September Library Tech Roundup

Image courtesy of Flickr user kalexanderson (CC BY).

Each month, the LITA bloggers share selected library tech links, resources, and ideas that resonated with us. Enjoy – and don’t hesitate to tell us what piqued your interest recently in the comments section!

Continue reading September Library Tech Roundup

Jobs in Information Technology: September 23, 2015

New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday at approximately 12 noon Central Time. They appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listing. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks.

New This Week:

Systems and Web Services Librarian, Concordia College, Moorhead, MN

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a job posting.

Personal Digital Archiving – a new LITA web course

digitalorganizingCheck out the latest LITA web course:
Personal Digital Archiving for Librarians

Instructor: Melody Condron, Resource Management Coordinator at the University of Houston Libraries.

Offered: October 6 – November 11, 2015
A Moodle based web course with asynchronous weekly content lessons, tutorials, assignments, and group discussion.

Register Online, page arranged by session date (login required)

Most of us are leading very digital lives. Bank statements, interaction with friends, and photos of your dog are all digital. Even as librarians who value preservation, few of us organize our digital personal lives, let alone back it up or make plans for it. Participants in this 4 week online class will learn how to organize and manage their digital selves. Further, as librarians participants can use what they learn to advocate for better personal data management in others. ‘Train-the-trainer’ resources will be available so that librarians can share these tools and practices with students and patrons in their own libraries after taking this course.

Takeaways:

At the end of this course, participants will:

  • Know best practices for handling all of their digital “stuff” with minimum effort
  • Know how to save posts and data from social media sites
  • Understand the basics of file organization, naming, and backup
  • Have a plan for managing & organizing the backlog of existing personal digital material in their lives (including photographs, documents, and correspondence)
  • Be prepared to handle new documents, photos, and other digital material for ongoing access
  • Have the resources to teach others how to better manage their digital lives

Here’s the Course Page

melodycondronMelody Condron is the Resource Management Coordinator at the University of Houston Libraries. She is responsible for file loading and quality control for the library database (basically she organizes and fixes records for a living). At home, she is the family archivist and recently completed a 20,000+ family photo digitization project. She is also the Chair of the LITA Membership Development Committee (2015-2016).

Dates:

October 6 – November 11, 2015

Costs:

  • LITA Member: $135
  • ALA Member: $195
  • Non-member: $260

Technical Requirements:

Moodle login info will be sent to registrants the week prior to the start date. The Moodle-developed course site will include weekly new content lessons and is composed of self-paced modules with facilitated interaction led by the instructor. Students regularly use the forum and chat room functions to facilitate their class participation. The course web site will be open for 1 week prior to the start date for students to have access to Moodle instructions and set their browser correctly. The course site will remain open for 90 days after the end date for students to refer back to course material.

Registration Information:

Register Online, page arranged by session date (login required)
OR
Mail or fax form to ALA Registration
OR
call 1-800-545-2433 and press 5
OR
email [email protected]

Questions or Comments?

For all other questions or comments related to the course, contact LITA at (312) 280-4268 or Mark Beatty, [email protected]

Putting Pen to Paper

Back in January, The Atlantic ran an article on a new device being used at the Cooper Hewitt design museum in New York City. This device allows museum visitors to become curators of their own collections, saving information about exhibits to their own special account they can access via computer after they leave. This device is called a pen; Robinson Meyer, the article’s author, likens it to a “gray plastic crayon the size of a turkey baster”. I think it’s more like a magic wand.

description of how the Cooper Hewitt pen can interact with museum exhibits
Courtesy of the Cooper Hewitt Museum website

Not only can you use the pen to save information you think is cool, you can also interact with the museum at large: in the Immersion Room, for example, you can draw a design with your pen and watch it spring to life on the walls around you. In the Process Lab, you use the pen to solve real-life design problems. As Meyer puts it, “The pen does something that countless companies, organizations, archives, and libraries are trying to do: It bridges the digital and the physical.”

The mention of libraries struck me: how could something like the Cooper Hewitt pen be used in your average public library?

The first thing that came to my mind was RFID. In my library, we use RFID to tag and label our materials. There are currently RFID “wands” that, when waved over stacks, can help staff locate books they thought were missing.

But let’s turn that around: give the patron the wand – rather, the pen – and program in a subject they’re looking for…say, do-it-yourself dog grooming. As the patron wanders, the pen is talking with the stacks via RFID asking where those materials would be. Soon the pen vibrates and a small LED light shines on the materials. Eureka!

