Letter to Confused in Libraryland

Dear Mr. Dewey,

I am thinking of seeking housing somewhere more affordable, like outside the United States, and someone suggested there might be helpful books available in the library. However, I found it a bit difficult to browse the shelves and was hoping you could explain the way books on living and working in other countries are given their special numbers for finding them:

Working and Living: France, 005.446
Living and Working in Britain, 914.1
Living and Working in Italy, 945
Live Better South of the Border in Mexico, 917.2
When in Rome: Living and Working in a Foreign Country, 648.9

Signed,
Confused in Libraryland

Dear Confused:

You seek the kabbalistic and occult. Consult a librarian.

Signed,
Mr. Dewey's Minion

Signs of times to come?

I'm just sayin'

When you tell people in Palm Beach Gardens they'll have to drive 10 miles further up the road, but there's another library about 1 mile away...

iPod rules

Query from patron: Can I download music from library computers to my iPod?

Short answer: No

Long answer: Since the library computers don't have the iTunes program loaded on them, you can't download music from them onto your iPod and listen to it. However, you could theoretically download music to your iPod, using it as a USB memory device. (Theoretically, because since the library computers have Windows XP on them, if you typically connect your iPod to iTunes on an Apple Mac then connect it to a library computer, Windows will try to reformat the iPod for you; but if you typically connect to iTunes on a Windows PC, you should be O.K.) You would then have to upload the music files from the iPod to a computer with iTunes, import them into iTunes, and then download to your iPod from that iTunes to be able to listen to the music.

Confusing Ancillary: If you have an iPod Touch, you can download music to your iPod from the iTunes store using the library's WiFi connection.

Unfreezing the Print Release Station

Face it: it happens. Sometimes it takes a few tries to figure out how to unfreeze the LPTOne print release station without losing the jobs waiting to be printed. If you haven't figured it out already, here's the
cheatsheet:

Usually all you need to do to unfreeze the print release station is stop the Microsoft C++ Runtime Library:

1. Press the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys, which will pull up the Task Manager.
2. You should see two things listed in the Task Manager: LPTOne and the C++ Runtime Library
3. Press the C++ Runtime Library to highlight it, then press the "Stop" button at the bottom of the Task Manager window.
4. If the Task Manager window doesn't close by itself at that point, close it by pressing the "x" in the upper right corner of the Task Manager window.

Everything should work fine after that. The C++ Runtime Library typically just restarts itself when it is needed. However, if a job still won't print (and gives a cryptic error message), stop and restart LPTOne:

1. Press on the Administration button at the top of the screen.
2. Enter the password (it's the same as the Override password)
3. Press on the button on the right to "Stop LPTOne"
4. IMPORTANT! when it asks whether to save the existing print jobs, press the YES button!
5. Once LPTOne closes, press on its icon on the desktop, then press the "Enter" key (on the keyboard) to open it.

Job Exchange

I always liked cataloging.  I've done my share of copy cataloging; I've done my share of original cataloging (law materials of all things!), and I still like it.  To me, cataloging is at the very essence of Ranganathan's "Save the time of the User" law.  Along that line, I seem to be laboring under the delusion that cataloging (and classification) should make it easier for the user to find materials.

For instance, one would think if an item is catalogued as, say, a Made for Television Movie, and shelved in (Dewey classification) 791.45, subsequent sequels produced for broadcast, would be shelved next to (or at least near) the original in 791.45.  Silly me.  If the sequels were not broadcast as television programs they obviously don't belong in 791.45.  That would be too easy.  They must now be shelved with feature movies in 791.43, which, in most of the branches, including ours, is in a different part of the library.

Of course, this gives us an opportunity to interact more with those users laboring under the same delusions about cataloging making it easier to find materials, and to teach them how they can achieve Ranganathan's goals by thinking like a cataloguer.  Except that I've done cataloging, and this doesn't make sense to me, so it's looking like  an uphill battle.  But heck, running up those statistics is our whole purpose out here in the branches, right?

I would like a job exchange where we really exchange jobs.  I'd like to trade jobs with a cataloguer for a week.  I'd get a change of scenery, and maybe learn a little more about cataloging; and a lucky cataloguer could get to repeatedly listen to befuddled patrons asking the same questions about where materials are, and maybe get a better picture of the real world and how their work affects patrons, staff and work flow.  

