Blog Every Day in June day 29: Radical Librarian-Technologists by John Schriner

Today's post comes from the recently created Journal of Radical Librarianship, an open access journal for Librarians focused on critical library and information theory and practice.

The journal is managed by the Radical Librarians Collective.

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Radical Librarian-Technologists

The role of the academic librarian continues to change. It seems that there has been no better convergence of academic departments around technology than at this moment: the librarian speaks with journalism students about secure communications and privacy tools; to computer science faculty and students about setting up anonymity network relays to give censored users a voice; to student groups to help rein in unconstitutional surveillance. This article looks into three of many projects and why I believe librarians should take these on. First, the Tor anonymity network and how librarians can strengthen it. Next, encryption and journalism in a post-Snowden world. Last, the maker/hacker movement and where librarians fit in.

The idea of librarian as technologist is not new. Throughout the literature ^1 2 3 the librarian is tasked and expected to learn computer skills and pass them on to students. The idea has even become in a sense “meta” as some librarians seek to Hack Library School and make it more useful. ⁴ Much has changed from early computer literacy days both in content and context, and there are still enormous challenges for librarians who provide one-shot information literacy and technology classes to students of varying computer skills. There is a need to teach Internet security and privacy in every level of education; for undergraduates it may be best to introduce basics such as avoiding being phished, the necessity of using HTTPS, using password managers. Some topics may be better understood by third and fourth year students, graduate students, faculty, and other librarians. Just as data librarians teach the use of Stata, or science librarians help chemistry students to use modeling software, specialized tools can be taught to specialized or niche audiences. ⁵ New specializations into other fields are no different in essence; the need for a librarian technologist to adapt and re-focus depending on the audience is certainly a good thing.

Academic librarians are often tasked with liaison to a department. The librarian conducts in-class instruction and one-on-one consultations because of their expertise in the tools in that field. As a liaison to the computer science department, this could mean assessing how we should both aid and encourage students to do research in socially beneficial areas of cryptography and, by that method, also propel the department's prestige ^a as a crucial part of a research institution.

Teaching Tor

The Tor anonymity network is used by millions of people to advance their privacy on the web. ⁶ Briefly, the Tor Browser Bundle bounces one's encrypted connection over three relays around the world before it reaches its destination. Relays may only see where the request is from and where it is going, so no single relay can see the full request. ^b By keeping one's IP address hidden, and by using a secure, hardened browser, the user may use the Internet anonymously in any country in the world. The Tor network allows users to tweet when Twitter is blocked, check Facebook when it is firewalled, and conduct research without worrying about who is watching their queries. Its more potentially inimical or controversial uses such as hidden services ^7 8 fall outside the scope of this paper but it is essential to stay current with this as well.

Tor development is research-driven. Tor Project supports researchers and academics by providing data sets, community-developed tools, and a large selection of the academic literature regarding the Tor network. New research is presented at practically every large technology or hacker conference worldwide. Lead developers also keep the community updated with their annual State of the Onion address. ⁹

Setting up a Tor relay on campus is trivial but has many benefits. ¹⁰ The machine on campus simply serves as a middleman, passing encrypted traffic on a high-bandwidth network. Setting up a relay shows support for work in cryptography as well as showing support for human rights and liberation technologies. It is a proof-of-concept that faculty from different departments and librarians can work together on projects with far-reaching benefits. The benefits of supporting projects like these don’t stop at the computer science department: the work of sociologists like Gabriella Coleman and Zeynep Tufekci begins to uncover trends and truths as social movements form that have unfettered access to social media and diverse strategies to meeting their goals. Ruminating on social movements leads to thinking about how journalism is changing: we look to technology, social media, and our immediate connection with events across the world and in our cities.

Librarian in the Newsroom

The world has been shaken by the revelations of government overreach whistleblowing in the past decade. The leaks by Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden reveal U.S. government agencies that threaten privacy, and through weakening cryptographic systems ¹¹ and creating backdoors, have made the Internet—and by extension the physical world—less secure. Librarians must work to help fix this error, starting with learning about encryption to help users stay safe on the Internet, and how to support whistleblowers.

Encrypted traffic ostensibly keeps agencies and individuals from snooping on Internet traffic. By learning more about how encryption, IP addressing, and secure communications work, librarians can provide this information in classrooms. In short, as Micah Lee of the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote, ‘encryption works’. ¹² It works to keep our personal correspondences private. Good encryption schemes rely not on trusting entities or developers but instead trusting the math, trusting the proper implementation of good cryptography. We use encryption every day: when we visit our email provider, or our bank, or an online retailer. ^c Naturally, strong encryption is essential to secure communication for journalists.

