Basically the hardest thing to do is implement any new idea or be innovative when you work for a place where there is very little money, and little room for error. Working for the State of Idaho it’s hard to convince anyone to adopt a new idea, even if it costs nothing and has the capacity to change our customers lives immediately! (For the better!!!)

Reading the SLA Blog Posts today I came across this posting about the Collaboration Project. You will also note that on that same page it mentions how breaking the rules of the status quo and building bridges with new partners are the themes of the SLA in Seattle! Clearly this is my year! Tangents aside…

The Collaboration Project’s motto is “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what we can do together.” This site is about using the interactive web and how to use it best:

“The Collaboration Project is an independent forum of leaders committed to leveraging web 2.0 and the benefits of collaborative technology to solve government’s complex problems. Powered by the National Academy of Public Administration, this “wikified” space is designed share ideas, examples and insights on the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in the field of public governance.”

You can add your own case study, or review other case studies. Take this one from the State of Rhode Island! They implemented web 2.0 and the results were, “Rhode Island adoption of web 2.0-based technology has allowed the government to be more immediately responsive and more directly accessible to its citizens. The services also helped to create greater public engagement in state legislation debates and other political discussions.”

Yes! This is exactly what we needed for so long!!!! (Now I’ll stop asking you how you got your services in web 2.0 at your library!!!)

Found this post on BoingBoing re DRM (digital rights management), and the movement by this group to pressure libraries to stop using DRM in their collections.

But let’s back up a bit. What is, actually, this digital rights management? This is Wikipedia’s definition:

Digital rights management (DRM) is an umbrella term that refers to access control technologies used by publishers and copyright holders to limit usage of digital media or devices. It may also refer to restrictions associated with specific instances of digital works or devices. DRM overlaps with software copy protection to some extent, however the term “DRM” is usually applied to creative media (music, films, etc.) whereas the term “copy protection” tends to refer to copy protection mechanisms in computer software.

This is from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “…the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world.”:

Major entertainment companies are using “digital rights management,” or DRM (aka content or copy protection), to lock up your digital media. These DRM technologies do nothing to stop copyright pirates, but instead end up interfering with fans’ lawful use of music, movies, and other copyrighted works. DRM can prevent you from making back ups of your DVDs and music downloaded from online stores, recording your favorite TV programs, using the portable media player of your choice, remixing clips of movies into your own home movies, and much more.

From the Microsoft Windows Media page:

Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a proven platform to protect and securely deliver content for playback on computers, portable devices, and network devices. The latest version offers increased flexibility to support a wide range of business models that provide consumers even greater access to protected audio and video content.

This article from the BBC online’s Q & A on DRM discusses the very issues on how libraries must, of course, adhere to contractual obligations in providing access to their digital resources:

As custodians of human memory, a number would keep digital works in perpetuity and may need to be able to transfer them to other formats in order to preserve them and make the content fully accessible and usable once out of copyright.

In its written submission to the group, the British Library said DRM must not “exert excessive control on access to information.

This will fundamentally threaten the longstanding and accepted concepts of fair dealing and library privilege and undermine, or even prevent, legitimate public good access.

I don’t know how this might be possible, for libraries to provide the kind of content (highly steeped in DRM)–and here we’re talking everything form music CDs to videos to e-audiobooks–in a way that allows people to store and/or share it with others. Libraries, after all, provide what their communities want, and much, if not all of that content is protected under DRM policies. And what can libraries do, really? Budgets are tightly controlled at various levels of government, there’s always a demand for popular music/videos/e-audiobooks, and more and more content is being made available in digital format.

I don’t know if libraries can do much about it, but the communities they serve can certainly create enough noise that corporations and vendors will notice enough to start making changes.  What do you think?

I just finished listening to this book on audio. Some of you may have already read this book as it was published in 2005. The subtitle of the book tells it all, “The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books”. Aaron Lansky chronicles his adventures of saving Yiddish books, and simultaneously saving a language and culture that was disappearing.

You could read this book but listening to it gives a much richer experience. The book is read by a man fluent in Yiddish. Yes, the book is in English but Yiddish words and phrases are integrated seamlessly. I wouldn’t have know how to pronounce the Yiddish words without hearing them first. I gained a much greater appreciation for the language and the culture. Who knows, I may start saying “schleping” books instead of shelving them.

This book would appeal to librarian types and book lovers. As a librarian, I loved hearing about a man’s crusade to save books from certain destruction. It is full of dumpster diving, near misses, and lots of interesting adventures. I wish he had delved more into what happened to the books after they were acquired, but I am sure only library geeks would appreciate cataloging details… He describes the decision to digitize the collection (the first serious project to do so). Even so, his interactions with the elders of his culture were the most interesting.

The book made me think of special collections unique to Idaho. How are they being preserved? Sure, many of Idaho’s libraries are small, but they contain some hidden treasures that should be saved for posterity.

