Still Researching

I promised I'd be posting more often, I know, but one gets BUSY. But I'm still on my agenda of letting people know, especially library folks, something about neoliberalism. I've just got to do more reading on the topic until I can justify an intelligent conversation. So, there's more to come--I just have to finish working through the books on that bib I posted a while ago.

More on Neoliberalism

For information on the topic, here's a brief, slightly annotated bibliography:

D'Angelo, Ed. Barbarians at the gates of the public library. Duluth: Library Juice Press. 2006
(Interesting, even philosophical discussion of the influence of modern capitalism on the public sphere and libraries.)

Giroux, Henry A. Terror of neoliberalism. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers. 2004
(Good discussion of post-911 actions of Bush administration. Radical approach, with adulatory chapter on Edward Said.)

Harvey, David. A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2005

Kranich, Nancy C. Libraries & democracy : the cornerstones of liberty. Chicago : American Library Association. 2001
(In particular, see section on Civil librarianship, p-67+ (“Civic librarianship honors the historic mission of education for a democratic society.”)

Lee, Earl. Libraries in the age of mediocrity. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company. 1998.
(Not specifically about neoliberalism, but describes the effects of neoliberalism on libraries, e.g.: centralized collection development, user fees, replacing librarians with cheaper paraprofessionals.)

The library and "customers" (Part One)

In the past months, my library system has been merged into a larger entity. The move was inevitable: due to the recession/sub-prime crisis, the influence of a Republican governor in the pocket of the no-tax crowd and a not-so friendly Democratic mayor, my system had gone into life-support mode. Without the merger many libraries would have closed, with a lot of staff having to go bye-bye. So, we were sucked up by the big kids. And for the most part, that's ok.

But the new system is far more corporate than we're used to, with the library just a single entity in their big picture. And as a smaller fish having to learn to swim with the big one, an aspect of assimilating is figuring out the new library's culture.

In this case, the culture has a large customer-service base. In fact, the term "customer" is front and center, used in all discussions and communications. I have to admit this bothers me. I know the word is predominant in current library literature, spouted in LJ and blogs and library websites galore. But to me, customer implies a financial exchange between the library and the library user, a deal which goes way beyond the formerly accepted concept of a library patron merely paying taxes and getting various library services in return. Instead it smacks of the infamous public library-as-bookstore model, first presented years ago by Steve Coffman in American Libraries:

Coffman, Steve. "What If You Ran Your Library Like a Bookstore?" American Libraries (March 1998): 40-46.

As we've been merged for eight months now, and I've heard the term coming out of my colleagues' mouths on an ever-increasing basis, I've been doing some thinking. Why does this use of the word customer in a library context nag at me so much? Why can't I just join the crowd and parrot the word in meetings like everybody else? Of course, being a librarian, once I putting my brain to work on something, I needed to find out more. So I starting investigating the bookstore model more deeply: in articles in library literature, books, online. And I discovered an interesting thread popping up in some of the more-radical lit. A thread that reveals the whole basis of the bookstore model, and one that got me to the root of why I dislike the library-as-bookstore model--a concept known as neoliberalism.

More soon.





I

Finally, a new post

Well, it's been a while since the last post. A busy spring and summer is a good excuse--here in Minnesota you need to cram an entire year's worth of outdoor life into 3 months. Fun stuff: my bro's getting hitched, going to the Kingfield neighborbood farmer's market; National Night Out, attending my very first St. Paul Saints game, concerts, outdoor wine bars, walks by the lake, bike rides. You gotta do it, 'cause the middle of August means time's a-wastin' here in the Great White North.

Another reason for not posting is my search for content, after finishing up 'Stick. There's so many blogs in the world, and most of them are self indulgent or have uninteresting subjects or are just plain boring. So I thought: why post if I'm going to just be one of the crowd?

But then, after a while, I thought some more...I've got interests that I'd enjoy blogging about--and I know quite a bit about 'em. And somebody might actually get something out of what I have to say, or I might pick up something from someone else.

