Tech Services Happenings

RECOGNIZING A STROKE: remember the ‘3′ steps, STR
 
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

I also attended the SEFLIN Future of Libraries Conference, and thought I would touch about 2 sessions not discussed in the previous blogs: SEFLIN Connect and Gaming in Libraries.

SEFLIN Connect is a new free service from SEFLIN – an online meeting and collaboration service – good for web conferencing, project collaboration, and eLearning.  This service would allow us to hold meetings with Broward County, HPD, the University Schools, Oceanography and/or East Campus without the time and expense of gathering in one location.  Using a webcam, we can also tape a presentation with video and voice, and post it on SEFLIN Connect, so new staff can watch it at their leisure.  Arlene has volunteered to investigate how Technical Services can use SEFLIN Connect as an e-learning tool, and she will be reporting back to us in the next few weeks.

Gaming in libraries has now become mainstream, with over 40% of all libraries having games in their collections.  Games are circulated, library programs are being developed for patrons to come into the library to game, and games are being used as a training tool for customers and staff.  This presentation gave a brief overview of gaming in libraries, and then focused on websites to help librarians design games.  Check out the Carnegie Mellon Library Arcade, which teaches library staff and patrons how to use the Library of Congress classification system: http://www.library.cmu.edu/Libraries/etc/game1/game1.swf

First off, I’d like to thank Harriett for allowing non-librarians such as myself to attend the SEFLIN Conference-Future of Libraries. It was really neat to walk in a large room filled with an array of smart people drinking coffee/tea and talking about the future! Intellectuals who can’t get enough of more intellect! (lol, does that make sense?). There was a load of information shared throughout the day, my favorite was the 1st key note speaker, Meredith Farkas,  since she spoke with enthusiasm and a love for what she does.  Basically, some highlights I liked were when she showed us the pictures below:

    In this library, there were signs like: ”Access to MySpace is Prohibited. Those discovered on this site will be escorted from the library” which makes the place very unwelcoming. She points out how the reference desk looks like a “DO NOT ENTER” fortress and the trash can is even in front of the desk where the patrons are….what kind of message is that? She also goes to say what teenager would understand the lingo of the sign: Patrons, Periodicals cannot be Circulated”? It reminds me of myself back in 2003, this is exactly how I felt!

A BETTER PICTURE OF A REFERENCE DESK:

I forgot which library this is but all the furniture are on wheels so that any patron/student can configure it to fit there needs (group or individual). They even have a large computer screen that a group can work around comfortably.

Meredith really did an awesome job in revving up the theme of the conference…what should the future of libraries be like? Please see Cheryl’s blog on the other topics she touched upon. Or you can watch the speaker’s PPT slides: http://meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com/page/Riding+the+Shift+-+Organization+2.0+and+the+Future+of+Libraries

Another presentation I attended was GIS and Mapping Data. I did not know that there was such a wealth of information and uses for GIS. The map librarian, Jill Uhrovic, explains that GIS can help any organization in their planning and decision-making.  She says they are truly more than maps, they have layers and layers of data behind it just like the picture below.  For more info, clink the link: http://seflin2008.wetpaint.com/page/Breakout+4%3A+GIS+and+Mapping+Data

P.S. ANd just in case you were curious, we were well fed at Signature Grand. Breakfast, they served bagels, danish, yogurt, etc. Lunch we got, no it wasn’t Chicken! It was salmon and steak with mashed potatoes and the veggie meal was like the ones last Christmas that we got 2nd’s for! yummy sun dried tomatoes with pasta and other stuff…I’m not a cook but you know what I mean. Dessert was key lime pie…wish it was chocolate but it was still good…..I ate a LOT so guess who I bumped into spinning class later that day? Carrie Gits (Reference Librarian)! First thing she said when I saw her was, burning off all those calories? lol YES!

Southeast Florida Library Information Network (SEFLIN) Future Of Libraries Conference held on July 16 in Davie, Florida provided topics of interest for everyone. Here is a summary of two of the sessions I attended:

Keynote speaker Meredith Farkas (author of the blog Information Wants to be Free) focused on Riding the Shift: Organization 2.0 and the Future of Libraries, giving instructional advice to libraries wishing to ride the web 2.0 wave and build a 2.0 organization:

• Know your users
• Develop a learning culture
• Question everything
• Develop a risk-tolerant culture
• Be agile
• Give staff time for creative endeavors
• Collect knowledge internally
• Be transparent
• Build networks
• Acknowledge that good ideas can come from anyone and anywhere
• Involve staff from all levels in planning
• Nurture talent

George Pearson (Librarian, Florida International University) gave an insightful presentation on the Future of the OPAC or as he noted in his introduction the alternate title: The OPAC Sucks. In a web 2.0 environment which allows Users Interaction, Collaboration, and Content Creation a revamped OPAC, readily attracting constant usage by a tech savvy clientele should have all of the following elements:

• easy to use
• interactive and fun
• a place for one stop shopping for all of the libraries’ resources (print, AV, electronic, digital)

Some ILS vendors have responded positively to the pressure to create these so called next generation OPACs with integrated web 2.0 functionalities. Pearson highlighted the implementation of the Endeca-driven OPAC prototype at the State University Libraries of Florida which has the following features:

• Book Reviews and Summaries
• Advisory pages or Readers also liked
• Spell check
• User Forums
• RSS feeds
• Relevancy ranking of search results
• Faceted browse capability
• Citation (APA, Chicago, MLA Turabian, Harvard) formatting options
• Download title and location of a resource to your mobile phone
• Links to OCLC WorldCat and Google Book Search

 All of the conference presentations are available on the conference wiki.  I would like to thank Harriet for providing the funding for TS staff to attend this annual conference. This is the second year I have attended, and I am looking forward to the 2009 conference.