SecureDrop ¹³ (a forked project of the late Aaron Swartz now developed by the Freedom of Press Foundation) relies on the Tor network to keep sources' locations and identities obscured. The setup of SecureDrop is complex: it involves four computers and they need to be set up properly. The Freedom of Press Foundation offers technical assistance and training for journalists but librarians should also be guests in journalism classes to explain the architecture of SecureDrop and Globaleaks (another platform) and how/why we use them to protect sources. Encrypted email and chat best-practices should be familiar to journalists. Just one slip-up, one login from a personal machine or IP, can help to identify the journalist and the source. Further, librarians can offer the context and the concept of threat modeling that are necessary as foundations to secure communications.

Librarianship and journalism share a spot at the bedrock of democracy. The two fields are intrinsically connected by free speech and transparency. ^14 15 In New York City, public librarians at Brooklyn Public Library are leading the way in offering workshops called “Crypto for Journalists”.¹⁶ Cryptoparties ¹⁷ have been around since late 2012 alongside increased hacktivism ^18 19 20and the Arab Spring, but are just starting to make it onto workshop lists alongside “Photoshop for beginners.” Cryptoparties teach the very basics of secure email, secure chats, and encrypted cellphone calls. Cryptoparties are not limited to this though—they give the community a space in which to adapt or specialize workshops and help each other to keep current with privacy issues and new technologies. This is a great step and it is just as important to learn how to stay safe on the Internet as it is to learn software skills.

Librarians in the Maker and Hackerspace Movement

Makerspaces ²¹ and Hackerspaces ²² abound all over the world now. These physical spaces allow for cryptoparties, social gatherings, robotics, 3D printing, crafting, soldering, etc. The Raspberry Pi (RPi) is a popular device at these spaces. The RPi is a low-cost Linux machine that boots from an SD card and can run on a battery. The library world has been abuzz about RPis as we think about different applications for these innovative little machines. Columbia University Libraries recently held an event to showcase ways to use RPis in the digital humanities, or as kiosks, or as mesh network nodes, or as site-specific libraryboxes. ²³ It is no wonder that librarians feel at home in the maker movement: gadgets and new technologies like RPis are there to tinker with. There is potential for using RPis to further radical and humanitarian projects; from decentralized mesh networks that aid in censorship circumvention across cities, to providing Internet access and emergency response systems to rural areas. Using RPis and getting comfortable in the Linux environment is an important step to moving away from Windows/Apple closed-source operating systems. Besides the obvious benefit that Free and Open Source (FOSS) software is free (as in cost), it is also free (as in freedom to see or audit the source code, fork the project, or share the software). Healthy community-maintained projects offer support and often offer quick patches to vulnerabilities in the code. This transparency is antithetical to software such as Microsoft’s Skype that loses the trust of the user when they offer backdoors to government programs. ²⁴ The hope is that librarians advocate for open source software like they do for open access or open education resources. The ethos of this advocacy is the same: the model for closed-source applications (like closed, paywalled scholarly material) is essentially broken and we need to advocate for viable alternatives that are free and open.

The Maker and Hackerspace movement encourages, most of all, curiosity. This curiosity leads us back into the world of libraries when we find that the investigative tools ^d provided by the fields of digital forensics and penetration-testing gave us the information that Adobe Digital Editions was transmitting user information unencrypted to its servers from the client. ²⁵ It is only through careful and thorough investigative work into library partners that we will keep these providers in check for user rights.

Conclusion

These three systems projects are linked with the foundational tenets of librarianship. Librarians have a passion for safeguarding privacy and free inquiry. Librarians are, by and large, curious and collaborative. Alongside instruction and the day-to-day interaction with users learning about Internet privacy, librarians need to stay current with new technologies and privacy issues. It is important that librarians network with other radical librarians at cryptoparties. At the time of writing, there are radical librarians working with the Library Freedom Project; ²⁶ they are planning events for Radical Reference; ²⁷ and they are planning cryptoparties at public libraries. Librarians need to be represented at technology, hacker, and maker conferences. As far as specific research needs: Tor research is the best way to improve the anonymity tool and understand how nation states attempt to block access. ^28 29 30 For years now it has been a cat-and-mouse game but Tor stays ahead ³¹ because of its devoted developers, its prominence at conferences, and its obvious need worldwide. It is easy for librarians to get involved. ³²

Librarians are taking on the role of technologists for departments across campuses. As new methods for secure communication are developed, librarians will be there to provide teaching its usage. As new technologies help to further privacy, user rights, and unfettered access to the Internet, librarians will be there to support research, advocate, educate, and agitate. These are new roles for a librarianship that moves forward into uncharted waters. These are busy and exciting times for radical librarians.