So, I've decided Chilly's going to focus on 3 main areas: libraries and librarians ('cause that what I do professionally), guitars ('cause that's what I like to do on my time off) and politics ('cause at heart I'm a West-Wing watching, Obama-supporting political wonk).

Those will be the new themes. I may stray off them from time to time, but bear with me: when and if that happens, I'll try to keep away from talking about me, myself and I and, most of all, I'll try to keep it interesting.

Thing 22. What Did I Learn...And Keeping Up

Time to be wrapping it up for the "Thing on a Stick" part of Chilly, and moving into a proper blog, full of info about what's on my mind, what's going on with the family, what's happening with the world, or just the library world or...oh, hell. I don't know. Apparently 1 out of 7 internet users are blogging now, and if I'm going to be one of the better of the horde, I'd best come up with a subject. Write about what you know was the mantra of my creative writing program, and it's a good and proper one, but I'll have to do some thinking on that before coming back to Chilly.

How to keep up with 2.0?--that is the question. And it's a toughie. Because there's so much out there now. The more you seek, the more you find and then more and more and more. Like right now I've got 55 feeds in my Bloglines account (about 45 of 'em usually active), more than 300 links to my Del.icio.us page, about 20 items sitting in Google Docs, tons of connections via LinkedIn, yada yada. So the trick is to winnow out the chaff. It's rather like having a pile of library books on the bedside table, all good and all due on the same date. A pleasurable cause for stress, but Argh!

But one shouldn't stress from pleasure and usefulness, and that's what 2.0 is for me. So some tactics are needed: It's probably a good idea to go through and weed items once in a while, whether they be feeds, or Del.icio.us links or MySpace friends (now that sounds nasty). And to consider carefully what I add, no matter what the application. And finally, if I start stressing from essentially having too much info, I just have to remember--I'm in control, not the information. Nothing bad will happen if I don't read my Bloglines feeds for the day. Or a week. Or even a month. Life goes on. And so do I.

Thing 21. Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

I really like Ning and kind of enjoy Web Junction. The former is great, I've found, for discovering folks with similar interests. Like I'm really into guitar playing and blues music, and guess what: there's lots of groups in Ning that reflect those interests. Within these groups there's forums on all kinds of related topics, sound files, videos (including lessons)--pretty cool. And particularly so is the Ning page for old-fart rockers like me: Loud Old Guys--check it out!

Web Junction is different, but cool on its own. Not so much fun, but educational in a career-enhancing way. You can learn new stuff or brush up on skills in all kinds of areas. From my standpoint, what's especially useful are the resources on patron services and technology, with the classes either on vid. or self-paced. A few of 'em are free, but a lot are pretty inexpensive and would seem to be a great way to start learning about Cold Fusion or Dreamweaver or to hone one's business skills. On the other hand, though, there are a few that cost TOO MUCH: it seems wrong to charge 150 smackeroos to learn how to use Google a little better at the ref. desk, for instance. If I want to learn that any better, I can find it on the internet. By Googling.

Thing 20. Social Networking.

I have accounts for MySpace and Facebook. I got 'em both so I could see how each works and compare. Now, I admit I don't do a lot with either. I've set up minimal profiles but haven't created cool pages or anything. Heck, I don't even have any sound files to automatically deafen you when opening my MySpace page. I guess this is 'cause I'm of the age group that's reticent about letting the whole wide world know too much about me. Unlike modern kids who seem to revel in the thought. Also, I know few folks to network with (how sad, but we're all the same age kinda), don't have the urge to share stuff like songs with anybody and find trad. email perfectly fine for electronic communication. There--spoken like a truly old fart.

But it's a good thing libraries have established a presence in Facebook and MySpace. Every kid on the planet has an account in one, the other or both. (A speaker at a conference I attended said he asked the students in the classes he taught how many had pages and EVERYONE of 500 did.) And if this many kids are using an app., it's important that libraries be there. I've seen a lot of what many institutions are offering: communication options, catalog search boxes, links to groups, book talks, yadda, yadda. And it's great--the more kids see this stuff and use it, the better for libraries.

