicians are a key area for the next five years, and the advice they get from their policy offices re which services are vital/expendable. Librarians haven't stepped up to the mark in managing corporately and advocating for libraries at the same time. Need to get more economists (etc) speaking for us.
* Andrew Booth: In past thinking about challenges have always thought about externalities, but Jenica's presentation reminded that restrictions in our own head are the big challenge.
* Karen Coyle: We have many practices that are hundreds of years old that we need to transform into new technologies - and to do this we need to understand them (the practices) better. Have to re-examine what we take for granted, to transform for a new information-era.
* Sue Roberts: We have a strong professional collegiality and association that helps us work on these together and we shouldn't underestimate that.
* Audience #3: "Nothing in this world is certain, all you get is the sun rising and setting." Retention of traditional knowledge. When we see everything coming at us it might be an opportunity to look at ourselves and see how we need to change ourselves to face the future.
* Audience #4: We've got challenges but we have to prepare the next group. The next level are saying they don't want the pressures. Need to look at doing things differently. We can get our message across if we position ourselves. Need to look beyond where we are and see if there's something else.
* Carolyn Robertson: Don't advocate a natural disaster to break the mould, but notes the "Other duties as required" - civil defense duty. As manager had to retrieve staff because they were so fantastic in other areas people wanted to hold on to them. Can take inspiration from INELI leaders.
* Heather Lamond: Has heard a few times that people don't want to be leaders. So those who do want to be leaders have to let people know that.
Advice on working politically
* Karen Coyle: Attend a non-library conference. Be the only librarian and speak up as a librarian.
* Andrew Booth: We see things through librarian glasses. Work out what buttons to press with those with evidence. "Slip out of librarian skin; slap down librarian biases; slop on some reality."
* Jenica Rogers: When making a case she's rarely doing it to librarians, so has to translate it to broader audience. Had to learn how to do this. Communicating to people without librarian background is hard and very important!
* Martin Molloy: Simple to explain and difficult to do: Politicians are just like us - they have things they care passionately about and you need to work out how they tick and what their agenda is. Need to work with people who work with politicians to find out who's doing what where. Politicians want to get reelected every four years, so need stories about how things change within four years. Local politicians are motivated by stories in their community; national politicians have more varied agendas. Time spent on reconnaissance is never wasted. Can't leave this to someone else - managers, etc - "I" need to do it within "my" role.
* Michael Houlihan: We're all holding a bird that says "Celebrate" (promo for next conference) - need to tell people what we've done and how we contribute. Show the relevance of what we do to the goals of people who control the pursestrings. Likes the "Turning knowledge into value for New Zealand" motto because it says so much.
Audience #5: Asking what panel will take away to change what will come back.
* Jenica Rogers: Has realised her actual staff have never heard her do this. (Sue says she might scare them!) Fear is a good motivator. :-)
* Karen Coyle: Will try to bring passion, humanness etc to meetings in future.
* Michael Houlihan: LIANZA is like a mini-IFLA - both contributions from worldwide and new innovators within NZ. Hopes to bring some of this to Wales.
And LIANZA 2012 will be in Palmerston North, 23-26 September with a theme of Ipukarea (referring to the ancestral homeland - a place that represents our history, where we go to be rejuvenated) Celebrate, Sustain, Transform.
[Waiata: Tu mai ra]
Power to print disabled people #lianza11 #p25
Mariann Kraack, Wendy Nasmith
Power to print disabled people through passion for information
Most popular RNZFB service is braille and talking book library. By the end of this year all audio will be sent on CDs. Door to mailbox service. Issues continues to increase: July 2010-2011 324,000 audio items; estimate 576,000 next year.
Only 5% of print material is in an accessible format. In their experience the more material is available, the more people borrow.
DAISY - Digital Accessible Information SYstem. international standard for structuring digital audio content, makes it more accessible to readers. Made up of mp3, html (may have text or just navigation) and SMILE (synchronises audio and text) files. Tries to keep it as usable for a print-disabled reader as print is for others. Playback software can be downloaded from DAISY website for free.
RNZFB DAISY player is the Plextor PTX1 Pro designed in Japan. From any place in the book can tell reader what page they're on, how far from end of book. Create and remember bookmarks. Sleep timer. Synthetic voice, can read from SD card or memory stick. Internet capable for downloadable books.
