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Libraries are Political

April 27, 2011 //

Canada’s 41st election started out sort of dull and predictable (c.f. the lack-lustre debates). But, the recent news about the NDP’s surge has made things pretty darn interesting. I’ve been glued to the polls and news reports.  (This is my way of saying:  I’m too distracted to keep up the pace I set on this site, right now. Regular posts will resume next week.)

I’ve been looking around for ways Canadian libraries have supported voter engagement and turnout. Libraries across the country have put up information tables, dug out history and contemporary politics books for displays,  and posted information and links online.

Is there more the library community can do than displays and links? What about cultivating the next generation of young voters? Are there election themed story-times out there? Are we engaging new Canadians in their new home’s politics?

The LIS community should be thinking of ways to help create and nurture engaged political communities. They’ll come in handy when libraries need protection from book banners and budget hawks. This will take more than just blog posts and Bristol board displays during election season. But, the results could be huge!

Libraries are political (but not necessarily partisan). History has shown how access to books and information (not to mention community space and communication tools) are powerful political tools. To ignore this is to ignore the important role libraries have had and can have in the direction of our nation and our world.

We have to play a role in shaping the future, if we want to have a role to play in the future.

Canada Votes May 2nd!!!

***Find out More***

Party websites:
www.liberal.ca
www.conservative.ca
www.blocquebecois.org
www.ndp.ca
www.greenparty.ca

CBC’s Reality Check on Platform Promises

Register to Vote:
www.elections.ca

Apathy is Boring

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Categories Academic Libraries, Libraries in General, Library News, Outreach, Patrons, Public Libraries, User experience

Platform Planks for Librarians: Conservatives Writing Checks on a Rough Track Record

April 21, 2011 //

Stephen Harper & cat, Cheddar

I’ll state up front: the Conservative Party is not my favourite, not by a long shot. But in the interest of fairness, I’ll put up their platform points on the internet and copyright:

In spring 2011, the Conservatives will announce and begin implementing a Digital Economy Strategy, focused on the following five priorities:
* Building world-class digital infrastructure;
* Encouraging businesses to adopt digital technologies;
* Supporting digital skills development;
* Fostering the growth of Canadian companies supplying digital technologies to global markets; and
* Creating made-in-Canada content across all platforms, to bring Canada to the world.[source: CLA platform analysis]

This reads pretty much like the other parties. But, given the CPC’s six years in power, you can bet the primary beneficiaries will be large corporations. And, there will be a wanton lack of transparency, accessibility, and probably unrestrained rising costs that tax payers will have to pay (cf. the F-35 fiasco or the pork barrel spending around the G8/G20).

But wait, there’s more: “A Stephen Harper-led majority Government will also reintroduce and
pass the Copyright Modernization Act, a key pillar in our commitment to make Canada a leader in the global digital economy.”[source] That sounds nice. If this is anything like Bill C-32, it will not be a great boon for librarians already pinched by tight DRM rules and licence agreements.

In my opinion,  I can’t imagine a party whose attitude and behaviour are so far removed from those at the core of Librarianship: fairness, access, transparency, generally being nice and helpful, etc. etc.

***Find out More***

Party websites:
www.liberal.ca
www.conservative.ca
www.blocquebecois.org
www.ndp.ca
www.greenparty.ca

Register to Vote:
www.elections.ca

Apathy is Boring

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Categories Amazing News!, etc., Libraries in General, Library News, Other News

A New Tech Bubble and the Role of Data Management Innovation

April 18, 2011 //

Bloomberg Businessweek published an article last week on a rarely talked about bubble in the tech industry – and social media giants are to blame.

As I understand it, it boils down to this: the current high tech focus is on using data to improve ad revenue via social media.  Or as Jeff Hammerbacher (a former Facebook research scientist) says, “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.”

It sucks because the innovation process of massive social media companies focuses on ads, and so there has been only minimal transferable benefit for other industries that don’t make their money off of marketing. This is bad because transferable innovation  makes for good economic growth and stability.

