tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25993086623911580262023-11-15T09:57:24.741-08:00Monday Morning BlogDonna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-57869356097546066402021-02-18T11:15:00.027-08:002021-02-18T11:52:38.063-08:00The road towards valuing diversityI haven’t been posting lately because I noticed that the views for my blog dropped off sharply in November. I thought that I would post something to see if there is any interest anymore. <div><br /></div><div> In February, Black History Month, we typically see many lists of books about and by blacks, books about black history, and books that support diversity. No doubt you’ve seen many of them already.
Here is one that I thought that I would highlight: </div><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="https://www.rebekahgienapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/top_diverse_books.pdf">https://www.rebekahgienapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/top_diverse_books.pdf</a><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.rebekahgienapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/top_diverse_books.pdf"></a><p class="MsoNormal">The web page has books recommended for various age ranges as
well as a brief synopsis of each.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
is interesting is the very last page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There you will find a list of books that are not recommended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Undoubtedly, many readers will find some
books that they expect to see on the list.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There may be other childhood favourites that are a surprise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you click the links for the books, it will
take you to another page or website that contains an explanation of why or how
the book is problematic.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One of the issues brought up in the discussion of the not
recommended books is that of censorship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I know that people who work in school libraries are really caught in the
middle here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Library training and
professional values lead librarians to resist censorship and the banning of
books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, librarians tend to
promote intellectual freedom and open discussion about controversial
topics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, many schools
and school divisions have committees that are tasked with identifying and
removing teaching materials and library books that might be emotionally
damaging to minority students or might teach or promote racist and prejudiced
views.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The librarian values of
intellectual freedom and anti-censorship make sense in a free and democratic society.
On the other hand, the goals of the anti-racism committees are
unquestionable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, the list of not
recommended books helps us to see how school librarians and anti-racism
committees can sometimes come into conflict.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The librarian can end up looking like a defender of a racist status quo
and the anti-racism committee can end up looking like suppressors of
information and free thought. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In recent conversations with a school librarian, I’ve heard
about a committee set up to address problems with anti-Indigenous language and
depictions in library materials and the use of DDC to discount Indigenous ways
of knowing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many school divisions and universities
are undertaking this type of project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The problem in this school division is that the tensions between the
committee and the librarians and library technicians have nearly ground the
project to a halt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The committee seems
to see librarians as guardians and perpetuators of the majority culture of the
colonizer and wants immediate changes to LCSH and DDC and a significant revamp
of the library’s collection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the
other hand, those working in libraries are very pressed for time, have no
additional budget money to buy the books and make the changes the committee
wants, and are ultimately working to support the curriculum and teaching needs of a
school rather than the committee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
short, librarians and library technicians do not feel that they have the
resources or mandate to do precisely what the committee wants them to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some cases, some of the actions would be
censorship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To make things worse, the
whole process feels very rushed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, it
seems that a project which has a valuable purpose is now on the skids.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What does this all mean for us<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">?</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Librarians spend a lot of time working on
displays and booklists for things like Banned Book Week and Black History
Month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It likely isn’t enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might be all that librarians and library
technicians can handle at the moment but, to achieve the ends that the schools
and communities want them to achieve, there needs to be much better support for
libraries in doing so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just sending a
committee to advise library staff about what to do clearly won't cut it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Library staff need training and that training
will take time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Money will need to be
allocated to making the needed changes to the collection and that money should
not be provided at the expense of other parts of the library collection which
are directly needed to support teaching and learning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Time will be needed to make the changes so
demands and priorities will need to be adjusted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many library staff are already at the limit
of what they can achieve in a day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nothing more can be squeezed out without breaking them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, school or library administrations must
create the needed time by dropping or reducing other expectations until the
work is complete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Administrators also
need to be leaders and publicly show support for both the committees and
library workers who are making the changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is those in charge who need to take a leadership role and speak to
teachers, students, and the community to explain what is happening in the
library and why it is important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
leaders also have to openly acknowledge the hard work and courage of committees
and library staff in taking on these projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Real change takes time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Real
change takes effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Real change takes
money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Real change takes support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While there might be a book display thrown in
here and there, it's only one part of a huge picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a school division or a community values
something, they put their mouth and their money there otherwise nothing
productive will happen and a lot of people end up feeling bad about each other.<o:p></o:p></p><br /></div>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-58523392492999446632020-11-12T16:44:00.001-08:002020-11-12T16:44:22.076-08:00#AskAConservator Day<p> This information was sent to me via email about the international Ask A Conservator Day.</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Conservators around the world are participating in #AskAConservator Day on November 18. SCAA is supporting the Canadian Association of Professional Conservators (CAPC) to join in this international conversation, in order to reflect the breadth and depth of the work of conservators, archivists and museum professionals in Canada.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Do you have any questions you'd like to #AskAConservator? If so, we invite you to email them to <a href="mailto:liaison@capc-acrp.ca" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">liaison@capc-acrp.ca</a> <wbr></wbr>by November 16. Your question will be answered by a qualified conservator and posted in a series of short news articles on the CAPC website on November 18. Ask us anything! Last year, CAPC answered questions on <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3De6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116%26id%3Df288609ee7%26e%3D13e0506311&source=gmail&ust=1605307166850000&usg=AFQjCNFoupHQoiZRQ6Lltc3XsVA0wOix9w" href="https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116&id=f288609ee7&e=13e0506311" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">how to preserve tintypes</a>, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3De6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116%26id%3D0139bb7866%26e%3D13e0506311&source=gmail&ust=1605307166850000&usg=AFQjCNGEF0c-DLmvS-j9f5vsr463Y7EjVA" href="https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116&id=0139bb7866&e=13e0506311" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">how to unroll curled photos</a>, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3De6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116%26id%3D28b69855d5%26e%3D13e0506311&source=gmail&ust=1605307166850000&usg=AFQjCNEBPngPJgugN2JwfsyoQFRNWI8xXQ" href="https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116&id=28b69855d5&e=13e0506311" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">what to do about yellowed textiles</a>, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3De6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116%26id%3Dae2e5bb627%26e%3D13e0506311&source=gmail&ust=1605307166850000&usg=AFQjCNHyd_z0S49JByY5tWxn9DL8m8eoLg" href="https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116&id=ae2e5bb627&e=13e0506311" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">recommendations on museum software</a>, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3De6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116%26id%3Dd706735653%26e%3D13e0506311&source=gmail&ust=1605307166850000&usg=AFQjCNGcBAW4m_yGpStnJPpppHCgzGmmNQ" href="https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116&id=d706735653&e=13e0506311" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">what issues to be aware of when hiring a clock repairer</a>, and conservators spoke about <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3De6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116%26id%3D903e838697%26e%3D13e0506311&source=gmail&ust=1605307166850000&usg=AFQjCNFtTseJ3_U5k2x-mDVFZ29zEydH7Q" href="https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116&id=903e838697&e=13e0506311" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">the most challenging thing they have ever worked o</a>n (available in English only. Questions were answered in the language in which they were received).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">You can also follow <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3De6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116%26id%3D969bc5a75a%26e%3D13e0506311&source=gmail&ust=1605307166850000&usg=AFQjCNG1LFamjierJioLYtb6LpkKV8A72Q" href="https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116&id=969bc5a75a&e=13e0506311" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.<wbr></wbr>com/SCAArchivists</a>, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3De6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116%26id%3Da36dc283d8%26e%3D13e0506311&source=gmail&ust=1605307166850000&usg=AFQjCNFoOYNC39aeTEwe0U55YK-jGCwzjQ" href="https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116&id=a36dc283d8&e=13e0506311" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://<wbr></wbr>twitter.com/SCAA_Advisor</a> and the hashtag #AskAConservator to see all questions and answers.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">CAPC also invites you to visit <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3De6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116%26id%3D35c0d569f2%26e%3D13e0506311&source=gmail&ust=1605307166850000&usg=AFQjCNGOX5OnKappOVtRr6Ztoj4RT6lLjw" href="https://scaa.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e6dd4808a38b728ad56fca116&id=35c0d569f2&e=13e0506311" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">www.capc-acrp.ca</a> at anytime to use the Find A Conservator search tool, find out more about conservation, and obtain information on how to select a conservator.