Reference Catch-22

Tonight I was directed to Library Journal to read Jean Costello's unsettling blog post about her experience with local reference services, Why I Don't Use Libraries for Reference Anymore.  I try to remain upbeat about the future of reference, but this post kind of did me in.  I was going to respond to her, but decided to post my response here instead:

As the head of a reference division in a public library, I cringed as I read your post.  And I live in fear that one day, a patron just like you will visit my staff and have a similar experience.  But one point your post brought home to me was one I've been concerned about for awhile and am not sure how to address. 

Back in the day, when we used books (almost exclusively) to answer reference questions, we were answering more questions just like yours.  The staff was familiar with that kind of question and was better armed to answer it -- not because our resources were deeper then, but because the staff's experience was.  As I look over the questions we are asked today, I find very few that require the kind of knowledge of resources that yours did.  In fact, I'm not sure how many of my staff would even know look for poetry explication sources to answer your question.  I know that some of them would, but the younger/newer ones might not think of looking for an explication resource unless they had been lit majors.  They may not even know the term to start looking for it.

This isn't entirely a matter of poor training -- if it were, I wouldn't be as worried about it.  It's a matter of using knowledge of resources plus acquiring more knowledge over time -- and that's just something that isn't happening like it used to.  I can train staff to use databases and books, but if they rarely have the need to use them after training, they lose what they learned.  (Reference work ain't like riding a bicycle.)  I can also send out a tough weekly reference question as a training tool, but even that is only putting a tiny band-aid on an ever-growing sore.  If our reference staffs don't get constant reinforcement and regular challenges (the kind that can only be had by assisting patrons like you on a regular basis), they won't grow into knowledgeable critical thinkers, and reference service will slowly atrophy into the the kind of service described in your post -- a source of pleasant conversation and general information.

The LibGuides Conundrum

Why don't more public libraries use LibGuides?  I don't get it.  They aren't expensive.  You can make as many of them as you want.  (You could base your entire library website on them.)  They're really easy to create. 

I can understand that small libraries with no budget might find them cost prohibitive, but if you have just a tiny bit of money to spend and you need to show a return on your reference/database/popular title/CD/audiobook, etc investment, it seems to me that you NEED LibGuides.  They are a quick and easy way to promote your resources and collections -- and patrons use them!   Our Great Reads for Teens guide averages over 700 hits a month and it gets no promotion.  Sights & Sounds (CDs, DVDs,  music etc) averages over 500 hits/month. We do a little promo via our blog, but generally our patrons manage to find the guides that they need and they seem to keep coming back to them.

LibGuides can take a couple of hours to put together.  (Big Whoop!)  But once you get one made you can update it in no time.  Plus, you can reuse content by copying or linking -- so you don't have to recreate the wheel every time you need the wheel.  Graphics are easy to add; YouTube videos are easy to embed.  There are cool features like mouseover bubbles that make your library look  like it's a tech savvy place.  Each guide has a separate URL, so you can promote an individual guide easily.  What's not to love?

If you're unfamiliar with LibGuides, check out our guides:  EBRPL Research Guides
If you want more info visit their social networking site:  The Springshare Lounge

LibGuides are worth looking into.  Check them out.

Addendum:  this librarian said it better than I did...

Where is the Single Sign-On Library Website?

There are many frustrations in the library world, but for me, the biggest one is the login. 

Our patrons do nothing but login to stuff.  They log in to access their accounts. They login to place a hold.  They login to to use the databases, to read an ebook, to download an audiobook.  We've had automated catalogs and electronic, authenticated resources for YEARS now.  Why are our patrons still logging in multiple times to use them???

The concept of the truly single sign-on is a mystery to just about everyone I talk to. For some reason nobody seems to grasp the idea of having patrons log in on the home page to get access to all our resources -- with NO MORE LOGINS!  Whenever I broach the subject, the person I'm speaking to asks, "You mean your patrons have to login to each database individually?"  Or, "Don't you have a database page?" 

People, am I speaking Swahili in America? 

Our patrons should be able to log in one time -- on our home pages -- and have seamless access to our resources from that point forward. 

Think about it...  How many websites do you use that require a login?  About a million.  After you login to one of these sites, do you have to keep doing it to access the content?  No.  So why do you have to keep doing it on the Library website?

Now, I'm not stupid.  I know very well that the content on library websites is comprised of very disparate elements provided an infinite number of vendors.  The catalog/ILS is one thing (that often doesn't communicate well with itself); databases are another thing; ebooks are their own thing; and downloadable content is a horse of a different color altogether.  Big Whoop.  Just because we get this stuff from different vendors who, in some cases, don't acknowledge the existence of the others, doesn't mean that we can't figure out a way to create seamless access.

