Your assignment, and mine: Saying and doing-keeping up with current topics in the profession

Not too long ago I was in a meeting where a colleague asked me what I do to keep up on the current issues in librarianship.  My response was almost immediate, ‘I read blogs and RSS feeds.’  In this day and age, it seems like the thing to say, yet my answer lacked substance and detail.  As soon as I said it I had the feeling that I had just fallen flat on my face.  Now, when think of that moment, I always feel as if I could have answered that better.  But beyond that I can do far better in my efforts to keep up with what is being discussed in the library profession.  Naturally, my next question is: ‘How does one really keep abreast of the current issues in librarianship?’  Everyone has their methods.  Yes, reading library-related blogs and rss feeds (and making comments of course, being part of the conversation)is important.  But also, picking up the latest (or not so latest but valuable) books being published, staying on top of what is being published in the journals, and of course going to workshops, symposia, presentations, and conferences are also key.  Ok, easier said than done?  You got that right!  I’m not sharing anything that is breaking news to the average librarian. 

That being said, there is something I want from all of you, fellow librarians (lurkers included!).  Post in the comments what you do to keep up on current topics in the profession.  And I want substance.  What do you do that works for you?  And, for those of you who are not librarians, what do you do to keep up on current topics in your profession?  We can seriously learn  a lot from each other if we can share some substantive answers.  So comment away!

For me, I need to adopt one colleague’s organizational methods.  While I am not what I would call organized I need to establish a bit more routine when it comes to staying well read.  The particular colleague I am referring to, while a fairly new librarian, had always been highly organized.  She even has a schedule for posting to her blog.  I need one of those too, but for now I am going to attempt a schedule for staying a bit more current.  I at first thought I would do an article a day and post my thoughts here.  But I realized that was far to ambitious to start with.  Instead, I’ll try an article per week.  Then, I thought it would also be nice to do a book each month.  However I’m worried that will be a bit too much to do four articles and a book.  I don’t want to set a schedule that is not, ultimately, going to work for me.  So I will start with four articles, plus a post for each, each month.  Maybe soon I will do the same with posting on others’ blog posts . . . maybe.  And I expect to be held to that goal by all of you.  If anyone can think of an incentive for me to keep to the goal, by all means make a suggestion.  Maybe if I have a giveaway for the first person who notices I haven’t done four articles in a month and points it out to me.  Good idea?  Or no?  If yes, what should I have as the giveaway?  Please, share your ideas!

Ok, now we all have an assignment.  I, am going to read and post on an article per week.  And you, are going to share what substantive ways you keep up with the current topics in the library, or your respective, profession.

Post-Blogging Workshop

Our blog workshop went well last Thursday.  See my pre-workshop post here.  We had a total of thirteen in attendance, mostly staff, and the conversation was wonderfully engaging. 

My colleague opened with talking about her very organized and well thought out blog.  How she came up with the idea, who her intended audience was (and is), what she writes about and the strategies she uses to attract readers to her blog, as well as increase the chances of readers finding it in an internet search.  Her blog encompasses her life as a librarian and artist.  So, what are some of the things she does to get people to come to her blog?  Well, she is wonderfully unapologetic about her name dropping.  She deliberately includes lots of artists and author names (known and less known) to increase the chances internet searchers will find her blog when searching for a particular name.  Additionally she takes everyone opportunity to talk about her blog (workshops, conferences), includes the URL in her email signature, sent an email blast to her art contacts once it was up and running, listed it on her Facebook page, and, through what she has put on her blog she has started to make some professional connections.  She does much more than this, and has lots of plans for the future.  I am definitely going to follow what she does as she has some great ideas.  The biggest thing that stands out for me with her blog is how organized she is with it and how she keeps a regular schedule for posting.  I, on the other hand, am not so good with the regular posts. 

I then followed with my part of the workshop.  I gave some background to the starting of my blog, why I started it, what I hope to accomplish, etc.  Also, during all of this the attendants had plenty of good questions that kept the conversation moving the entire time.  This is part of why I love doing faculty and staff workshops.  You can plan them down to the minute and you will never be able to include it all because of all the great questions and great conversation.  The things I do to make my blog better . . . writing (of course, like I noted before, I could always do this a bit more often.  If you don’t, your readers will disappear.  No new posts, no readers.), reading and commenting on other blogs (always include your URL!), linking to articles, blogs, and books I write about, I tag (a lot), my blog is linked to Twitter and my Twitter account is linked to my Facebook account so that all my followers know when I have a new post. 

Then we shared other things they could add to their blogs: polls, changes in design, pictures, include posts on ‘hot topics’ (i.e. stirring up controversy by expressing your opinion is not always a bad thing), thank people when they link to your blog, keep your blog organized with tags and categories, and consider inviting others to be a guest bloggers.