Thing 19. Podcasts

I'll admit it--I'm the last person in the U.S. without a MP3 player. I don't have an Ipod, haven't converted my CDs to digital to be kept snugly on my hard drive, listen to nothing fancier while driving in my ancient Chevy than those shiny silver disks. Yet I like podcasts, even if I have to listen to 'em on my pc. It's just way cool that you can listen to stuff other than music when just strolling around--although the tunes are good, too. (Ex: Minnesota Public Radio's Current has a podcast with the 'caster's favorite gee-tar solos and discussion thereof.) And great that so many educational institutions such as universities, libraries and museums are making podcasts available. One problem, and it's a "good" one: as with much of the 2.0 world, there's almost too many interesting podcasts from which to choose.

Thing 18. YouTube and other online video

Here's a YouTube vid. that anyone who spends time introducing newbies to computers or doing tech support can appreciate. Hysterical. There's another one as well, a golden oldie about librarians from M. Python back in the 70s.

Thing 17. ELM Productivity Tools

Lots of stuff to do here: Gale, Ebsco, Proquest dbs, and Netlibrary to boot. It's very cool that ELM provides these resources; I mean, we get 'em through my library, but making them available as a MN-wide resource is a tremendous value. This brings to mind a pet peeve I've long had of the "industry"--we give so much good stuff to folks, but it's not promoted beyond a library's website or via the print lit a library puts out, or perhaps through an article in the paper somewhere. How about some of those hard-earned dues we pay to the various pro orgs: ALA, MLA in Minnesota, etc., going into TV or online PSA's that promote stuff like the ELM dbs?

In doing this Thing, some of the detail-stuff didn't work as described. That's to be expected. But for the most part, it's great being able to do research and then make it available to yourself or to colleagues via RSS or a webpage. I guess I do question the need for the latter, but I supposed having results published in HTML provides web-based accessibility that elimates the need for sending the same material in an e-mail attachment, etc. The more avoiding PDF, the better as far as I'm concerned.

Thing 16. Student 2.0 Tools

If I worked in an academic library, or taught classes, I definitely could see the usefulness of student 2.0 tools. Both the Research Project calculator and the U. of M. Assignment calculator provide a guiding structure (timelines, strategy recommendations, worksheets, tips, etc.) that would be especially useful for students learning how to organize their scholarship. I could also see the value for those unorganized grownups I see around me. Nonetheless, I don't see much in either of these calculators for library project management. Other tools are better, such as Doodle or Ikordo (for scheduling/sharing meeting dates), Zoho or Google docs for sharing apps, or Nexo for file sharing, meeting setup, collaboration in general. And there's always good ol' wikis.

Thing 15. Online games and libraries

Well, I gave Second Life a shot. I heard folks from Alliance pitch how their library uses it (one librarian on staff even spends half her workweek in SL, per her job description!) during one of those informative quickie-sessions at ACRL in Baltimore last year. They were all pretty enthusiastic, so I signed up. But, much like everybody else (except a lot of Germans; apparently they find it very appealing over there), I quickly became disenchanted.

SL as an app is just too balky. It sucks up more memory than even IE and requires a ton of bandwidth. In addition, it's unreliable: when your avatar is acting like he's lost in space, or the screen doesn't paint, or your mouse sits promptless for minutes, you don't know if the problem is with your connection, your pc, or SL's hopefully gigantic server farm wimping out. Another gripe: lack of decent tutorials or documention--hey, I'm a Virgo: give me details, please. And a final whine: how about allowing go-backs, Linden Lab guys? I mean, your avatar learns the ropes, gets some confidence, you figure it's time to leave Orientation Island and what-the-f....you can't go back! What gives with that! Part of gaming is making mistakes and learning from 'em; it's an empirical digital world, but SL doesn't seem to agree. Once you're off the island you're stuck finding your way around with the crappy tutorials, which give you a few basics: how to pick something up, how to fly, etc., but after that you're screwed--you can spend hours (s-l-ow-l-y) wandering around SL and not getting anywhere.