"Burn on demand" service. A CD can hold up to 40 hours of listening - 6 books (so less time for things to be delivered) or 20 magazines. Reduction in cost of postage despite more books being issued. Player is lent to members. Personalised CDs are burnt with borrowers' individual book requests and posted out. When it's returned, a new one is sent out. Borrowers can choose which day they want to receive magazines. No missing or damaged items to replace, no waiting lists, digital recordings have better audio quality.
6000 items available in DAISY format. Producing 100 new titles a year including NZ titles. Purchase titles from overseas. Only add unabridged titles, all structured according to standard. Digitising old titles and adding DAISY structure. 20 magazine titles (eg Women's Weekly, National Geographic, Mana) recorded in DAISY audio. Braille titles also distributed and want to digitise these in future.
New title and subject bibliographies are produced weekly and distributed by email listserv and by Telephone Information Service. TIS also delivers newspapers, government and regional news, and uploads of book reviews by staff and readers, and audio extracts. Library magazine produced thrice yearly. Expensive to produce as printed large-print. Can search on accessible OPAC. Need to upgrade.
What readers like about it
They like the quality; getting more content in a more timely manner. Less handling of physical items. Easy to use player - Mr H thought he'd have to get help setting up but could use instructions all himself. Audio testimonials from supremely happy users.
Creating partnerships
Public libraries have increasingly more content in CDs or Overdrive. "Tea with Tales" event at some public libraries where library staff read extracts to both sighted and blind people. Simple to organise and very successful. Book groups: old cassette system was awkward but new digital services let print-disabled people participate. Can advertise events held by local public libraries to library@rnzfb.org.nz
Christchurch Public Library with JAWS software. APNK includes software as part of its standard suite (having listened to a single customer). Infrastructure is in place but do people know it's available and do staff know how to teach people how to use them? Want to hear success stories to share with members, which would make it easier for them to visit library.
Have worked with Wellington to help people using Overdrive. Worked with Auckland on making website accessible.
In future want to collaborate with public libraries. Small steps. Advancements of technology open up world of communication. Huge range of levels of expertise among users - not always related to age. Increasing numbers using email, OPAC, asking about other material online. But older members prefer to use DAISY; younger members more technosavvy. Can't provide all info needed to members on their own - there's too much.
Hopefully in future will use internet. Want to create partnerships to help provide information to all.
Charity, funded by public donation. Operates under Section 69 - print-disability - blind, visual impairment, can't manipulate books, can't move/focus eyes, has a handicap re visual perception. Add copyright statements to recordings.
Now distribution is easier may be able to offer services to stroke/arthritis sufferers, people with dyslexia or neurological conditions, but currently funds earmarked for blind/partially-blind people.
Can provide awareness training on adaptive technology and physical spaces. Simple things like the design of a form contribute. Many public libraries provide database access, but members may need support to start using them. Would like to work with public libraries - needs awareness of how technology is used. Ebook readers available have different levels of accessibility. Some have text-to-speech capability, but not all titles have it enabled. Books can't usually be navigated - touchscreen unhelpful. Some devices use same button for different functions depending what mode you're in. Emerging technology and features will improve in time. YouTube video about ebooks for blind/partially-sighted
Questions
Q: A couple of years ago had trouble getting DAISY readers to members - how's progress?
A: Should get them to all members by end of week. Very need-based - old technology was breaking down.
Q: Are your members better informed than other NZers?
A: Many members not working; for many it's one of the main things they can do. Desire to read is strong.
Q: Plexitor is internet-capable - is that currently in use?
A: This is the next step, to send books by internet. DAISY protocol is being finalised. One site is using it, streaming to player. The dream is getting closer.
Q: Work with dyslexic kids - can we tell them to go to RNZFB.
A: Yes. Just need something to prove they meet print-disabled requirements of the Copyright Act. Used to be hard to serve all people with cassettes, now able to serve a bigger group. There is a funding dilemma re device so they may have to meet those costs to get the DAISY player.
Q: Recorded or text-to-speech?
A: Send out human-narrated books.
[demo of DAISY player]
Q: [Re databases]
A: Someone went to library to get help using databases, but miscommunications re technology, and trying to solve over the phone was awkward!
Power to print disabled people through passion for information
Most popular RNZFB service is braille and talking book library. By the end of this year all audio will be sent on CDs. Door to mailbox service. Issues continues to increase: July 2010-2011 324,000 audio items; estimate 576,000 next year.