Any takers?

Why?

I could be wrong (wouldn't be the first time, and certainly not the last), but it seems to me the 23Things concept is a way to update knowledge of technology within the Library community. But why?

Not that I don't think it's laudable. But what is the goal? I know why I keep up with technology, but this set of exercises was not conceived for me. These exercises, in this setting, targeted all library employees, asking them to try out various web technologies, think about them in a library context, and report on them in a now old (by web standards) medium: blogs. Why?

Is anybody even reading the blogs (besides a few friends and coworkers)? I get a picture of someone somewhere checking 249 feeds...for what? That they were written? Why?

What possible relevance will this have in their jobs for those who have (or haven't) participated? From what I've seen and heard, it's been diverting, it's been strange, it's been stressful. It has not been useful for work.

Where is the culture of Web 2.0 in this library? Where are the leaders that will join the dialog?

Technology is only a tool. 23Things is about learning the tools. The architecture of Web 2.0 requires new and different tools. But the architecture itself is so radically different that the new tools are useless without a paradigm shift. What these exercises have done is teach the tools, show the blueprints, and withheld the permits necessary to build.

Why?

Podcasts are so old school

For millenials and younger, it's all about vidcasting (videocasting). But even more important, where's the comment box?

In the true spirit of web 2.0, how do you interact with a podcast? On Last.fm, there are recommendations, ratings, comments, community. Podcasts are like television: one way communication.

I'm looking for a site that dialogs in podcasts: "Leave your comment: upload it here!"

Compatibility

One of the web design statements I come across frequently is that it doesn't make sense to invite people to your site only to face annoying obstacles or be blocked entirely because they don't have the preferred browser or plugins. They will either leave without a second glance, or they will be increasingly annoyed at the frustrating experience at your site.

This concept is also applied to "brick and mortar" sites: you don't want to invite customers then make it difficult to enter the building after they get there. This seems like basic Marketing 101: make it easy to find, easy to get in, easy to use. I think it should be applied to everything an organization does, whether for profit, not for profit, or governmental. If a service or product is going to be offered, don't allow roadblocks. You never know how many people will be turned away, and in today's web 2.0 world, what the consequences will be (how far and how fast will the word be spread).

Which brings me to OverDrive, a good example of a flawed product/service that is being marketed to library patrons. How many iPods have been sold? Over 150 million? How many mp3's with DRM on them? A million? A couple million? Why on earth would a library excuse itself from that Marketing 101 rule by citing the Apple/Microsoft/DRM debate. Who cares? Not the patron. All the patron cares about is that the library is offering a service that doesn't work for them.

Is it really a good idea to promote a service or product that won't work for the majority of people it is targeted for? Yes, I am lumping iPod users in with MP3 users, because from their perspective, those devices are just the modern version of portable CD and tape players, and they aren't interested in the finer points of DRM which now plague us.

On the other side, is it really a good idea to spend public money on resources which promote a specific industry player (Microsoft)? But that's fodder for another post.

Relevance

I was talking with an IT manager recently (actually there were a few of them in the discussion), who offered this observation, which elicited much head-nodding:

The problem with collaboration is that once you get to the people high enough in the chain of command to effect a change, you find they don't even know what a computer is.

The example at hand was a case of IT support checking on a web access problem for individual users and finding the problem could be solved by installing and using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. But the computers are set up by another department, which only installs I.E. on the computers. So the IT support folks are constantly going out to install Firefox. The problem was how to get the other department to include Firefox in the applications they install on new computers.

What does this have to do with Libraries and 23Things? The chain of command.

It's very nice to encourage employees to update their knowledge of web technology. But what good is that knowledge within an organization if the ones required to effect change don't know or understand the very technology they are encouraging the employees to learn about? What good is knowing about Zoho, or Technorati, or LibraryThing, or PBWiki, if there is no hope of doing anything with them beyond the 23Things exercise because the people high enough in the chain to effect change "don't even know what a computer is"?

Web 2.0 is disruptive technology. It requires administrators face risk and rethink what is and what will be. The status quo will not work any more. 23Things will be relevant when library administrators understand the technology of Web 2.0 and are willing to accept the risk of disruptive technology and start rethinking what is and what will be.

A: How many posts are there?

Q: How many lightbulbs does it take to change a wiki?