So, I'm like a lot of folks: tried Second Life, thought it cool for a while, then discovered reality. Don't get me wrong: The concept of SL's digital libraries as a new vehicle for supplying information to people is a great one and I'm all for it--I just wish the vehicle was easier to drive.

Thing 14. LibraryThing

On this Thing, I've added a widget that allows LibraryThing searchability. I guess lots of libraries are embedding such into their sites. It's a great way to show patrons (er, customers, if one is want to use trendy, bookstore = library lingo) some upfront info about a book, including its cover. I can see usability in blogs, too, so folks can check out what's going in somebody's library, or get some insight on a book that's off the beaten track of the usual places such as BIP. And what a boon to home libraries. If you've got some time, this is a great way to catalog your whole collection, as we librarian-types may actually be prone to do.

All in all, LibraryThing is pretty sweet: I love the way you can pull from Amazon, LOC, etc. And, of course, the tagging concept allows more complete searching and interaction with the LibraryThing/book/library community.

Thing 13. Online productivity tools

For a start page, iGoogle works best for me. I didn't see much difference with Pageflakes. Both sites allow you to add widgets that can be useful, but for the most part are time-wasting: poker? Bush-isms? C'mon. Not only is this stuff kinda silly, but look at what you have to do to get it on your page.


First off, it takes a while to go through the list of widgets, figuring what stuff would be coolest to have. Second, you gotta play with said widgets to see how they work. Third, you have to get 'em configured, allowing Active X controls, etc. Then you have to get all the widgets you've downloaded arranged on your page the way you like it. Productivity--I think not. So, for me, iGoogle gives me enough: a calendar (that works well, kinda ok), a to-do list, a news feed, weather info and a countdown 'til Bush is outta here--I need to have some fun, after all. Simple as that. I don't need to get a calendar or to-do prompt from other sites.


The problem I have with Google, nonetheless, is how nosy they are. I really dislike the 30-year tracking cookie; nor do I enjoy having my search results accessible for time enternal. I know you can turn off the tracking, but it bothers me that it's there in the first place. Unlike, say, Michael Stephens, I like to have some privacy when I'm online. If that's in any way possible anymore.

Thing 12. Digg, etc.

I can see the usefulness of some of these sites. It's great having news and information from multiple media sources and websites fed to you, broken down by categories. Currently, I get the Digg RSS tech feed, one of many resources I use to keep up with tech trends. StumbleUpon is particularly interesting, too, with its feature of letting a person's indicated interests direct the info flow your way. Still, while I joined up, I don't use it much.

But the comments, reviews, whatever you want to call 'em on these sites!--face it, most of these folks are pretty lame. This often depends on the topic of course: there's a lot more yahoo-types posting on entertainment topics, then say, on those concerning business. But what good does it do me-- if the intent of these sites is to make information available along with 2.0 interaction--when the interaction is so S-T-O-O-P-I-D? Of course, this is a common criticism of 2.0 from those new dissers of the topic, like Andrew Keen and his Cult of the Amateur, who talks about the "superficial observations" and "shrill opinion(s)" of 2.0'ers--I'm not alone in making this point.

Still, I guess, it's good to hear what other people think: you can learn from 'em, even if some (or a lot) of what's being said may seem, well, stupid.

Thing 11. Tagging and Del.icio.us

I've found Del.icio.us to to be a great way of logging, compiling and tracking websites. In fact, it's almost too easy to use--I "delicious" sites I find with great abandon, assign tags, save 'em--then vow to go back and check them out in more detail later. Which I hardly ever do. I'm also guilty of only bundling a few of my tags, so there's a long fornlorn trail of them dangling at the bottom of my tags list. One of these days, I'm just going to have to get organized....

One of the cool things about doing "Stick" is the extra info I'm getting on Web 2.0 apps that I otherwise wouldn't have picked up. Like the whole sharing aspect of Del.icio.us--I'd never thought of using this. But it seems quite useful for projects, easily enabling folks to assign tags to websites they've found while doing their research and letting everybody share the wealth.