Really, the intention of the workshop was to share what we do with our blogs and give our attendants ideas they can adopt, modify, etc.  Naturally, one of the best things to do is talk to others about what they do.  But also visiting other blogs to get ideas is great, as well as reading up on ideas folks share on the web and in books.  I included some links in my last post prior to the workshop.  But we also showed some books we found to be useful in creating the workshop.  I’m not going to recommend any specific ones here but there are plenty to be found at your local library, through interlibrary loan and at your bookstore.  They are easy enough to find. 

It was really a good workshop.  Although, I was surprised by one thing, how many of our attendees didn’t actually have a blog yet.  Many of them were there to learn more about blogs because they have heard about them from friends and family.  Hopefully, we were able to meet their expectations.  And I’m sure we will be repeating this workshop next semester.

Preparing for a workshop on blogs

So a colleague and I are giving a workshop tomorrow to faculty and staff on ways they can improve their blogs once they have started them.  To start, we have decided to talk about our own experiences writing our own blogs by sharing the basic hows, whys and whats.  The intention is to get our attendees to start thinking about what they can apply/adopt /adapt to their own blogs by sharing what we decided to do.  We also hope that it will inspire them to talk about what they are currently doing, or want to do.  Of course we will give them concrete ways to boost traffic on their blogs and track success.  I hope it goes well.  Well, I’m not worried that it will go well.  I guess I’m just curious about exactly how it will turn out.  What will be really interesting will be how the presentation of each of our blogs come off, seeing as we took two very different approaches to creating them.  Mine was unstructured and had very little focus to start.  My colleague gave her blog far more thought and keeps it much more organized than I do mine.  Her posts are awesome, they are like mini essays.  Take a look for yourself.  And wish us luck tomorrow.

And here are a couple things I plan to share with the group.  Because there are multi-part posts on improving your blog I have included instructions on how to get to them and not just the links:

The Journalism Iconoclast  http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/  “So you have a blog.  Now what?”  vols. 1-3  (can be found under ‘Blogging’ category)

Social Signal http://socialsignal.com  Under blog tab, search ‘blog roi’ to get links to a ten part series called “10 ways to maximize your blogs ROI”

IDS conference, Monday 8.3.09

I’m up at SUNY Oswego today for the pre-conference stuff at the IDS conference .  Nothing really to report about the conference yet, we will be collecting for a pizza lunch soon.

Drove up from downstate NY yesterday in very rainy weather.  I got to campus about 5:15 and checked into the dorm.  It was a very quiet night, I was the only one there, but I brought my laptop and amused myself with the Princess Bride and Pirates of the Caribbean DVDs.  Had a  lovely mushroom and cheese burger at the Press Box with a Bass Ale.  This morning I went for forty minute walk along Lake Ontario (yeah, my calf is not ready for intense exercise yet), a breakfast bagel at the Port City Cafe, and browse at the Rivers End Bookstore (I think that is the name).  Then I wandered over to the library to do some blogging and chatting with folks as they checked in and were wandering around.  I guess I should go get my name tag and bag (which will be consigned to grocery duty soon).  Seriously?  Another bag???

Things libraries should Tweet about

Just picked upon this post through Twitter this afternoon.  It is a short post with some good constructive advice on what libraries should consider doing with their Twitter accounts.

Six Things Libraries Should Tweet from Information Tyrannosaur

Monday, July 27th-I’m not doing this . . .

So, yesterday I got into work and checked my Twitter account to see that some folks were participating in “A Day in the Life of a Library . . . “  I thought, interesting, but I don’t have time for this.  I’m leaving for a conference on Sunday and getting my tonsils out on August 6th.  The recovery for the surgery will supposedly take two weeks.  So, after this week, I will be out of the office for three weeks.  THREE WEEKS!  And none of it will be vacation, unless of course you call lying on the couch recovering from minor surgery vacation (Well, I guess it is better than major surgery).  Naturally, blogging about the details of my work life for this week, which is what this project is, does not seem sensible since I am trying to get some things done before I am out.  Another reason is I prefer to stay somewhat anonymous on this blog because I am deliberately blogging as a academic librarian but not as a representative of the institution I work for, or the library.  And the wiki for this project asks for your name (Although, there is no rule I HAVE to give my name).  As of last night at 4:30, when I left work, I was resolved not to do this.  Then, this morning, while getting ready for work (ok, ok, I was in the shower, for some reason my brain occasionally talks some sense into me in the shower) I realized it was a good idea to participate in this.  The main reason is because it is right in line with what my blog is all about, to share with colleagues what it is like to be an academic librarian, inside and outside of the library.  And, as one of my colleagues pointed out, it would give my blog more exposure.  So here I am, a day late (Tuesday) posting my Monday stuff.  And, in the spirit and theme of my blog, I’m not just including the work related stuff, my personal life blends in here, as I’m sure it does with all.  You can’t exactly not share that your Mom called in the afternoon before you left for home when, yes folks, she did.

