14 December 2009

Read 'em and weep, or something.

I feel silly about getting a B in my reference class just because I was a ditz and forgot to do an assignment (and our instructor didn't accept late work). Good lord, I'm so Asian, it hurts sometimes.

Also, FERPA be damned. I'm putting this info out there anyway.

Course
Description
Grade
LIS-488
Tech. for Info. Professionals
A-
LIS-407
Reference/Information Services
B
LIS-438
Intro to Archival Methods
A

04 December 2009

Proof that it's the end of the semester

In our online Moodle discussions, we were told to look for "new and provocative" articles about library/information science technology. If this doesn't make my dismay with the class clear, then I didn't have enough fun with this entry...

Citation

Kinner, Laura and Rigda, Christine "The Integrated Library System: From Daring to Dinosaur?", Journal of Library Administration, 49: 4, 401 — 417.

Summary

The Automated Library System (ALS) came about in the 1970s as a way to house and retrieve library holdings. Since then, it has become an Integrated Library System (ILS) which is apparently much nicer (at least that's what its mother tells it when all the other kids on the playground make fun of it). With the rise of the internet and open source, we might see a battle royale occur between dinosaurs and librarians.


  • At some point in time someone asked "wouldn't it be nice if the public had access to the databases the librarians had access to?" The answer, of course, was a resounding "No." However, that didn't stop someone from coming up with OPAC since they argued that if the public could do their own searching, they wouldn't bother us librarians and dinosaurs as much. Thus began the schism between librarians and dinosaurs since the dinosaurs liked it when people bothered them because it meant that there was more human meat to make into sandwiches the next morning.
  • If OPAC didn't make the 1980s bad enough, the 1990s brought ILS along with grunge bands from the Pacific Northwest. ILS was originally meant to be another back end tool, mainly designed to perform acquisitions
    and circulation functions. Later in the 1990s when fashion ran out of ideas and within the same year, everyone wore bellbottoms, then carpenter pants then cigarette pants, MARC was added. MARC was a very simple kid and preferred straight-leg jeans. Everyone made fun of him because he was so simple to use.
  • With the millennium, everyone got so lazy that the end of the world was moved from the year 2000 to 2012. The year 2006 witnessed even more mergers of ILS companies since it was much easier for a collected bunch of companies to come up with one Integrated Library System than for a bunch of separate companies to come up with a bunch of Integrated Library Systems.
  • One of these was WebOpac because "Son of OPAC" sounded silly.
  • After the big ILS wars, the librarians and dinosaurs were too tired to keep fighting. This provided Open Source programs like Koha, Sakai,  Evergreen and Prospero an opening.
  • The conclusion the author comes to is that librarians must never forget the hard lessons of the war and must adapt to new technology and the demands of patrons in the future.
Response

I really liked this article. It covers the oft-missed topic of librarians versus dinosaurs in an engaging and thoughtful way.

01 December 2009

Libraries vs. the Internet Round 1 FIGHT!

All right, to be fair, this blog entry relinked as originally referenced here focuses more on bookstores and their decline, particularly the independent Mom 'n' Pop operations being nudged out by huge retail stores and the internet.

Still, this is the argument my group tried to make regarding our final project in our tech class. In order to survive, libraries must stay on top of new technology as opposed to hiding from it. This was the first part of our argument. The second part came up when our instructor nay-sayed our idea of purchasing more computers asking why we should do that when a local community center can provide free internet access. Why should people come to the library just to use the internet?

My rebuttal: if libraries have to stay ahead regarding technology, then why not redefine the terms by which that technology is used? Of course, the general "accepted" use of computers in libraries is "strictly research." Yet people are regularly caught looking at porn. I believe this is part of how screen privacy shields or individual cubicle setups for computer labs started becoming popular. I'm not saying we should get rid of all the books and let our patrons look up porn online. What I am saying is that as information professionals, we should take up the challenge brought to us, get people to learn that there are so many other ways to use the internet, so much information out there. If we can help our already over-worked and under-paid teachers get a kid hooked on science instead of meth, then that's pretty damn fantastic. Also, for those looking for jobs but can't afford the internet/a computer, the library is a blessing. I'm sure we can work some sort of skill development/jobhunting seminar in with the other information services.

I'm also a huge fan of the whole "rocking chairs in the children's section" thing. Not only could there be regular storytime, but we could provide an outreach program to parents to help them select books for their children to read (age appropriateness is an entirely different debate altogether). More book clubs, maybe some writing workshops, MeetUps (another way to use the internet to help connect people to the library).

But of course, one could still just say, "Uh, but can't we find books and chat online without having to go to a library or send our hard-earned tax dollars to a library?" Once again, it's the socialization aspect. Would you rather leave your kid alone with a computer all day or take them to a library and find books and other people to talk about those books with, say, perhaps people who know an awful lot about books and can provide recommendations. Ok, I know GoodReads, LibraryThing and other sites can provide a ton of user-generated reviews and ratings, but you have to admit that there's just something reassuring about talking to someone face to face who knows what they're talking about (and isn't a spambot that somehow evaded the captcha).

Besides, to add a bit of ad hominem and strawman into this (I'm no lawyer, so it's ok for me to do this), you don't want to be like this jackass. I mean, would you really want to live in a town without a library? Yeah, we have 40 Starbuckses and a bunch of strip malls that sell crap nobody needs, but a library? Who needs that? We have the internet.

In closing, for our population to be comprised of an "informed citizenship," we still need libraries and those who take that noble call to work in them. Also, librarians and other information scientists must not see the internet as a threat, but as a tool with which to help engage the citizenry (is that even a word? good lord I should go to bed).