Footnotes

a See the work of Stanford University's Applied Cryptography Group for their work in flash proxies (http://crypto.stanford.edu/) or Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society for their work in law and social justice (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/).

b Timing attacks can occur when the nation state or research team owns both the entry node and the exit node. Research into attacks on the network or the protocol is an important audit and welcomed by the Tor Project—of course as well as defenses to such attacks.

c Some sites still don’t use HTTPS by default. With a browser plugin like HTTPS Everywhere, our browser forces HTTPS and encrypts all the traffic so that computers “sniffing” the traffic can’t see the data. Librarians ought to work with their IT department and make certain that plugins like this are installed on public workstations.

d Namely Wireshark, which is also useful for showing users the importance of HTTPS as opposed to easily-captured clear text.

References

1 Ruffin, Betsy. (2004). Librarian-Technologist: Ready for the Future. Library Media Connection, 22(7), 47.

2 Johnson, D. (2014). The librarian as technologist - what's our role? Library Media Connection, 33(3), 86. Retrieved April 29, 2015, fromhttp://www.librarymediaconnection.com/pdf/lmc/reviews_and_articles/tables_of_contents/lmc_November_December_2014_toc.pdf

3 Boisselle, Juliet Habjan, Fliss, Susan, Mestre, Lori S., & Zinn, Fred. (2004). Talking toward Techno-Pedagogy: IT and Librarian Collaboration--Rethinking Our Roles. Resource Sharing & Information Networks, 17(1), 123-136. doi: 10.1300/J121v17n01_10

4 Hack Library School. (n.d.). Retrieved March 2, 2015, from http://hacklibraryschool.com/

5 Breeding, M. (2010). The systems librarian: Professional development for the library technologist. Computers in Libraries, 30(4), 30-32. Retrieved April 29, 2015 from http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=14873

6 Tor Project: Anonymity Online. (n.d.). Retrieved March 3, 2015, from https://www.torproject.org/

7 Guitton, C. (2013). A review of the available content on Tor hidden services: The case against further development. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(6), 2805-2815. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.07.031

8 Dr Gareth Owen: Tor: Hidden Services and Deanonymisation. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oTEoLB-ses

9 State of the Onion [31c3] by Jacob Applebaum & Arma. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRrFWwA-47U

10 Tor on Campus | Tor Challenge. (n.d.). Retrieved March 2, 2015, from https://www.eff.org/torchallenge/tor-on-campus.html

11 Schneier, B., Fredrikson, M., Kohno, T., & Ristenpart, T. (2015). Surreptitiously Weakening Cryptographic Systems (No. 097). Retrieved April 29, 2015 from http://eprint.iacr.org/2015/097

12 Encryption Works: How to Protect Your Privacy in the Age of NSA Surveillance | Freedom of the Press Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from https://freedom.press/encryption-workshttps://freedom.press/encryption-works

13 SecureDrop | The open-source whistleblower submission system managed by Freedom of the Press Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2015, from https://securedrop.org/

14 Is the Line Between Librarianship and Journalism Blurring? | American Libraries Magazine. (2011). Retrieved from http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2011/07/27/is-the-line-between-librarianship-and-journalism-blurring/

15 Goldsborough, Reid. (2010). The new age of investigative journalism? Teacher Librarian, 38(2), 57.

16 CryptoParty: Journalist Security Edition | Brooklyn Public Library. (n.d.). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from http://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/cryptoparty-journalist-se-central-library-info-comm-120814

17 [CryptoParty.]. (n.d.). Retrieved March 3, 2015, from https://www.cryptoparty.in/

18 The “hacktivists” of Telecomix lend a hand to the Arab Spring - The Washington Post. (2011). Retrieved April 21, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-hacktivists-of-telecomix-lend-a-hand-to-the-arab-spring/2011/12/05/gIQAAosraO_story.html

19 Anonymous and the Arab uprisings - Al Jazeera English. (2011). Retrieved April 21, 2015, from http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/05/201151917634659824.html - Video interview with Gabriella Coleman (starts at 12:56)

20 Olson, P. (2012). We are Anonymous: Inside the hacker world of Lulzsec, Anonymous, and the global cyber insurgency. New York: Little, Brown and Co.