Here’s where Jeff Hammerbacher comes in. He’s developing software that will allow scientific researchers and other business sectors to apply the marco-level data management tools Google, Facebook and Amazon use to target ads. Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories Other News, Services, Technology, web tools

Why Canada’s Election Matters to Libraries and Librarians

April 14, 2011 //

(a little graphic I made)

With the “Leaders” debates over, all the parties are gearing up for the march to the finish line.

Over these last few weeks of campaigning, among the many issues at hand, it’s important to consider what this election means for libraries and librarians. Helpfully, the CLA has released a tool-kit for librarians that focuses on some of the key issues:

1. Copyright
CLA appreciates the government’s intent to provide copyright legislation which is both balanced and technologically neutral.

Over 21 million library users are seriously concerned about the shape Canadian copyright legislation continues to take.

Library users are the Canadian public: they are not members of a “special interest group” when it comes to copyright.

Copyright laws must reflect the public interest…

2. Library Book Rate
The Library Book Rate is a Canada Post service that provides a reduced rate for mailing library books between libraries and from libraries to their users.

Members of the library community were disappointed to see Private Member’s Bill C-509 get as far as it did in the legislative process, only to have to start over from scratch due to the 2011 federal election call…

3. Initiative for Equitable Library Access (IELA)
CLA’s landmark report (2005), Opening the Book: A Strategy for a National Network for Equitable Library Service for Canadians with Print Disabilities, outlined how the current inadequate and fragmented resources serving Canadians with print disabilities could be organized into an efficient and equitable nationwide library network.

Leadership is needed at the federal government level to coordinate the various elements of the network, known as the Initiative for Equitable Library Access (IELA)…

4. Digital Economy
Canada’s libraries can and should play an important role in the development of a national digital economy…

Also, I’d add as a government librarian that issues of transparency, accountability, and open access to information are hugely important to the sustainability of a democratic government.

Funding information management projects that modernize information sharing and access are essential to keeping up with the speed of government and the needs of Canadians.

Issues of openness and fairness in government is a theme latched onto by all the opposition parties. Yet, only the Liberals’ platform seems to have identified some of the other issues, particularly the digital divide.Correction – Apr 19: The CLA has chosen to put out a release specifically on the Liberal’s platform as it relates to libraries and the digital divide. I will be posting more the other platforms this week. Update – Apr 19: CLA’s rundown on each platform is here.

But, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be on the case of all the parties. Email. Call. Write. Show-up. Ask questions of you local candidates. Demand answers. Most importantly, vote. Remember, the sidelines are for suckers.

Party websites:
www.liberal.ca
www.conservative.ca
www.blocquebecois.org
www.ndp.ca
www.greenparty.ca

Register to Vote:
www.elections.ca

Apathy is Boring

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Categories Libraries in General, Library Bric-a-brac, Library News

Libraries Under Siege! Poor US School Libraries Just Getting Poorer

April 12, 2011 //

Who will help these Dangerous Minds?

From the School Library Journal:

Middle and high school libraries in high poverty areas of the U.S. suffered the most budget cuts in 2010, according to “State of America’s Libraries,” a report from the American Library Association.
While most school libraries managed to escape the economic trials of 2010 largely unscathed, those in high-poverty areas saw average spending on information resources and collection size decrease by 25.5 percent, or to $10,378 in 2010 from $13,935 in 2009.
The results were initially revealed in the American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) 2010 School Libraries Count! survey, which showed that overall school expenditures on information resources were approximately $12,260 in 2010, compared to $13,525 the previous year, a decrease of 9.4-percent.
The survey also found that while schools in low-poverty areas saw slight increases in most areas of collection size, those in low-income areas reported a four percent decrease in books, an 11 percent decrease in video materials, and a whopping 22 percent decrease in periodical subscriptions.[read full post]

The report also points to the unpreparedness of these school libraries to meet future demands for digital media. There has only been a marginal shift towards digital materials. Moreover, there are genuine worries about their ability to provide on-site and remote access to electronic resources right now and down the road.

Hamstringing poorer school libraries now will make it incapacitatingly expensive to catch up. But, it’s not too late. President Obama’s education agenda involves a move away from an addiction to standardized tests and new plans to add more technology into the classroom. School libraries should be an important part of this plan.