Only 5% of print material is in an accessible format. In their experience the more material is available, the more people borrow.
DAISY - Digital Accessible Information SYstem. international standard for structuring digital audio content, makes it more accessible to readers. Made up of mp3, html (may have text or just navigation) and SMILE (synchronises audio and text) files. Tries to keep it as usable for a print-disabled reader as print is for others. Playback software can be downloaded from DAISY website for free.
RNZFB DAISY player is the Plextor PTX1 Pro designed in Japan. From any place in the book can tell reader what page they're on, how far from end of book. Create and remember bookmarks. Sleep timer. Synthetic voice, can read from SD card or memory stick. Internet capable for downloadable books.
"Burn on demand" service. A CD can hold up to 40 hours of listening - 6 books (so less time for things to be delivered) or 20 magazines. Reduction in cost of postage despite more books being issued. Player is lent to members. Personalised CDs are burnt with borrowers' individual book requests and posted out. When it's returned, a new one is sent out. Borrowers can choose which day they want to receive magazines. No missing or damaged items to replace, no waiting lists, digital recordings have better audio quality.
6000 items available in DAISY format. Producing 100 new titles a year including NZ titles. Purchase titles from overseas. Only add unabridged titles, all structured according to standard. Digitising old titles and adding DAISY structure. 20 magazine titles (eg Women's Weekly, National Geographic, Mana) recorded in DAISY audio. Braille titles also distributed and want to digitise these in future.
New title and subject bibliographies are produced weekly and distributed by email listserv and by Telephone Information Service. TIS also delivers newspapers, government and regional news, and uploads of book reviews by staff and readers, and audio extracts. Library magazine produced thrice yearly. Expensive to produce as printed large-print. Can search on accessible OPAC. Need to upgrade.
What readers like about it
They like the quality; getting more content in a more timely manner. Less handling of physical items. Easy to use player - Mr H thought he'd have to get help setting up but could use instructions all himself. Audio testimonials from supremely happy users.
Creating partnerships
Public libraries have increasingly more content in CDs or Overdrive. "Tea with Tales" event at some public libraries where library staff read extracts to both sighted and blind people. Simple to organise and very successful. Book groups: old cassette system was awkward but new digital services let print-disabled people participate. Can advertise events held by local public libraries to library@rnzfb.org.nz
Christchurch Public Library with JAWS software. APNK includes software as part of its standard suite (having listened to a single customer). Infrastructure is in place but do people know it's available and do staff know how to teach people how to use them? Want to hear success stories to share with members, which would make it easier for them to visit library.
Have worked with Wellington to help people using Overdrive. Worked with Auckland on making website accessible.
In future want to collaborate with public libraries. Small steps. Advancements of technology open up world of communication. Huge range of levels of expertise among users - not always related to age. Increasing numbers using email, OPAC, asking about other material online. But older members prefer to use DAISY; younger members more technosavvy. Can't provide all info needed to members on their own - there's too much.
Hopefully in future will use internet. Want to create partnerships to help provide information to all.
Charity, funded by public donation. Operates under Section 69 - print-disability - blind, visual impairment, can't manipulate books, can't move/focus eyes, has a handicap re visual perception. Add copyright statements to recordings.
Now distribution is easier may be able to offer services to stroke/arthritis sufferers, people with dyslexia or neurological conditions, but currently funds earmarked for blind/partially-blind people.
Can provide awareness training on adaptive technology and physical spaces. Simple things like the design of a form contribute. Many public libraries provide database access, but members may need support to start using them. Would like to work with public libraries - needs awareness of how technology is used. Ebook readers available have different levels of accessibility. Some have text-to-speech capability, but not all titles have it enabled. Books can't usually be navigated - touchscreen unhelpful. Some devices use same button for different functions depending what mode you're in. Emerging technology and features will improve in time. YouTube video about ebooks for blind/partially-sighted
Questions
Q: A couple of years ago had trouble getting DAISY readers to members - how's progress?
A: Should get them to all members by end of week. Very need-based - old technology was breaking down.
Q: Are your members better informed than other NZers?
A: Many members not working; for many it's one of the main things they can do. Desire to read is strong.
Q: Plexitor is internet-capable - is that currently in use?
A: This is the next step, to send books by internet. DAISY protocol is being finalised. One site is using it, streaming to player. The dream is getting closer.
Q: Work with dyslexic kids - can we tell them to go to RNZFB.
