Off the grid 

Posted on by Fiona

At this moment, I am sitting in the dark (during the middle of the day, mind, it’s that grey and dark here in London today) cold, with the power off. Not for the first time in the past few months I find myself without electricity, without warning (and not by choice), in my building. There’s some irony in that I was watching the trailer for No Impact Man just minutes before it spontaneously shut off.

I was able to get back online again fairly quickly after rustling up a mobile broadband dongle and my laptop. But there is a danger in the era of always-on computing or assuming that essential infrastructure will be there when you need it. I’m lucky to live in a highly developed country with a relatively stable electricity grid. But I’ve also worked at a university that fell prey to frequent power failures, a happenstance of location and an ageing building. At my first workplace I remember a full day without power where we embraced the dull cast of the generator’s emergency lighting glow and took to shelving to fill in the day. Basic connectivity is an issue I’m increasingly aware of when I travel and plan for work in all kinds of different places. We anticipate having to work around technical difficulties in developing nations, but we are less prepared for it when it happens in our home environment. When we design services and software, do we make plans for what might happen if suddenly you couldn’t connect to it anymore? Even if just for an hour? Or a week? What impact being thrown off the grid would have for being able to communicate?

Food for thought while I sit in the dark, waiting for my laptop battery to run out.

New year, new you (sort of) 

Posted on by Fiona



8/365

Originally uploaded by Fiona Bradley

Once again, I find myself in a new year doing new things and being not entirely sure what to do with the blogs and domains I’ve dragged along with me.

In 2009 I wrote several articles on next-generation catalogues thanks to my role in working on a new catalogue for the academic library I was working at. I then found myself not working in a library, but still writing about library catalogues. In 2010 I have one more article on the topic before I hang up my catalogue writing hat.

The Semantic Web in libraries has started to take off in leaps and bounds, with all kinds of interesting projects taking shape. This blog will likely change shape and focus to align with new interests and developments in 2010.

Happy new year, and here’s to all kinds of interesting in 2010.

Advocacy: Using Social Media to Make the Case for Supporting Library Services 

Posted on by Fiona

Last month I participated in an online webinar for Webjunction co- hosted by REFORMA. In it, I gave a short presentation looking at strategy for the use of social media for advocacy and the need to consider all kinds of tools including photo, video, microblogging, and community sites along with email and mobile services depending on the audience you are targeting. The need to measure the impact and communicate the difference the use of such tools makes to your stakeholders is important.

The whole webinar has been archived with audio, slides and links from all the speakers available.

It was a new experience for me, and an interesting one. My VOIP line connection was not great during the webinar, and I needed to resort to traditional landline to dial back into the presentation (with a reshuffle of the lineup). It all stands to make the point though that whatever you do, you need to have backups but to not also forget the importance of alternative communication methods!

View the archive and learn how non-profits such as libraries can use social websites to put access to information and libraries on the agenda of community leaders, elected officials, and local and national agencies. The content of this WebJunction and REFORMA co-sponsored webinar includes a background on social websites, how to use social websites for advocacy, national and international advocacy efforts by representatives from American Library Association (ALA) and the International Federation of Libraries and Institutions (IFLA), and suggestions on how to advocate for services for Latinos and Spanish speakers presented by a panel of guest speakers

Thanks to WebJunction, and the other participating speakers – Loida Garcia-Febo from REFORMA, Meredith Farkas, Marci Merola, Max Macias, it was great to be involved.

My brief take on the Library 101 project 

Posted on by Fiona

I’m not going to comment on the video or the essays (from some great people which are really worth reading, though I would most definitely remove the fake Obama piece -it takes away the strength of what the other essayists have to say) other than to applaud Michael and David’s enthusiasm, but I did want to add and expand upon one small point in the project.

Michael Porter makes a very interesting comment about the inclusion of Hulu, a US-only video streaming service in the list of 101 “really important things to know” on the blog, Rebbetzin Man in Japan “Library 101 or is it?” and one that I would have liked to see made more strongly in the project -

I see Hulu as a demonstration of successful electronic content distribution. I clearly understand many of the reasons *why* this service isn’t offered though a library channel of some sort, but to me, it typifies how far from the mark we have becoming in providing some types of access to electronic content. It is a lengthy conversation that needs specific sources and documents to further the proof of concern that I have here specifically, but I hope this provides some explanation for why that particular resource was in the list.

From my pov it represents an entire front of threats that libraries are not prepared to address any time soon. And that causes me grave concern. It is more than just a fad that iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, let you access content electronically that you cannot access through your library. I realize this is a large issue for Public Libraries *at this point*, but that will change imo and we are dangerously lagging in the legal and technical expertise that is require to effective navigate in these waters.

I wholeheartedly agree that we need legal and technical skills not only to make such content available in libraries, as Michael says, but also the skill, will, and momentum to advocate successfully to challenge licensing and contractual agreements that currently prevent or curtail libraries from making electronic content available in the format and method to the public that is permitted by law and library exceptions.

Librarians need the confidence to not buy electronic books that have restrictive lending and printing conditions, or databases with article download limits, or even systems that don’t allow for the straightforward import and export of data. We need to work together, all of us, not just directors and managers, to point out flaws in licenses and products and make the case for change.

This is the kind of skill that really should be a “Library 101″.

Library app for libraries 

Posted on by Fiona

Despite advocating for neutral design (not tied to one particular platform or device), I have been interested in libraries that are looking at iPhone/Touch/Pre applications to provide catalogue searching, collection information and so on. What I would love to see is a general library app that helps librarians and users find and access libraries all over. As anyone who uses public libraries knows, that information can get buried on council and municipality sites, and even academic libraries have found that their homepage links have been disappearing in increasing numbers.

What could such an app include?

  • Maps of all publicly accessible libraries near you (location aware) and at a given location worldwide
  • Information about access – can you use the Internet without a membership card? Are there access gates? Are books on open access shelves?
  • Are there local traveller services? One thing that has always struck me in all of my travels is how few libraries make available information about the local area in a prominent spot. So often I have had to be buried in the collection to find street directories, local maps or local travel guides, or ask at the reference desk for the librarian’s copy. It has always seemed like an obvious and easy service that libraries could provide since they have the resources already and because libraries are so often located in key areas in cities and towns.

    What else would you be interested in?