Cambridge Network lunch discussion - is the physical library redundant?

Well I didn't think I would be blogging again after the cam23things programme ended but now realised it is one of the easiest ways to get a whole list of links up where anyone can access them. 

Once a month at Cambridge University some of us get together at lunchtime to discuss a current journal article or blog post of relevance to the library and information profession. But for the event on 1 December, I decided to put forward a discussion of the Times Higher Education debate on "is the physical library redundant in the 21st Century?".  This involved more than just a reference to one article so I am putting up the links for discussion here for easier access.  If anyone spots anymore then please feel free to add them in the comments.

The debate involved Mary Beard (Professor of Classics at Cambridge), Clive Bloom (Emeritus Professor of English at Middlesex), Sarah Porter (Head of Innovation at Jisc)and Martin Lewis (director of library services at Sheffield university).

If you are attending the lunch please look at and read some of the following:

The podcast of the debate which is about 90 minutes and background to the debate.

There have been a number of blog posts following the event by the debaters and audience members:

Mary Beard's blog entry "Bedding down in the library" on her Don's life blog.

Sarah Porter has blogged about it and James,  and Tom Roper.   Also an article on the BBC about a "bookless" i.e. digital only library. 

That should hopefully be enough to get the discussion going.

These are a few of my 23 things

Finally I have finished my take on the Sound of Music's "My favourite things" although I couldn't quite manage to get all the 23 things in (and gave up on rhyming google!)

Put on your DVD of The Sound of Music (you know you have it) and singalong with the following words (nun costume optional): 


Meetings on doodle and chatting on twitter,
some igoogle pages and  blogs where we witter,
bright flickr  images fit for a king,
these are a few of my twenty-three things

Fun coloured podcasts and LibraryThing records,
Pick feeds and read feeds and obtain the rewards,
Try out Zotero and see what it brings,
These are a few of my twenty-three things

Wikis for sharing with no other hurdles,
Bookmarks that are delicious and wordle,
Facebook has pages for some marketing,
These are a few of my twenty-three things

When the blog calls, when the work clings,
When I feel I should,
I simply remember my twenty-three things,
And then I feel so good.
 

23 things gained

The final one is here and my head is now full of precious things. Some of them I have a continuing love affair with, others are on-off and some I am definitely on my final fl(th)ing with.

I am going to say goodbye to igoogle but I am very happy with my google calendar and the fact (after a few mishaps) that I have managed to merge my home and work calendars - at least I hope the rest of my colleagues can't see that I have my crime book club tonight!

I was surprised at how many of the things I had actually used before in some capacity.  But then I found that with nearly all of them I had not explored much or abandoned them quite quickly.  I think that is one of the major benefits I have got from this programme.  The excellent blogs by the organising team had informative links to further reading, explanations and uses for the things that gave you great ideas and an easy way to explore further.  That was also my downfall at the start - I wanted to read it all, spend time investigating, applying it in the library and then realised that the things were building up and my blog posts weren't.  I needed to be more selective and bookmarked some things for later.

Image by vainsang, flickr

As for twitter, I am still not sure - past the first few dates but am I in it for the long haul?  It won't be my final fling but I am not yet fully in love with it.  Our faculty does have a twitter feed  picking up from our news items and I probably should try to push out a few library updates that way.  As a start anyway. 

In library terms we already had facebook but I would like to try and develop some delicious lists and also investigate new books on Librarything.  Most of the other things I will probably use more for my own use, for example sharing information on projects via Google docs and following discussions on LinkedIn.  Interesting one at the moment on the fragmentation of the profession which has similarities to the talks on communication on the cam23 blogs about how you can get all parties involved in something and the triggers needed. 

I would say that Web 2.0 and social media are changing libraries as they are offering new forms of communication and the delivery of services.  In many ways they make it simpler to transmit the information and keep it up-to-date although there are barriers from organisations who don't allow the use of certain sites.  But I would also argue that libraries are changing, adapting to and directing their users all the time.  Social media is one change, the personal computer and internet were others.  It is important for librarians to keep developing themselves and their services. As Arthur C. Clarke said:

"The dinosaurs disappeared because they could not adapt to their changing environment. We shall disappear if we cannot adapt to an environment that now contains spaceships, computers" [and you could add in Social Media!]