The SEFLIN Future of Libraries Conference held on July 16, 2008 was very well-organized. There were more than 250 attendees mostly from the tri-county area. All the sessions were quite interesting and informative. In addition to the Keynote sessions, I attended the GIS and Libraries session and the Gaming in Libraries session. Thank you to Harriett for letting staff from Tech Services attend this event.

The luncheon keynote presentation was given by Jose Marie Griffiths, Professor & Dean of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Griffiths’ presentation was entitled “Interconnections: The IMLS National Study on the Use of Libraries, Museums and the Internet”. The presentation provided attendees with a detailed overview of the results of a survey study conducted for the Institute of Museum and Library Services on the library, internet, and museum usage trends and correlations of adults in the USA.

More detailed information on the study can be found at http://interconnectionsreport.org/. According to this site, the study’s overall conclusion was that “the amount of use of the Internet is positively correlated with the number of in-person visits to museums and has a positive effect on in-person visits to public libraries.”

There were three main study conclusions:

1. Libraries and museums evoke consistent, extraordinary public trust among diverse adult users.
2. Internet use is positively related to in-person visits to museums and libraries.
3. Museums and public libraries in-person and online serve important and complementary roles in supporting a wide variety of information needs.

 Results for the study were obtained through telephone surveys of adults 18 years and over. Dr. Griffiths noted that future studies of this kind will be difficult to conduct as it is becoming increasingly difficult to reach people by telephone for purposes such as this.

Susi –

Could you please thank Technical Services staff for all their help in May/June with the end result being 62% of our circulation by the public. We especially appreciate the rapid check in, above and beyond quick cataloging of the new AV materials, ‘rearranging the rearrangement’ so these materials were available to patrons almost instantaneously when they were received, and; the positive, can-do attitude exhibited by staff.

I don’t know when you next praise party is but please convey PLS’s thanks……One little boy found a movie he was looking for in the new arrivals section and told me,  “This is the best day of my life,” as he clutched the DVD to his chest. I almost cried!

Cordially,

Molly

Free PIZZA!

Thanks to the generosity of HPD who decided to throw us a Thank You pizza party, it just goes to show that being nice goes a long way! It was our pleasure to share our know-hows to dearest Karen and we wish her the best of luck in her new position. Thanks for the Pizza!

Rach and her pizza

On June 17 and 18, I attended SEFLIN’s Rules and Tools for Cataloging Internet Resources workshop at the Johnson and Wales University in North Miami.  The workshop was very intensive and covered the principles and practices of online resource cataloging using current descriptive cataloging standards (AACR2/MARC21) and practices (LCRI/CONSER/PCC). I found the first day quite interesting as it focused on the cataloging of finite and nonfinite web sites and other online resources. Finite resources are ones that are complete and to which no additional changes will be made while nonfinite resources are continuously updated. The information was really relevant to me because of the cataloging that I do. Also, much of the content tied into what I had learned at the Book Blitz I workshop I attended in May.

The second day was not as interesting as the first. The topic for the day was cataloging online serials. I had a difficult time remaining alert for this topic. Since I don’t catalog serials I was unfamiliar with many of the codes, tags, and rules that were being discussed. Things were even more confusing because there were a lot of coding errors on the PowerPoint slides so the instructors constantly had to tell us to make changes on our handouts. However, the knowledge I gained on the first day more than made up for the torturous second day so I am very glad that I attended this workshop.

I attended Marc of Quality’s Book Blitz I workshop from May 6 – May 9, 2008 in central Florida. The workshop was held in a very small town. It reminded me of the small towns you see portrayed in movies with one major street called Main Street running through the center of the town. The library and major government buildings were all on this street as well as the town’s three restaurants. As everything was close by, we were able to walk each day from the library building to one of the restaurants for lunch. The townspeople seemed to gather at these places for lunch every day.  It really was like a movie. In the diner you saw the town’s policeman, fireman, and other townsfolk socializing. The town also seemed to have a strong religious theme. All the stores had biblical titles and so did all the menu items in each of the restaurants. Overall, it was an interesting yet eerie experience.

The Book Blitz I workshop was an excellent cataloging workshop. The first three days were spent on original cataloging, that is, how to catalog items (in this case books) from scratch. We learned how to create the various fields in a MARC record along with the relevant tags and codes. The first half of the 4^th day was devoted to deriving records, that is, creating new records from existing OCLC records. The second half of the 4^th day focused on copy cataloging which involved finding and editing existing OCLC records. Throughout the workshop, the Anglo American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2R), Library of Congress Rule Interpretations (LCRI), and the MARC coding standards (MARC21) were discussed in great detail.

Book Blitz I was a very intensive workshop but well worth the experience. Book Blitz II will address fields not covered in Book Blitz I as well as more advanced rules and other issues. I hope that I will be to attend Book Blitz II in November.