A: Yes. Just need something to prove they meet print-disabled requirements of the Copyright Act. Used to be hard to serve all people with cassettes, now able to serve a bigger group. There is a funding dilemma re device so they may have to meet those costs to get the DAISY player.
Q: Recorded or text-to-speech?
A: Send out human-narrated books.
[demo of DAISY player]
Q: [Re databases]
A: Someone went to library to get help using databases, but miscommunications re technology, and trying to solve over the phone was awkward!
Reality-based librarianship #lianza11 #keynote8
Session chair recounts the Chalk notes as a valid communication format story.
Jenica Rogers
Reality-based librarianship for passionate librarians
We live in a liminal time - internet, digital divide, shifting economies. Some cling to the past, some plunge forward, some standing still and waiting to see what'll happen next. Future will take care of all of us in the end, but we need to decide our position, based in our own realities. We can all be passionate, successful, plunge forward - but foolish to think we can all do it in the same way.
How do we get places? We go there, do it, be it. We are our own best weapon against the things we want to change. We are our own best resource.
First have to find our passion. Many great ideas at this conference. But fraught with uncertainty about our own job.
Step 1 - figure out why you like an idea. Why are you fixating on this technique, this equipment, this change? What resonates? If you can figure it out you can advocate for it in a compelling way. Complaints that some keynotes haven't explicitly linked their talks to the library situation - but that's our job. When we go home, a list of what we heard is less compelling than "I heard this, thought about it, and linked it to what we're doing at our library." We've had a lot of talk about telling stories - we need to take stories back home. So name your passion.
Step 2 - make your passion actionable. Quotes from Rands in Repose: You Are Underestimating the Future A passion combined with a belief it can be done.
"There's always a hill to climb - and some are worth dying on. Only some." Acting on your passion is a hill. Everyone has a hill to climb. People who don't know what their next project is haven't named their passion or don't believe in it. Uses her blog to do this - eg blogging about bad vendor service.
Sometimes legacy processes protect core of what we do. Can't know what this is unless we challenge it. So challenge things when we get back! We've got ideas from conference - will hit wall of "You're just one person". So pick a hill, look at your energy levels and work out which one's worth climbing. When you find barriers (economy, earthquakes, inertia...) decide, "Is this a hill you want to die on?" Some battles aren't worth fighting, sometimes the cost of winning is too high, sometimes the victory isn't strategic enough. Choosing a hill is intensely personal so only you can know which is which. But we have the power to choose which hills are worth it.
"Approach success as you would any project. Plan for it, organise it, manage it." Change doesn't just happen. Need person in right place, right time, right idea, who does it. You have to put yourself in the right place and time. So plan for it. Can't just tell manager "We should have ebooks" - need a plan. Any goal can and should be project-managed.
This applies to everything
Imagine you're an astronaut. Want to go to stars but you *can* go to the moon. So that's your goal. To do this you have to build an ugly rocket. You hate it - but it'll get you to the moon. So "Embrace process and love even your ugly rockets." Eg when planning to update survey you know that you'll have to do a user survey. You don't want to, think it won't tell anything new, but the powers that be require it. Doesn't matter if you're right or wrong - you have to do it to get to your goal.
At the same time, "Don't lose sight of your goals - and remember that sometimes the wise choice is to turn back." Sometimes rockclimbing you've put in so much effort and pain you can't imagine giving up. But sometimes you need to remember your goals - why are you doing this? Think about your passion. Have you passed the point of no return? Or can/should you say it's time to stop? Serving needs of others is part of our operating principles so turning back can feel unaccepting. Sometimes altruism can prevent success by preventing failure. If it isn't working and can't work then you'll keep pouring resources (altruistically!) off a cliff. Have to parse out what's probably and what's possible and what's "possible but only with nuclear weapons".
"Success requires some tolerance for failure. What's yours?" How high are you willing to climb? How strong/fragile is your egg? Strong things can be fragile if you know where to knock them; fragile things can be strong if you know how to hold them. Before you start chasing passion, ask "What's the worst that could happen?" Easy to think about "What's the best that could happen?" We pick projects because we can imagine success - but consider failure too. Once you know the worst, ask "Can I handle that?" Not asking these to operate from a place of fear - that just makes us small and weak. But we need to know how far we can push ourselves before we break.
