Librarian in Residence – Goethe-Institut New York - Bibliotheksverbände / Library Associations

Bigwigs at the ALA

nospam@example.com (Brigitte Doellgast) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:27:31 +0200

Bigwigs are important people. The librarians from the Library, Information and Technology Association (LITA) division have named themselves Bigwigs as a nod to their preoccupation with Blogs, Wikis and other social media. At the ALA, they instituted a presentation format that really spoke to me: a rotating panel discussion with 5-6 participants and 1 moderator. Much like in speed dating, one heard six 15-minute presentations in 90 minutes. After three days at the conference, my attention span was taxed, so this was just my speed! Especially for a topic as rapidly changing as social media.

Bohyun "LibraryHat" Kim talked briefly about information overload and the fragmentation it creates. Good to know that others save a document in four different locations because they can’t remember where they saved it the first, second and third times! But how libraries can help manage the flood of information wasn’t exactly clear to me.

Michael “Libraryman” Porter introduced his ambitious and idealistic project to bring modern technologies – most of which, like for example iTunes, have moved users away from libraries -- back into the fold of the library. The title of his presenation was "Libraries MUST Have A New Electronic Content Access and Distribution Infrastructure". The project is due to begin at the end of the year and one can only hope it lives up to Porter’s vision and expectations!

David Lee King presented the iPad and anyone who had not yet held one could play with it. I asked him if he thought the Kindle would live on in its current form. He didn’t think so.

Erin White was next and gave a quick overview into the methodology behind website user satisfaction surveys. I listened intently. If I were to say something about the usability of Goethe’s websites, I’d go well over my allotted 15 minutes.

Rachel Vacek explained QR codes -- and for those of you that don’t know, QR stands for Quick Response. We’ll have to wait and see if they really take off. For one thing, the black and white barcoded squares can easily be defaced, leading to disappointment and frustration when links don’t work. Not to mention, one never knows where one is going to end up: on a serious website, on an advertisement or on other sites best left unmentioned.

Ellen Hampton Filgo, my last “speed panel” presenter, gave what I thought was the most interesting talk: on using twitter for instruction. But isn’t that just fun and games? No, not really – it’s a clever way to engage students’ interests, give them quick and effective service, and thereby bind them to the library in new ways. Of course this raises new challenges for librarians. Ellen coined it “Jazz Librarianship”, this ability to improvise, and it requires deftness, talent and lots of practice to harmonize this type of exchange. This wouldn’t be a bad idea for German courses at the Goethe-Institut: students could tweet in German during class! I think even beginners should be able to manage a mere 140 characters…

Europe at the ALA Conference in Washington

nospam@example.com (Brigitte Doellgast) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:51:36 +0200

Roughly 100 guests from Europe participated in this year’s ALA conference in Washington. Given a total of over 23,000 participants, that’s merely a drop in the bucket. But, as generally known, quality trumps quantity anytime. My curiosity was therefore piqued when Camila Alire, this year’s ALA president, invited a European to speak as part of her special “President’s Program”. The Dutchman Eppo van Nispen tot Sevenaer, Director of the DOK Library in Delft, gave a presentation titled “Libraries Wanted: Dead or Alive”. The DOK Library in Delft is not only considered the most modern library in the Netherlands, but also easily in the running for the world’s most advanced and innovative library. No wonder, then, that the Dutch recently voted Eppo President of their library association. Incidentally, Eppo was director of one of the Netherland’s premier television stations in a previous life. An interesting career change for sure, not to mention a clear sign that Eppo values the importance and vibrancy of libraries -- which is not to say he isn’t critical of libraries. In his presentation, he listed a number of challenges today’s libraries face.
While libraries were once a primary provider of information, technological and societal changes in the last decade have almost relegated them obsolete. When asked who they trust most for information, is anyone surprised that most people answer Google? In building the DOK library in Delft, the idea was not just to build the best possible library, but also to build a library that could be a “better friend” to patrons than Google, that is, a library with real “added value”.
So what do patrons really think of libraries? Eppo took his visit in Washington as an opportunity for a quick, informal and amusing quiz of people on the street. He asked: “Would you want to be a librarian?” No, nobody wanted that. Someone actually replied, “Libraries? They’re from the Stone Age!” When he asked the crowd of librarians who today would invent a library if they didn’t already exist, only a few raised their hands. Regardless, Eppo is of the opinion that libraries still have value, as long as they’re willing to change. For one, they have to learn to accommodate changes in patron’s behaviors and patterns of use. In a digital age that is increasingly obsessed with the visual, today’s libraries are way too text heavy. There are only 17 library-specific applications for the iPhone. And libraries are still more concerned about developing collections than building relationships with patrons. For example, how absurd is it that libraries continue to forbid eating and drinking? What is to stop patrons from borrowing materials and enjoying them with a slice of pizza at home? What is missing most in libraries, says Eppo, is the fun factor. But maybe we just need more people like Eppo in our libraries. If it’s all fun and games in his library, I cannot say, but his presentation was entertaining and motivating. The airport library that will soon open in Amsterdam is also one of Eppo’s projects. Just like TANK U, a download station for e-books.

ALA Conference in Washington

nospam@example.com (Brigitte Doellgast) — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:51:30 +0200

My first order of business in Washington was supposed to be the Pre-Conference, "Web 2.0 and Mobile Technology"... but it seems mobility functions best in a virtual world. In reality, my 5:30am train to Washington was cancelled and the 6:05am was half an hour late. Had it been a virtual pre-conference, I would have been on time - as it was, I showed up to the real pre-conference so late, it was already half over. Thanks, Amtrak. I no doubt missed some fascinating presentations, but as I arrived, Brandon Batcher, Product Manager at Google, was just launching into a talk about upcoming developments at Google. As always, their latest developments are enough to make anyone dizzy. Interestingly, he predicts a price drop in e-readers. The popularity of tablets will undermine the market for e-readers. I, for one, believe it. In its current configuration, I give the Kindle about as good a chance of surviving as the printed book. In a future that will bring only more interactive books - I understand an interactive edition of Alice in Wonderland has already been produced - Google Books plans on enriching and hyperlinking content with supplemental information. For example, if a location is named in a book, it would be linked to Google Maps, so that one can see exactly where a story is taking place. And readers themselves are becoming more and more connected. Kindle already offers a function that allows one to see the most commonly underlined sections of a book. (This begs the question, how does Amazon know what I underline on my Kindle? And how does that jive with copyright laws and privacy concerns?) But back to Google: soon one will be able to buy books from Google, reported Batcher, as well as buy access to text passages. Say I'm looking for a certain quote in context. For a small fee, Google will provide me with said quote in context -- after all, in Google's settlement with publishers, they bought the right to display up to 20% of a particular book's content. The topic of translation also promises some intriguing developments. According to Batcher, Google's translation tool has been perfected to the point that it can produce a translation in which 80% of a text makes sense. We're not talking about Goethe or Grass here, but in the case of non-fiction, they could be on to something. And if users were to be able to correct the remaining 20% along the lines of the Wikipedia model, the texts would eventually be collectively corrected.
Next to librarians, book sellers and publishers, now translators will also have to start worrying about the future of their profession.