The tech guy goes to libcamp: a newbie experience

I'm a relative newcomer to the parallel universe that is an academic library. While my role is to provide technical support to a digitisation service I also need an understanding of how libraries and librarians work in order the solutions I suggest to have a chance of being practical. VALA and libcamp seemed like a good opportunity to do some exploring.

Delivered a showcase presentation with my boss, attended the digitisation and museum streams, with a short detour to ask a question at the Library Hack presentation. Hmmmm... some awesome stuff going on... but it's  the things that aren't happening that still leave me mystified.  Asking questions after a presentation is one thing, but there's nothing like a good discussion to toss ideas around. Needed more contacts... note to self ... "Sign up for Twitter" before libcamp.

Turned up for libcamp and while the registration queue was relatively quiet, the energy in the lecture theatre was electric.  It was a bit daunting as a newbie so the only thing to do was throw myself in at the deep end and participate as much as possible. Did I find the answers to the great mysteries of the library? Not really, but I thought it might be useful to share a perspective  of a couple of them 'from the sidelines'.

More librarians should be programmers/developers: A similar theme came up in the keynote address at the recent PARADISEC conference at the University of Melbourne.It's pretty obvious that the best people to know how software should work are the people who use it, but the proportion of people with the skills, expertise and inclination to do both is likely to be relatively small. A slightly different spin on this theme may be that librarians (or humanities researchers) need to engage more with programmers and developers so that they have a better idea of what the requirements of the applications are. The administrator of the catalogue is more like a high priest, the holder of special knowledge known to few others with special access to communicate with the vendor gods. Imaging what the catalogue would be like if every software engineer working on it was required to catalogue 10,000 assorted items before releasing a new version ;-)

Ditching the catalogue: As someone who is trying to use a library catalogue as a data source I can assure you that there are certainly many problems and challenges with the catalogue. In my search for answers I found a lot of contradictions... studies looking for metadata schemas to employ that chose MARC21 because of the granularity it provided while other studies show that only a small percentage of the schema is actually in use. I've only ever caught a glimpse of a backend screen of our catalogue. Given the complexity of MARC21 I'd expect it has some kick-arse features for efficiently adding data... but given the spreadsheets of book lists we receive I rather suspect that this is not the case.

To over-simplify things, I'd suggest that the systems and data frameworks required to 'replace' catalogues would be very similar to those required to make creating and managing catalogue records more efficient. Perhaps we may even see a re-invention of the catalogue at a later time?

I won't rant about embedded metadata because I've waffled on far too long as it is.  I really enjoyed libcamp. Every conference should have an unconference! :-)

Ben

Notes on the 'Ditch the Catalogue!' session

Here are my notes from the 'Ditch the Catalogue!' session. They should be read in conjunction with the notes provided by Sam Searle (@datalibsam) in her earlier post. I apologise in advance for any potential misattributions, which can be blamed on my hurried note taking.

Jeff Granger (@ClearlyCurious)

---

This well attended session was proposed by Carolyn McDonald (@camcd). It arose from interest in the points raised by Helen Livingston (@heleoz) in her VALA 2012 presentation, entitled “What is the catalogue?”

Extra Info for the Copyright Session

At the Copyright Session we talked about what we think would be the ideal arrangement for libraries when it comes to DRM.

Cory Doctorow is a published author and editor of Boing Boing, and he has some interesting ideas about how product licencing and the law need to adapt to the way we share digital information.  This video is his keynote address at the SIGGRAPH 2011 conference in Vancouver:

It's a long one (about 45 minutes) but it's definitely worth a watch.

Notes from the "No Desk" session

Here are some things I remembered from the session, please feel free to add anything I have forgotten

Kara

·         The session started with some ideas being put forward on what the idea of “no desk” meant. Some of these ideas included the idea of no barrier between staff and customer, no chair to sit on and the idea of a 24/7 service outside of the traditional library space.

·         The experience of roving reference with the use of ipads was discussed. The technology novelty factor seemed to be viewed as a positive by customers. What software was used on the ipad was also talked about.