</span></p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-71275870912977478262020-11-11T14:42:00.002-08:002020-11-11T14:42:01.608-08:00Free online Event, Nov 19. American Writer's Museum hosts a reading of indigenous poetry<p> If you happen to have time on the 19th, this event may be of interest:</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #39364f; font-family: "Neue Plak", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.9333px; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding-top: 0px;">Native poets Layli Long Soldier, Mark Turcotte & Tanaya Winder read from an anthology of Native Nations poetry edited by Joy Harjo.</span></p><p>You can register for free at Eventbrite:</p><p><a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/layli-long-soldier-mark-turcotte-tanaya-winder-tickets-126883731657?aff=November2020Newsletter" target="_blank">https://www.eventbrite.com/e/layli-long-soldier-mark-turcotte-tanaya-winder-tickets-126883731657?aff=November2020Newsletter</a></p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-23014199098672475862020-11-10T16:43:00.002-08:002020-11-10T16:43:37.082-08:00Video of interest: A conversation with David Treuer, author of "The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee"<p> From the American Writer's Museum YouTube Page:</p><p><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #030303; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">American Writers Museum presents a discussion with writer David Treuer about his 2019 National Book Award finalist "The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee," which gives a sweeping history — and counter-narrative — of Native American life from the Wounded Knee massacre to the present. This conversation originally took place February 14, 2020 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum.</span></p><p><span style="color: #030303; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #030303; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #030303; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u_bKg5pyAhw" width="320" youtube-src-id="u_bKg5pyAhw"></iframe></div><br /><p></p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-7093869541462847942020-11-10T08:05:00.000-08:002020-11-10T08:05:26.790-08:00Why is it so hard to be a library upstander?<p> Thank you to everyone for your feedback and comments about the last post.</p><p>Let me begin this post by acknowledging that it is extremely difficult to be an upstander in a toxic work environment. The upstander is the one who witnesses bullying, discrimination, or harassment, and says or does something to stop it. We all want to be upstanders but yet we often are not. At least, I know that I often fail in this regard and I feel that there are times when I have been failed by others who could have come to my defense. We witness something happen and we put our heads down and feel bad about what is happening but stay quiet. We might approach the victim after the fact to offer support. We may even give some money to a cause that fights for the rights of victims. But, when the chips are down and we are in a position to intervene, we very often do not do so. </p><p>Why do we do it? There are likely lots of reasons. No doubt that there are many papers and books written about why people physically or emotionally walk away from others who are in distress. When I think of why I have essentially abandoned others who could have used my help, many reasons come to mind. Sometimes there is a fear of being pulled into the ugliness. Whatever bad thing is going on could be directed at me too. Sometimes I fear that the perpetrator will inflict revenge on me for embarrassing or shaming them for their behavior. Sometimes my brain is just plain old overwhelmed by the emotion of the situation and I feel frozen. I simply don't know what to do. Sometimes I am so overwhelmed with fear that I feel an unbearable need to get away from what is going on and all rationality seems to disappear. In general, I seem to have a fear response. And, I do feel terrible after the fact. I feel bad about what happened and, the older I get, the worse I feel about not stepping in to do something.</p><p>What about when I have been bullied or otherwise treated badly? How do I feel about others just sitting there and saying or doing nothing or even walking away? In the moment, I'm generally pretty caught up in the interaction. There is the odd time I recall looking around the room and seeing the look of fear and sadness in the eyes of my colleagues or people with their heads down or looking away from me. Otherwise, I think that I generally am focused on just getting through the moment. It's what happens after the fact that is interesting. I've had people pat me on the back to tell me that they are sorry, that I didn't deserve what happened, etc. Sometimes people drop by my office, take me out for coffee, chat on the phone or send me a sympathetic email. All of these actions are needed and welcome. It helps me to recover and get my sense of self-worth back. But, what doesn't come back is a sense of safety. The bad treatment can happen again and it's not likely that anyone will help me in the moment. It's only recently that I have started to wonder why others have not come to my aid during the incident.</p><p>So, what about standing up for one's self? It seems like an obvious solution. Assertiveness and standing one's ground seems like the way to go. However, anyone who has been in a truly toxic, racist, or generally hate-filled environment knows that attempts at assertiveness can just make things worse. In the extreme, trying to fight back can get you killed. Those who have not been in a position where this is the case have a hard time understanding this. This level of fear is an unfortunate reality for too many people. Trying to stand up for yourself, no matter how much the world tells you it is the right thing to do, can lead to some very bad consequences. So, is it any wonder that people are afraid to stand up for themselves let alone be upstanders? A person has to know for sure that they are acting from a place of power and security before they might feel confident enough to step in. In reality, assertiveness only really works where people respect and listen to one another. Fortunately, there are places where assertiveness works. But, what about really toxic places where the worst abuse happens?</p><p>In my own life, I tend to remove myself as much as possible from the most toxic of places. Life is too short and health is more difficult to restore with age. But, moving onto something else is not always possible. Perhaps there doesn't seem to be any other options or there is some other barrier. The older I get, the more that I wonder if leaving toxic places might also make it easier for abusers to become more confident in their abuse. If I have enough power and autonomy in my life to leave a place or not deal with a certain person I do so. What now occurs to me is that I leave behind people who desperately need the job or have no option but to deal with the person. Perhaps the abusers see my leaving as a victory on their part and are further emboldened to abuse those who remain. This is something that I have been wondering about for a while. Of course, I need to take care of myself and not get all tied up in other people's problems but it is something that comes to mind a lot lately. Over the years I've heard many people say something to the effect, "the management has to see the stream of people in and out of that department. They have to know that there is something wrong. They'll have to take action eventually...." But, is that true? Maybe whoever it is that we think is in charge is just as afraid of doing something about the problem as am I or as are all of us. We keep thinking that someone will do something to "fix it" sooner or later. In the meantime, the problem keeps getting worse as we start to suffer all sorts of stress conditions. We become anxious and depressed, we have digestive problems, we can't sleep, we get rashes, we have trouble concentrating, we drink, we eat, we binge-watch televisions or get lost in games... not good.</p><p>If I knew the answer to this problem, I likely could make a lot of money writing books, consulting, and giving talks. However, there are a few things that I do know. First of all, is that most of us experience some sort of uncivil behaviour on a daily basis. One way or the other, this behaviour hurts us. Second, we tend not to do too much to fight this behaviour when it happens to us or we witness it because of fear. Third, our fear exists because we see the all too real outcomes of what can happen when people try to stick up for themselves. Only the truly advantaged have the luxury of being assertive in highly toxic environments. It seems to me that the answer must be found in discovering a way to address both the danger and the fear of negative outcomes at the same time. We have to learn how to create real safety and then act in positive ways from that position of safety. The trouble is, I just don't know how to do that. </p><p>We are currently in a time of massive change. As things change, old things will fall away and new opportunities will be created. While there will be losses, we also can make gains. Maybe a solution can be fashioned in this new environment. However, I think that we have to be honest with our selves about what we do and don't do with regard to fighting incivility if we are to find that solution.</p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-47979628070812983742020-11-05T04:02:00.004-08:002020-11-05T04:02:34.002-08:00Incivility in libraries<p> I don't know about you but from time to time I am introduced to someone who asks me where I work or what I do for a living. When I say that I am a librarian or that I work in a library, I am presented with a response something along the lines, "that must be a dream job, no stress at all." Hmmm... I wish. Yet, so many people seem to hold this point of view. Perhaps the only knowledge they have of libraries and library work is their exposure to libraries as an infrequent user. In their minds, the library is a quiet and peaceful place full of all sorts of interesting books, movies, and music. Everyone in the library is happy and there is nothing to fight about or to cause stress. Oh, if only that were true. The reality is that there have been days in my working life where I could barely sleep at night, had to force myself to get out of bed in the morning, feared going to work, and walked around all day with a knot in my stomach. And, why was that? It was generally because of some sort of workplace incivility if not outright bullying, harassment, or discrimination. It might have been directed at me, I may have been a witness to it, or both. Regardless, incivility made for many unpleasant minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years of my life working in libraries. And then, there is the shame of dealing with the fact that some days a person feels like they just can't hack it working in this "ideal" workplace that seems to be everyone's dream job in terms of being easy and stress-free.</p><p>The reality is that things are often not as they seem. I can think of two experiences I've had that reinforce this idea. The first happened a couple of decades ago when I was working at a public library. The municipal government that employed me offered a class called "Dealing with difficult people". The class was open to any municipal employee. Given that I worked at a public library and my day to day work life was not the stereotypical "dream job", I thought that I should go to this workshop to learn how to rectify this problem I had been having. In the class, we were divided up into teams of four. One of my team members was a veteran police officer. Our first group assignment was to introduce ourselves to the group and explain why we wanted to take the course. I was surprised to learn that the "difficult people" the police officer needed to deal with were not the "perps". She said something to the effect of, "we are trained to deal with that.... no, that's not what the problem is. It's that jerk I have to ride around in the car with for 12 hours a day." She went on to explain many of the challenges faced by a female police officer and how, to my surprise, her colleagues treated her in highly uncivil ways. On one hand, I was shocked that police officers would behave in the way that she described. On the other hand, I was not shocked at all. From the outside, it appears that police officers are highly professional and respect and support their colleagues but deep down, as a woman, I know that a veteran female police officer likely experienced a lot of sexism and harassment at work. Then when it was my turn to speak, I explained my reasons with some hesitation because I was speaking to three people who were strangers to me. I didn't know the extent to which these strangers held the "dream job" view of library work and, as I said before, I carried some shame over not being able to make my working life live up to that ideal. One person in the group worked on the road crews and expressed incredulity at my description of my working life. He clearly believed in the "libraries as dream jobs" stereotype. Another woman was a clerical worker who took tax and fine payments. She mentioned a few examples of "difficult people" she witnessed as a library patron and also related some of what I said about my workplace to her own workplace experiences. The police officer said that she was surprised that the library doesn't have more problems than what I described. She added that she often walked by the library and saw many of her "regulars" in there and also made a comment that went something to the effect of "yeah, and get a bunch of ladies cooped up in a small place and then they getting pecking away at each other..." Ok, so that last comment came from someone complaining about antifemale sexist comments... From my point of view, I see the contradiction in her statements about not liking sexist comments and then making negative stereotypical comments about women as an indication of just how complex the issue of incivility in the workplace is and why it can be such a tough nut to crack. If I learned anything from that workshop, it is workplace incivility is very common and is not likely to be resolved by taking a 2-hour professional development class.