Why Things Suck: Things That Dont Suck

At the last moment the political majority changed their minds (after a storm of protest from all around) and let the bookboat continue for two more years. Thank you to all for support and good wishes. This shows that popular protest really work.

The first boy: The coolest thing about the library is the people who work there. Really OK people to talk to.

Girl: The thing about the library is that you can meet the gang there, relax and have a good time talking and so on.

Second boy:  There is always something to do there. They have the newest games there and…

Poster:

We may not be really cool, but we are soon the only place in the world where you still can get something for free.

Glass wall: Use the library

Note: FREE

The library commercial from norway The first library commercal that was produced professionally here in Norway

The executive of the Hordaland county will propose the cancellation of the world oldest bookboat “Epos” before the county assembly on december 9th.

Epos has sailed for 50 years on the west coast of Norway and visited literally hundreds of small communities, often without road connection in the fjords or out on the islands along the coast. The bookboat carries about 3.500 books and also offers live entertainment for childrens at most stops.

The bookboat is a unique experience if you are a librarian. You live on the boat with other librarians, the crew and the artists or authors who provide the entertainment on board for up to three weeks at a time. You sail in the most beautiful landscape in the world and meet people and see places that you would never ever meet otherwise. A fantastic life and I will never forget my five years with three trips per year. (I should mention that I hold the record for most seasick librarian on the bookboat so far).

Now the bookboat is again threatened. Politicians from the right party, the progress party and the christian popular party (sounds like a third world republic when I write the party names in english), want to cancel the bookboat to save 480,000 norwegian kroner (about 80,000 US$) and thereby raze one of the few cultural activities and public services that these small places around the coast recieves.

There is a petition to sign for all who wants to keep the bookboat floating and delivering library services. The petition is in norwegian, if you only read english and want to support the struggle please leave a comment here on the blog All support is appreciated.

I was sitting in the car this morning thinking about library websites and how linear and “square” they are. Of course this is because they follow the ruling trends of the mainstream webdesign, but it does not take into account the very spatial nature of a library. In Second Life there are loads of library bulidings, and although many of them are wonderful structures they all resemble libraries in real life, exept they have fewer books and shelves. Most even have a reference desk!

Why are we so married to the library as a building? Surely on the net, and in second life, there is no need for walls, shelves, desks and roofs. It does not rain on the Internet! Lets drop the bulidings and concentrate on how we can make a visual representation of the library in second life and on the web that is spatial but more open and free of the constraints of walls and shelves.

Then there is the need to make websites that are scaleable and wiewable on all kinds of units, from cellphones to 50″ flat screen tv sets in the living room.

So how do I think a library website should look? What I want is two things, I want a landscape instead of a building, and I want findability instead of searcability. So I’m going to disregard a lot of constraints that limit what we can do today, and look a little forward. Of course this should be a youtube video or some sort of graphical mockup but words are all I have access to today, so…

The library website of 2014

When you end up in the library a landscape opens up, it is a hilly, green landscape on a sunny day. (a bit like the default desktop on Windows XP), a few mountains in the background and a forest off to your left. Right in front of you stands an avatar. The avatar is obviously a librarian, a woman, who welcomes you to the library, her voice is plesant and inviting. If you are a first time visitor you will be offered a few choices, you can choose to change the avatar apperance, to a man or animal or just to go away, you can choose a different landscape, city, mountain, dense forest, jungle, costal landscape etc. And then the avatar will ask you to allow the site to access the information you have stored as your “public identity” based on social network profiles, amazon profiles etc, to better tailor the service you want. When your profile is accessed several things will appear in the landscape you have chosen. There will be a social place, a cafe in the city landscape, logs around a open fire in the hilly landscape etc, a number of objects will appear around you, suggestions, storage facilities and of course a librarian avtar to help you. If you just want to browse and look around things will pop up in the landscape, text, sound and video grouped together based on your profile and placed in relation to each other according to your preferences. As you navigate the landscape, flying is fine, your choices and searches will ripple through the displayed items and if you use the website repeatedly your most used items and paths will become familiar, but will also be augmented with new material as it occurs in the library, on the web or in databases the library has access to.

The items will be displayed in any way you find meaningful, at first in traditional formats, text as a book page, sound as a loudspeaker, video as a screen, but other ways will be offered as you progress.

It will be possible to integrate your library profile on social networks, in online stores etc. to enhance both the library experience and use the library profile to enhance your other networks and sites.

The social meeting place in the library will be open, but also have featured talks and discussions, all available in real time for participation or as recordings for later viewing.

This is as far as I have come today, maybe I’ll follow up later, or maybe you have a better idea or a way to improve my idea?

In one of my favorite movies, Kelly’s heroes, Donald Sutherland plays a tank commander who meets all criticism with “Don’t give me those negative vibes man!” and then goes on to do whatever he wanted without worry or second thoughts.