21 Directory. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://spaces.makerspace.com/makerspace-directory

22 HackerspaceWiki. (n.d.). Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/

23 Raspberry Pi: Presentation | Studio@Butler. (n.d.). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from https://studio.cul.columbia.edu/ai1ec_event/raspberry-pi-presentation/

24 Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages | The Guardian. (2013). Retrieved April 10, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data

25 Adobe’s e-book reader sends your reading logs back to Adobe—in plain text [Updated] | Ars Technica. (2014). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/10/adobes-e-book-reader-sends-your-reading-logs-back-to-adobe-in-plain-text/

26 Library Freedom Project. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://libraryfreedomproject.org/

27 Radical Reference | Answers for those who question authority. (n.d.). Retrieved March 3, 2015, from http://www.radicalreference.info/

28 Chaabane, A., Chen, T., Cunche, M., De Cristofaro, E., Friedman, A., & Kaafar, M. A. (2014). Censorship in the Wild: Analyzing Internet Filtering in Syria. arXiv:1402.3401 [cs]. Retrieved fromhttp://arxiv.org/abs/1402.3401

29 Winter, P., & Lindskog, S. (n.d.). How the Great Firewall of China is Blocking Tor | USENIX. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from https://www.usenix.org/conference/foci12/workshop-program/presentation/Winter

30 Winter, P. (2014). Enhancing Censorship Resistance in the Tor Anonymity Network. Retrieved from http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A680558&dswid=4012

31 “Tor Stinks” presentation – read the full document | US news | theguardian.com. (2013). Retrieved March 2, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/oct/04/tor-stinks-nsa-presentation-document

32 Tor: Volunteer. (n.d.). Retrieved March 2, 2015, from https://www.torproject.org/getinvolved/volunteer.html.en





This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Blog Every Day in June Day 18 : I hate reading, NO you can't make me do it! Leave me alone !!!

As a child, I hated to read. It was a battle of wills every night before bed time - we all knew bedtime stories were coming. No matter how I cried and yelled (sorry Mum and Dad) that I didn't want to participate, both parents still sat with me night after night, reading fairy tails to me. Fast forward 25 years later you can't get my head out of a monograph, journal, ebook, blog, news feed, email.....you get the idea. 

I can't really pin-point when this hatred occurred. I can only speculate it was a combination of English not being my first language, and that at the time there were no applicable services that resulted in not having any confidence in my own reading capabilities.

With both my parents and grandparents speaking only Macedonian at home, it was only when we ventured outside the home that English was spoken. My brother (thank you my amazing big brother) felt the brunt of this when he had to venture into kindergarten. It was difficult and frustrating from him, even though my big brother was an intelligent child. And with the language barrier, he was unable to communicate effectively, which caused him a lot of frustration. No one understand that he knew the answers to the teacher’s question, but just couldn't get anyone else to understand him. The Non-English Speaking programs of more than 30 years ago were not as evolutionary as today's services, programs and support. From the childhood memories my brother and those that I possess, it was a long and difficult process of learning to read and write. My own bed time reading became a battle of wills - the more they tried to get me to read, the more I wanted to stop. 

My family had no idea where to go to get help. My brother's teacher mentioned the possibility of the local public library. It was there that my family found the endless children's reference collection, story books, picture books and it was all free. As long as it was within the opening hours, we could get all the information that was needed, and more. Learning was no longer limited to 8am-3pm - it could be undertaken whenever it was necessary.

By high school my reading had improved, but there was no love lost between myself and the written word. I read what was required, nothing more. Home work was completed, but there was no thirst for knowledge. My education was flat, not exciting. It was just enough to get by, nothing more. It continued on this way until high school. That was when I really found the library, and Mrs Bowden.

She was my high school librarian, and she changed it all. The library became a comfortable place to read, relax and learn. Free periods were spent here, homework was completed here, research was initiated here. And it was here that my love of reading flourished. Recommending books to read was only the beginning. It simply amazed me how she always overrode the LIMS for my borrowing limit. It seemed Mrs Bowden had magical powers, and I was spellbound.

I came to libraries later in my career. It was during a life-changing event that made me reevaluate my life and where I wanted to be. The combination of my IT and teaching background allowed me to almost flow seamlessly into the library industry. It is a perfect fit.

I currently volunteer my time at a primary school library, in an area that has a high non-English speaking background. It has amazed me the types of early literacy tools that are available to these teachers, library staff and students. These technologies span tablet applications, YouTube clips to Reading Eggs, websites in general, electronic flash cards to the implementation of the Premier's Reading Challenge. All of these services allow for the promotion of reading through an enjoyable learning environment. I can only look-on in amazement at how these children will have a very different start to reading English than I did. 