Or, just as the Cooper Hewitt allows visitors to build their own virtual collection online, we can have patrons build their own virtual libraries. Using the same RFID scanning technology as before, patrons can link items to their library card number that they’ve already borrowed or maybe want to view in the future. It could be a system similar to Goodreads (or maybe even link it to Goodreads itself) or it could be a personal website that only the user – not the library – has access to.

What are some ways you might be able to use this tech in your library system?

Jobs in Information Technology: September 16, 2015

New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday at approximately 12 noon Central Time. They appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listing. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks.

New This Week:

Digital Technologies, Bridgepoint Education – Ashford University, San Diego, CA

E-Learning Librarian, Olin Library – Use Job ID 31577, Washington University, St Louis, MO

Archivist/Program Manager, History Associates Incorporated, Fort Lauderdale, FL

Program Officer for Federal Documents and Collections, HathiTrust, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Program Officer for Shared Print Initiatives, HathiTrust, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Director of Services and Operations, HathiTrust, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Learning Commons Coordinator, Forsyth Library, Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a job posting.

My Capacity: What Can I Do and What Can I Do Well?

I like to take on a lot of projects. I love seeing projects come to fruition, and I want to provide the best possible services for my campus community. I think the work we do as librarians is important work.  As I’ve taken on more responsibilities in my current job though I’ve learned I can’t do everything.  I have had to reevaluate the number of things I can accomplish and projects I can support.

Photo by  Darren Tunnicliff.  Published under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Photo by
Darren Tunnicliff. Published under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.

Libraries come in all different shapes and sizes. I happen to work at a small library. We are a small staff—3 professional librarians including the director, 2 full-time staff, 1 part-time staff member, and around 10 student workers. I think we do amazing things at my place of employment, but I know we can’t do everything. I would love to be able to do some of the projects I see staff at larger universities working on, but I am learning that I have to be strategic about my projects. Time is a limited resource and I need to use my time wisely to support the campus in the best way possible.

This has been especially true for tech projects. The maintenance, updating, and support needed for technology can be a challenge. Now don’t get me wrong, I love tech and my library does great things with technology, but I have also had to be more strategic as I recognize my capacity does have limits. So with new projects I’ve been asking myself:

  • How does this align with our strategic plan? (I’ve always asked this with new projects, but it is always good to remember)
  • What are top campus community needs?
  • What is the estimated time commitment for a specific project?
  • Can I support this long term?

Some projects are so important that you are going to work on the project no matter what your answers are to these questions. There are also some projects that are not even worth the little bit of capacity they would require.  Figuring out where to focus time and what will be the most beneficial for your community is challenging, but worth it.

How do you decide priorities and time commitments?

Creating High-Quality Online Video Tutorials

Lately it seems all I do all day is create informational or educational video tutorials on various topics for my library.  The Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine Medical Library at Florida International University in Miami, FL has perfected a system.  First, a group of three librarians write and edit a script on a topic.  In the past we have done multiple videos on American Medical Association (AMA) and American Psychological Association (APA) citation styles, Evidence-Based Medicine research to support a course, and other titles on basic library services and resources. After a script has been finalized, we record the audio.  We have one librarian who has become “the voice of the library,” one simple method to brand the library.  After that, I go ahead and coordinate the visuals – a mixture of PowerPoint slides, visual effects and screen video shots.  We use Camtasia to edit our videos and produce and upload them to our fiumedlib YouTube Channel.  Below are some thoughts and notes to consider if starting your own collection of online video tutorials for your organization.

Zoom In
As my past photography teacher declared, rather than zoom in with a telephoto lens walk towards your subject.  You as the photographer should reposition yourself to get the best shot.  The same holds true for screen shots.  If recording from your browser, it is good practice to use your zoom feature when recording your footage to get the sharpest footage.  If using Chrome, click on the customize and control (three-bar icon) on the top right of the browser window and you will see the option to zoom in or out.  Keep in mind that the look of the video also is dependent on the viewers monitor screen resolution and other factors – so sometimes you have to let it go.  The screen shots below show one recorded in 100% and another in 175%.  This small change affected the clarity of the footage.

image_perez1recorded at 100%

image_perez2recorded at 175%

Write a Script and Record Audio First – (then add Visuals)
Most people multi-task by recording the voice over, their video and audio at the same time.  I have found that this creates multiple mistakes and the need to record multiple takes.  Preparation steps help projects run smoothly.

