DIY Librarian

I kept hearing people talking about ontologies, and was embarrassed that I, as a professional librarian, didn’t really know what they were. That all changed when I attended a program by Brandy King at SLA 2007. Not only does Brandy know ontologies inside and out (she developed one for a database at the Center on Media and Child Health) but she is really good at explaining the concept. In fact, she has a new book out. And now I can proudly explain that an ontology is a set of concepts and the relationship between those concepts, and can make for great search results (for example, in the CMCH database).

I’m really excited that Brandy will be teaching a continuing education course (Ontologies: What should librarians know?) at SLA 2008 in Seattle, and that my own Social Science Division is sponsoring it. There is still space in the class, so if you’re thinking about attending SLA 2008, sign up for the course. It will be on Sunday morning, before the main conference kicks off.

I work with graduate students from all over the world, some of whom have not studied at an American university before, and I think one of their many challenges is getting used to our libraries. I decided to attend the Global Librarianship session at SLA to get a glimpse of how libraries work outside of North America.

None of the speakers talked specifically about university libraries, but their remarks about Africa were still useful to me, and all of their stories were very inspiring. I thought all three were great speakers on causes they were truly passionate about, and they demonstrated the great diversity within sub-Saharan Africa.

Melanie Sellars of Librarians Without Borders spoke about her work developing a library in Angola. Kevin Cullen of the Univeristy of Colorado spoke about his experience volunteering for Peace Corps in Botswana. Jane Kinney Meyers, who received the Dow Jones Leadership Award and a standing ovation at the opening general session, spoke about the Lubuto Library Project.

One of my favorite things about going to a national conference is that it often takes me to a city I would never visit otherwise. Sometimes I come back and think, Well, I never have to go there again! But often I am pleasantly surprised.

When I have a day to myself, I try to visit the zoo if there is one I can get to on public transit. The Denver Zoo is well-known and did not disappoint, but I’ve also been to some very nice smaller zoos, like the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque. Animals that are often verging on comatose in warm, humid East Coast climates, like the polar bears and arctic fox, were quite active on a chilly January morning in Albuquerque.

The Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa has some great interactive exhibits (feed the stingrays and lorikeets) and a manatee hospital. At the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, I took some close-ups of the ravens. And at the Toronto Zoo, I spent a lot of time with the snakes.

At SLA, Stuart Basefsky presented a proposal for the Personal Information Trainer (PIT). A PIT is an employee benefit reserved for key individuals within an organization. The idea is to change the librarian from a cost center to a valued employee benefit, and the perception of the library from a free service to a valued service. Basefsky made a comparison to bottled water—it is essentially the same thing as free tap water, yet we pay a premium for it.

Basefsky stressed that the PIT would still be available to and provide services to everyone in the organization, but he admitted that the idea might still go against the ingrained egalitarianism shared by most librarians.

Heidi Yacker and John Ganly provided insightful commentary and questions about Basefsky’s proposal, and then the audience and presenters entered into a lively discussion. Ganly said he thought the PIT idea, startling as it may seem to some, is not really a new idea but rather a return to “human presence” in libraries. He added that the problem with outsourcing is the loss of the “cultural ethos” of the organization.

Kudos to Basefsky for bringing a bold proposal to SLA, and to the session organizers for the format. I’d love to see more responders at presentations next year.

Yankee in Canada has made an SLA 2007 conference map using Google My Maps. My Maps lets you create a customized map, adding markers for places already in Google Maps as well as your own markers.

I tried out My Maps for a trip I’m planning with my family. I added the hotel where we’re staying, the restaurant where we’re eating dinner, some bookstores we want to visit, and other landmarks. This sure beats jotting down all the addresses and lugging around several maps that each have some of the things we need. (I haven’t made the map public for privacy reasons.)

Since this trip is to run the Boston Marathon, my next step is to try to combine it with a Boston Marathon Interactive Map I found on the Boston Globe site, also made using Google Maps. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there is a simple way to do this (yet…Google seems to add new features every other day), but I can at least figure out where the mile markers on the course are.

Postscript: Just after I posted this, I found that the Boston Globe has added a course map where readers can contribute their favorite spots for watching the race. Only one spot had been added when I looked, but this has a lot of potential. Now, if only I could import it into My Maps and add notes for my family!