</p><p>So, what about the second example? When my husband and I first started dating and he learned that I worked at a library, I was disheartened to hear that he believed the "ideal job" stereotype. Being in a new relationship, I didn't want to say too much about my embarrassing problem in terms of not walking around on clouds and playing a harp in the midst of my saintly colleagues each and every day I was at work. I did, however, mention in a very brief and lighthearted way, a few of the common workplace challenges. As did the road crew worker, my then-boyfriend expressed shock about what I said. What I noted was that he was shocked over some of the milder and less difficult of the on-going challenges I faced. What would he have thought if I were to tell him about those incidents that kept me up at night and tied my muscles up in knots? Those discussions would have to wait until we got to know each other better. However, in the end, I didn't have to tell him much more. As we continued to date, my husband would come to the library to meet me and take me out for lunch or pick me up after work. He usually had to wait for me and this allowed him to witness how library patrons and library staff interact and, more importantly, how library staff interact with each other. Let's just say that he got a quick and rough education about the reality of working in a public library. He couldn't believe that people behave as they do and wondered how I could "stay cheerful". To this day, my husband still mentions from time to time how shocked he was when took the time to really watch and listen to what was going on in my workplace. </p><p>While the vast majority of my working life has been spent working in a public library, I worked for about a decade in academic and research libraries. I've also done some interesting contract work for organizations that had libraries. Except for the latter experiences where I was the only library employee and essentially came into the organization to set up their ILS, catalogue their collection and train someone how to use their circulation module, I've experienced some degree of workplace incivility. I think that with the contract positions, the organization was so happy to have me come and "take care of the mess in the library" that I was treated very well. Besides, I tended not to be at these organizations for very long and I was extremely busy when I was there that I didn't get much of an opportunity to witness what sort of incivility might be happening elsewhere in the organization. So, what is it with libraries? Are they all toxic? What is going on? This is a question that has been in the back of my mind for literally decades. I've read a lot about the topic of incivility in the workplace in general (I often refer friends and colleagues to a Harvard Business Review article that I bookmarked several years ago <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/01/the-price-of-incivility" target="_blank">https://hbr.org/2013/01/the-price-of-incivility</a>). Over the years, I have found that some library workers have actually been brave enough to write on this topic. I have been grateful for their stoicism in taking a chance and being honest about the topic because it helped me let go of the shame I felt about it for so many years. But, are all libraries toxic? Personally, I don't know. Maybe the answer to that question is very much like my response to the female police officer's description of her own workplace challenges. On the surface, I think and hope that not all libraries are rife with incivility but I have a gut feeling that likely all libraries suffer from the problem to some degree. That being said, I suspect that all workplaces struggle with incivility from time to time. The question in my mind has turned in recent years not so much to whether or not the civility occurs to what we do about it when it does occur. By reframing my research question, so to speak, have found a lot of useful articles, books and webinars which have helped me to see a path for potential improvements to our working lives in libraries. Concepts such as being upstanders rather than bystanders is an example of something we can apply in our workplace and, if we have the courage to stick with it and support each other in implementing it, could lead to real changes. Talking about strategies for addressing workplace incivility likely can and should be an entirely different post - or perhaps a whole book.</p><p>At any rate, in my recent email chats with colleagues from the various libraries where I've worked in the past, there is one common theme that arose. As library workers are working from home during the pandemic, many express that while they miss certain social interactions with colleagues and/or patrons, they are greatly relieved at being away from an environment that is characterized by things such as bullying, backstabbing, gossip and the like. They feel like a weight is lifted off their back and they can focus on doing the work that they love. While it is great that they are happy, it is also very sad that social isolation from their colleagues is the source of this happiness. Once again, I experienced the conflict in my reaction to discovering the theme. I thought to myself, "What? Don't tell me that all of these people are experiencing these sorts of things, I thought that it was just me...." which was then followed by the "of course, why should their experience be any different than mine?" The other thing that occurs to me is that perhaps the "working from home" experience offers us an opportunity to view our work lives at a distance. Over time, we can reflect on the various incivilities that are part of our work-life, admit that they exist and perhaps that we might even be part of the system that creates and reinforces them (either by commission or omission) and develop some strategies for addressing whatever it is that we discover. What will we do going forward? Will we strive to resist participating in gossip? Will we back away from being judgemental and disparaging? Will we offer support to ostracized people at work and stop treating people as pariahs? While it might be too much to ask most of us to start calling out our coworkers on their bad behaviour, maybe we can think of small things that we can do which might help to reshape the and detoxify our work environments.</p><p>I know that it may seem overwhelming to try to address incivility in our workplaces. Certainly, I am aware of my own reluctance in this regard. I have seen people who have tried to stand up for what is right and good at work only to be treated in such negative ways that they eventually have to look for another job. However, things do not have to be that way. While COVID has been a terrible disruption to our world, there is the potential for some good to rise out of the ashes but we must have the vision and resolve to make the best of the situation.</p><p>I would like to continue to address the issue of incivility in libraries in future posts - along scattered among the other topics I like to write about. However, I thought that I would write this post as an introduction to this topic and to potentially start a discussion. As usual, I welcome any comments that readers would like to post below or, as seems to be the preferred approach, readers can also email me directly at d67frederick@gmail.com. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-79712048222742875562020-11-03T20:54:00.001-08:002020-11-03T20:54:20.388-08:00RDA News<p> I suspect that many of you already follow RDA developments. However, for those who haven't had a chance to catch up with their email or RSS feed, the RDA ToolKit posted this reminder today:</p><p><br /></p><table bgcolor="#fafafa" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td align="left" style="font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td align="left" bgcolor="#fafafa" style="margin: 0px;"><h1 style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20.8px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong>December 15th Transition Preparation</strong></h1><p style="color: #515151; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">We have just about six weeks until the beta <span class="il">RDA</span> Toolkit becomes our standard platform on December 15, 2020 around 8 PM CST. The original version of <span class="il">RDA</span> Toolkit will still be accessible to all subscribers for the foreseeable future, and there will be additional free and premium learning opportunities to help all subscribers improve their skills with the beta <span class="il">RDA</span> Toolkit well into the new year. In the meanwhile, please look out for a November e-mail blast from us explaining what's going to happen, what's <em>not </em>going to happen, what you should do to prepare, and key preparation resources.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>If you want to follow developments for yourself or subscribe to email updates about the ToolKit, have a look at their website <a href="https://www.rdatoolkit.org/" target="_blank">https://www.rdatoolkit.org/</a></div>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-67013265402744571392020-10-30T11:52:00.000-07:002020-10-30T11:52:01.952-07:00Replacing Damaged DVD cases... leads to an interesting tech services discussion<p> I haven't posted for a bit. I got a bit lost in the weeds having discussions with various tech services librarians I've worked with over the years. Initially, I contacted them to ask what they do when the cover art from a DVD case is so damaged that it needs to be replaced. In talking about this practical issue, many other discussions and issues arose. These will be topics for exploration in future blog posts. However, for today, I'll go back to the original question which was what libraries do when they need to replace damaged cover art.</p><p>First of all, each librarian or library tech I spoke with described a different approach for dealing with the problem. So, this being said, if any readers deal with the problem in a different way, it might be useful for other readers if you share your approach in the comments section for the blog.</p><p>Second, most libraries do try to replace the cover art somehow but not all make the attempt to do so. Some just use Word to create a new cover which contains key information. In one case, the replacement cover only has the name of the movie. When I worked in a public library, we also tried replacing the cover art by inserting a piece of paper with the title of the movie typed on it into the case. The circulation dropped off for those movies. I suppose that the decision to make the extra effort depends on how important getting the DVDs to circulate is relative to the time it takes to make a more attractive case. I can understand how some libraries may simply not have the staff time to do more than the absolute minimum they need to do in order to get that DVD back to the shelf.</p><p>Third, DVDs are not equally popular at all libraries. In some libraries, the popularity of DVDs has dropped off completely. Those libraries are likely to just weed out the DVD that has damaged cover art. On the other side of the spectrum, some libraries have an extremely popular DVD collection which has become increasingly popular in recent months. So, they want to make the most of their DVD budget and are willing to take the time to replace damaged cover art. There is a subset of libraries where patrons currently request DVDs via the OPAC rather than browse the shelves. This is mostly due to COVID library access restrictions. While the staff at these libraries didn't specifically tell me this, it seems that the cover art on DVD covers is not all that relevant seeing as patrons are making their selection based on the record for the DVD they see in the OPAC. This is an interesting point for those readers who are cataloguing and metadata librarians. We sometimes have a hard time getting library management to value the work we do. However, for those libraries that are not fully open due to COVID, what patrons can find in the OPAC or library website and how the records display is critical for access to the collection and, thus, the need for high-quality catalogue records and other metadata is more important than ever. </p><p>Fourth, a few academic libraries don't even transfer the cover art from the original DVD packaging to the specific type of case that the library uses. Thus, all of their DVDs look the same. There is a template for creating a DVD case cover that contains relevant information about the DVD. These covers sound very bland and unattractive. However, academic libraries are different than public libraries and this approach makes sense in the academic context. So, for some libraries, the issue of replacing cover art is completely irrelevant. The original cover art was put into the recycle bin when the DVD was processed for the library.