Library alchemy – transforming digital information into physical

This is my first attempt at putting digital information out into the physical library.

Many students go straight to the bookshelves when they want information. Completely bypassing the computers with millions of relevant articles and books that we librarians have cunningly placed conveniently obstructing their way into the library.

By putting a touchscreen (Asus EEE Top) where the books are I hope that they might discover all that is available in digital format as well. The screen shows an article on the subject that is on this shelf, the Falklands war of 1982.

I have set up a netvibes page with preconfigured searches in RSS and some useful pages on the subject. By touching the screen the students can access articles and webpages directly.
There is a printer at the end of the bookshelf so they can print out anything interesting they find.

Needless to say, this is all very experimental and beta. I must solve a lot of small issues before school starts in august. Security, navigation and automatic reset are some that I have discovered just today.  I have not solved the issue on integrating my library OPAC into the netvibes page, but on the other hand, when you are at the correct section, who needs the OPAC to see what books are in? But I am really happy with how this worked out so far.

Filed under: Library 2.0, Users , experiments

Slow blogging?

Have I involuntarily become a slow blogger? Slow blogging manifesto is an attractive idea, but I feel that it is room for both slow and fast in one blog, and with RSS it is not as if readers have to check in to see if anything is written. Of course, if you are deleted from anybodys RSS-reader, then you are dead:-)

It is not as if I have stopped blogging because I am tired of it. Just that real life has grabbed most of my attention for a long while. Work, children, illness and other more mundane reasons have pushed my attention away from writing about libraries.

The writing I have done has been focused on Twitter and some comments in other blogs.

That will change though. I´m applying for the “first librarian” program (norwegian only) at the Oslo University College. This is a qualifying program for librarians who want to work with more hands-on projects than is usual in ordinary Ph.D. programs, but it still qualifies for positions where the usual requirement is a Ph.D.

This is a great opportunity to work in my own library with projects that directly benefit the library users and hopefully improves the library services and integration in the academy.

And it wil be nice to look at broader issues than the daily immediate challenges.

Filed under: Blogging, Users , studies, twittering, writing

The culture of Nice

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.

Filed under: Hype or Hope?, Librarian 2.0, Library 2.0, Norway, Users

On the nature of 2.0

I have worked hard on my Library Lab project, but had a nagging feeling that something was wrong. There was two problems with how I first envisioned it. And as my feeling of discomfort with the work increased I started to look at It was top-down and centrally managed and funded, and secondly it did not take into account the “nature of 2.0″ as I now see it. First of all, let’s try to define 2.0-ness:

Web 2.0 and Library 2.0, and any other 2.0 you care to mention, rests on the basis of participation and development that starts from the ground. Social networks of people who all invest a little of their time, intelligence/knowledge and effort to make something that is greater than the sum of the parts.

Forgetting this, or just letting old habits rule, led me into the trap of trying to organize a project from the top. The Library Lab I envisioned would have a salaried project manager, a lot of management and organization, and would try to “make” people work on “approved” projects. How wrong is that?

So hopefully I have learned a lesson or two, and the New Library Lab project proposal will contain more 2.0-ness. Basically I now see a network that is supported but left to grow from the interest and abilities of the people in the network. Initially I think it will be important to have a critical mass of people and projects, so I thnk that the main effort will be in connecting people and spreading the word. The project manager is replaced with a facillitator who smoothes the way for the participants by setting up a CMS, getting in touch with people, finding and destroying bottlenecs (Bottleneck terminator – that is a title I want on my business card:-)), and lastly challenging the network and hope that something happens.

The thing is, I really want this network to incorporate people from outside the library sector. Not just library system vendors, or the odd friend of the library, but real library users and non-users, people from local Linux User Groups, students, High-school teachers and any other interested person. The main challenge will be connecting to the people who are interested. Sounds like marketing might be a greater challenge than the technical stuff.

Filed under: Librarian 2.0, Library 2.0, Library lab, OPAC, Users, Web 2.0

Sold out – to the Man!

Yes, I have sould out. Really! To the Man! The norwegian national agency for archives, libraries and museums have asked me to write a proposal for a library 2.0 project, they’ll even pay me to do so! So, I’m sold, soul and body to the people who might let library 2.0 really happen here in Norway. If they accept my proposal it will be a project under the Norwegian Digital Library (NDL). I have long critizised the NDL for beeing to concerned with underlying structural issues (not that they are not important, but…) and forgetting the everyday lives of library users and workers. I have repeatedly asked for a more 2.0 approach where NDL invites people to participate and make the whole project visible and useful for library users.

I have proposed that NDL initiates and runs a blogging tool for libraries, a wiki like the Library success, widgets and toolbars, and just try to tap into all that energy and lively creativity that just sits around and waits for a challenge.

Anyway, as they say here in Norway: He who shouts in the woods gets pine needles in his mouth:-) So they challenged me back, saying that if I think all this is so important then I should write up a proposal and if the like it they’ll fund it! Wow, talk about challenge.