It still astounds my family how I evolved from that defiant child, to an adult where all my local libraries know me by name and reading preferences. It was a long and hard road, hours of practice and support from my parents, big brother, teachers, schools and other reading services and programs. And I thank you for the time and efforts of you all. 

-Kathy Kumcevski
TAFE NSW Library Practice Teacher

Tech Snapshot - Wrap up

On Tuesday the 8th of April, ALIA Sydney held its Tech snapshot event. It was a fabulous evening all round, there was great food, drinks and even better company!

Insight into the world of technology is somewhat daunting but Alan Chan, IT specialist from FireEye made it interesting and applicable.
He gave us insight into the real world threats facing those on a global scale and everyday people, like us. Here are some practical yet simple ways to prevent that sinking feeling when you realise that you have just be duped:

• Have software security installed on your PC.
• Update software and applications
• Windows are constantly being targeted because they hold the largest market share - you can schedule updates to run automatically.
• Use a strong password 
• Google common passwords - do not use those;
• Furthermore do not have a strong password then write it down on a post-it note and stick it under your keyboard, its like using those fake rocks with a hidden key for your front door - not very secure!
• Back-up data
• There are many ways to do this now, particularly for Libraries where a lot of sensitive information is held, we need to assess risk and the value of the information to determine how much needs to be invested whether it is to use external hard drives or the cloud, a back-up should always be done.
• Stranger danger applies in the virtual world too;
• be careful of emails from strangers or emails with strange subject lines
• many phishing emails look legitimate but banks and other similar organisations will not ask you to send usernames, passwords or account details via email.
• Do not announce travel plans on social media!

Our very own Vesna Cosic took us through her process of going from 'Card Catalogue to IT'. She is bravely pursuing further studies in Information Technology after realising that technology is not going anywhere and the only way to handle it is to embrace it.

Last but certainly not least Marilyn Taylor has and is moving 'Leichhardt Digital Direction'. They have established 2 parallel collections (digital and non-digital) and take a forward approach with E-book vendors. Marilyn advises talking directly with vendors to see if e-books can be bought, rather than just taking a contract.

Thank you to all that attended! We here at ALIA Sydney hope you had a good evening.

Tech Snapshot - ALIA Sydney Event - Tuesday 8th April

What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats around technology right now for individual librarians, for libraries, and for the world?  Join ALIA Sydney for an evening where we look at technology right now, and spend some creating our own network, with each other.

Presentations for the evening include:-

IT security firm FireEye about technology threats worldwide.

Librarian (and ALIA Sydney Treasurer) Vesna Cosic will speak about her experiences studying for a degree in IT, and the benefits and opportunities it has brought to her career.

Librarian Marilyn Taylor speaks about the strengths and weaknesses of e-books for libraries.

Then we invite you to enjoy some networking opportunities for the hard working information professionals of Sydney.

Hope you can join us.

Tuesday 8th April
5.30 for 6.00pm start
CQUniversity, Level 6, 400 Kent Street, Sydney
Cost: $7 for ALIA members, $10 for non-members



Please RSVP to aliasydneygroup@gmail.com by 12 noon on 8th April for catering purposes.

-Lauren Castan

Thursday Night TweetUp

Looking for something other than late night shopping to do this Thursday (19th September) night?

Come on down to The Barber Shop for a Tweetup with Jason Griffey, the creator of LibraryBox!  

Jason will be bringing LibraryBox along for everyone to check out! 

So come on down to 89 York St for a few cocktails and tech talk with Jason!

When: 6pm, Thursday 19 September 2013

Where: The Barber Shop

Digitasking like a freak

According to Amy Gahran, mobile digital omnivores are people who are cross platform consumers of technology who use mulltiple pieces of technology, that is, people who own and use 'smartphones, tablets and other connected devices'.

I'd like to take this idea a step further a suggest that digital omnivores are also digitaskers (digital multi taskers)- people who use not only one, but multiple devices simultaneously.

Case in point:

This is my desk as I write this blog post (you'll have to excuse the mess!) I am simultaneously writing this blog post and checking my emails on my work station, using my iPad to jot down ideas for a paper that I'm working on, using my camera to take this photo (although, I didn't bring my usb cord to work today, so I had to use another device to take the photo so I could upload it!) To the right is the work laptop where I'm preparing a workshop for my colleagues on the use of interactive polling devices, and I'm also reading and highlighing a journal article in between all of this.