</p><p>Fifth, for those libraries that do replace the cover art, there are just about as many approaches as there were libraries I contacted. There were three overall themes in the approaches. The first theme was that the library reproduces cover art from content that they already have in their collection. One library that has a very large collection, the cover art was replaced by scanning the cover from another copy that the library owns and printing out the scan on a colour printer. Another library took the same approach but just used a black and white laser printer because they felt that the results were easier to read if a laser printer was used versus the relatively low-quality inkjet colour printer that is available to the library. </p><p>The second theme is that the library would create or recreate new cover art. In one case desk staff located some sort of suitable related Creative Commons image in a source such as Wikimedia Commons <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page</a>. In tech services, the staff took the image and inserted a title and other relevant information and printed out a new original cover to insert into the case. At another library, there is one staff member who is very skilled with Photoshop. She scans the damaged cover and repairs the image digitally and tries to make it as close as possible to the original before printing out a replacement cover. Processes that fit into the second theme sounded very time-consuming to me. However, I suspect that once a person does this process enough, it could become much more efficient than what I imagine.</p><p>The third approach is to locate an online source of images for DVD covers and print a new cover from one of those sources. From what I've been told, no one source has all DVD covers so most libraries have a selection of different places they check. In addition, not all libraries printed the new covers in colour. The issue of the availability of a good quality colour printer was the most central issue.</p><p>Here are some of the websites that libraries who take the third approach mentioned to me that they use. I've listed a few that I tried for myself: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://dvdcover.com/">https://dvdcover.com/</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">This is good but to get the best covers you have to get a
subscription.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While you can copy the
image into Photoshop or a Paint program for free, the resolution is terrible.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.covercity.net/">https://www.covercity.net/</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Describes itself as a cover replacement service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You need a membership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was able to download some covers for
free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The selection of covers seems to
be limited.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.dvd-covers.org/">https://www.dvd-covers.org/</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Resolution not too bad when copied into Photoshop or paint but
a very limited selection of covers.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">IMDB.com</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Their code numbers
are widely used on other sites too.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">RottenTomatoes.com
covers most recent movies, with links to lots of reviews. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">For artwork, a
screen capture generally does the job.</span></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">So, if you know of other websites or have an approach that I didn't describe in this post, please feel free to add what you do in the comments.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">While I may not post as frequently as I had been in the past month or so, I will get back to posting at least a couple times a week. I'd like to address some of the issues that the tech services staff I got in contact with mentioned to me. I suspect that many libraries have similar experiences.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">As always, if there are things you'd like to see in the blog, please feel free to contact me and let me know.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Have a great weekend and stay safe.</p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-23590917820713104112020-10-21T20:30:00.003-07:002020-10-21T20:30:47.433-07:00Reflections on Rehumanizing The Virtual Workplace<p> The other day a librarian friend sent me a link to Nancy Doyles Forbes article entitled ÈProfessor Ahmad's Six-Month Wall: Rehumanizing the Virtual WorkplaceÈ. As might be expected, the article focuses on how we cope with life as we move into a winter characterized by ongoing COVID infections and social distancing. I copied a few lines that struck me as interesting:</p><p><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">The desire to "get away" or "make it stop" is intense.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">We've already re-learned how to do groceries, host meetings, and even teach classes. And we have found new ways to be happy and have fun. But as the days get shorter and colder, we need to be ready to innovate again. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">But just don't expect to be sparklingly happy or wildly creative in the middle of your wall. Right now, if you can meet your obligations and be kind to your loved ones, you get an A+.</span></p><p>I won't copy anything else in case you are interested in reading the article for yourself. By the way, I recommend at least scanning through it. Maybe you'll want to keep the URL for future reference too.</p><p>Anyway, there were a few reflections about these lines that I want to share with readers. Ok, yeah, if I could banish meetings and classes via MS Teams, Zoom, and Skype, I would be eternally grateful. Using a Zoom background has acted as a bit of a barrier keeping my webcam from intruding into my home. I am grateful that someone has said something that validates the way that I've been feeling lately about the prospect of being cooped up in my house for most, if not all, of the upcoming winter. Of course, I am grateful that I have a home that is a safe and warm place to be. Many people in the world do not have this luxury. On the other hand, it's good to have someone recognize that there is something less than human using almost exclusively electronic communication and interacting with other people in general for months on end. The fact that I do not live alone is a blessing so at least I get some in-person interaction. Even trips to the store aren't all that fulfilling from a socialization point of view. People quickly get what they need and get out of the store. We can't even see a smile anymore because of the necessary masks we need to wear in public. Yes, I have to admit that I really do miss the type of social interactions that I used to have and I have to admit that the longing for them has been more intense lately.</p><p>Regarding the need to relearn how to live our lives, I find that comment intriguing. I'm the type who loves to be creative and innovate. I think that reframing the upcoming months as an opportunity to innovate and come up with new solutions will help me greatly. Thanks to the article for helping me out with that one.</p><p>Finally, we all get an A+ for just meeting our basic obligations and being kind to our loved ones. We don't have to be superheros. Once again, thanks for that.</p><p>Anyway, I thought that I'd share this article and my thoughts about it with you. I suspect that most of us can identify with the article in one way or the other.</p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-54784585790539584922020-10-20T13:30:00.000-07:002020-10-20T13:30:16.116-07:00News in Open Science and Open Access <p> There was a time when the topics of open science and open access (OA) journals were the primary interest of specialized academic libraries. However, because these paired movements have access to information and the business model for journal subscriptions at their heart, they are of interest to most library workers.</p><p>For those of you who aren't familiar with open science and OA, I wrote a column a few years back that addresses these topics (<a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/LHTN-09-2016-0040/full/html">https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/LHTN-09-2016-0040/full/html</a>). You might have to search for the article title in your discovery service in order to get access to it or request it on ILL. Earlier this year I published a related column on scholarly communications that might also be of interest (<a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/LHTN-01-2020-0007/full/html">https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/LHTN-01-2020-0007/full/html</a>). If you work in an academic or research library, you likely know quite a bit about the topic already. However, those working in public libraries and some special libraries may be less familiar with the topic. I suggest that technical services workers, especially those who work with serials and electronic subscription acquisitions do a bit of reading to get the basics of what is going on with OA and open science. To get everyone started, I'll give a brief introduction to both topics.</p><p>The goal of open science is to make all scientific information and data readily discoverable and accessible to all with as few barriers as possible. For many around the world, the cost of journal subscriptions is a significant barrier. Consider that a library in a wealthy country is generally charged the same price for a scientific journal subscription as a library in the developing world. Journal costs alone create a significant barrier for the open science movement. This is where OA comes in. While this is a bit of an oversimplification, in the OA model, authors are charged a fee for having their article published in a journal and the journal publisher makes that article freely available online to all without any sort of subscription or paywall. It is often not the author themselves who pay for the costs of getting the article published. It might be the author's employer or a funding body. When I worked for a research centre, I often looked up article publishing fees for our scientists and found that the fees run anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars per article. I also found a few journals which had a sort of sliding scale for fees depending on the country in which the author is located and the type of funding available to the author. The important factor is that the cost of making scientific information accessible is transferred from the reader, or the library that purchases the subscriptions, to the persons doing the research and publishing the paper. So, as you can see, a change in the model for funding scientific article publishing is likely to impact all aspects of the business model for serials publishing and acquisitions. We can expect that this will eventually have an impact on library budgets. For those of you who are actively working with serials acquisitions, you may feel as though a sigh of relief is in order. However, even though OA has been around for a while, we are still in the early days of learning what OA and Open Science really mean for the publishing industry and libraries. This is why I say that library workers and especially anyone who makes serials budget and acquisition decisions needs to stay on top of this issue. </p><p>Today I read an interesting article in my Nature journals newsfeed <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02959-1?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=09f8ca53cf-briefing-dy-20201020&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-09f8ca53cf-45590586" target="_blank">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02959-1?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=09f8ca53cf-briefing-dy-20201020&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-09f8ca53cf-45590586</a>. Its called Nature journals announce first open-access agreement. For those of you who are now interested in learning more about OA and how it is impacting the journal publishing market, this article is a good read. Personally, I found the charges that the publisher proposes to be outrageous and agree with the librarian cited in the article that the purpose of open science is defeated when institutions are charged tens of thousands of dollars to get articles published in certain journals. It is true that the Nature journals are highly prestigious and most universities will publish few if any articles in one of their journals in a typical year. Yet, it's hard to deny that the type of agreement that Springer Nature created for wealthy and highly prestigious German universities is completely out of reach for researchers in many other countries. For me, the article is a strong indication that we still have a long way to go before we see any sort of solidification in how publishers deal with the OA movement and how, in turn, library budgets and acquisitions processes might be impacted.