So these days I’m hard at work writing a proposal which have the working title: The library lab. The concept is a network and clearinghouse of small Web 2.0 projects which will try to collect and network all library hackers, librarians or users, who are interested in contributing. If somebody needs funding to do a small web 2.0 thing, the library lab can contribute with something e.g. funds for people to take time off from work or buy some piece of equipment.

The project also has a fairly large educational component, where the aim is to spread the word on library 2.0 and make more people able to use the basics to improve the services at their libraries, and even enable a few more hackers if possible. There will be conferences to kick this off and hopefully we can get a scandinavian feel to this as time passes.

My mind is bursting with ideas and I’m trying to get them down on screen as soon as possible, then get everything into a passable project proposal and then wait for the desicion. No matter the outcome it has been great to meet and communicate with people so high up in the system who gets the idea of Library 2.0. If this fails I probably was not the right person to write the proposal, but others will come who will do the job better and the, whatch out!

Filed under: Library 2.0, Library lab, Users, Web 2.0

Library computer security 2.0?

In a comment Jeremy from Canada raises the question of security in the Library 2.0 world. He raises some good points, and the most important in my opinion is:

I think it’s great that people are waving the flag for Library 2.0, but they have to start documenting the security that goes along with it or us IT people are going to take the blame for the problems that will inevitably arise.

The real issue here, apart form security, is that unless Library 2.0 involves all the various people who work in and around libraries it will fail from lack of support from the really important people. If the ICT-staff feels excluded from the discussion, I doubt that the technology part of Library 2.0 will ever lift off from the ground. Any library attempting to implement Library 2.0 without involving the expertise of the ICT-staff, support personell or any group (including users) have not understood the core concepts of openness, radical trust and communication that are the heart of Library 2.0.

Now to the security issue. There is definetly one, but I think that it might be useful to reconsider the way we view security. In the library public PCs are the gateway to the library resources and they are usually tested to the limit both of resources and security. I have myself picked chewing-gum from the keyboard, removed files from a supposedly locked harddisk, run restore routines and generally been frustrated by the sheer magnitude of keeping a public PC in a public library alive and running. So Jeremy definetly has a case when he writes:

Right now I get requests from staff/patrons for DVD burners, unrestricted USB/floppy access on PCs, little or no restrictions on internet PCs, the ability to install their own software, unrestricted wireless access (aka. hello BitTorrent, goodbye bandwidth), open network shares for patrons with unrestricted quotas, MP3 filesharing terminals, and more. All this in the interests of supporting a 2.0 way of life with little or no concern for the security and/or legal interests of the users or perhaps even the staff

Both the security and legal aspects does need to be considered. Security can be based on “worst case scenario” as in “unrestricted wireless access (aka. hello BitTorrent, goodbye bandwidth)” but this needs to be supported by evidence and experience. I have not heard of extreme misuse of bandwidth in any of the academic or public libraries that offers free and open wireless access here in Norway. It might be time for a different and more trusting approach, where the library staff understands that the ICT-staff is NOT responsible for the problems that may occur if there is instances of misuse. IF the trust is misplaced and major misuse occurs, the the policy has to be reconsidered, but I do believe that it is better to trust first and sanction later. “If you trick me once, shame on you, if you trick me twice, shame on me.”

The issue is also divided into the security of public access computers in the library, and the access and services that the library offers in and outside of the library. The first part is a problem that will be with us for the forseeable future, and not one which I have the knowledge and background to suggest any solutions for, but I also see a trend that will take some of the pressure of the public access PCs and that is the move toward mobile computing.

The proliferation of small computers that use any kind of connectivity, wifi or 3G, to connect their Palm, PocketPC, mobile phone, OrigamiPC, iPod 6G, PSP or DS to use the library services will present two challenges to the library, first the library has to provide services that are compatible with smaller display technology and in platform independent formats, and secondly the importance of the public access PC will decrease, but may be even more important to the people who has no other means of access, which in turn challenges the library to provide PCs that gives the user most of the usability the private units have.

The legal aspect of opening up the library as a communications and information network node are interesting, but not one I´m able to go into now. Sufficient to say that we must first have instances of use that are legally troublesome before we raise the bar for all legal use.

Filed under: Library 2.0, Security, Users

Library 2.0 = MyLibrary?

Michael Stephens is collecting Library 2.0 definitions, and asked for mine. Since I'm not at all clear on what my definition is, what I came up with was based on what was going on in my mind at the time. It was good to get challenged on this and it is probably time we start to search for a definition, but at the same time I don't want to get too hung up on the search for a definition. There is still a lot of discussion, thinking and just goofing around that must be done.

Here is what I wrote:

Library 2.0 is an reaction from librarians to the increasingly library relevant developments in ICT (web 2.0 and social software) and an environment that is saturatedwith information available through new and more easily accessible channels. The reaction comes in the form of increased openness and trust towards library users, both online and in the library, and in the development of new communication channels and services that are more in tune with social developments.

What is wrong with this picture? Well, for one thing it is totally library- and librarian-centric, which is NOT what Library 2.0 is about. Secondly it does not incorporate the things I think are most important about how Web 2.0 can help libraries improve their service and how to accomplish their mission. The involvement of library users in all aspects of the library and the customization and individualization of library services.