I WANT EASY!! 

When I go home, I want to go to my library site, create an account that consists of my username (whatever I want it to be), a password and my library card number.  Once I create that account, I want to log in with my username and password and NEVER LOGIN AGAIN while I'm on the site.  I want to click on the databases link and go straight to the database list.  I want to click on a database link in a LibGuide (did I ever say how much I love LibGuides?) and go straight to that database to start my search.  I want to click on a link that says Renew My Books and renew my books.  Right then.  I want to access the content of an ebook straight from the catalog.  I DO NOT want to login to Overdrive separately.

Isn't integrated access to all our resources something we should be demanding?  Isn't the single sign-on the only thing that really makes sense if we want to see a real return on our resource investment? 

I am Picard.  Make it so.

Post-Internet Librarian

Sitting in the airport waiting to go back home is probably the best place to write a reflective blog post about the Internet Librarian conference.  I'm certainly not distracted by anything... Unless boredom can be a distraction.

The ILC was not as great as I'd hoped it would be.  Which is not to say I got nothing out of it.  I did.  I got plenty of validation.  I found out that my library does a pretty good job of managing our online presence.  We make sure we brand everything with our logo.  We try to keep the same color palette on our various sites. And we've done our best to use consistent naming for our accounts, although, our reference name, eref, is too generic.  Oh well. It's been around long enough now that our patrons know it.

I also found out that I have a better idea about how to strategize a strategic plan that I thought I did.  That was a comfort, to be sure.  I had recently been in a meeting about our technology plan and was poo-poo'd by the group concerning a suggestion I made.  Found out my suggestion was accepted practice.  (told you so). I also found out a whole lot more about developing a strategic plan.  This was a very good thing since I plan on doing one in the very near future.  Internet Librarian really helped me prepare for that task.

And I learned about failure at IL.  Not that there's a lot to learn about it -- we have all failed at one time or another.  Anyone remember thin clients?? 

I attended a couple of programs that dealt with library fails.  I was surprised at some of them.  Reference in 2nd Life?  Has anyone had true success with that? Granted i heard only a brief synopsis of this library's SL adventure, but it sounded to me like part of the fail was that they didn't want to answer the kinds of questions they got.  People wanted to know how to put on clothes. That's a legit SL question. It's also a public library-type question.  I mean, we'd answer it -- and count it in our stats for the day.  I guess the academic library that was presenting this particular fail didn't realize the SL is a community, not a campus?   It took me awhile to figure out how to dress that avatar when I first joined SL.  Too bad we weren't doing SL reference then.  I could have been the Naked Librarian!

I don't think I'll be bucking to go back to Internet Librarian anytime in the near future.  I'm glad I got to go this time and I'm sure I'll find a reason to go again, but I think I'll stick to ALA for the time being.

If Wishes were Fishes...

Oh, how I wish that Overdrive's delivery element wasn't so clunky!  Wait.  Let me rephrase...

Oh, how I wish Overdrive's delivery method was more streamlined!  That's better.  More streamlined...  as in a single computer-resident software application that accommodates both audio- and e- books. 

• Or an application that would allow WMAs to work on a Mac (What? They work with iTunes...).  

• Or an iDevice app that tells you to log in before you do anything else.  

OH!  How I wish their help file was navigable!  (I also wish patrons would actually look at it.)

I really wish the publishers would pick a single DAMN industry-standard format for audiobooks and ebooks and make it so we all can access the titles we want, whether we borrow them from the library or buy them from Amazon. And use them on any device we happen to own.  (And I thought the recording industry was bad!)  Jeeze!

I wish our patrons would take advantage of the great stuff we provide for them.  We have free music downloads!  That you can keep!!  Why aren't you downloading constantly?  Do you prefer to steal the music off our CDs?

I wish the reference staff would go to Credo first rather than Wikipedia. I also wish they'd learn how to do a basic search in Westlaw.  It ain't that hard.

I really wish I ruled the world.

Marketing Reference

Marketing Reference is a BIG THING these days -- and with good reason.  Our patrons have discovered that they can actually find information on the internet!  Consequently, we don't answer as many reference questions.  Horrors!!