</p><p>As usual, I encourage readers to leave comments in the comment section for this blog or email me directly at d67frederick@gmail.com. </p><h1 class="article-item__title serif" itemprop="headline" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Harding, Palatino, serif; font-size: 4.5rem; letter-spacing: -1.5px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 16px; max-width: 85%; padding: 0px;"><br /></h1>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-47196952906365925632020-10-19T19:01:00.002-07:002020-10-19T19:01:27.901-07:00Databases to help both cataloguing and reference librarians with music questions<p> My very first library job was working in what was called at the time the Fine and Performing Arts Department of an urban public library. It was a sort of dream job for me because I love music, crafts, film, etc. I eventually worked my way into doing reference work despite the fact that I lack an art or music degree. Those were the days before the WWW and all of the free and subscription electronic resources we have today. Besides the major music reference sources such as Groves, I doubt that any of what I used to use is still available.</p><p>From time to time I still have need of music reference resources. Sometimes it is in the context of cataloging a music-related resource and sometimes it's in the context of answering a music-related question. Thank goodness that my colleagues who have music degrees have made some helpful LibGuides. Nowadays, I Google for music LibGuides and often find the answers I need.</p><p>However, there are many interesting music databases that I find often aren't found on the LibGuides. For cataloguing popular music, for example, I often find a website called Discogs useful for looking up cover-art and tracklists to ensure that I have correctly matched an existing MARC record to the item in hand. Given that the same album released at different times or in different countries can look quite different and sometimes have different songs on them, I used this source more than one might expect. </p><p>If you are looking for some music databases that are often missed on the music LibGuides, I suggest looking at Wikpedia's listing of them:</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_music_databases" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_music_databases</a><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>While not all of these databases are free, most of them are free or have some free content. They can be very useful for solving all sorts of music-related problems and answering patron questions.</p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-43369183783730805212020-10-18T14:27:00.001-07:002020-10-18T14:27:31.609-07:00Helping cataloguers catch-up on their training: IFLA/LRM Training <p> The issue of developing and implementing new cataloguing and metadata standards and models is one that has been with us for the past few decades. While cataloguers have been slowly changing their practices - especially since the introduction of RDA about 8 years ago, many other library workers aren't aware that there is a plan in the works for a metadata revolution. Or, maybe they know about it but perhaps they don't care. I remember a librarian tell me a few years ago that she just couldn't get excited let alone be interested in my talk about RDA. She felt that there has been too much talk and too little action for her tastes.</p><p>The reality is that the discipline of cataloguing and metadata is talking about revolutionary change. Making that change takes a lot of thinking, talking, planning, and experimentation. I've shown non-cataloging librarians some of the experimental tools such as OCLCs Classify (<a href="http://classify.oclc.org/classify2/" target="_blank">http://classify.oclc.org/classify2/</a> ), Worldcat Identities (<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/identities/" target="_blank">https://www.worldcat.org/identities/</a>) and VIAFs authority data (<a href="https://viaf.org/" target="_blank">https://viaf.org/</a>) as examples of the outcome of experimentation and a preview of what is to come. While some are interested in the services, they react to them as if they are just fun little toys and not evidence of steps being taken towards a brave new world in cataloguing and resource discovery.</p><p>Hopefully, some of my readers have a more positive experience than I have when they speak to other library workers about current and upcoming changes in cataloguing and metadata. However, based on conversations I've had with other cataloguers at conferences, it sounds like a lackluster response from colleagues regarding these changes is unfortunately common. Sometimes, even the managers of the technical services area arent too interested in hearing about what's coming down the pipe in cataloguing. That's a problem. Maybe that will be a topic of discussion for a future post if readers are interested....</p><p>So, maybe it's not entirely surprising to hear that a lot of cataloguers and metadata librarians have had a hard time finding the time and intellectual energy to learn the latest about the LRM model. I have to admit that keeping up to date with the training has fallen off my radar in the past year or so. I think that the last day I spent any time thinking about it was a very cold winter day when I was trying to make sense of the concepts of nomen and res in terms of how they might help with improving serials cataloguing. I suppose I could say that the holidays and then a deadly virus that sent us into isolation overtook the little bit of attention I had left. The other day I thought that it might be time for me to pick up my quest to keep up with LRM development.</p><p>One thing that I found is that the Catalogers Learning Workshop (CLW) added some training on serials cataloguing and LRM. So, maybe this is where I can pick up where I felt off.</p><p>I thought that the readers of this column may be interested in the LRM training series that is available through the CLW website <a href="https://www.loc.gov/catworkshop/RDA2020/index.html" target="_blank">https://www.loc.gov/catworkshop/RDA2020/index.html</a></p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-44783766663570189092020-10-17T07:48:00.001-07:002020-10-17T07:48:02.006-07:00A bit more from the Data Deluge Column<p> Here are another 4 columns I wrote:</p><p>1) Are your devices eating up all of your time?</p><p><a class="font-weight-light link-dark" href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Donna%20Ellen%20Frederick" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="Donna Ellen Frederick">Frederick, D.E.</a><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px;"> (2017), "Where does the time go? A perceived shortage of time in the digital age – the Data Deluge Column", </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">Library Hi Tech News</a></i><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px;">, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 1-7. </span><a class="intent_doi_link Citation__identifier__link" href="https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-01-2017-0005" style="background: rgba(0, 163, 168, 0.13); border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; color: #00292b; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;" title="DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-01-2017-0005">https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-01-2017-0005</a></p><p>I was feeling pretty melancholy when I wrote this paper. However, since I wrote it, I've noticed that it is an increasingly common topic in both academic papers and the popular media. We spend a lot of time engaging with electronic devices and the information they present to us. This is having an impact on various aspects of our lives.</p><p>2) AI for librarians</p><p><a class="font-weight-light link-dark" href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Donna%20Ellen%20Frederick" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="Donna Ellen Frederick">Frederick, D.E.</a><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px;"> (2020), "Librarians in the era of artificial intelligence and the data deluge", </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">Library Hi Tech News</a></i><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px;">, Vol. 37 No. 7, pp. 1-7. </span><a class="intent_doi_link Citation__identifier__link" href="https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-03-2020-0029" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-03-2020-0029">https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-03-2020-0029</a></p><p>So, this paper hasn't created any discussion! Perhaps it is too new. However, AI is becoming increasingly present in our day to day life and I thought that librarians would be interested in thinking about and discussing the topic. Hopefully, more library workers will read it soon and start the discussion.</p><p>3) Predatory publishers and how librarians can help</p><p><a class="font-weight-light link-dark" href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Donna%20Ellen%20Frederick" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="Donna Ellen Frederick">Frederick, D.E.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> (2020), "Scholarly communications, predatory publishers and publish or perish culture in the 2020s", </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">Library Hi Tech News</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">, Vol. 37 No. 5, pp. 1-11.</span></p><p> This paper builds on the previous column about Open Science, ongoing discussions in libraries about predatory publishers (made famous by Bealls' List), and the challenges faced by new researchers I learned about when I was working as an information specialist. While none of the topics I discuss are new to libraries, I hoped to bring all of the issues together in a way that might help to spark some discussion in the field.</p><p>4) Deep learning in the AI field</p><p><a class="font-weight-light link-dark" href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Donna%20Ellen%20Frederick" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="Donna Ellen Frederick">Frederick, D.E.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> (2019), "Deep learning for librarians", </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">Library Hi Tech News</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 16-22. </span><a class="intent_doi_link Citation__identifier__link" href="https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-09-2019-0067" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-09-2019-0067">https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-09-2019-0067</a> </p><p>So, there hasn't been too much interest in this topic in the library field. However, I feel that this is an important aspect of AI for library workers to know about. Deep learning may be disruptive to traditional reference service but it does not necessarily need to be disruptive in a bad way. In the column, I suggest how librarians might be useful in terms of helping with deep learning processes.</p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-88112313905709071282020-10-16T15:26:00.001-07:002020-10-16T15:26:07.508-07:00Free course on how to write and publish scientific papers<p> I've been writing this blog for about 8 years now and over time the target audience I've written for has changed. This spring I was teaching classes for summer students, post-docs, and new scientists on how to conduct literature searches using the databases and citation management software available at the research centre where I worked. I'm not sure if anyone from my classes still looks at these posts. However, maybe some do and maybe some of my other readers are interested in this topic because they may either do their own research or help others to do scientific literature searching and writing papers.</p><p>So, about a week ago I tried out a new free course on Coursera called <i>How to write and publish a scientific paper</i>. The instructors describe the course as being one that is created by PhD students for PhD students. However, the language, pace of instruction, and hands-on exercises make the course suitable for any students and librarians who might be interested in learning about this process or refining their skill level.</p><p>The course was created by students at Ecole Polytechnique in France. The link that I provide below is for the English version of the course but there is also a French version. While most of the students have a fairly thick French accent and the accent is different than the French accent we are accustomed to hearing in Canada, all of the videos also have an easy to access transcript making it easy to understand the lectures until a person becomes accustomed to the accent of the presenters.</p><p>I am currently several modules into the course. There is one suggestion that I have for anyone who is interested in taking the course. The presenters suggest using Google Scholar for literature searches. While it is possible to retrieve good quality scientific literature using the method they suggest, I personally recommend that anyone who took my classes on how to use Scopus and the Ovid databases, that they continue to use that approach to finding scientific literature. However, if you are out of school and don't yet work for an employer who gives you access to better scientific literature databases such as Scopus or Web of Science, you might need to use Google Scholar. That being said, Saskatchewan residents have access to EBSCOs Academic Search Complete through their public or regional library. This is also a good source of scientific literature.