So you might be thinking that I'm either A) crazy B) delusional or C) all of the above, and for some people working like this may well drive them absolutely bananas. But I find that I do some of my best work like this- as the above photo is uploading on my work station, I turn to the laptop and do some more work on my presentation. Don't get me wrong, I also have the ability to set my mind to a particular task and work on it continuously, but I do find that sometimes other disctractions can start creeping in (oh look, someone just tweeted me!).

Another case in point: an interesting discussion on Twitter between @newgradlib and @katecbyrne has just distracted me from doing this post, but it has given me some interesting perspectives to think about, which I am now incorporating into this post, as I type... (the idea that digitasking can spell trouble for many people who get sidetracked onto a path that may in fact negate the productivity) But for me, this particular example of a distraction was in fact positive.

I guess what I'm saying is that there are positive distractors and negative distractors. For me, having so many devices and hence things I'm working on, on the go can prevent those negative distractors creeping in. If you want to work productively in this digitasking way, I guess you have to be able to find a way to shut out the distractors that you find work negatively against you.

Alternatively, you could take what researchers are calling a 'mental break', that is- using social media to take a break at work, which apparently can increase your work productivity by 9%!

This is a link to an article I found on ReadWriteWeb on this research, although I'm sure there are lots of people who argue for the opposite (in fact, I'm sure that I've read some of these articles!) Again, I reckon it depends on the type of person/worker you are.... Interestingly, despite all of these technological 'distractions' that I surround myself with, I can't work when music is playing, unlike some people, who can only work when music is playing. Maybe someone should create a Myers-Briggs-type assessment for people to work out what sort of worker they are???

And... while I was finishing this post, two other librarians (@misssophiemac and @pinkfairaedust) have also joined the discussion- they are excellent examples of the digitasking librarian!

My name is Crystal Choi, and I'm a digitasking librarian (and proud of it!)

Crystal is a member of the ALIA Sydney committtee and tweets @crystalibrary.

An afternoon behind the scenes at the Powerhouse Museum

We're so excited about our peek into the inner workings of the Powerhouse Museum.  Whilst numbers were strictly limited so many of our community had to miss out, our lovely committee member Amy Barker will be documenting the day so we will be sharing some of the fun. So to get everyone in the mood, I wanted to share the exciting program our kind hosts have put together for us. 

Firstly, we will be taken by curators Erika Taylor and Geoff Barker on a tour of the basement of the museum and I am curious to see what gems they choose to show us. The Powerhouse does offer public basement tours from time to time but usually with a focus on a particular collection, I love the mystery element of this tour.  

Then they are taking us upstairs to the have a look at the latest Powerhouse exhibition Love Lace, which only opened 5 days ago, to have a look at the App they developed especially for this collection, to enable visitors to connect to more information through QR codes. "This App works as a companion exhibition catalogue in your pocket." They've asked those of us with iphones to download the app before we come so they can show us what it can do. 

We will then be delivered to the Powerhouse Research Library where the librarians will be discussing and demonstrating their new Koha open source library catalogue. 

Finally, we will be having rest and a chat with Seb Chan, head of Digital, Social and Emerging Technologies, and his team. For those of you unfamiliar with their fabulous work, have a look at their blog Fresh + New(er) but their team does a lot of different things including building their fabulous apps and spearheading their data and digitisation efforts.  They are making huge strides towards digitising their vast collections and as a thank you ALIA Sydney will be donating a portion of our ticket price to the their digitisation project. If you think they are doing great work have a think about making a tax deductible donation as well. 

So I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings...

Measuring for Success?

Recently I was reading a post over at Fresh + New(er) the digital media blog for the Powerhouse Museum, which was talking about the launch of the first of their new iPhone Walking Tours which is now available in the AppStore. Whilst the app looks interesting, what really caught my attention was this statement:

"We aren’t measuring success by the number of downloads but in the number of completed tours. And I strongly believe that a low price (vs free) will lead to more tour completions relative to total downloads."

Clearly I wasn't the only one intrigued by this concept as Seb Chan further posted in response to a comment asking how they would know if people completed the tour:

"We've got analytics built in so like a website we can see what stops get viewed, time spent, paths etc. Plus more rubbery qualitative feedback like you tell us that you've walked it (after you do)."

This set me thinking about the ways in which libraries are measuring success. We all do it and whether your library relies on balanced scorecards or benchmarks, statistics or surveys, someone, somewhere in your organization is probably spending an awful lot of time trying to figure out how to show what we do and why it matters. 