Brand Your Library
The team brands our library by having the same beginning title slide with our logo and the ending slide with contact email with the same background music clip.  In addition, we try to use a common look and feel throughout the video lesson to further cement that these are from the same library. As mentioned before, we use the same narrator for our videos.

PowerPoint Slides
I cringe at the thought of seeing a PowerPoint slide with a header and a list of bullet points.  PowerPoint is not necessarily bad, I just like to promote using the software in a creative manner by approaching each slide as a canvas.  I steer clear from templates and following the usual “business” organization of a slide.

image_perez3

Check out the current videos our department has created and let me know if you have any questions at [email protected]

Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine Medical Library You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_DLYn2F2Q4AACsicEh9BSA

LITA Fall Online Continuing Education

Immediate Registration Available Now for any of 4 webinars, or the web course

Check out all of the empowering learning opportunities at the line up page, with registration details and links on each of the sessions pages.

The offerings include 4 fast paced one shot webinars:


macrinalockTeaching Patrons about Privacy in a World of Pervasive Surveillance: Lessons from the Library Freedom Project, with Alison Macrina

Offered: October 6, 2015, 1:30 pm Central Time
In the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA and FBI dragnet surveillance, Alison Macrina started the Library Freedom Project as a way to teach other librarians about surveillance, privacy rights, and technology tools that protect privacy. In this 90 minute webinar, she’ll talk about the landscape of surveillance, the work of the LFP, and some strategies you can use to protect yourself and your patrons online.

cc.logo.largeCreative Commons Crash Course, with Carli Spina
Offered: October 7, 2015, 1:30 pm Central Time
Since the first versions were released in 2002, Creative Commons licenses have become an important part of the copyright landscape, particularly for organizations that are interested in freely sharing information and materials. Participants in this 90 minute webinar will learn about the current Creative Commons licenses and how they relate to copyright law. This webinar will follow up on Carli Spina’s highly popular Ignite Session at the 2015 ALA Mid Winter conference.

Toolkit_Icon_MediumDigital Privacy Toolkit for Librarians, with Alison Macrina
Offered: October 20, 2015
This 90 minute webinar will include a discussion and demonstration of practical tools for online privacy that can be implemented in library PC environments or taught to patrons in classes/one-on-one tech sessions, including browsers for privacy and anonymity, tools for secure deletion of cookies, cache, and internet history, tools to prevent online tracking, and encryption for online communications.

Varnum300pebTop Technologies Every Librarian Needs to Know – 2, with Steven Bowers, A.J. Million, Elliot Polak and Ken Varnum
Offered: November 2, 2015, 1:00 pm Central Time
We’re all awash in technological innovation. It can be a challenge to know what new tools are likely to have staying power ­­and what that might mean for libraries. The 2014 LITA Guide, Top Technologies Every Librarian Needs to Know, highlights a selected set of technologies that are just starting to emerge and describes how libraries might adapt them in the next few years. In this fast paced hour long webinar, join the authors of three chapters as they talk about their technologies and what they mean for libraries. Those chapters covered will be

  • Impetus to Innovate: Convergence and Library Trends, with A.J. Million
  • The Future of Cloud-Based Library Systems with Elliot Polak & Steven Bowers
  • Library Discovery: From Ponds to Streams with Ken Varnum

Plus the 4 week deep dive web course:

digitalorganizingPersonal Digital Archiving for Librarians, with Melody Condron
Offered: October 6 – November 3, 2015
Most of us are leading very digital lives. Bank statements, interaction with friends, and photos of your dog are all digital. Even as librarians who value preservation, few of us organize our digital personal lives, let alone back it up or make plans for it. Participants in this 4 week online class will learn how to organize and manage their digital selves. Further, as librarians participants can use what they learn to advocate for better personal data management in others. “Train-the-trainer” resources will be available so that librarians can share these tools and practices with students and patrons in their own libraries after taking this course.

Sign up for any and all of these great sessions today.

Questions or Comments?

For all other questions or comments related to the course, contact LITA at (312) 280-4269 or Mark Beatty, [email protected].

Jobs in Information Technology: September 9, 2015

New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday at approximately 12 noon Central Time. They appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listing. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks.

New This Week:

Emerging Technologies Librarian, Marquette University Libraries, Milwaukee, WI

Head of the Physics Library, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR

Director of Digital Strategies, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a job posting.

 
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