</p><p>Here is the URL for the class:</p><p><a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/how-to-write-a-scientific-paper/home/welcome" target="_blank">ttps://www.coursera.org/learn/how-to-write-a-scientific-paper/home/welcome</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Note that while this course is free, Coursera offers a premium version of the course for a cost. Typically the premium version allows you to submit graded assignments and get an official certificate of completion at the end of the class. It's not necessary to pay for the premium version to learn the content taught in the class.<br /></p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-22976777348551195902020-10-15T21:42:00.000-07:002020-10-15T21:42:00.097-07:00Cataloguing calculator and other favourites<h3 style="text-align: left;">The Cataloguing Calculator</h3><div><br /></div>Back in 2012 I wrote a post about the cataloging calculator which included some exercises for those who want to learn how to use it. That post still gets stats and I get a couple of emails each year asking about the tool. So, I figure that the tool and the post might be of interest to my new readers. Have a look at the original post: <a href="http://donnaefrederick.blogspot.com/2012/06/metadata-update-8-cataloguing.html" target="_blank">http://donnaefrederick.blogspot.com/2012/06/metadata-update-8-cataloguing.html</a><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Metadata Maker</h3><div><br /></div><div>Another tool from a few years back is The Metadata Maker which was created by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. This is a particularly useful tool to use when you need to get cataloguing help from subject or language experts who may have little or no cataloguing experience. I've used the tool with my research assistant who created records using it. I then loaded all of her records into MARCEdit where I corrected and enriched her records. <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the link below will take you to the form for the metadata maker for a monograph. Note that there are additional forms for serials, data, ebooks, maps, theses and dissertations, etc. There is a drop-down menu on the form that you can use to access the other forms.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://quest.library.illinois.edu/marcmaker/" target="_blank">http://quest.library.illinois.edu/marcmaker/</a><br /></div>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-53310790627150972942020-10-14T14:23:00.000-07:002020-10-14T14:23:09.734-07:00Announcement about a free EBSCO webinar on "The Science behind the Preservation and Conservation of Archival Records"<p>Information about this free webinar just came through one of my social media feeds. It might be of interest to some of the followers of this blog. </p><p>This has been cut and paste from the original announcement: </p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">Please be invited to join the free Webex webinar "The Science behind the Preservation and Conservation of Archival Records" of the University of Perpetual Help System Laguna Master of Library and Information Science, Graduate School in partnership with EBSCO Information Services will hold its First FREE Webinar.</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;" /><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;"><div dir="auto">DATE: November 28, 2020, Saturday</div><div dir="auto">TIME: 10:00 am to 12:00 nn (PHT)</div><div dir="auto">CHANNEL: Cisco Webex<br /><br /></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;"><div dir="auto">Our resource speaker is Hon. Lourdes T. David, Member, Professional Regulatory Board for Librarians<br /><br /></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;"><div dir="auto">The objectives of the webinar include:</div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;"><div dir="auto">1. To acquire new knowledge in the preservation of Archival Records.</div><div dir="auto">2. To know the science behind the conservation of Archival Records.</div></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">" Registration link is here >> <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bit.ly/UPHSL-Webinar-Registration?fbclid%3DIwAR3_oaQMKlYV1fewOXzT7Y6JtAisyrudRXvms4e__GeZEt9ovf9MWFiotq4&source=gmail&ust=1602720280111000&usg=AFQjCNEffUqUkvDj8GML7bhwtqiO8yMx_A" href="https://bit.ly/UPHSL-Webinar-Registration?fbclid=IwAR3_oaQMKlYV1fewOXzT7Y6JtAisyrudRXvms4e__GeZEt9ovf9MWFiotq4" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank" title="https://bit.ly/UPHSL-Webinar-Registration?fbclid=IwAR3_oaQMKlYV1fewOXzT7Y6JtAisyrudRXvms4e__GeZEt9ovf9MWFiotq4">bit.ly/UPHSL-Webinar-<wbr></wbr>Registration</a></span>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-61884748971855246332020-10-13T07:27:00.000-07:002020-10-13T07:27:00.891-07:00More from the Data Deluge Column<p> Hopefully, you had a chance to look at one or more of the columns I wrote about the other day. </p><p>In today's post, I have another 4 papers to share with you.</p><p><br /></p><p>1) My BIBFRAME column</p><p><a class="font-weight-light link-dark" href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Donna%20E.%20Frederick" style="background: rgba(0, 163, 168, 0.13); border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;" title="Donna E. Frederick">Frederick, D.E.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> (2016), "Metadata specialists in transition: from MARC cataloging to linked data and BIBFRAME (data deluge column)", </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">Library Hi Tech News</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 1-5. </span><a class="intent_doi_link Citation__identifier__link" href="https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-03-2016-0015" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-03-2016-0015">https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-03-2016-0015</a>2</p><p>Let's just say that 4 years after I wrote this column, BIBFRAME remains a somewhat difficult topic to discuss - especially with those working outside of the cataloguing and metadata discipline. However, I think that the points I made in this column remain valid today and that the key is that cataloguing and metadata will remain in transition for a very long time. This transition includes both theoretical and practical aspects.</p><p>2) 4IR and technological haves and have-nots</p><p><a class="font-weight-light link-dark" href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Donna%20Ellen%20Frederick" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="Donna Ellen Frederick">Frederick, D.E.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> (2019), "The Fourth industrial revolution and the digital divide", </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">Library Hi Tech News</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">, Vol. 36 No. 7, pp. 12-17. </span><a class="intent_doi_link Citation__identifier__link" href="https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-07-2019-0048" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-07-2019-0048">https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-07-2019-0048</a></p><p>Back in the 1990s, there was a lot of talk about libraries helping to bridge the digital divide. In this column, I talked about a new digital divide that the 4IR appears to be creating.</p><p>3) How are new technologies changing how we look for and receive information</p><p><a class="font-weight-light link-dark" href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Donna%20Ellen%20Frederick" style="background: rgba(0, 163, 168, 0.13); border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;" title="Donna Ellen Frederick">Frederick, D.E.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> (2019), "Information seeking in the age of the data deluge", </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">Library Hi Tech News</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 6-10. </span><a class="intent_doi_link Citation__identifier__link" href="https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-10-2018-0065" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-10-2018-0065">https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-10-2018-0065</a></p><p>I thought that this paper might generate more interest than it did. Perhaps I didn't give it the best title. Information seeking, which technically the correct terminology, sounds a little dry. In fact, what I was talking about in this paper has to do with the fact that increasing amounts information is being pushed towards us by our devices, social media and algorithms that predict our information needs. This is different than in the past where information seekers purposely and deliberately consulted information sources such as libraries.</p><p>4) This column took a big picture view of library data</p><p><a class="font-weight-light link-dark" href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Donna%20Ellen%20Frederick" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="Donna Ellen Frederick">Frederick, D.E.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> (2017), "Library data: what is it and what changes do libraries need to make? (the Data Deluge Column)", </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">Library Hi Tech News</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">, Vol. 34 No. 8, pp. 1-7. </span><a class="intent_doi_link Citation__identifier__link" href="https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-06-2017-0044" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-06-2017-0044">https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-06-2017-0044</a></p><p>What I found the most interesting about this column is that most of the discussion came from outside of the library community. In fact, people working in the area of blockchain seemed to be the most interested. Maybe the title sounds a little dry and technical for a lot of library workers. However, I'd like to challenge more library workers to read it and think about all of the data that libraries collect, store, organize and use. We take so much of what we do and why we do it for granted.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hopefully, there was something of interest. The next time I discuss my column, I will share some columns for which I didn't get quite as much discussion. For the most part, I think that this is because most of these columns are newer and not as many people have had a chance to read them yet. </p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-44802592973687993232020-10-11T06:01:00.001-07:002020-10-11T06:01:00.270-07:00Learning more about current and emerging topics in libraries: WebJunction<p> For the past 10 years or so, I have been studying the impact of technological change on libraries. While my focus has been on disruptions in technical services, I follow all aspects of change in libraries. Electronic resources in libraries are an obvious example of disruptive technological change and the shift to linked-data appears to be an emerging disruption. However, COVID seems to have brought on a whole new slate of disruptions for libraries ranging from how we think about and plan our physical spaces and collections and the ways in which we can offer new remote services. These disruptions seem to touch practically every aspect of library work.</p><p>When I want to learn more about current issues in libraries that represent challenges, if not outright disruptions, I often turn to OCLC's WebJunction. It seems to me that in the past I had to be working at a library that was a member of OCLC to view their webinars for free. However, whether or not that was once the case, their recorded webinars appear to now be free for everyone. You can access them here:</p><p><a href="https://www.webjunction.org/events/archives.html" target="_blank">https://www.webjunction.org/events/archives.html</a><br /></p><p>WebJunction is another website to keep bookmarked or, if you prefer, you can set up an RSS feed to be notified of when new webinars are made available.</p><p>If you want to get more serious about updating your skills and knowledge in a particular area of library work, WebJunction also offers various streams of "courses" for which you can get a certificate of completion. When I last checked into this service, you need to get a free account to take the courses and get the certificates. To browse through the topics covered by their courses, have a look at the pages for WebJunction courses:</p><p><a href="https://learn.webjunction.org/?_ga=2.241857730.1935648994.1602248352-115620825.1602038124" target="_blank">https://learn.webjunction.org/?_ga=2.241857730.1935648994.1602248352-115620825.1602038124</a><br /></p><p><br /></p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-81110840283582181642020-10-10T06:52:00.000-07:002020-10-10T06:52:00.515-07:00The Data Deluge Column<p> For the past 4 years I have been a columnist for <i>Library Hi-Tech News</i>. I feel truly honoured to have the opportunity to do this writing and engage in discussion with the readers of my column. While these papers are not the traditional type of peer-reviewed papers that academic librarians typically publish, I have found the process of researching and writing the column and engaging in discussion and debate with my readers to be one of the most professionally rewarding experiences I've ever had. I thought that I'd scatter a few blog posts here and there to introduce some of the columns I've written. This is not to toot my own horn but to, hopefully, widen the audience for this writing and also increase awareness and discussion of these topics in the library field.