·         The question was raised of how the loss of the desk as a buffer would affect interactions with confrontational customers. There was some experience that seemed to point to the lack of a desk having a ‘levelling’ effect which made the situation less confrontational. The idea was that perhaps being able to stand beside someone might make you seem more sympathetic.

·         An example was given of a library having a series of service points with computer terminals, where a roving librarian could take a patron to assist their enquiry.

·         The issue was discussed of how patrons are expected to recognise library staff when they are not behind a desk. A trial was done at one library where staff were asked to wear a distinctive t-shirt/polo shirt but there was strong resistance to this by the staff involved. Some session participants suggested that a lanyard seemed to be working fine at their libraries. Other suggestions included vests, bags with ‘info’ symbol and (jokingly) facial tattoos.

·         This conversation also moved into the idea of language/signage to direct patrons when there is no large desk, for example “ask me”, “ask me your specifically library related question” and the information symbol.

·         People also spoke of the idea of approaching customers to see if they needed help, rather than waiting for them to come to the desk with a query. This could be a challenge for some library staff to get used to. Also it was mentioned that cultural differences, for example with body language, could be an issue.

·         It was thought that customers could get frustrated with roving staff if they thought that others managed to ‘push in’ by catching staff’s attention. The idea of ‘service points’ would give customers a place to queue.

·         For the libraries where a large desk was something that was going to be around in the foreseeable future, some alternative ideas were proposed. These included having one staff member seated behind the desk and another standing in front to give the best of both worlds. Also, by seating the customer on the corner of the desk, at 90 degrees (rather than across the table) they would be able to see the computer screen and would be able to place their materials on the desk rather than juggling them if they were standing.

·         The idea was put forward that as any move to a desk-less library would most probably be a transitional change, it is important to think of how to manage the change for the patrons so that they are not left confused and giving them a number of options in how they deal with staff could help with this.

My notes for the data librarian session

For those that couldn't make it to the session on data librarians, here are some bullet points that I used to frame the discussion.

The group talked a lot about the value of data, including for purposes that may not have been initially thought about at the time the data was collected. The need for collaboration with other professional groups (especially IT providers) came up. Several participants gave examples of the importance of data within their different organisations, including universities, CSIRO, not-for-profit, health, library statistics, etc. We also talked about the skills librarians can bring to this new space, and the need for library school providers to start incorporating this into library courses: Charles Sturt Uni will be offering a new paper in this area later this year. Copyright/IP and ethics were discussed, including strategies that could be adopted to facilitate a more open approach (e.g. designing methodologies and asking for consent in such a way that it is clear that data can be made available for re-use later on).

Sam

• Data can be defined in different ways depending on your organisation. One way to think about it is as the raw materials that support the business. 
• In the past data has tended to be treated as a by-product of the process for producing other kinds of information (reports, publications etc) but increasingly it is being seen as an important asset that need to be managed. 
• Reasons for managing vary, from a need for validating research results, compliance with legislation or policy, providing an evidence base for decisionmaking in various professions or promoting innovation (e.g. opening up government data so that apps can be created by others). 
• Where do librarians fit in? There are at least two ways. 1. By helping store, describe and organise data, and making it accessible for discovery & re-use either within the organisation or more broadly. This involves very similar issues to managing any kind of unique primary materials, and has links with cataloguing and repositories, but also with records and archives. 2. Helping the institution and the people within it manage data better, through providing advice, building new kinds of information skills (numeracy, digital literacies), and helping people find or build tools that help them make data more secure, more usable, and more re-usable by others.
• We can't do it alone, but if we don't do it at all our perspective will be missed. IT can see data management as primarily a storage issue, when it is also largely about people's workflows and behaviours. 
• Some of the skills that librarians have already, and how they can be extended into this new area:
  Metadata standards, esp. bibliographic standards --->> Multiple data and metadata, including discipline-specific and type-specific
  Cataloguing and indexing to high standards --->> Exchanging and transforming metadata across standards - mapping, crosswalks, XML/XSLT, with a focus on fitness-for-purpose
  Item-level description --->> Collection-level description
  Copyright --->> IP, data licensing, data transfer agreements
  Academic integrity (e.g. citing and referencing) --->> Research integrity and data integrity (e.g. ethics, privacy)
• Is there a firm career path for librarians in data management yet? There are not many roles solely focused on data yet, but it is being partially incorporated into a lot of other roles, e.g. uni subject librarians, information managers in government departments and so on. Skills in this area seem likely to become much more important in future.