Think of it as MyLibrary

(I got the idea for the name from my son, who whenever we entered the local public library would exclaim: MY library in a very proprietory manner and then run around as if he owned the place. The name MyLibrary is already taken, by a very nice little project at the University Library at Notre Dame),

a space where the individual user finds everything she wants tailored to her taste and needs. A library service on the web that is a combination of LibraryThing, Netvibes, IM-reference and Aquabrowser adapable to the individual needs and of course it should not be library dependent, but could incorporate content and services from all kinds of library-enteties. Comments, tagging and wiki-like features would also be part of this MyLibrary concept. And OF COURSE it would be possible to incorporate all MyLibrary features into other pages, like blogs, wikis and just plain startpages that people create for themselves. 
If I should write a new definition of Library 2.0 it would go something like this:

Library 2.0 is the natural evolution of library services to a level where the library user is in control of how and when she gets access to the services she needs and wants.

Filed under: Library 2.0, Users, Web 2.0

Library 2.0 – Hype or Hope?

Here is an overview of what I intend to write about. Feel free to comment on anything, structure, topics I missed, things I should drop etc…

1. Introduction – The Library world is changing. The world that libraries exist in is changing, this may be a permanent feature…

2. New tools – Blogs, wikis og social software

A short overview of the most central technologies behind Web 2.0, and how they are appliccable to libraries. With examples from real life.

3. The challenge

Powershift and user power – If library users are used to having more power over information, how will this affect libraries and librarians? Is this a threat to the centuries old role of librarians as custodians and guardians of knowledge?

Our tools – The catalog is changing. New methods of access, tagging, folksonomies, user defined uses of the information the library produces

The book – Will new tools change the place of the book in the library? Will new tools give the book new opportunities?

4. Social software in and outside the library

Social software in the library – users and librarians, new modes of communication

Blogging as a tool for communication

Wikis for librarians

Social software outside the library – How can the library participate in the digital social dimension?

- Instant messaging

- Online games (Anarchy online, Halo, World of Warcraft etc.)

- My Library – MySpace and other social network builders

5. Library 2.0

Hype – technolust and other forms of beliefs in technology as the only solution and as a means in it self.

Hope – New ways to reach the library user, new ways to participate in the world

Library 2.0 in Norway today – Norwegian Digital Library intitative (Norsk Digitalt Bibliotek), The library whitepaper and other phenomenon.

Library 2.0 at your local library today

6. Librarian 2.0

Challenges to the second oldest profession in the world

Education and further education

The role of the profession and what is the core of our profession?

"I only want to be a librarian" – how to get 3000 norwegian librarians to participate in a systematic and systemwide change?

7. Library 3.0

Visions of the future based on some trends

Filed under: Library 2.0, Users

Powershift

Does anybody remember the 1980’s? Way back then in the last few decades of last century there was a very popular author, Alvin Toffler, who wrote several books about the future, mostly for business and marketing people. In the book “Powershift – Knowledge, Wealth, and Power at the Edge of the 21st Century” he describes the erosion of authority and the rise of a critical mentality among employees, soldiers, students, pupils and the general population.

I have revisited his thinking and found something I believe is interesting. Today we can see some of the development that Toffler predicted on the internet. It is most easily seen in the way blogs have influenced traditional media, wikis have revolutionized the encyclopedia business and how web 2.0 moves the power of creation and control from the few to almost everybody.

This powershift is, in my opinion, at the core of the Library 2.0 concept. In the Talking with Talis podcast, “meet the Library 2.0 gang”, Scott Plutchak challenges the Library 2.0 enthusiasts to show him what makes Library 2.0 any different from the underlying principles of good old-fashioned librarianship? I did not have a good answer to him then, but I believe I am closing in on what I believe to be the one concept that changes the way we so far have worked to fulfil the task that society has given us, and that we use Libraries as the tool to accomplish.

The thing that I believe to be at the core of Library 2.0, and the one characteristic that marks it as different from the basic “way of the library” so far, is the shift in power between user and librarian. This shift in power is evident in the emergence of “superpatrons” in different libraries, users who use their knowledge of web 2.0 to change, mutate and utilize the services the library offers online and combine them with other resources to construct new, hitherto unimagined services.

Why is this different? The library have so far in history been the domain of the librarian. No matter how we have strived to make the library more user friendly, introduce user panels or focus groups to get input, or how we have tried, in vain, to change the preception of the library from a a place with books, to an information source, we have been in control. Nothing changes in the library unless the librarians says so!

Well, this will now change. The control and power in the library will move from the librarian to the user. This means for instance that the library owner, the municipality, county, university, business or corporation will “mess” with the library, demand more return from the resources invested, and make changes in the way the library is run, i.e. put a non-librarian in charge of the library, make guidelines for purchase desicions etc.

And of course, the library user will make changes. These will first be felt online, where they will use library created data to create their own content or mashups. Library Thing is a perfect example of something that uses library data to an end that was not envisioned by the librarians who produced them, and indeed taking the traditional opac a step further. To quote the Library thing blog:

And who knew so many people would care about figuring out MARC fields?

Filed under: Librarian 2.0, Users