</p><p>For a very long time I have been very interested in the topic of disruptive change in libraries and about 10 years ago I set out to make a concerted effort to study the changes and document what I learned along the way. Being asked to write a column has given me an outlet for writing about what I have been learning.</p><p>I'll start by talking about the columns by introducing four of the papers for which I got a lot of feedback and discussion and which ended up being cited in other papers. Unfortunately, the column is not open access so you may need to either search for the articles via your library's discovery layer or ejournal subscriptions or request them on interlibrary loan.</p><p>1) Column on libraries and the 4th industrial revolution</p><p><a class="font-weight-light link-dark" href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Donna%20Ellen%20Frederick" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="Donna Ellen Frederick">Frederick, D.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> (2016), "Libraries, data and the fourth industrial revolution (Data Deluge Column)", </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">Library Hi Tech News</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">, Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 9-12. </span><a class="intent_doi_link Citation__identifier__link" href="https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-05-2016-0025" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-05-2016-0025">https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-05-2016-0025</a></p><p>This paper remains highly popular and I continue to get email on a monthly basis about it. In terms of citations, I find it interesting that people outside the library field are citing it in their own papers. In this column, I explained how there has been a series of industrial revolutions and that we are now entering a phase of a new industrial revolution which involves technologies such as robots, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. The 4IR, as it is now called, is a data and information-driven technological revolution. In the paper, I discuss how this revolution could be disruptive to libraries as well as how we seek and use data and information in general.</p><p>2) Column on the changes in cataloguing</p><p><a class="font-weight-light link-dark" href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Donna%20Ellen%20Frederick" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="Donna Ellen Frederick">Frederick, D.E.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> (2017), "Disruption or revolution? The reinvention of cataloguing (Data Deluge Column)", </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">Library Hi Tech News</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">, Vol. 34 No. 7, pp. 6-11. </span><a class="intent_doi_link Citation__identifier__link" href="https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-07-2017-0051" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-07-2017-0051">https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-07-2017-0051</a></p><p>This is my second most popular column. As expected, most of the interest in this column has come from within the library field and, more specifically, from cataloguers and technical services managers. In this column, I looked at revolutionary development in technology and five related changes in cataloguing and library data which I argued are catalysts for significant change in the theory and discipline of cataloguing.</p><p>3) Column about open science and libraries</p><p><a class="font-weight-light link-dark" href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Donna%20Ellen%20Frederick" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="Donna Ellen Frederick">Frederick, D.E.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> (2016), "Data, Open Science and libraries – The Data Deluge Column", </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">L</a></i><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">ibrary Hi Tech News</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">, Vol. 33 No. 8, pp. 11-16. </span><a class="intent_doi_link Citation__identifier__link" href="https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-09-2016-0040" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-09-2016-0040">https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-09-2016-0040</a></p><p>I wrote this article when I was still a metadata librarian at an academic library but the topic came to be front and centre a few years later when I took a job as an information specialist (embedded librarian) in a research centre. While I didn't know it at the time I wrote it, I came to learn that the topics of open science and research data management are important emerging topics in academic and research libraries.</p><p>4) My first column</p><p><a class="font-weight-light link-dark" href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Donna%20E%20Frederick" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" title="Donna E Frederick">Frederick, D.E.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> (2016), "Technological change, today and yesterday", </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0741-9058" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007377; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;">Library Hi Tech News</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 5-8. </span><a class="intent_doi_link Citation__identifier__link" href="https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-12-2015-0084" style="background: rgba(0, 163, 168, 0.13); border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; color: #00292b; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;" title="DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-12-2015-0084">https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-12-2015-0084</a></p><p>While not quite as popular as the 3 columns I already discussed, I was surprised how much feedback I got about this column in which I introduced both the column and my background in libraries and dealing with technological change. What strikes me is that many people are not aware of how much libraries have changed in the past 40 years or so.</p><p>In a few days, I'll share another 4 columns. The next ones will be those that are less discussed but I hope people will read and perhaps will spark new discussions.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-31128441328811938582020-10-09T05:58:00.003-07:002020-10-09T05:58:36.971-07:00Keeping up to date in technical services: Catalogers Learning Workshop (CLW)<p> Today's post features some free cataloguing training that is offered by the Library of Congress via what is called the Catalogers Learning Workshop.</p><p>This is the website: <a href="https://www.loc.gov/catworkshop/" target="_blank">https://www.loc.gov/catworkshop/</a></p><p>This is an important website for all cataloguers to bookmark. I use it as a gateway for finding free training resources related to RDA, the 3R Project and BIBFRAME / linked data in particular. However, it is also good for all sorts of cataloguing topics related to LC including more traditional topics such as subject headings and classification.</p><p>I have a few comments to make about LC cataloging training. LC is considered the go-to authority for cataloguing standards and training. In my opinion, the best and most thorough training comes through programs like BIBCO and NACO. A few years ago I was lucky to get NACO training from Paul Frank at LC when the library I worked for at the time joined a NACO funnel. It was excellent training. However, not every library or cataloguer is necessarily part of one of these cooperatives or may have institutional support or the opportunity to join a funnel. CLW offers a great alternative or supplementary source of training and professional development for all cataloguers. I personally have used the CLW content for my own professional development and reused and adapted their content when training others. </p><p>On the downside, there is a lot of taped webinars and other content to sift through when it comes to all of the webinars and documentation LC has produced for cataloguers. Some of what is available is getting older. As mentioned in a previous post, we don't always have the time to sift through all of this. Sometimes it comes down to whether or not we have more time or more money to invest in training. Unfortunately, we often find ourselves a little short of both. For those of you who do have a bit of a training budget, OCLC has some recommendations for places where cataloguers and other technical services library workers can get training:</p><p> <a href="https://help.oclc.org/Librarian_Toolbox/Supplemental_training_resources" target="_blank">https://help.oclc.org/Librarian_Toolbox/Supplemental_training_resources</a></p><p>While there is some free training available via these resources, the vast majority of it has an associated fee. In my own experience, the benefit I have found with the for-fee services is that the instructors have whittled down the content and made it a little more practical relative to much of the free LC training. None-the-less, the free LC training is still a good first stop for anyone looking to keep their skills and knowledge up to date.</p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-34028101072130226882020-10-08T11:26:00.001-07:002020-10-08T11:26:02.885-07:00Article about the X̱wi7x̱wa library at UBC and their approach to classification<p> The way that I conceptualize the topic of classification in libraries is that a physical resource needs to sit somewhere on a shelf or in some other type of container and the "place where it sits" needs to be assigned some sort of code that makes the item discoverable and retrievable. The items can be discoverable either by searching in the library's discovery service or catalogue or by browsing around the shelves. The items are retrievable when the patron is able to find a record for the item in the catalogue, makes note of the classification code assigned to it and then uses that code to retrieve items from the shelves. I once worked in a library that used accession numbers to organize their films and art catalogues on the shelf. With accession numbers, the first item added to the collection has the lowest number and the most recent one has the highest. The numbers have little to no meaning in themselves except to indicate whether the item was added to the collection recently or a very long time ago. The collections in question were closed collections and patrons browsed through a paper catalogue to make requests for the films or catalogues they wanted. All they needed to do was to supply library staff with the access number for the resource they wanted to use and it was easy for staff to retrieve whatever was needed. The accession numbers worked fine for this purpose. However, with larger collections shelved in open stacks, the idea of a classification number of some sort such those assigned according to Dewey Decimal Classification DDC or Library of Congress Classification LCC is desirable. DDC and LCC are primarily organized by classes of subjects and then further broken down, depending on the classification area, by other facets such as geographical location, time period, musical genre, scientific discipline, etc. For patrons who wish to browse through the shelves, this type of classification can be very useful because it tends to bring together, or colocate, like resources. Also, when a patron is searching the shelves for a known item, the nature of the classification system makes it possible to make serendipitous discoveries of other useful resources. Because of the convenience that classification systems create for both library staff and patrons, the use of a classification system in libraries is ubiquitous with DDC being the most common in school and public libraries and LCC being the most common in academic and research libraries.</p><p>As someone who spent a number of years doing both reference and cataloguing work, I've seen the other, darker side, of classification systems. The most pedestrian of "problems" with classification systems is that a resource can be "about" many different topics but it can only sit on one location on the shelf. Working at the reference desk, I was keenly aware that I had to do a good catalogue search when a patron wanted extensive coverage on a topic because I knew that not everything they wanted may be placed in the same classification number area because of this limitation. It was not unusual for patrons to report book that was "misshelved" or "has the wrong call number" because it was not classified in the way that the patron might have expected. While mistakes were occasionally made, for the most part, the assigned classification number was essentially correct although, the item could also have been classified in other areas of the collection as well. As a cataloguing librarian, copy cataloguers often presented problematic classification situations where, for example, a liaison librarian or faculty member wanted a book classified in a certain LC area while the CIP (Cataloging in Publication) data and World Cat indicated that it should be classified in another area. There were a few times when the reverse sort of situation occurred. This is where a liaison librarian was "not happy" that a certain book was classified in their collection area.... Or, there would be the situations where liaison librarians would like lists of all of the books in a certain LC range so that they would know what books are in their subject area. Many times I explained that a more helpful report may be of books that have certain subject headings but I was never successful in convincing anyone that lists of books in LC areas might not truly catch all of the resources useful to their clients.