DIY Librarian

Just for fun, I put pumpkin RSS and Twitter icons in my header. There’s a whole set of social media pumpkins available (free!) from Shane Jeffers at Three Styles.

I remember back in the day when I used to change the style of this blog for holidays. Where did that time go?

I am a librarian and a writer. As a writer, I value the protection copyright gives me to control how my works are used. As a librarian, I am frustrated by how restrictive current copyright law is. I therefore support Creative Commons, which allows creators to share their work more freely without giving away all their rights. I license many of my photos with a Creative Commons license and am happy to see them used by noncommercial individuals and organizations.

A recent experience has me rethinking how I apply Creative Commons licenses to my work. In that post, I linked to a blogger who has abandoned the Noncommercial license. Today I found a photographer who has abandoned the Creative Commons licenses altogether, because people don’t read and abide by them.

It’s a shame, because I know most of the kind of people I would like to use my images probably won’t take the time to seek permission for each one, and would simply not use them. But because commercial entities don’t abide by the terms I’ve set for use, my options seem to be to completely restrict use or to make my photos public domain.

In other words, back to traditional copyright.

I wonder if there is anything Creative Commons could do to help? It seems that if nothing is done, this disregard for licensing terms will drive more and more creators to abandon Creative Commons.

Last week, both the New Yorker and Wired used one of my photos to illustrate an article about the Aaron Swartz JSTOR downloading case.

I had posted the photo to Flickr with a Creative Commons-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. I believe that the use by the New Yorker and Wired is commercial in nature and therefore a violation of my license, and I have contacted both publications. I am not asking either to remove my photo (after all, most people who were going to read those articles have already read them and seen the photo). I am simply letting them know that they have been lazy and violated the rights of a creator. All they had to do was write me a note asking for permission to use my photo. Many others have done this.

I’ll be interested to see how the publications respond. I’ve approached this as an opportunity to educate them about Creative Commons licenses, rather than as a confrontation. (Here’s another take, if you read German.)

While I was discussing this situation with a colleague, he pointed me to a blog post by Bethany Nowviskie about why she is no longer using the non-commercial license. I’m still undecided about whether I will continue to use it, but I’m very certain that commercial entities need to abide by it when I do.

There is something about getting together in person – just like there is something about browsing the shelves in a library – that leads to discoveries.

At SLA last month, I attended a tour of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s map collection with the Social Science Division Geography and Map Section. I decided to attend because I’ve always enjoyed G&M Section programs in the past, even though I’m not a map librarian, and because I always learn something when I get to visit another library behind the scenes.

I did, of course, learn a lot from seeing the different kinds of maps in the collection, how they were stored, and learning about conservation and digitization projects. The best part of the tour for me, though, came from a casual question I asked as I was about to leave: “Do you have any postal maps?”

The answer to that question led me to a resource that my library patrons can use, a potential collaboration, and to thinking about what other postal history-related collections might be tucked away in unexpected places.

On my library’s blog, I wrote a post about what I found at the Free Library of Philadelphia and more about finding postal history information in libraries. That post was featured in our member newsletter, and literally overnight became one of our most-read blog posts.

One of the most useful things I learned at SLA this year came not from one of the many expert speakers but from a casual conversation with a colleague.

I was frustrated because I couldn’t find a way to comment on posts from a page I’m an admin for as myself. I finally found the solution and thought I’d share it.

No matter how much I clicked on the “Use Facebook as SLA Social Science Division” and “Use Facebook as Tara” links, whenever I liked or commented on a Social Science Division post, it came up as a like or comment from the Social Science Division – making it look like the division was having a conversation with itself. I had resigned myself to the fact that I could no longer comment as myself once I became an admin. (At least until the next time Facebook changes its interface…)

I had complained about this “feature” to several people, when Morgan Grimes pointed out to me that there is a way to toggle between posting as the page and posting as myself.

For each page you are an admin for, you need to adjust the settings so that you don’t comment as the page by default.

First, go to the page, and click on the “Edit Page” button in the upper right.

Next, click on “Your Settings” in the menu on the left.

Then you can uncheck the box that says “Always post and comment on your page as…”

Now the links to toggle between “Use Facebook as SLA Social Science Division” and “Use Facebook as Tara” actually work!

Ruth Wolfish has been leading monthly web-based meetings for SLA chapter leadership, and shared her lessons learned during the Leadership Development Institute at the beginning of SLA 2011.

I lead a bimonthly phone meeting for a group of philatelic librarians, and we’ve been thinking of trying to use the web to include library representatives from outside the U.S. I also lead a bimonthly phone board meeting for my SLA division board. While neither group has moved to web-based meetings yet, much of what Ruth shared can be applied to phone meetings.