Notes from session on librarians researching & presenting

Here are some raw notes from the session focused on librarians doing research and presenting at conferences (especially for the first time). I had to leave before the end of the session so didn't capture the last five minutes or so.

Sam

Research and publishing

• Deakin has a mentoring program, with librarians mentored by researchers from the faculties at the uni as well as other library staff.
• UniMelb has a reading and research and writing group, as each of these different activities is important. Their goal is to get staff presenting and publishing. The hardest part is getting staff to treat it as part of their work as a professional and not as an 'added extra'.
• It is good for librarians in subject librarian roles to have more experience of the research process as it gives them more credibility.
• We need to do more research as what applies in other countries cannot be neatly applied here. If the gap needs to be filled, who else will fill it?
• Make sure that research and gaps are fed back to the library schools (not just lecturers, also course coordinators).
• Blogging can be an alternative publication route. Often it can take too long to get results out there and the work involved in producing a formal publication can be substantial. Blogging also enables you to get early feedback on your ideas, which can make a later publication stronger. 
• Audiovisual presentations can also be an alternative, e.g. YouTube videos.

Advice for newbies about conference presentations

• Collaborate - work with other people to make your paper better and share the load on presenting. Many of the VALA papers this year were co-presented.
• Start at smaller scale - preparing a poster, or giving a talk at a departmental seminar.
• Toastmasters can help with gaining speaking experience and building confidence.
• Focus on what the audience needs to know, not about what you are trying to get out of it.

Notes from session on leadership

Here are my raw notes from the session on leadership.

Sam

• 'Manage problems, lead people'
• People can be embarrassed to admit that they don't know, especially people that are less comfortable with new technologies.
• Not everyone is able to be brave!
• Importance of offering different kinds of support and guidance at different stages. Every manager should know which type of employee will learn in different ways.
• What if we have people who use technology as a way of rejecting change within the organisation? It's not just a change in the library, it's a change in the world. This is the way that people do things now and you stop providing a quality service if you don't understand this. 
• Leaders can create a more positive corporate culture - this would be easier than changing one person. One of the best things we can do is to make it OK for things to be scary: give people opportunities and the chance to take risks.
• Leaders keep the helicopter view and sometimes need to be able to take hard decisions. 
• One strategy is to devolve responsibilities to leaders within the team, to work with others in a peer-to-peer rather than supervisor-supervisee relationship.
• Good leaders and mentors can be outside of the organisation too.
• Leaders know how to find good 'followers' - the doers that may be able to tip the culture in a more positive direction. Also known as change agents / champions in change management theory (don't forget about the theory! it can be useful).
• Informal lunchtime learning: invite people with expertise to come and share what they know, more hands-on and informal, very good in getting people participating.
  Whole library planning days.
• It's important for leaders and managers to communicate the big outcomes of the change so that goal that people are working towards is clear, not just the tool or process for doing it. People need to know why they need to do things differently.
• Part of the problem lies with risk-averseness of the profession as a whole. We don't like to make mistakes. Part of changing the culture is changing the language and the ways that we think. If this is a personality trait in many librarians, do we need to hire non-librarians, even as temporary provocateurs?
• Reverse mentoring: having people help the people above them in the hierarchy to gain new skills, especially with new technologies. 
• Treat people as individuals. Find out what their strengths are and enable them to make the most of those, but recognise that someone's strength is not the same as what they might most enjoy doing.
• Are cross-functional teams or teams with mixed skills better equipped to deal with change than those where everyone has a similar skillset and a similar role? 
• Focus on the team and reassuring everyone within it: 'Don't worry, we won't leave you behind'.
• Leadership is about inspiring and taking people with you, managing is about the detail and getting stuff done.