Finally I would like to thank the organising team and all the bloggers. I have really enjoyed the whole programme and exploring and using the things and reading other people's views. I hope to use the things much more for the library, even now we are using google doc forms as we have had problems with our book suggestion form on our webpage and while we wait for the coding to be sorted we put in a google doc one.

About to sign off and then remembered the Wordle.

My library roots-routes

The Library Routes project is encouraging information professionals/librarians to share their history and thoughts on how they got to where they are today.  I read a few and was a bit put off by comments about how surely everyone just fell into the role and only oddballs would want to be librarians from childhood.   While I agree I didn't know that I wanted to be a librarian from childhood, or what it involved, certainly from a young age I wanted to work in libraries and then, when I discovered them, in archives. 

Grimsby Central Library

I even did one week of my school work experience in Grimsby Central Library and one week in the archives.  Although it doesn't look the nicest of places I loved my experience there (except the day I was on the tourist information desk - at 15 I knew nothing about anything outside the town centre!)  I assumed librarians shelved and issued books, as they were my main tasks, cataloguing and classifying were unknowns, as were automated library systems.  Even my school careers cascaid form (anyone else remember those - you answered questions about whether you wanted to work outside, with people, wearing shoes, swinging from chandeliers - or what seemed like equally pointless questions - and then you got a print out of your future career options) came out on top with LIBRARIAN, followed by cartographer (!!).

I did not bow to the inevitable though as I had a greater love for ancient history and classical literature.  So I set off to University to study Classical Studies at Lampeter, the place is relevant to my career development, honestly, and not just a plug for a university where I had a great time and learnt alot.  At the end of 3 years, and armed with a humanities degree, I was told by the careers service that the best option was teaching.  As both my parents were teachers there was no way I was going in that direction. 

So now started the idea of a career as an archivist.  I had my place, just needed 1 year of experience.  I failed to get a traineeship (even after 3 interviews in Oxford) and could only find volunteer work, which I couldn't afford to take.  So I switched to librarianship, had the experience already and chose Aberystwyth for a number of good and bad reasons.  Lampeter was not an easy place to get out of and Aber was just up the road for looking around.  I had got my archive place there and they didn't make you go for an interview.  I liked the variety of the set modules and the historical/rare book optional course.  I suppose what clinched it, apart from being back by the sea, was the full bursary I received.

A year on, I was now armed with a Masters in Librarianship and the job hunting started.  I was not really very systematic and applied for anything going that said it was suitable for newly qualified librarians.  After what felt like hundreds of applications, but only 3 interviews, I got my first professional position at Nene College of Higher Education, now University of Northampton.  I was the Assistant Systems librarian it was a steep learning curve as I was faced with the Talis library management system, cd-rom networks (the future of electronic resources!!) and then the start of web pages.  I was only there just over a year but thanks to their excellent training programme I obtained my Library Association chartership.  The IT stuff I learnt has been a benefit for the rest of my career although I have never gone back into direct systems support.

Next I moved to Cambridge (where I still am but not in the same post) as Assistant Librarian: Reader Services at Gonville & Caius College Library.  This job asked for someone preferably with a science degree. I did not have one but it did not put me off.  I was asked why I applied at the interview without a science degree and replied that it was listed as desirable not essential.  So look carefully at the criteria in job specs and if it is not essential then go for the job.  I was asked at the interview about resources for astronomy but could apply my reference interview technique to any subject and it worked, I had the job.   Working in a smaller library gave me the opportunity to do a bit of everything and this is when I started cataloguing and classifying. It was not my main role but it was something to add to the cv.

When my boss left, I applied for and got the Sub-Librarian role but not for long as I then moved on to Selwyn College library and for the first time the title of Librarian.  It has to be said that once you are on the Cambridge scene it is much easier to move around within it.  This has the advantage of you being able to move to very different jobs without having to move house but the disadvantage that less new blood enters the system.   Then onto my current job as Librarian at the Faculty of Classics, Cambridge.  Not only has this completed a circle round to my first interest in ancient history but I have also just finished a diploma in archive studies fulfilling my early career dream. 

I will now finish my ramble by saying that I never really had a career plan (if I had it might all have been different).  After Northampton I decided that I enjoyed working in the academic sector and I have been lucky enough to continue in that sector althoughCILIP and play an active role on a number of committees, which have helped me in my work. 