Thing 10. Wikis

Ah, wikis. Like blogs, they would seem a very handy communication tool. Especially for a physically large library like mine, with many people working in many areas on many projects, without much communication going on between them. Or with those of us in the big picture. Blogs, of course, would do the trick for letting folks in on what other folks are doing. The larger system we've just merged with has done just that, with tons of people blogging on various topics. We're just not there yet. But wikis seem to be another story--there's not much going on with them in the bigger shop, that I've discovered. I don't know why--I'll have to bring up the question with some of my new colleagues when I get the chance. Perhaps they're paranoid of losing control or something, the anarchy of letting anybody not only post, but make changes as well.

I think wikis are an especially great tool for projects, allowing everybody involved to let others know of their progress, successes, problems, etc., and allowing folks to get in their own two-cents worth. Two-way communication, or three-way, or four-way, or more--what a concept.

Thing 9 (b).

Here's a link to a Google document. It's an example of the type of Word document I use a lot of time in managing serials.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pTEBbuMRMkhV2WTi8fgOyLg

Thing 9. Online Collaboration Tools

I think Google Docs and Zoho are pretty handy resources. My wife is a librarian and her shop uses Zoho for collaboration on certain projects. It's a lot easier to have access to a document that way, instead of having to email it back and forth. I wonder, though, how hard it is to track changes that are made. It would seem that any online tool like Google Docs, etc., should offer a utility that would track changes mades, allow the original document to viewed, etc. Maybe something like Wikipedia, where you can view all the edits made to an entry, who did 'em and at what time/date. I'll have to explore a bit to find out just what Google and Zoho have along that line. Of course, there's also the issues of security and storage: how secure are documents sitting on servers somewhere and what would happen if a company were to go under?

Thing 8. (b) Sharing Slides

I used Picture Trail for this topic. It was fairly easy to use, once I'd looked around enough. Once again, though, I didn't have enough content to add to make an interesting album. So once again, there's MS file images, and a really B-A-D pic of yours truly. But the point is, I figured how to use the app., and that's what counts. I noticed at times there seems to be problems with cutting and pasting the HTML, which I couldn't get to work, even knowing some coding. Oh well. At least we've got a pretty album cover of a sunset to look at.

Thing 8. Sharing Slides

Visit My Photos - 10 Pics My Album

Thing 7. Communication Tools

Lots of things to consider in this topic. One, IM, makes me think back to when my library tried chat reference. It was a dismal failure, for many reasons: the application was clunky and slow, often losing patrons and making give-and-take communication impossible (a bit hard to do a reference interview), there were no parameters for the type of questions that could be best answered, subject expertise was required across many areas and, unfortunately, forwarding questions was hard to do. And it was a concept dead on its feet before it started: I mean, c'mon, chatrooms went out with Windows 3.1. Many times, I'd wished I could just talk to the patron on the phone. Anyway, IM sounds like a better deal for libraries: 1. Because people DO IT, and 2. Because it's easy to embed a cross-client tool like Meebo in a library homepage and away you go. Of course, I don't see a lot of folks over 40 twiddling their thumbs on their phones, but IM is a pretty cool way to involve young'ns with libraries and an option for staff communication as well.
(Confession: I'm not an IMer myself, I guess 'cause I've never had a reason to do it--talking and email work for me. )

Hey, that Stick section on Web conferencing turned me on to Opal. Pretty slick stuff there--lots of good content. I cruised through this presentation on Flickr, by two guys who weren't even in the same city as they put it on--and it worked. Graphics, sound, text--impressive.

Thing 6. Image Generator

My creation
Originally uploaded by radfo001

Here's a test card from a site called Big Huge Labs, where you can use various image generators to make cards, signs, etc. I was a victim of having little content available for card-making; this was done using a sample photo. Interesting that I had to Flickr-ize it to get the image into Chilly--couldn't find another way to upload from the BHL site.