We like to think that our citizens can't find "good" information on their own -- that they wallow around in wikipedia citing half-baked articles in term papers and quoting misinformation to their friends.  Would that this were the case.  Wake up, Librarians!  Patrons have learned to find useful info without us.  We've spent several years teaching them how and they are definitely catching on.  I regularly talk to patrons who have already used the resources I want to direct them to.  They know about databases and how to use them.  They tell me about good sites to include in libguides.  What's a reference librarian to do?  Sit back and wait for my job to be cut?  Not on your life!  I'm getting out there and telling those hapless suckers who haven't visited a library in years all about our reference services.

Yes, indeed.  I'm going to market reference to the Great Uninformed.

Sometimes it actually works.  Several years ago we started attending the local business expo.  We barked at the front of the booth like doormen on Bourbon Street.  We grabbed stragglers by the elbow ("What's your line of business?") and steered them  to the computer for a magical demonstration of the next cool thing -- databases!  ("All you need is a library card.  And it's FREE!").  The guys from the Geek Squad  actually got excited about Safari Tech Books and I got a love note from a young guy who made cold calls for his firm.  I showed him Reference USA.

Marketing reference is harder now.  It's more about marketing the library than it is about marketing information services.  At my library I've started an outreach program that will provide computer classes to folks in assisted living.  So far, we've visited 4 sites.  They all want us to come back.  Is this marketing reference?  Sort of -- reference provides computer education in our system.  But it's really marketing a library service.  I was on TV twice this month, talking about our newest databases:  Freegal, Opera in Video and Music Online.  Marketing reference?  Not really.  But reference is the place to find out how to use these databases. 

Our most popular LibGuides (created and maintained by reference folks) are more successful as reference marketing tools.  Here we can actually point to resources.  YAY!!  But the most popular guides are Great Reads for Teens (RA for fiction) and Music, DVDs and Movies.  Not exactly reference guides.  Fortunately, our Arts & Culture, People Connection and Baton Rouge Room guides are also well used, so I can consider LibGuides as a successful reference marketing tool.

I hear a lot about how reference has changed and might be in danger of becoming obsolete.  Reference as an information function has changed since I started out 17 years ago -- we aren't researchers so much anymore.  But one thing that hasn't changed about reference work and never will...  Patrons look to us for answers:  how to cope with technology; where to find cheap/free entertainment options; how to find job opportunities or social support.  It doesn't matter that they can more easily find things on their own.  They will always need help; we will always be there to provide it. 

After the ebook Summit

I attended the Library Journal ebook summit the other day -- Libraries at the Tipping Point.  I find the title of the summit an interesting one.  The title implies that ebooks could be the thing that tips the balance for libraries.  The image it conjures for me is one of the library balanced on a fulcrum of patron expectation.

In late 2010, public libraries are negotiating a delicate landscape of serving two groups with very divergent expectations: patrons who expect a traditional library experience and view digital materials and services with indifference, if not skepticism, and patrons who are technologically engaged and expect more and more digital services and materials.  Will ebooks shift the balance of patron expectation?  Nope. The shift has already taken place.  

Today, even the most technologically backward patron expects us to provide instant answers via the internet, whether we find the answer quickly online or merely deliver it to them that way.  They want us to teach them how to use digital technology, no matter that they don’t own a personal computer or digital device.  Everyone (pretty much) uses email.  Technology has become part of the traditional library experience.  The tipping point is not the digital product – it’s the delivery.

Which brings me back to the ebook summit…  Delivery, or the lack of it, was a common theme.    We’ve gotten pretty good at delivering services and adapting to changes in how services can be delivered.  Materials – ebooks, audiobooks, video, music – are another matter.  How do we deliver the digital goods? Part of the problem is out of our hands; platforms and formats are in a state of flux that will have to be waited out.   But compounding the problem -- patrons use a thousand different devices to access our stuff.   Remember when the iPod wouldn't play an Overdrive audio?  Or when Netlibrary only worked with 2 obscure players?  Patrons don't get it when their XYZ mp3 player can't play WMA files or their Kindle can't read every ebook out there.  We look like chumps where delivery is concerned.

But we'd look like bigger chumps if we didn't offer what so many patrons want.

I didn't get any answers at the ebook summit.  But I did find out that I'm not alone in my frustration with digital delivery and in my concern that the  content and formats I've been buying could easily go the way of the betamax.  So I take what comfort I can in the realization that books on CD replaced books on tape and the world didn't end.  And that downloadable books will slowly eclipse physical ones.  Life is change; and change in Library Land is kind of slow, but it's inevitable nonetheless.   We'll deal.

Internet Librarian Conference, Here I come!

Looks like I'm going to the Internet Librarian Conference this year.  It will be my first time to go.  I've wanted to go before, but felt like it would be an exercise in frustration.  Now we have new administration and some institutional changes, and I'm looking forward to learning some things I'll actually be able to implement.  Amazing!