Remember other people have points of fear too - different fears than ours. When they hit this, they can become a brick wall; or maybe just a closed door. "If fear of failure is what stops people, ask why. Then ask 'What can I do about it? How much do I care? Am I the right person to deal with this?'" If you know that they're immoveable you know to stop hitting your head against that brick wall and look at other options. May not be able to move them, but you can move yourself. Be creative.
Of course sometimes that brick wall is your boss. You can't go over or around your boss. But can you find an advocate who can say things you can't say? "Find a community that loves you. You can't do it alone." Sometimes her power in uni admin team doesn't come from herself (because she's newest and youngest) but from finding an ally. Even if you can't win, you still need the support, people who will get you and feed you passion when the world sucks you dry. Your support network might be in your organisation or out of it - national, international, online.
You're going to need to network someday. "This is not your last job." If you follow your dreams you'll sometimes find you've outgrown your job. At this point your network may give you leads, support.
"Know thyself and set your priorities accordingly." You need to know what you want and what you need. If you can identify your strengths and values you'll know what hills to climb and how to get there. Doesn't care what our passion is. "I don't give a shit how bad things are. [...] This is life." Long ago noticed that farmers never have a good year. But they keep farming! Libraries are the same. We've been here for a long time and never had a good year. We're all struggling - so what? Get over it, move on. Keep farming anyway. "Go do something. Change the world."
Questions
Q: Do you get fitter the more hills you climb?
A: Yes, every time you get more skills, and it hurts less.
Jenica Rogers
Reality-based librarianship for passionate librarians
We live in a liminal time - internet, digital divide, shifting economies. Some cling to the past, some plunge forward, some standing still and waiting to see what'll happen next. Future will take care of all of us in the end, but we need to decide our position, based in our own realities. We can all be passionate, successful, plunge forward - but foolish to think we can all do it in the same way.
How do we get places? We go there, do it, be it. We are our own best weapon against the things we want to change. We are our own best resource.
First have to find our passion. Many great ideas at this conference. But fraught with uncertainty about our own job.
Step 1 - figure out why you like an idea. Why are you fixating on this technique, this equipment, this change? What resonates? If you can figure it out you can advocate for it in a compelling way. Complaints that some keynotes haven't explicitly linked their talks to the library situation - but that's our job. When we go home, a list of what we heard is less compelling than "I heard this, thought about it, and linked it to what we're doing at our library." We've had a lot of talk about telling stories - we need to take stories back home. So name your passion.
Step 2 - make your passion actionable. Quotes from Rands in Repose: You Are Underestimating the Future A passion combined with a belief it can be done.
"There's always a hill to climb - and some are worth dying on. Only some." Acting on your passion is a hill. Everyone has a hill to climb. People who don't know what their next project is haven't named their passion or don't believe in it. Uses her blog to do this - eg blogging about bad vendor service.
Sometimes legacy processes protect core of what we do. Can't know what this is unless we challenge it. So challenge things when we get back! We've got ideas from conference - will hit wall of "You're just one person". So pick a hill, look at your energy levels and work out which one's worth climbing. When you find barriers (economy, earthquakes, inertia...) decide, "Is this a hill you want to die on?" Some battles aren't worth fighting, sometimes the cost of winning is too high, sometimes the victory isn't strategic enough. Choosing a hill is intensely personal so only you can know which is which. But we have the power to choose which hills are worth it.
"Approach success as you would any project. Plan for it, organise it, manage it." Change doesn't just happen. Need person in right place, right time, right idea, who does it. You have to put yourself in the right place and time. So plan for it. Can't just tell manager "We should have ebooks" - need a plan. Any goal can and should be project-managed.
This applies to everything
- identify your goals
- map out the steps - how do you get started (depends on who you are, who's in charge, who are your allies, what will it cost in money, time, political capital). May need user needs survey, may need to meet people, may need to write a budge projection.
- understand your personal need for accountability. How much do you need to know and report to people; how much do others need to know and report to you? Prepare to ask for info and give it in return. If you're prepared you look smart!
- understand your need for support systems. Do you want to work as a loner or be part of a team? If you know, you can agitate for it.
- include all of these issues in your plan and make a map
Imagine you're an astronaut. Want to go to stars but you *can* go to the moon. So that's your goal. To do this you have to build an ugly rocket. You hate it - but it'll get you to the moon. So "Embrace process and love even your ugly rockets." Eg when planning to update survey you know that you'll have to do a user survey. You don't want to, think it won't tell anything new, but the powers that be require it. Doesn't matter if you're right or wrong - you have to do it to get to your goal.