<br /></p><p>So, when I discuss these issues with LCC and DDC, they might be a headache for library workers on occasion but not really anything that is too serious. But, what if the classification system makes no sense to you at all? What if it implies something negative about your language, your culture, your religion and your world view? Certainly, the way we make sense of things is rooted in our world view. Our world view makes some things seem natural and logical while blinding us to other things. LCC and DDC are deeply rooted in an Anglo-American, Eurocentric world view which has traditionally held the cultures it colonized as being outdated, superstitious, irrelevant, etc. In recent years, the dominant culture in North America has begun to recognize the negative impact of colonization. While government initiatives such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission TRC have focused on specific forms of colonization, namely the residential schools, there has been growing recognition that colonization has been damaging to the fabric of society. As we know better, we try to do better. So, what does a cataloguer do when they are faced with the strongly biased worldview and the language they encounter in LCC and DCC as well as LC Subject Headings LCSH or even some of the Canadian Subject Headings CSH? For myself, I have actually felt shame about not being able to find more respectful classification numbers and subject headings for indigenous topics. Resolving this is going to take a lot of time and effort. Ultimately, we need to start somewhere and, I guess, that recognizing the problem is the first step.</p><p>So, for today's post I thought at I would share an article from a 2019 issue of <i>Yes</i> magazine on what the X̱wi7x̱wa library at UBC has been doing to address the issue of reflecting indigenous cultures and world views in library classification. I first heard about the X̱wi7x̱wa library about 10 years ago and enjoy hearing about their initiatives. I felt that this article does a good job of talking about what they have done, why they decided to do things the way that they have and how the library is received locally.</p><p>Enjoy:</p><p><a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/03/22/decolonize-western-bias-indigenous-library-books/" target="_blank">https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/03/22/decolonize-western-bias-indigenous-library-books/</a><br /></p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-84403781734395322082020-10-07T20:38:00.001-07:002020-10-07T20:38:01.711-07:00MARCEdit song<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Some of you may use MARCEdit every day, some of you may want to start using it and some of you may not have heard of this MARCEdit thing..... ok, well, for those of you who catalogue, MARCEdit is likely your friend or you would really like to make friends with it. This is especially the case if you have to deal with record loads from vendors or you have to migrate your ILS.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I heard this song today and just had to share it with those of you who are in the MARCEdit fan club. I don't think that I have ever heard of a song that relates to cataloguing but.... here's one for your enjoyment.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MLKnh6H2ssw" width="320" youtube-src-id="MLKnh6H2ssw"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><br /> <p></p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-50495104542114622182020-10-06T19:51:00.001-07:002020-10-06T19:51:13.756-07:00More free professional development resources for librarians<p>Based on the number of views of the post on keeping up to date in technical services, there is a lot of interest in the topic of... well, how to keep up to date in the field.</p><p>While the resource I have to share with you today is not specifically for technical services, it contains many free, timely, and useful training resources that are available during the month of October. Some of the live events have already occurred but there are recordings for most of them in the archives of the organization that hosted them or there is a notice that a recording will be posted at some point in the future. There is a lot of variety in the topics covered.</p><p>The resource is on a website hosted by OCLC called "WebJunction". I've found the website to be a useful resource for professional development resources over the years. The page of most interest today contains resources collected by the Wyoming State Library.</p><p><a href="Wyoming State Librar" target="_blank"> https://www.webjunction.org/news/webjunction/free-webinars-for-library-staff.html</a></p><p>If you might want to bookmark the WebJunction website and browse around on it when you have time. There is a lot of interesting content there ranging from short instructional lessons that can be used by teachers to webinars for library staff and papers about new and emerging trends in libraries.</p><p>Hope that you find something of interest here!</p><p>For those of you who are tech services types, I'll post something specifically for you soon.</p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-65232272849112734352020-10-01T21:25:00.002-07:002020-10-01T21:25:59.825-07:00U.S. Indigenous Literature Awards Webinar<p><br /></p><p>The ALA has announced a free webinar on October 22nd: </p><h2 class="pull-left" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #cc0000; font-family: Lato, lato, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 5px; vertical-align: middle;">The American Indian Youth Literature Awards</h2><div><br /></div><div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="field-items" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.4rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494949; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.4rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1rem 0rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For more information and to register, see this website:</span></span></p></div></div></div><p> <a href="http://www.ala.org/educationcareers/american-indian-youth-literature-awards-discussion-and-reflection" target="_blank">http://www.ala.org/educationcareers/american-indian-youth-literature-awards-discussion-and-reflection</a></p></div><p>If you are interested in the webinar but can't attend on the date and time, register for it and you will get a recording 7 days latter.</p><p><br /></p><p>This information was published on the ALA website:</p><p><br /></p><div class="online-learning-dates" style="background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="date clearfix" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="date-date" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 1em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thursday, 10/22/2020</div><div class="date-times " style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><ul style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.75; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1rem 0rem; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4.8rem; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">12:00 PM-1:00 PM (Eastern)</li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">11:00 AM-12:00 PM (Central)</li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">10:00 AM-11:00 AM (Mountain)</li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">9:00 AM-10:00 AM (Pacific)</li></ul></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="field-items" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.4rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494949; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.4rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1rem 0rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494949; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.4rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1rem 0rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494949; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.4rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1rem 0rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494949; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.4rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1rem 0rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494949; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.4rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1rem 0rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Indigenous stories are all around us, but fewer than 1% of books published for kids in the U.S. are by Indigenous writers.US publishers are overwhelmingly ignoring the contributions of 574 Tribal Nations. The American Indian Youth Literature Award winners and honor books celebrate literature by Native authors and illustrators with the world. Each year AILA awards honor books by authors from different tribes and celebrates our thriving cultures, languages, and arts. This session will give an overview of the American Indian Youth Literature Awards, highlight the 2020 award winners, and reflect on the impact of the awards on kidlit publishing.</span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494949; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.4rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1rem 0rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">All registrants will receive a copy of the recording 7 days after the webinar. </span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494949; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.4rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1rem 0rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494949; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.4rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1rem 0rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p></div></div></div>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2599308662391158026.post-17647493098890118102020-09-30T20:54:00.003-07:002020-09-30T20:56:17.023-07:00How to keep up-to-date in library technical services<p> In the past 10 years, we have seen massive changes in library technical services. Old processes and practices are gradually becoming obsolete. Technical services workers often find themselves scrambling to update their knowledge and skills. </p><p>A particular challenge comes along when library leaders need to make a choice about what new services or practices to adopt. Because of the rate of change, it is simply difficult to keep up to date. With a shrinking workforce and increasing workloads, there often is little time to spend learning about what is new and upcoming in the field. How can these leaders feel confident in their choices when they simply don't feel that they have the information they need? </p><p>Those who are new to the field face another challenge. Employers often look to "new graduates" to have the latest skills and knowledge. These new employees may be relied upon to have expertise in the new practices and processes. The reality is that many of our schools simply can't be as agile as employers might like them to be. </p><p>COVID has brought new challenges to libraries. The recent story about COVID-related cuts to the Birmingham Public Library (see: https://abc3340.com/news/local/birmingham-budget-approved-by-city-council) is likely a common situation in cities and towns across North America and across the globe. COVID is costly and library budgets are taking a hit. Not only is the number of library staff being reduced, but training budgets are also currently non-existent. This is all occurring in a context where citizens, students, and workers still rely on their libraries and expect and need service. So, COVID has made it that much harder to keep up with the workload let alone do professional development.</p><p>I've worked in the library field since the 1980s and have seen a lot of change since then. There was a time when library employees expected to be trained in new technology and new practices. For a number of years, I was a trainer at a public library providing such training. There was a training budget that covered training for all staff and professional development money was available to librarians. Now, all of that seems like a luxury that many libraries can no longer enjoy. Yet, how do we do our jobs well? How do we not get all stressed-out by this?</p><p>My hope is that in this blog I can share some of the free and efficient resources that library workers can use to update their knowledge and skills and keep up to date about emerging trends in the field.</p><p>The recorded ALCTS webinars are a good source for this purpose: <a href="http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/past/webinar">http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/past/webinar</a></p><p>While there is a charge to attend the webinars when they are first made available, they become free after 6 months. </p><p>I will try to publish at least one blog post per week that contains more resources that can help us keep up to date in the field or learn the new skills we need to do our jobs. If you are interested in a particular topic, let me know and I will see what I can find and include it in the blog. Contact me at <a href="mailto:d67frederick@gmail.com">d67frederick@gmail.com</a></p><p> </p>Donna Frederickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748459580955718363noreply@blogger.com0