Thing 5. More stuff with Flickr

I checked out some of the mashups listed on the Stick assignments, but don't find them very interesting. Also, despite what the folks running the show say, I couldn't find a way to add any of them to Chilly. Of course, using APIs to create mashups can be pretty useful--check out this blog post, "Google Maps Mania" for a list: http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/#top. Still, I'll look around at some of the sites suggested once I have a little more time and see if I can some that are useful.

Thing 4(b). Posting from Flickr

19-vacat-05010
Originally uploaded by radfo001

Ah, a sunny day on Mom's deck, near the shore of the rapidly drying-up Lake Hartwell. Pretty easy to post this on Chilly Place, once I tried it a few times.

Thing 4. Photosharing and editing

Flickr's a stroke of genius. Kudos to the bright lad or lass who conjured up such a concept. While I'm no Michael Stephens (mentioned in a previous post), who has documented practically his ENTIRE life via Flickr, I've got as many as 100 images posted and linked. It's way cool how friends, family, colleagues, can access your stuff, too--no more having to use email attachments. And groups and tags make stuff easier to find. I especially like the way I can work between Flickr and Blogger to add images from the latter to the former.

Thing 3. Keeping Up. RSS

RSS is like so cool. One-stop delivery of s-o-o-o much info--I like it. I use Bloglines, 'cause I find it easy to add/delete and organize blogs I'm interested in. Let's see, at this point, I've got 50 blogs coming in, about 70% active posts. (of course, that, the problem: once you subscribe, the person doing the blog might just take a hiatus for a while. Or the company. Google Librarian Central, for example, has totally dropped the ball. No postings from them since last June. Not even a hasty be-seeing-ya or anything. I know they're busy, but....) These 50 are organized into four folders, either because I like to keep things simple, or because I'm just not very interesting--Library, Technology, Politics, Arts and Music. The biggest folder is Libraries, with twenty-eight blogs; Arts and Music is the smallest. Oh, I've got a few blogs that don't fit into a folder-types sitting around, too. One is from a guy who used to write about the T-wolves in City Pages before the Village Voice schmo's bought it out and stupified it. His name's Britt Robson and he knows b-ball far better than the team he covers plays it.

Thing 2. Web 2.0

There's so much Web and Library 2.0 out there now--it's almost becoming an infoglut. And, what was bound to happen has occurred: I've come across a definition of W3.0 now. (There's link on Techmeme, if you're interested.) So much to check out--blogs and wikis and YouTube vids and Facebook pages and Libraryswim and podcasts and gaming and RSS feeds and yadayada--and so little time. Not that all the infoglut isn't more than a little bit fascinating, which equals frustration, which makes the overload harder to deal with. But with all that yada comes some good things, Michael Stephens for one. The dude doesn't seem to have much time to post on his blog, Tame the Web, 'cause he's super-busy with teaching, writing and doing his traveling workshop, but he's a gem (and TTW is still one of the best blogs on W2.0 out there). He overviewed, elequently and comprehensively, the whole shootin' match of 2.0 in Library Technology Reports ("Best Practices in Social Software")--pretty amazing any one person could do that. And, talking to him after one of his training session, he's a pretty nice guy, too--who makes the infoglut a little easier to deal with . Thanks, Michael.

Thing 1. Setting up my blog

This was an easy one. The hardest thing, actually, is thinking about what to write. There are so many bloggers out there, discussing important things, that blogging on a series of lessons seems, well, trivial. So--to make it easy to think about what to write--I'll just settle in and do what I'm supposed to. It's a learning experience, after all, an experience. Empirical. Later, I'll move on to the important stuff.

Ok, setting up the blog was easy. That avatar bit was problematic, though. For one, I've had sour experiences with Second Life--slow loading and response, poor tutorials and heaven help you if you leave that intro-island before you know the basic stuff like making your avatar sit down. And I always feel a bit of a fool with the choice of avatars one gets from Second Life or Yahoo or anywhere: do they all have to look like surfers, mallrats, grad students or characters out of Juno? I'm s-o-o tired of spiky hair and little goatees. But, anyhow, I created one. But couldn't figure out to paste the avatar code into the blog's html. So, sorry, no avator yet for In a Chilly Place.