At the same time, "Don't lose sight of your goals - and remember that sometimes the wise choice is to turn back." Sometimes rockclimbing you've put in so much effort and pain you can't imagine giving up. But sometimes you need to remember your goals - why are you doing this? Think about your passion. Have you passed the point of no return? Or can/should you say it's time to stop? Serving needs of others is part of our operating principles so turning back can feel unaccepting. Sometimes altruism can prevent success by preventing failure. If it isn't working and can't work then you'll keep pouring resources (altruistically!) off a cliff. Have to parse out what's probably and what's possible and what's "possible but only with nuclear weapons".
"Success requires some tolerance for failure. What's yours?" How high are you willing to climb? How strong/fragile is your egg? Strong things can be fragile if you know where to knock them; fragile things can be strong if you know how to hold them. Before you start chasing passion, ask "What's the worst that could happen?" Easy to think about "What's the best that could happen?" We pick projects because we can imagine success - but consider failure too. Once you know the worst, ask "Can I handle that?" Not asking these to operate from a place of fear - that just makes us small and weak. But we need to know how far we can push ourselves before we break.
Remember other people have points of fear too - different fears than ours. When they hit this, they can become a brick wall; or maybe just a closed door. "If fear of failure is what stops people, ask why. Then ask 'What can I do about it? How much do I care? Am I the right person to deal with this?'" If you know that they're immoveable you know to stop hitting your head against that brick wall and look at other options. May not be able to move them, but you can move yourself. Be creative.
Of course sometimes that brick wall is your boss. You can't go over or around your boss. But can you find an advocate who can say things you can't say? "Find a community that loves you. You can't do it alone." Sometimes her power in uni admin team doesn't come from herself (because she's newest and youngest) but from finding an ally. Even if you can't win, you still need the support, people who will get you and feed you passion when the world sucks you dry. Your support network might be in your organisation or out of it - national, international, online.
You're going to need to network someday. "This is not your last job." If you follow your dreams you'll sometimes find you've outgrown your job. At this point your network may give you leads, support.
"Know thyself and set your priorities accordingly." You need to know what you want and what you need. If you can identify your strengths and values you'll know what hills to climb and how to get there. Doesn't care what our passion is. "I don't give a shit how bad things are. [...] This is life." Long ago noticed that farmers never have a good year. But they keep farming! Libraries are the same. We've been here for a long time and never had a good year. We're all struggling - so what? Get over it, move on. Keep farming anyway. "Go do something. Change the world."
Questions
Q: Do you get fitter the more hills you climb?
A: Yes, every time you get more skills, and it hurts less.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Evidence-based librarianship #lianza11 #keynote7
Andrew Booth
Evidence based library and information practice: harnessing professional passions to the power of research
Passion
Wants to talk about a passion for continually monitoring, evaluating and improving our practice.
Four-square of:
Research | Practice-based research
Practice | Research-based practice
Need to be using research and researching our own service. Not just research that gets into journals, but local data.
Myths:
Profession
We need to be evidence-based. Difference between barber (just the same inventory of skills as ever) and surgeon (body of knowledge continually built on) - also talks about the "Oops" factor: how do they behave when things go wrong? Note that abuse of evidence-based practice can be as dangerous as cutting off the wrong leg.
Using research = best practice + best use of resources. Lets professionals add value to work practices. Need to evaluate both ourselves and our professional practice. At the professional level it can inform practice, help see where we're going, raise profile of librarianship, and improve status of library.
If we're not practicing EBLIP we might be deferring to (Isaacs & Fitzgerald, 1999): eminence-based LIP, vehemence-based LIP, eloquence-based LIP, providence-based LIP; diffidence-based LIP; nervousness-based LIP, confidence-based LIP; propaganda-based LIP.
Must align evidence, profession and passion.
Role of evidence-based library and info practice
"Difference between research and using evidence-based practice to make workplace decisions". Quotes someone saying there's nothing wrong with reinventing the wheel - it's reinventing the flat tyre you want to avoid.
Not just about research. About integrating user-reported, practitioner-observed, and research-derived evidence. Not undervaluing what staff say, but restoring balance to value users too.