Here’s a summary of her advice with a few comments from me:

• Unlike in face to face meetings, people can leave early without being rude, so engage attendees early. (This is less true for small meetings, but attendees sitting in their offices will probably be checking their email or Facebook during the call if they get bored.)
• Use a world clock if your audience is in multiple time zones.
• Take questions in advance so you can be prepared to answer them during the meeting.
• Practice the web features of the meeting software ahead of time. (Or, make sure you know how to use your teleconferencing system.)
• Send out a reminder notice the morning of the meeting.
• Ask attendees why they chose to join the meeting so you know what they want to get out of it.
• Use the mute and chat box to manage discussion. (On a conference call, make sure attendees know they can mute their line when they are not talking to eliminate background noise.)
• Set a date and time for the next meeting.
• Thank people for attending and share your contact information.
• After the meeting, send out highlight notes for those who didn’t attend. This informs them and encourages them to attend future meetings. (I send out notes to the entire group after each of my calls. It helps keep those who couldn’t attend updated so they can jump in at the next meeting.)

I got back from SLA 2011 in Philadelphia last night. As usual, it was a great conference and I came back full of ideas, many of which I plan to share here. But for now, I will share with you the reason I am drinking a second cup of coffee this morning:

SLA has a really packed schedule and doesn’t leave much time for eating or sleeping.

Kids at one California library no longer have access to a program that aims to help them build confidence and develop a passion for reading. The program, Paws for Tales, allows kids to read to a therapy dog. Among its volunteers was Jonny Justice, a survivor of Michael Vick’s dogfighting ring, now a Canine Good Citizen and certified therapy dog.

The Burlingame library participated in the program but decided to ban pit bulls. When Jonny and his owner protested, based on California law that prohibits breed-based discrimination, the library pulled out of the program completely. Read the whole sad story as report by Jim Gorant (The Lost Dogs) in Parade magazine.

(For happier news about pit bulls and libraries, check out Grant the Library Dog, who gets to listen to kids reading at the Milford Memorial Library in Iowa.)

Of course, you can’t actually check out Grant – he stays in the library – but students at Yale’s law library can check out a therapy dog. In a pilot program starting at the end of this month, stressed-out law students will be able to check out a dog for thirty minute periods. Read more in the Yale Daily News.

Don’t get me wrong. I love library conferences. I’ve attended SLA every year for the past 10 years and I’m registered for SLA 2011. I attended the much smaller APLIC conference when I worked in demography. Last year I attended PaLA for the first time and had a blast.

But, sometimes we need to take a break from talking to each other and go to some different conferences. I came across two blog posts on this subject this week:

On Library Attack, Kendra Levine writes about going to conferences in her subject area – to learn about what is going on in the research community, and to make new partnerships for herself and the librarian community. She points out that no one will see librarians as an important part of the research community if we don’t see ourselves that way.

On 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, a group of writers talk about their favorite “non-traditional” conferences. While this post isn’t specifically related to libraries, it makes the point that there are lots of different kinds of conferences out there.

In my new job at a non-profit, there are few relevant academic conferences and there is less money for travel and professional development, but I’ve still been able to get to relevant events. I’ve been to stamp shows – where I’m mostly working at a booth, but I host a meeting for other librarians and try to get to as many seminars as I can. I’ve also been to a symposium that includes both academics and hobbyists (a really interesting mix).

What non-traditional conferences do you attend – non-library conferences, or non-traditional library conferences?

After attending a professional conference, you are probably tired and behind on things both at home and at work. The last thing you want to do is come home and continue the conference – but this is exactly what you should do. You’ll get a lot more out of the conference experience if you collect your thoughts, follow up with fellow attendees, and get started on anything you promised to do right away.

Write a conference report. Your boss may ask for this – but even if he or she doesn’t, write one. I once had a boss who would stop by my office after a conference and ask how it went. I learned to come back from every conference with a quick sentence or two about the value of the conference. Your conference report could be as brief as that, or maybe something longer written in your diary, filed with your conference materials, or posted on your blog. Consider writing something for an association newsletter or blog, which will also benefit your colleagues who couldn’t attend the conference. Writing about the conference experience will help you digest what you learned, and give you something to say when people ask about the conference.

Follow up with colleagues. You probably met some new people at the conference. Did you promise to send them anything? Do they have blogs, Twitter feeds, or LinkedIn profiles you can follow? If you want to stay connected, don’t wait until you have a drawer filled with business cards from people you don’t remember.

Let people know what you learned. If you are able to accomplish something at work based on what you learned or who you met at a conference, let your boss and co-workers know. It helps them see the value of professional development activities.

I was inspired to write these tips partly because I just got back from the SLA Leadership Summit (watch for more blog posts about what I learned!) and partly by a post from the Embedded Librarian.

The post actually offers a related pre-conference tip:

start telling your colleagues about SLA annual conference as soon as you register. This way (ideally) they will be more interested in what you’ve learned there once you return.