But I'm curious to know how widespread electronic analytics, such as the ones the Powerhouse have employed for their walking tour, have become in libraries and how are we translating that data into knowledge about our organisations and our user communities. Have we reached a point yet with our electronic resources that we no longer need to ask our users what they are using because we can already see it?

 I remember being inspired a while back when Seb Chan from the Powerhouse mentioned that one of the ways they were improving the catalogue of their collection was tracking the parts of the pages that people were cutting and pasting from. This idea, whilst conceptually so simple, was such a clever way to know not just which pages were opened but what people did when they got there.

Currently in my organization we explore a lot of statistics about  our e-resources (when the publishers offer them) just as we create and use a lot of statistics about our services and physical collections. But is the the tricky leap from quantitative to qualitative measures that still causes so many complications. How do you know that 9000 searches in a year is a sign of a popular database and not a sign of a database that is viewed by our clients as necessary but chronically difficult to use? 

I'm afraid I don't have answers here but rather questions as I think our explorations of the ways in which our users are engaging with out electronic collections can only become more exciting. 

So I want to know, how does your library measure success?

Kate

Kate Byrne is the Convenor for ALIA Sydney.

Podcasts and Collective Innovation

The Rise of the Podcast 

‘Read widely’, this statement is made again and again to new and emerging librarians. We need to absorb information not just from our industry, but from across the board because you never know where that next little nugget of inspiration will come from. Podcasts can provide an alternative source of material for those times when reading print might not be practical (car, gym, pub, etc). There are literally thousands of podcasts available that can deliver professional, trend and technical information from the internet directly into your ears. Recent research out of the US highlighted the ‘potential podcasts hold as a professional information source’ and their usage is on the rise (Peoples & Tilley, 2011). The latest information from the Pew Internet Project found that nearly 20% of all internet users download podcasts, those numbers are up from 7% from April 2006 (Madden & Jones, 2008).

Collective Innovation  

What makes certain podcasts unique from other types of information sources is how the information is constructed. The podcasts that are featured below all have a similar format where a panel of experts, critics and academics discuss topics, projects and news in their respective fields. What makes this special is something that author Steven Johnson discusses in his 2010 book Where Good Ideas Come From:  The Natural History of Innovation. Johnson writes about the research psychologist Kevin Dunbar preformed on scientists in the 1990’s trying to find out where their ‘eureka moments’ came from. Dunbar found that

The most productive tool for generating good ideas remains a circle of humans at a table, talking shop, the lab meeting creates an environment where new combinations occur, where information can spill over from one project to another (Johnson, p 61) 

We have all experienced something similar at industry conferences. We sit in a darkened lecture hall and listen to an expert talk about an amazing project relevant to our profession, but the truly inspirational moments come at the lunchtime discussions with colleagues. (Or else why would the Unconferences be so popular). Particular podcasts can replicate the experience. Take a mix of specialists in literature, film, technology, and information literacy, whatever; give them topics to discuss and start rolling the tape. The resulting discussions can be powerful as the information ‘spills over’. The collective energy can produce something more insightful than that of the individual. 

Practicalities 

So where can one source podcasts? Since the iTunes store was launched in 2003 there has been an easy distribution channel for podcasts. Not that iTunes is the only game in town; quality podcasts can be located through directories like PodcastAlley.com and Learn Out Loud or search engines like Podscope and Double Twist. Whatever your passion, these sources will help to locate a podcast. But one final clever idea for locating podcasts comes from Wendy Boswell, associate editor at Lifehacker: 

You can also use this little trick to find even more podcasts you're interested in:

inurl:podcast "star trek"

This works well in Google, Yahoo, and Ask.com; not quite as well in MSN 

but you can still find a few goodies

Below is a short list of serial podcasts that offer panel discussion in their subject areas. All are updated at least monthly and are current as of this blog post. This is by no means a comprehensive list of useful serial podcasts, so please share any others in the comments page.

Gweek

This brand spanking new is podcast produced by arguably one of the most influential blogs on the net, Boing Boing. Hosts Rob Beschizza and Mark Frauenfelder talk about comic books, games, sci fi, books, movies and more. Recent episodes (of which there are only 6) include an interview with sci fi author Ernest Cline, a discussion on the first-person puzzle video game Portal 2 and a chat with Eisner nominated comic book ‘troubadour’ Tony Moore. It will be interesting to see how this podcast develops.

Books You Should Read

This podcast presented by Kennedy Gordon and others doesn’t just talk about the new release books, but also discusses older series as well. The format is fast, opinionated, and covers a lot of ground. Past themes have include CS Lewis, Harry Potter, the holocaust, fantasy books, chick lit, vampires and Russian literature.