Four-square:
Start starting | Start stopping
(innovation) | (discontinuing
| ineffective practice)
-----------------------------------------------------
Stop starting | Stop stopping
(not introducing | (continuing
ineffective practice) | effective practice)
The 5 As:
Ask a focused question
Acquire the evidence
Appraise the studies
Apply the findings
Assess the impact
Reflection for, before, in, on action and Re-action.
EBLIP comes from medicine and is suitable for healthcare but less so for other systems. So must adapt the model, not adopt it uncritically.
Eg doctors are often autonomous; librarians work together.
So rewriting 5 As:
Articulating the problem
Assembling the evidence base
Assessing the evidence
Agreeing the actions
Adapting the implementation
Questions
Q: Your last slide is about ultimate goal of EBLIP to create a toolbox we can dip into, and thus to write itself out of existence - that was the last slide six years ago so how long will it take?
A: Did think about it! There's been progress. Still people see EBLIP as a project to stop and start, not to sustain.
Q: Can you give examples?
A: One workshop he does is called "Walking the Walk". Some great examples around developing webpages - many poorly designed - Cancer Library in the UK came up with webdesign guidelines backed up by evidence. Much has been done esp in Canada around evidence-based collection development.
Evidence based library and information practice: harnessing professional passions to the power of research
Passion
Wants to talk about a passion for continually monitoring, evaluating and improving our practice.
Four-square of:
Research | Practice-based research
Practice | Research-based practice
Need to be using research and researching our own service. Not just research that gets into journals, but local data.
Myths:
- EBLIP has a bit of a "cold fish" reputation. Wants to get away from this idea. Really initiative and enthusiasm is vital.
- The Librarian knows best (aka the Divine Right of Librarians). Our passion may colour our view of what's best for users. Have to be cautious about thinking we know what our users want - doesn't always match up. See also cognitive biases (eg primacy effects, recency effects, stereotypes, perseverance of belief, selective perception). "And we all suffer from Question Framing Bias, don't we?" Librarians keep assuming there's a right way of searching, rather than showing users how to harness the skills they have - eg "the dreaded Google Search typically displays a PubMed Abstract on page one".
Profession
We need to be evidence-based. Difference between barber (just the same inventory of skills as ever) and surgeon (body of knowledge continually built on) - also talks about the "Oops" factor: how do they behave when things go wrong? Note that abuse of evidence-based practice can be as dangerous as cutting off the wrong leg.
Using research = best practice + best use of resources. Lets professionals add value to work practices. Need to evaluate both ourselves and our professional practice. At the professional level it can inform practice, help see where we're going, raise profile of librarianship, and improve status of library.
If we're not practicing EBLIP we might be deferring to (Isaacs & Fitzgerald, 1999): eminence-based LIP, vehemence-based LIP, eloquence-based LIP, providence-based LIP; diffidence-based LIP; nervousness-based LIP, confidence-based LIP; propaganda-based LIP.
Must align evidence, profession and passion.
Role of evidence-based library and info practice
"Difference between research and using evidence-based practice to make workplace decisions". Quotes someone saying there's nothing wrong with reinventing the wheel - it's reinventing the flat tyre you want to avoid.
Not just about research. About integrating user-reported, practitioner-observed, and research-derived evidence. Not undervaluing what staff say, but restoring balance to value users too.
Four-square:
Start starting | Start stopping
(innovation) | (discontinuing
| ineffective practice)
-----------------------------------------------------
Stop starting | Stop stopping
(not introducing | (continuing
ineffective practice) | effective practice)
The 5 As:
Ask a focused question
Acquire the evidence
Appraise the studies
Apply the findings
Assess the impact
Reflection for, before, in, on action and Re-action.
EBLIP comes from medicine and is suitable for healthcare but less so for other systems. So must adapt the model, not adopt it uncritically.
Eg doctors are often autonomous; librarians work together.
So rewriting 5 As:
Articulating the problem
Assembling the evidence base
Assessing the evidence
Agreeing the actions
Adapting the implementation
Questions
Q: Your last slide is about ultimate goal of EBLIP to create a toolbox we can dip into, and thus to write itself out of existence - that was the last slide six years ago so how long will it take?
A: Did think about it! There's been progress. Still people see EBLIP as a project to stop and start, not to sustain.
Q: Can you give examples?
A: One workshop he does is called "Walking the Walk". Some great examples around developing webpages - many poorly designed - Cancer Library in the UK came up with webdesign guidelines backed up by evidence. Much has been done esp in Canada around evidence-based collection development.
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