Yesterday I was guilty of negative vibes. I probably should not have vented on the blog, or just written whatever I thought down without publishing it. I’m unsure about whether it was a mistake, but I am open to the possibility.

What did I think would be the consequences of this rant? I’m not really sure. Maybe I needed the release of pent up frustration and maybe, in the back of my mind, I hoped it would be a bugle call to wake people up? Totally mistaken in that case. Most librarians who read the “culture of nice“-blogpost will feel attacked and unfairly critizised, one librarian has already posted a comment to that effect, and the post will probably never be the starting point of a good discussion on the problems and challenges that libraries and librarians face today. So, probably a total waste of bytes and my readers time. Sorry about that, but “it’s my blog and I’ll write what I want to” Please feel free to not read on.

To engender a true culture of innovation and development we have to stop pulling each other down, I did so yesterday, and I will not do so again. I want to focus on the positive things that happens, “positive vibes” if you like, and see how many librarians of all ages embrace and try out new ways of making the library useful to the public and more fun to work with and in.

As development of library services continue we will see project failures, successes and many inbetween, but what I would really hope for was a change in the core culture of libraries/librarians where the lessons from the failures where valued as learning and more important than the successes that we really want to show off. I will start this off with admitting that yesterdays blogpost was a mistake and that I have learnt a valuable lesson on what I want to write about on this blog, and what I should keep to myself or address in a more constructive and calm mood.

Thank you for your attention, hope to see you back here later.

Thomas

Michael Stephens wrote about the “culture of no” and how it stops innovation and development. Today at a seminar for librarians I was in a foul mood and sat observing my fellow librarians as they discussed the future of libraries and librarians.   The one thing that jarred my nerves the whole day was the prevalent culture of nice. Everybody was nice, libraries are nice, they don´t want to make too much fuss, don´t want to upset the boat etc. I was frigging mad when I left and felt a great need to vent my feelings lest they ruin the rest of my day. I´m in a mood where I´m about to give up on librarians. At least the norwegian version. They are so averse to conflict and so hesitant about development that I despair of any real development and a chance for the libraries in the 21st century. Right now libraries have all the characteristics of the Dodo. Fat, complacent and resisting change even when it comes in the form of a club to the head.

Right now I believe that few libraries will survive the next seven years. (thank Dawkins I´m usually mistaken when I predict the future).  The libraries that adapt and change with the times and their users will fare well and have a bright future. The rest, well its a organization eat organization world out there, and most will dissapear in a cloud of Google.

I am dissapointed in my fellow librarians who totally ignores their professional duty to actually explore and understand the information universe their users live in. Business as usual is not a good way to handle kids who can find the information they need elsewhere and free wi-fi is no longer a selling point.

I´m getting depressed thinking about the way most librarians reject any idea that challenges the status quo and demands professional development. Just the discussion on Library 2.0 in Norway is enough to make me want to change business. What the H**L is wrong with librarians that make them discuss the frigging NAME and  how a “majority” prefer to perfect Library 1.0 before moving on (after they take retirement) to 2.0. GET REAL!

I´m dissapointed and depressed and sad. Better get home to the kids.

This is what librarians have to keep in mind when they consider the future of the library

I was reminded by the editor of the norwegian library journal “Bibliotekaren” (The librarian) (PDF) of the former IFLA-president Barbara J. Ford and her motto for her 2001 IFLA presidentship. It got me thinking about IFLA and what the organization could do for those who never will get funds or a positions that would allow them to travel to an IFLA conference (WLIC). A comment by Ian Smith from IFLA on my last post on IFLA 2.0 promted a lot of thought on how IFLA could use social networks to become more open to individual and virtual members.

First and foremost I wish that all librarians could easily get in touch with colleagues in other countries who work in simular libraries and with simular issues. It would be great to have a Facebook-like social forum for international librarians where people could discover all the differences and likeness that exists between librarians from different parts of the world.

You no longer need to travel to get to know people, have conversations and enjoy a professional and social relationship with librarians from around the world. Today social software can facilitate professional development online in a way that has been hitherto impossible. If IFLA taps into the potential of allowing virtual members and creates an arena for them to meet outside of WLIC, then they will have done the world of librarians the greatest favor ever (Especially if virtual members pay a smaller fee, but don’t get any paper publications in the mail)

I also hope IFLA can initiate the development of professional resources with a practical focus that is written by “ordinary” working librarians and collaborations between librarians from different parts of the world. Maybe a wiki-like system or more like Google Documents where participation and contributing is open to all. Especially since a lot of potential virtual members comes from countries where there is a great need for practical professional development, but little resources to purchase professional publications. An open system for professional publications would be a great membership benefit. And I would bet that there is a lot to learn from the same librarians when it comes to solving problems and running libraries in adverse conditions. If this information was shared freely and in a dedicated network it would truly make IFLA an international members oriented organization.