This audio book is available from NetLibrary.

I saw this last year at Internet Librarian and it was in a rushed Hallowe’en session, and the last session I attended, but I forgot about it until now! The phrase “web exhibit software” keeps coming up - so I googled it - and was reacquainted with that conference from last year.

This is SIMILE, which is web exhibit software that you can download and use without being a programer. It incorporates web 2.0 ideas, and is all around an easy/cool way to integrate new ideas and digital assets.

The presentation is available at this link here and the rest of the presentations are located here. Have fun browsing!

I like to read the editorials in PC Magazine. Specifically, I like reading the ones by John C. Dvorak. Recently, though, I read this editorial on how fragile social networks are. Go ahead and read it, then come back. I’ll wait.

Done? Good. Now what I say will (hopefully) make sense.

Dvorak argues that social networks are flimsy, non-real entities that can collapse on a whim. He cites an example of this from the pre-Web era of the Internet (and yes, there was an Internet before there was a Web). But his point is that all these ways people connect using social networking tools don’t really create any kind of lasting network, precisely because they are built using social networking software. And this from someone who has been in the industry for years.

My argument is that this stance ignores the nature of human interaction. If anything, social networking boils down that interaction to its simplest form, but it hardly changes its nature. People have been using whatever technology is available to create and dissolve networks as long as there have been people to do so. Remember the idea of pen pals? Social networking tools simply make that connection much faster to create, but no faster to lose.

People make and break connections with each other all the time. The only difference is how they do so. Whether it’s through e-mail, snail mail, or face-to-face interaction, anything can cement or destroy a relationship. Blaming the technology for the fragile nature of social networks of any form is just silly.

People form social networks all the time, and they dissolve just as easily. The Web has not created this process, it has simply made it more universally available. That’s an important distinction to keep in mind, especially when considering the use of technology. It isn’t about making “fake” connections, but about making connections that can endure or disappear. Hopefully, we can learn how to make connections that endure.

It’s totally archaeology month, and one of the best ways to celebrate is by listening to Priscilla Wegars talk about Chinese in Idaho, and Polly Bemis. She’ll be talking about “Chinese in the Boise Basin” at 7:00 pm at Ada Community Library, tonight, May 8, 2008. 10664 W Victory Rd, Boise, ID 83709

We just found a vinyl record that talks about her life from 1986 and we just accessioned it to the ISHS Library! Ask me about it!

Different,Yet Cuiously Alike

This is what I’m passionate about kids learning today.  It might be something else tomorrow, and yesterday it was about staying true to convictions in the face of pressure.

This meme has hit libraries, and you may have seen it on other blogs.  I can’t remember where I saw it first — I wasn’t personally tagged, but I followed the trail until I decided to take a few moments and jump in.  Here’s my starting point.

Consider yourself tagged if you are a contributor to this blog.

The rules are simple:

1. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students. (This isn’t just for teachers)
2. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.

Okay, so I quit this thread too early. I’m in Chicago right now. From the Daily Herald:

YouTube and the Personal Video Revolution: 7:30 p.m. May 6 Mount Prospect Library

Basic Computer Skills: 10 a.m. - noon, May 6 Des Plaines Public Library

Wrigley Field’s Last World Series: 7 p.m. May 7 Arlington Heights Memorial Library

Friday Night Film Night - Independent Film: 6:30 p.m. May 9 Des Plaines Public Library

Basic Floral Design: 7:30 p.m. May 13 Mount Prospect Library

Sisters Follow the Underground Railroad: 7-8:30 p.m. May 13 Mount Prospect Public Library

This is just a sample of the listings of library programs that I see all around the country. Don’t let anyone convince you of the demise of public libraries - not when there are so many creative individuals who care about their communties!

NPR’s Story Corp podcasts have been one of my very favorite things to listen to since I got an iPod from my personal Santa.  StoryCorps definition of itself is:

“Since 2003, almost 30,000 everyday people have shared life stories with family and friends in our StoryBooths. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the Library of Congress. Millions listen to our broadcasts on public radio and the web. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind.”

Go to http://www.storycorps.net/ or http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4516989 to listen or subscribe.  If you use iTunes, you can subscribe there, too.

Story Corp is coming to Boise — a good thing for all libraries to know about. 

May 15-June 7 2008 @ Boise State Radio.  Reservations are available now.

If you’re interested in digitizing your resources, now is a good time to get involved with the development of our statewide consortium. Called IDIG - Idaho Digital Memories, we meet every two weeks by phone and have a few task groups, like copyright, collection development, and metadata.

If you look at the site, which was created with the e-branch in a box program (awesome program!), it lists our goals and mission.

A smattering of the current digital collections around the state include University of Idaho Digital Memories, a number of different collections in the Idaho Commission For Libraries, including Boise Public Library and Idaho State University, and here’s a neat one for Boise Architecture. Let me know if you’re interested in joining!