If all else fails, I can always fall back on a second career as a cartographer!

Wiki wiki wild wild west

Nearly at the final frontier with Thing 22 and wikis.  This brought back memories of the wikiwikiweb (showing my age now) and, of course, the now all encompassing part of our culture "wikipedia".  When I registered to attend the (lib)Teachmeet Cambridge, I also realised that I had a PBworks login. 

pass the baked beans, please

Back in 2008, following the monthly networking lunches for librarians in Cambridge, a couple of us explored setting up blogs or wikis for librarians to contribute to, as the wiki says:

"This is meant for Cambridge librarians to put useful ’stuff’ on - things that we might be doing in our libraries that you think others might want to know about. Have you changed your webpage recently, are you doing interesting things like blogs, teaching about social networking or ……. or …….. Add them up here so that we all can see them!"

We abandoned  both blogs and wikis and reverted to camtools   as everyone working in Cambridge University should have a raven login and access to camtools.  Using the other sites meant that although people could view the information, in order to add stuff they would have to register.  This did not seem ideal but then the camtools solution isn't either.  Again it is useful for group working and collaborative projects.  For library users not sure how I would use it. 

To finish on wikis, I will now write an entry for the Library routes  page as suggested in the 23 things Cambridge, thing 22 blog.

(As an aside, can't believe it has taken me 22 things before I found the spellchecker on blogger - should have looked at the toolbar more!!)

Invasion of the podcasts

A much more mellow pod

Thing 21 brings me to podcasting and youtube.  I haven't really listened to many podcasts before (or rather I have via my computer but not after downloading them onto portable equipment).  As others have said the audio podcasts of radio programmes are useful but what about for libraries. 

I love an audio tour around an English Heritage site (except when they introduce Mrs Mopp the housekeeper from 1560 preparing for the visit by the Queen, who always seems, from the strong accent, to be from Cornwall or Yorkshire even when you are standing in a castle in Kent) and the descriptions of the rooms and the instructions on which door to go through.  But not sure it would have the same appeal through a library - "go through the door on the left and when you reach the first bookcase press 1" and "now look to your right to see dewey numbers 300-310, standing on a bookcase of mdf from the late 20th century".    It would, and is, useful for lecturers that students may miss, or talks by visiting lecturers which do not have to be visual necessarily.

On the whole, for library inductions or tutorials I think a visual element is desirable.  I looked around at some video tutorials and Arizona State University had their own "library channel" and a selection of tutorials in a variety of forms, some with people and others screen shots and virtual environments.  A visual demo of how to use a resource is very helpful and something I would like to investigate further.

Finally I looked at YouTube and while I found some of the library introductions amusing I wasn't sure if students would.  Were they just amusing from a librarian's point of view?  Humour is a tricky balance in a video - it can end up just being embarrassing.   My main reaction to alot of the stuff was similar to Donald Sutherland's towards the pod people.

Invasion of the body snatchers (1978)

So to sum up I suppose I think there is a use for creating podcasts for tutorials and possibly promotion of library services (but I will not be launching into lady gaga).  I prefer some sort of  visual element and not just talking.

To end, I do like the Sesame Street sketch with the cookie monster in the library, even if he is not the easiest of customers.

We are not hedgehog lovers

For Thing 20, Google docs, I thought I would create a form as something new to try.

In order to try the different options I had to come up with a variety of questions and now I have the results.

It turned out that we were equal dog and cat lovers but hedgehogs did not fare so well with only one vote.

Changing your mind?

Favourite town, Cambridge came out on top.  Really???   Only a few people ventured out of the country with Prague and Sydney, and Bellagio (hadn't heard of it but presume it is a  town in Italy and not the hotel in Vegas?). 

Bellagio - or maybe not

The colour was a tie between purple and blue, closely followed by green. 

Excuse to show holiday pic - can't see purple!

Everyone knew Jupiter was the largest.









Or should that be ...   

  As for music mp3s were the most common listening device (and someone had a mp4).  Others were using pcs or radio, one ipod.    Musical tastes were varied (linked to age??) from Queen, Bowie, Van Morrison and Police to children's nursery rhymes, Sleeper, Unthanks, Oysterband, Arcade Fire and Randy Newman.  Certainly a wide selection there.


Thanks for filling in the form and helping me complete Thing 20.