This spring I attended a quick & dirty reference conference at Tulane.  My reference tech guru and I were the only public librarians there.   What's with that?  It wasn't expensive and we drove down both days.  Whatever...  We both learned a lot and found out about a couple of techie things we were itching to implement when we got home.  Within a week of the conference, I had chat reference going (Bless LibraryH3lp!!), LibX installed on all the staff computers (that was a new one for us), and a trial of Reference Universe in the wings.  I call that a useful conference!

Speaking of LibraryH3lp...  If you're having problems with your IT folks implementing chat reference, this happy app will definitely improve your chances.  It's hosted externally so you don't need a new server, and you can limit access to chat.  We do it only through our website, so the IT people aren't so paranoid about network compromise.  We get a lot of play just through the website.  Pump up the ref stats, y'all!

Having had such a great experience at Tulane, I'm really jumpin' to get to the Internet Librarian.  One of my goals for the coming year is to gather all our digital library stuff into one spot -- a digital branch full of ebooks, databases, libguides, music, archives, and, of course, the catalog.  It's not like you can't get to all our online content through the website, but how much cooler would it be to have it all in one area?  So I have high hopes that attending ILC will get me going and give me the tools I need to get started.  I love starting new things!!  So exciting!

Review: The Faded Sun Trilogy by CJ Cherryh

I just re-read this book and loved it just as much as the first time I read it. But this time I realized that this is the "original" version of Cherryh's wonderful Foreigner series. Well, it's not really the original, but it reads like the "origin."

A lone human is forced to adapt to a confusingly different, yet familiar, alien mindset (mri) -- and to act as a go-between and cultural translator for humans and mri.

Cherryh's writing style is less confusing in this book than it is in Heavy Time (one of her most confusing); however, she does like to just set you down in her world without any preamble, leaving you to navigate the new environment much as the human character, Duncan, has to. But this book has the hallmarks of a great Cherryh story -- wonderfully realized aliens, the mri and the Regul; politics, politics, politics; military intrigue; culture clash; and a little religious fervor thrown in for good measure.

It's a good adventure too.

If you've already read the Foreigner series, then you should really backtrack and read this one. If you haven't read Foreigner (and you really, really should), then read Faded Sun and then move on up. It's a good first taste and a satisfying read.

A Review of Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer (audio version)

What FUN!!!  This audiobook is a great adventure story with an engaging heroine.  And the reader, Katherine Kellgren, is magnificent!!! 

Mary "Jacky" Faber, street urchin of London, becomes a ship's boy on a British Naval vessel in 1800.  She manages to maintain her disguise and has some great adventures just trying to keep everyone on board fooled.  In typical English naval adventure fashion, Jacky has to contend with bad men, cannonballs, marooning, and pirates.  She learns to be a sailor, seamstress, singer, and penny-whistle-artist extraordinaire.  She even learns to be a girl -- but she's not very good at it.

The pace is fast and you root for Jacky from start to finish. In fact, she's so engaging that I went right out and got the 2nd book.  It was like Harry Potter all over again!

Although Bloody Jack is a teen title, adults who enjoy fast-paced adventure stories, historical novels, or even Brit naval stories will find it a fun read.  My 76 year old mother has read the whole series.

I'm listening to the 3rd book right now and am looking forward to books 4 and 5.  It's a great listen or read.

The need for a blog

Despite the title, I don't need to blog.  I just need a blog.  It's a career thing.  I'm a public librarian.  I don't publish -- my job doesn't hinge on publishing.  I DO write.  A lot.

I write myriad emails to everyone on earth.  I write copy for web pages and brochures.  I write letters of recommendation; letters to irate patrons; letters to vendors...  I tweet and post on Facebook.  I spend most of my days and nights writing.  And yet.  When it comes to "showing off" my writing in a professional capacity, I have nothing to show!  Not one published article.  My tweets are about food or music gigs.  My posts are my tweets -- or they're comments on things my friends have posted about. 

So here's my dilemma. I'm going to run for an "office" in a major professional association.  As I was filling out the form, there it is.  List Publications (limit to only 3 publications!).  Put on the BIG BRAKES!  I have no publications.  I have the aforementioned emails, copy and letters.  Tweets and posts.  What to do?  I want to be taken seriously as a candidate.  Academic librarians are voting!  They publish!  I can't pull publications out of my...  

book bag!



Then it came to me.  I can blog.  Librarians take blogging seriously.  I will be a serious Librarian Blogger.  I will be profound and insightful.  For about 3 posts.