libraries
Late info: Review of Intrapreneurship Handbook for Librarians (published in 2018)
Jesse A. Lambertson, “Arne J. Almquist and Sharon G. Almquist, Intrapreneurship Handbook for Librarians: How to Be a Change Agent in Your Library,” The Library Quarterly 88, no. 3 (July 2018): 303-304.
This is a review of the book mentioned published at LQ in July 2018.
I just wanted to get this to the site for future use.
BIBFRAME Primer (Survey)
Hello metadata/cataloging friends,
I am gathering observations and technical information at a larger scale on BIBFRAME with this survey – which is intended to see where folks and institutions are with BIBFRAME, its implementation in Sinopia, how departments are getting trained, and like questions. In fact, this will become, I hope, the beginning of a broader education and research project.
I am titling this project: ‘BIBFRAME Metadata Production : A Primer’
And is being funded, in small part, by a grant by AALL (American Association for Law Libraries) – which covers the acquisition of a few resources.
The Survey is 10 (ten) questions, most will be relevant, in some way, to each metadata/cataloging department in libraries doing any significant metadata production in their respective institutions. Feel free to write as much for each question as is needed to answer it.
Link to survey here.
Large Libraries Provide Reading Potential
Just a quick note – now that I have changed cities and jobs…
‘Tis so good to have access to such a large academic library collection – my reading is not met with any significant limits. Yes, I know, not every library has every book by every author. Not even Library of Congress has EVERY book (and they have the largest collection in the world).
I have found some obscure theological works, books on physics and time, international literature, as well as some of the best apologetic books in history. If by chance, something is not available in the collection, I make use of the fabulous ILL department (which, by the way, is one of the busiest in the United States).
I guess then I will keep reading.
Humble Github Profile (Python thus far)
I am learning more python these days – still pretty new – editing my programs at GitHub – viewable here.
Looking for ways to manipulate library data and metadata in new ways as needed.
Having some fun too.
CarpentryConnect UK (2019)
For those who may be new to ‘The Carpentries’ – let me introduce you. I first joined a Library of Congress sponsored Library Carpentry event designed to teach interested folks the intro to ways of manipulating data with Python and OpenRefine.
Library Carpentry is a subset of the larger educational entity, The Carpentries.
Well, it looks like an organization in the UK, the Sustainable Software Institute is organizing the ‘first European CarpentryConnect event in Manchester‘ in June (25-27 June 2019). This will be a networking as well as technical learning event it appears.
I wish I could go – but the American Library Association Annual conference is too close there – schedule-wise.
Maybe next time. Either way, this should be good. If you plan to be in Manchester in June this year (2019), and love the educational, open-educational model for learning to code, please consider attending or supporting in some way.
Cheers.
2018 Community Service Award (DCLA)
One a very positive note for this summer of 2018…
I was honoured with the 2018 Community Service Award by the District of Columbia Library Association (DCLA).
Thank you
(Now, I just need to get it on the wall in my office…) 🙂
Freedom and #Diversity in #Libraries
I read Marshall Breeding’s May 2017 “Library Systems Report 2017” way back when it was published in American Libraries magazine – but something struck me this morning while reading a completely unrelated article on politics/culture in the US…
(accessed from American Libraries magazine, 27 July 2017)
That if, as Breeding states, in the internet age, libraries are moving toward increasingly centralized, for-profit “solutions” for their tools and services – from technical services, authority syncing, reference chat tools and vendors for research materials of all formats (and I think he is correct), then libraries are moving away from their democratic ideals towards arrangements with a more fascist bent.
This trend in libraries of course simply reflects the state of culture at large that works by default with the internet.
But the end result, as I see it, is at least twofold:
- That the number of librarians and interested connected professionals are able to engage less and less in the design and implementation of those technologies across almost every front- This not only affects those people’s ability to engage in deep-dive lifelong learning, but it also means that “design local” as a guiding metaphor is being thrown out the window. Even as libraries’ staff talk about how much they like to serve their patrons/community/users (whatever each library wants to call its local constituents, it is actually less able over time to to design solutions built specifically for those very people.
- That one major result of the above trend as partially commented upon in bullet # 1 is a significant decline in diversity – this even as diversity & inclusion committees and working groups are being formed across libraryland in the United States. We talk about diversity and intellectual freedom in libraries. But we define those ideas in increasingly narrow terms if we do not take into consideration the elaborate tools that might be built if local libraries maintained their own servers, ILSs, and well defined privacy policies that could be much better managed if local libraries (of all types) maintained a higher level of control over their own systems.
The result of this trend migrates thinking & tinkering away from local decision making, policies, technological innovation towards a totalitarian model wherein diversity is discouraged and intellectual freedom is hindered across several important fronts – especially meaningful fronts in the information age.
A few thoughts…
Thank you for reading.