Morning

• Got to work around 8:30 am, thankfully 287 was ok and kind to my leg.  I’m back driving my car (a manual) after borrowing my Dad’s truck (an automatic-THANKS DAD!) for a week to give my pulled calf muscle a rest.  Yeah, you try working a clutch with a pulled muscle.  So I ended up driving with my leg wrapped in an ace bandage and it worked out great, and a lot better than lying on the couch in pain (yes, looking for sympathy here).
• Checked my email, opened up the ILLiad client to see what requests needed processing and processed them,  I also ordered some books for myself through ILLiad and sent out overdue notices, checked Twitter to discover that this Day in the Life thing was going on and decided not to do it, checked one of my other email accounts (I get library-related newsletters sent there, honestly, that was all I was doing there . . . ), and caught up on reading some of my RSS feeds in my Google Reader account (my library ones . . .).   Then, started feeling guilty about the articles I should start writing.
• A colleague asked via email if anyone was interested in tomorrows 2 pm webinar titled “Academic Librarianship by Design: Enhancing the libraries integration into Course / Learning Management Systems“.  Apparently several of us are interested.  As a result she booked a classroom so we can view it as a group.  (I secretly resolved to buy Smartfood to bring to the event.)
• 10 am I started my weekly Reference Shift.  It was a sloooooow morning.  I got two questions, one was on the phone and was really interlibrary loan, which is good because I do all the interlibrary loan stuff.  But I counted it as a Reference question.  The only other question I got between 10 and 12 was from one of our Circulation Supervisors trying to find out who had their bike chained to the railing on the handicap ramp outside (It belongs to one of our student workers, I marked that down on our statistics too).  Other than that, I cracked open my borrowed copy of Brian Matthew’s new book: Marketing Today’s Academic Library.  Already, a very good read.  And, I worked on outlines for two articles.  So, despite the lack of questions during the last week of our last summer session, I was pretty productive.

Noon

• Left the Reference Desk at noon and logged into my computer to check my email.  Like clockwork, some of my colleagues had already sent out a lunch query.  When we have the time, we got to lunch together at the food court on campus.  Whoo Hoo!  Food!  I’m on a mozzarella cheese, lettuce, and tomato sandwich on whole wheat bread with oil kick lately.  They are SO good!

Afternoon

• After lunch, what did I do after lunch yesterday . . .  Oh yes, pulled, copied and scanned two articles for a faculty member.  Checked ILLiad again and worked on processing some more stuff.  I attempted to read some of the new report from Razorfish “Fluent” but I printed it in a small font and the content, although useful, is very dry (read it at your own peril) and in some ways a no brainer.  So I set that aside and went back to more of Brian Matthew’s book.  I’m almost half way through now.  A very good book, but I’m slowing down on chapter 5, it is about market research and a bit more dense than the first four chapters.  Asked the director’s assistant if the license keys for adding work email to our Blackberries (for me and a colleague) have come in yet.  She said she is still waiting.  Processed the interlibrary loan deliveries that had come in and packaged up some materials that need to be shipped out on Tuesday.  Discovered the Blogher conference, which will be in NYC next year and am seriously considering going.  Mom called around 4:00 to give me an update on my Dad (he has been sick and they discovered he has some kind of tick borne illness, too early to say exactly what, but he’s being treated already and starting to feel a bit better, although apparently the recovery will take some time).  Wrapped up my day, and my leg in the ace bandage, to leave at 4:30.  Off to the Chiropractor to get adjusted.  Hooray!  And then the grocery store for some essentials and home to saute a zucchini for dinner.

LibCamp NYC 2009!

Back at work today after attending LibCamp at Brooklyn College yesterday.  It was my first unconference/libcamp experience.  So, I really didn’t know what to expect.  But I had heard good things about past libcamps.  I also had a feeling something done by METRO and Brooklyn College Library would be pretty good.  About 140 attended  and it ran from 9 am to 4:30 pm.  Yesterday we had academic, public, medical, museum librarians (probably some corporate too) as well as free lancers, someone from Library Journal, and of course folks from METRO.  I’m sure there were more, suffice it to say there was a great mix of people. 

I’m sure many of you are familiar with what libcamp is but for those of you who are not, let me explain.  It is basically, and of course this can vary based on coordinators and attendees, a day long event where there is no formal schedule except for time slots, reserved spaces to hold events and of course the food (breakfast and lunch).  The topics/discussions/events are all determined by the attendees the morning of libcamp.  In advance of yesterday, people put their preferences for events on the designated wiki, along with what they would like to present or facilitate, and voted on which 8 they would most like to attend.  So, when we met in the morning we had a rough outline of what kind of sessions we would have available.  During that morning planning part we all decided as a group the exact discussions and facilitators that would be going on throughout the day.  Then we all just chose what we would like to go to and showed up at the designated times.  At the end of the day we had a closing session where someone from each session did a brief report to the entire group on what happened in each event.  There was lots of good conversation going on and some great networking too. 