 (A bit of a language warning comes with this one)

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Each week Linda Holmes, editor of NPR's (National Public Radio) entertainment and pop-culture blog, Monkey See, is joined by music editor Stephen Thompson, arts editor Trey Graham and comics blogger Glen Weldon to discuss books, movies, TV, and more. This podcast is a great way to keep up with all things pop culture with a group of people who are passionate but don’t take it too seriously. This is a funny, smart, critical, and sometimes snarky look at popular culture. It is worth listening to just for the ‘What’s making us happy this week’ whip around at the end of each show.

Digital Living

Anne Delaney on ABC Riverina talks technology with Charles Sturt University academics Peter Adams, Phil Roy and Dr Barney Dalgarno. Recent episodes included epic fail, augmented reality, GPS, social media mash ups, tablet reviews.  What’s refreshing about this tech podcast is that it has an Australia focus but with a global view. The information is useful and accessible even for the biggest technophobe. 

Digital Living describes the latest technology for work and home, from the newest in entertainment options through to forthcoming releases in software and even changes in industry standards.

Adventures in Library Instruction

Adventures is a must listen for anyone in the library and information industry, not just those who are IL instructors. This monthly podcast is hosted by Jason Puckett (2010 winner of ALA mover and shaker award), Anna Van Scoyoc, Rachel Borchardt, with many guests. The focus is on library related issues including, professional development, inspirational ideas, book reviews, conferences, Zotero, technology, Google, teaching techniques, information literacy,  transliteracy, and of course, zombies. 

References

Johnson, Steven (2010). Where good ideas come from:  the natural history of innovation. Penguin Books Limited, London.

Madden, M., & Jones, S. (2008). Podcast downloading 2008. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/Podcast-Downloading-2008/Data-Memo.aspx

Peoples, B., & Tilley, C. (2011). Podcasts as an emerging information resource. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 18(1), 44-57.

Amy is an ALIA Sydney committee member on Twitter @unlikelylibrary

What about the books?

 

Lately I have been thinking about a technology that was invented quite a while back, books. Wow, people must think, a librarian thinking about books, how exciting. 


But as recent events demonstrate, such as the outcry over the redevelopment at the University of Sydney, there's a curious thing about books: people are very attached to them. Not even an attachment to particular books, but rather to books as a conceptual whole, and I would really like to understand why. 


Three years ago, Ars Technica published an article on the 2008 Digital Entertainment Survey from the UK, according to this survey print "books have the highest "attachment" rating of any leisure media activity. People are more attached to their books than they are to their satellite television, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, social networks, video games, blogs, DVDs, and P2P file-swapping." But recent reports show that just four years after they started selling e-books, Amazon is now selling more e-books than print books. 


A similar contradiction has been shown by the illogical nature of the borrowing protests at the University of Sydney in which the very act of having to arrange a special protest to 'rescue' these books is admitting that they don't ordinarily use them. 


The idea of books being mistreated will set any scholar aghast, except perhaps Dorothy Parker who so famously wrote that "this is a not a novel to be set aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force." But what is it about books that people hold in such reverence?  Are they not in fact a perfect demonstrate of mass production, one of the earliest I should imagine, in which hundreds of thousands of identical copies can be pumped out into the market. With the exception of books that are genuinely rare or historically significant, books are really little more than cereal boxes but filled with words and ideas rather than your morning cornflakes. I think the value of books is really about those little ideas inside the eye-catching paper casing, and I think the upset is because people have forgotten that unlike cereal, you don't need a physical object to contain ideas. 


My own experience has been patchy, with periods of a deep love of the physical presence of books and the academic wallpaper they provide. But the longer I work professionally with books the less importance I place in the objects themselves and a period of buying and selling secondhand books really demonstrated the arbitrary nature of the value we place on them as objects. 


When people feel books are under threat, the fear in their response is because they fear the knowledge those books contain is similarly under threat.  People seem to me to be forgetting that the purpose of libraries isn't to be a shrine to the idea of the book, but rather a place to share knowledge in all it's forms and any people never seem to know the many creative ways libraries are cooperating through both digital, inter-lending and repository initiatives to ensure that members of any single library have access to knowledge that transcends the walls of their own library space. I feel that to win this battle, somehow libraries need to detach the concept of knowledge and the experience of exploring that knowledge from the object of a book and the physical experience of reading a book in order for people to understand the opportunities that the wider library community offers. 


But these are just my thoughts on why people are so attached to books, what do you think? 


Kate Byrne
Convenor ALIA Sydney