DIY Librarian

Blogging at Inside Higher Ed, librarian Mary George observes that the library can be difficult for new college students to find.

No, not the big hulking building on campus. The library web site, where students can find all those great online resources that eliminate the need to go to the physical library.

I recently scrutinized the home pages of fifty colleges and universities, all rated highly by U.S. News for their undergraduate programs. A dozen of the Web sites I examined do not have the L word in evidence, and some that do effectively hide it because you need to scroll or squint to find it.

I looked at the web site for the university where I work. There is a link right in the main menu for libraries. Then I looked at the home page for the research center where I manage the library. Yup, a link to the library right on the main page. Phew!

This morning Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania’s Republican-turned-Democrat Senator, hosted a town hall meeting on healthcare at the campus where I work. I read about it in the local newspaper over my morning coffee. Later in the morning, I wondered how many people showed up for the meeting and whether the discourse was civil. The meeting was barely over and yet the newspaper already had a story about it – and I can expect a more thorough story in the morning. This kind of coverage was not readily available anywhere else.

The U.S. Newspaper Industry in Transition, a Congressional Research Service report, outlines the rise and fall of the newspaper industry and its future prospects, and investigates the effects of government assistance to the industry. [via Docuticker]

It is clear that the news industry is in a state of change, and that the current model is not the future model. I don’t know whether the government should intervene to help – having government help its own watchdog is problematic – but I do hope that citizens take notice. If the newspapers disappear, where will you get your local news from?

Six months ago, I tentatively signed up for a Twitter account and started posting a few things. I figured I’d use it occasionally during conferences but that would be it.

Well. This blog has been silent for nearly two months, and I think Twitter is at least partly to blame. I keeping posting to Twitter about things I’d like to write blog posts about later … and then I just never seem to get to the blog posts. I’m also not reading as many other blogs – but I am reading a lot of librarians’ posts on Facebook and Twitter.

Rather than get all apologetic, I decided to add a Twitter widget to my blog sidebar. I do intend to continue writing somewhat longer commentary on this blog, but the reality is that most of my current chatter is on Twitter – so please do follow me there.

My grandmother sent me an article from her local newspaper (the Plattsburgh Press-Republican) about the New York Public Library.

The article, in the travel section, begins:

New York City certainly isn’t the place to prove that the best things in life are free.

But one important resource there never levies any charges.

And it turns out to be a great tourist stop, too.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the article doesn’t just tout the library as a thrifty tourist stop, but goes into detail about why the library is an interesting place to visit – and puts in a plug for visiting your local library, too:

The library in New York City merits a stop next time you’re in the Big Apple. But remember, the one in your own home community is worth a stop anytime.

I don’t know if my grandmother knows this, but the first place my husband and I went on our honeymoon was the Enoch Pratt Free Library! And last year my mom and I had a great time exploring the Boston Public Library, with a nice lunch in their cafe.

This is so over-the-top I almost wonder if Kanye is putting us on.

The rapper, who recently co-wrote a 52-page book of “thoughts and theories,” said he is a “proud non-reader” and “would never want a book’s autograph.” (Read more in the Reuters article.)

I’m not normally one to get all worked up about the fact that kids today aren’t reading as much as previous generations (and I’m not entirely convinced about that) but Kanye’s statements got me a little worked up. They remind me of all the kids in middle school who took pride in being stupid and made me ashamed of being “smart.”

Fortunately, Cake Wrecks has come to my rescue with a fabulous collection of book-related cakes.

Mmm, cake. Cake wins, no question. It always does, unless it goes up against pie, and then pie wins.

I really hope the printed newspaper sticks around. But if it doesn’t, here’s a new use for the empty newspaper boxes that may soon line our city streets.

Tomorrow I’ll be attending Plone Symposium East, hosted right here at Penn State. I’m looking forward to attending a conference outside my usual area–and not having to travel during a busy month is a nice bonus!

I’ll probably be twittering during the conference, but I’ll also try to blog about anything of interest to the library world.

You think books and libraries have it bad? Take a look at the state of our nation’s local newspapers.

Newspapers have always been a big part of my life. Wherever my family lived, we always got a local paper, and I still do. My father and husband were both newspaper reporters for a time, and I do some freelancing for my local paper now. I am an anomaly in my generation, and a complete weirdo to younger generations. (I know young people are getting their news from the internet, but I still don’t know what they line their birdcages and compost bins with, or how they pack fragile items, or quickly dry out their wet sneakers.)

Some would say we don’t need newspapers. We can get a lot of news from other sources. Citizen journalists, bloggers, and even libraries can fill some traditional newspaper roles.

I think there is a reason the founding fathers insisted on a free press, and it wasn’t just because blogging hadn’t been invented yet. We don’t just need newspapers for our daily Sudoku fix or to line our birdcages with – we need strong, independent, and diverse media.

Who else, besides a free press, is going to do investigative journalism? (as Leonard Pitts, Jr. asks in his column).

What else will force us to look outside our own worldview? (as Nicholas Kristof asks in his column).

It’s only preliminary, but a study conducted by scholars at Princeton showed that newspapers promote political and civic engagement.

Clearly, newspapers–like libraries–need to make some changes. They need to be where their readers are (I’m following my local paper on Facebook and Twitter). They need to become more interactive (my local paper has started publishing comments received via Twitter on the opinion page). They need to focus on their specialty (usually, their local community). They need to find new ways of supporting themselves. I just hope it’s not too late.

I just finished posting the program for APLIC’s 2009 Annual Conference.

I look forward to this conference every year, and I think this year’s conference will be particularly good. While APLIC is geared toward population information professionals, the range of topics for this very small conference is impressive: data confidentiality; author’s rights and open access; delivering user training; China demographic data and GIS; ROI for libraries; and tours of ICPSR, the University of Michigan’s vast data archive, and the Ann Arbor District Library. (I’m not responsible for this great line-up, just for getting it up on the web site.)

I’m also looking forward to having the conference on the University of Michigan campus instead of in a big-city hotel. It’s always an intimate conference and I think it will be even more so this year.

If you’re interested in attending, the 3-day conference is a bargain – $200 ($75 for students) includes all the sessions and tours plus a banquet.

Inspired by a book pocket posting at librarian.net, I took a photo of the inside back cover of a book from my library. Because we still use a card checkout system, you can get quite a bit of information about the book, and about our library, from this photo.

You can tell that the library moved from one building to another. You can tell that we own (or owned at some point) multiple copies of this book. You can tell how many times it has circulated, and when. You can tell that we reuse book cards.

(We do have an online catalog and we track circulation in a database. We are not old-fashioned, just very small-scale and this system makes sense for us. I always tell new graduate students, “You just write your name on this card and drop it in the box, just like you probably did in elementary school.” I am waiting for the day when this description draws a blank stare from the student – it has not happened yet, but when it does, it will make me feel old.)