The events I attended were great, for the most part:

Session 1 was: Organizing Library Events (Alycia Sellie).  We talked about successes in organizing, as well as some of the challenges.  A lot of great suggestions were tossed around for future events.  Many agreed that partnering with other departments and organizations on campus helps with successful attendance.  Offering your spaces to student organizations to hold their events is great way to do some public relations/marketing work.  Also, one of the medical librarians there noted that their tailored events had good attendance.  If you can offer credits to attending students or make events by invitation and RSVP only than students and faculty seem to be more interested in the event you are holding.  In general we agreed that trying any and all events you can dream up are worth a try.

Session 2 was: Librarianship as intellectual craft (Jonathan Cope).  This was, in my opinion, the best discussion of my day.  It was a much more philosophical discussion than everything else I attended and want to thank Jonathan for coming up with the topic.  We talked about a lot of things: shifting role of the librarian in light of changing information formats, how can we focus on the critical theory of librarianship and not get bogged down with the mechanics, how a theoretical perspective on librarianship can frame one’s craft, library philosophy & politics, how philosophy & politics are different and irrevocably connected, whether librarianship is an art, craft or science,  the need for a professional philosophy based partly upon our history, is such a philosophy too restrictive or whether such a foundation, as part of a continual conversation, gives us parameters to which we can ground our initiatives, and, how we can continue our discussion about these issues in the future.  The title here links to the notes on the wiki.

Session 3 was: Future of digital reference services (Stephen Francoeur).  Again, I have linked to the notes.  Stephen started this session by having the note taker use EtherPad to take notes (it allows multiple people to add to them at once.  And being in a computer lab I was able to have the wiki, EtherPad and Twitter open all at the same time.  So, as the conversation was going on we could watch and take notes and have an additional conversation on Twitter using the #libcampnyc hash tag.  We were all over the place with this conversation, but it was really fun and really well attended.  We started with a quick review of some of the technologies, free and fee based, that are available and some of the issues relating to digital reference.  All of these issues permeated the entire conversation: quality, marketing, experiences, cost effectiveness, problems, does digital reference=face to face, culture of libraries and digital reference, service models (where do we staff these services?), and stand alone vs. cooperative services.  A handful of people  were able to speak directly to their experiences with QuestionPoint’s Ask Us 24/7, some good, some not great.  We quickly got into a discussion about using statistics and transcripts from a service like Ask Us 24/7, as well as the merits of having such data as compared to using an IM or SMS service that did not track conversations for future analysis.  Although, NYU is doing a formal analysis of their SMS reference service and are posting their SMS texts on a blog here.  At the end of the hour we got into an interesting discussion about adopting a standard technology vs. using a variety of different ones.  One person asked the question about standardization, but as the conversation progressed it was clear that standardization is not the best option.  Users are very selective about the technologies, software, interfaces they use based on the functionalities they prefer.  So we came to the conclusion it was more useful for us to remain flexible and adaptable to a variety of digital reference services and users. 

Session 4 was: Critical pedagogy / critical information literacy(Jonathan Cope).  For this event, I will admit I was a bit disappointed.  Although some who attended would, I am certain, have the opposite assessment.  I was hoping for a discussion about teaching practices and the application of teaching methods associated with critical pedagogy, but it turned out to be a revisiting of all the old, and often discussed, issues and complaints associated with library instruction.  The topic was a good one and I think Jonathan started it out well, but I don’t think we got any further.  We drifted into talking about teaching about peer reviewed journals.  Then we talked about the constraints of the one hour session and how it is virtually impossible to more than just teach the basic how tos of searching library tools.  We then moved on to talking about having to teach to assignments (which are mostly horrible).  There was further discussion after this but none of it was useful for me.  It is sad that we seem to be overly focused on teaching the mechanics of research.  As a result, when we are faced with the chance to discuss teaching research in terms of something like critical pedagogy we cannot seem to do it.  The territory is just too foreign for anyone to be adventurous enough to explore.  Again, the topic was great, I just don’t think we ever really got there.

Advice for a newbie to social media

Just browsing on Stephen’s Lighthouse and found a great article he linked to on December 17th on vatornews.  The article, by Mike Fruchter,  is great solid advice on how to make yourself visible and findable through social media.  Now if we can only get that magic article that tells us how to write the best blog posts ever, every time.

Am having trouble linking to Stephen’s post, but I certainly give him credit for finding it.  Here is the link, if it doesn’t work it is on Stephen’s post entitled “Getting Started With Social Media.”

35 tips for getting started with social media

For beginners starting out with social media

Thanks Stephen!