Glistening, iPad filled libraries in poorer schools may be a dream. Still, considering the front-line role libraries played in bringing the internet to schools, letting them desiccate is a significant step in the wrong direction.

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Categories Education, Libraries in General, Library News, Literacies, Services, Technology

Towards A Librarian Party Agenda

April 8, 2011 //

It’s Friday, and if you’re wondering what as a good librarian you should be doing, @pcsweeney has a suggestion: party.  Here’s why:

One of the first things that JP said to me about the profession of librarianship and the whole party hard theory was to the effect of needing to celebrate our profession more instead of mourning it. This really hit home for me at the time it was said because I was just reading about layoffs, libraries closing, hours lost, budgets cut, etc… I really feel like there are quite a few people who are quietly mourning the loss of this profession. But there’s no reason that we need to go out quietly. If we do really wind up going out, we should go out loud, kicking, screaming, and celebrating everything that libraries have done for the people of this country for the last 236 years. Really, our fellow librarians have accomplished a whole lot when you sit back and think about it! So now let’s celebrate it![full post]

I get where this is coming from, but should we all stamp around with pints shouting the Anthem for the Already Defeated? Not just yet, though it is a good song.  I really believe the librarian profession has and always will be a process of evolution. There are new job titles, new technologies, but the spirit is always there.

Sweeney gets this and wants to use partying as a tool. Partying facilitates social collaboration; it builds networks and creates roads for innovation. (Depending on consumption levels, some can be more innovative than others. Yet, as Hemmingway says, “Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” Or why you shouldn’t!)

Informal outreach like Sweeney suggests (maybe not always with beers involved) can create a different sort of outcome than you get from more formal approaches like surveys and or interacting with patrons in library.

This is especially important for public libraries (but not just public libraries), where community and social integration can mean as much for improving services as for survival.

The Librarian Party Agenda: honour the past, live the present, celebrate the future. Something to consider.

Cheers!

This was my second choice for a post pic... amazing, right? Fun times!

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Categories Libraries in General, Outreach, Public Libraries, Services, User experience

Margaret Atwood on eBooks, or How Will the Atwood Machine Sign eBooks?

March 29, 2011 //
the atwood machine at work

the Atwood Machine at work

Margret Atwood on the phenomenon of eBooks (via the Globe and Mail):

Every time there is a new medium, people get hypnotized by it: the printing press, radio, television, the Internet. It’s certainly a change in the world, which then somehow adapts. A whole section of society was very upset when zippers came in because they made it easier to seduce people in automobiles. You know, I think we’ve kind of adjusted to zippers by now. Just because you have a zipper doesn’t mean somebody has to unzip it … But you’re talking about e-books and e-readers and text in electronic form and the reading experience…

Well, it’s the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Everybody moves round a place. So the Book of the Month Club disappears and something else takes its share of the market. And then big publishers get in trouble and cut back, and that creates space for other publishers to acquire books they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to get.[read the whole interview]

It’s a bit of an odd interview. Atwood tries to take on the eBook issue from a writer’s perspective. The interviewer seems bent on getting her to declare eBooks and their kin to be a danger to society. Atwood doesn’t take the bait. Instead, she affirms eBooks as part of an ongoing evolution in communication technology.

I like how she ends the interview, responding to the question “Will the world be worse off if e-books fail?”:

Well, first let us picture what kind of event might lead to that: 1. Solar flares, which melt all the e-communication services. 2. Widespread plague, which is going to kill anyone running the companies that make them. So that being the case, I would say yes! That the world will be considerably worse off if, the next morning, you wake up and nobody’s reading anything on e-readers because the event that will have caused that is horrific!

There are people in the Library world who have adopted a sort of apocalyptic tone vis-a-vis eBooks. The full measure of what is lost and what is gained from technology shifts (c.f. the printing press ruined oral culture, but gave us the modern world, great books, etc. etc.) takes a while to shake down.

Atwood’s approach in this interview is a reminder that we don’t know what the full economic, cultural, and creative potential of the eBook will be. Or, how long that will take to come about.

***more on the Atwood Machine***

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Categories Book News, Literacies, Technology, User experience
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