NorCal IUG November 2017

This past Friday I carpooled down to Santa Clara to attend the 2017 NorCal IUG meeting. Two of my coworkers were presenting on their recent project of updating the public catalog, our WebPAC, so I wanted to support, as well as learn some new things about managing library systems.

Beautiful day to visit Santa Clara University with the peeps for NorCal IUG! #librarylyfe @librarymail @grandmothersbraid

A post shared by kelci m kelci (@bibliobebe) on Nov 17, 2017 at 9:40am PST

The NorCal IUG agenda covered diverse topics and the presentations were informative and inspiring. From Bill Schickling, rep from Innovative, I learned that Innovative is looking to release automatic renewals in Q2 of 2018 probably, and he summarized Innovative's development strategy as a choice between
Build it?
Buy it?
Partner?
which can be parlayed across most industries. Bill gave the group updates about Innovative's future as a company and the PPORs (product plan of record) for Sierra and Polaris.

The individual presentations were great. From Gem Stone-Logan I got pumped up to try scripting in Python. She herself has only been using Python for about a year and is self taught, and encouraged the use of the active listserv and Google in general. Her presentation, which is available on her website, gave a basic roadmap on how to get started. I really feel encouraged to try!

View out of a window near the large conference room on the 3rd floor of the SCU library. 

Next up was John Boggs, who mostly talked about automating tasks using MySQL as a way of saying "if I can do it, you can do it." I don't have experience with MySQL but my take away with Boggs's presentation, as well as Stone-Logan's, is that a lot of the work of systems librarians is repetitive--report pulling every month, for example--so the smart thing is to automate these tasks. And there is "more than one way to skin a cat" when it comes to automating.

Rounding out the presentations were Justine Withers and Anders Lyon, my colleagues from Gleeson. They gave the attendees an overview of our funky system of running Encore and WebPAC from the same interface (keyword goes to Encore, and every other type of search goes to our WebPAC, which we call Ignacio). They gave an overview of the aims of their project refreshing the interface, the function audit they performed, and how they are building buy-in and communicating with stakeholders. Although I already knew a bit about their project, I learned a lot--I thought it was especially wild that they discovered a pretty nice looking beta WebPAC sitting in the sandbox, already branded with USF logos and refreshed! I look forward to the day they give a similar presentation to library staff.

After lunch we got a chance to tour the SCU Automated Retrieval System (ARS). This system occupies where the old library once stood, and the current library is a new construction.

Library futures pic.twitter.com/MxQUnaPHjm

— gina (@librarymail) November 17, 2017

In the afternoon I attended the Circulation and resource sharing break out session. I learned of a lot of new types of collections public libraries are lending (hot spots, gardening tools, Chromebooks...), as well as new patron policies and types (forgiving fines, teacher p-types, etc.). That type of discussion was a refreshing nuts and bolts view of what libraries do that have a direct impact on the lives of their patrons, which is a far cry from the higher level topics at some academic library conferences. We also discussed the loss of the CSUs from Link+, and how the loss of the Claremont colleges may have been even a bigger blow. The conversation flowed freely, was respectful, and was well facilitated. I took special delight in the fact this session was held in SCU's bibliographic instruction lab (the equivalent to our Electronic Classroom) so I got to see what type of technology they use, how the room is configured, and how the room is secured. I was surprised to learn someone stole all the memory out of the iMacs in that lab at some point!

Picture of one group table of iMacs gathered around a wall-mounted screen. 

Picture of SCU's electronic classroom, with empty wired tables in middle, podium at front, projector screen at front, and one group table of iMacs gathered around a wall-mounted screen. 

Another picture of SCU's electronic classroom, with multiple group tables with iMacs and wall-mounted screens. iMacs sit down in a recessed area to create a better line-of-sight to instructor. 

All in all, I spent a wonderful day in the Santa Clara Library meeting with colleagues in the field and coworkers from back home. The campus is gorgeous and spread out, while the library--only about 10 years old--is spacious and well conceived. It is a model example of the learning commons framework.

ACRL 2015 Wrap Up

Here is my ACRL wrap up!

Let me record the sessions and panels I attended and then give some brief thoughts on the conference.

This is what the end of a conference looks like

Schedule Made through my Google Calendar

Wednesday, March 25

• Opening Keynote with G. Willow Wilson
• Opening Exhibits Reception (I did the hard work of talking to vendors in preparation for my product review blog post this night)

Thursday, March 26

• Paving a Two-Way Street: The Rewards and Challenges of Archival Projects with Community Partners
• Contributed Papers 9: Successful Student Advisory Boards: Best Practices; Unleash your library's HIPster: Transforming student library jobs into high impact practices; Design-Model-Build: Leveraging a library remodeling project to engage students and promote sustainability on campus.
• ACRL 75th Anniversary Invited Panel - New Roles for the Road Ahead (note: the "online monograph" put together for this panel is available here)
• Keynote Session - Jad Abumrad

Friday, March 27

• Invited Paper - Searching for Girls: Identity for Sale in the Age of Google
• Contributed Papers 19: They'’ve Found It. Can They Read It? Adding Academic Reading Strategies to Your IL Toolkit (the presenters set up a blog with strategies); Blurred Lines: Tying Recreational Reading to Research in an Academic Library;  Children's Books in the Digital World: The Bigger Picture for Our Graduates
• Contributed Papers 23: Seeing the Forest and the Trees: The Integrated Digital Scholarship Ecosystem Project; Seeking Sustainable Solutions to 21st Century News: A Case Study of Born-Digital Preservation; Revolutionary by Design: HathiTrust, Digital Learning and the Future of Information Provision

Saturday, March 28

• Contributed Papers 26: Making Sense: Can Makerspaces Work in Academic Libraries? [I asked a question about Makerspaces contributing to academic coursework; a really nice person gave me her business card with the url to the UTC Studio written on the back]; Library Learning Spaces: Investigating Libraries and Investing in Student Feedback; Implementing a Culture of Creativity & Making: The Rutgers University Art Library Lego Playing Station
• Contributed Papers 30: Assessing Library Internationalization Efforts and Impacts: Tools and Strategies; Looking Through Their Eyes: Improving Library Services for English as a Second Language Learners by Exploring Their Experiences and Perceptions of Academic Libraries Abroad and in the United States; You’re No Fun Anymore: The Ethics of Acquiring Electronic Devices in Light of E-Waste, Sweatshops, and Globalization
• Closing Keynote - Lawrence Lessig

Obviously, one of the best parts of a conference is that you can select what sessions and panels to attend based on your interests, job description, aspirations, goals, etc. I did that a lot, especially with the Contributed Papers 19 (more of my interest) and Contributed Papers 9 (my job duties). I also tried to tap into the pulse of the formal body of the professional association by attending the 75th Anniversary: New Roles panel. I have to admit, this panel left a very bad taste in my mouth. I actually panicked for a moment, thinking I was in the wrong place; I had chosen the wrong career. I examined my reaction later, and observed I can be inflexible in continuously applying what a "library" is to me, historically, to what it should be in the future. However, I also feel resistant to putting what libraries do in economic terms, by using the words "value added" and "return on investment," which turns libraries into another cog in the capitalism gear. I also feel resistant to the idea that we have to prove our value as librarians, but that is more of an idealogical issue for me -- I feel that libraries and librarians are inherently valuable, and if folks don't recognize that, it's a reflection of their stupidity. What other profession has to deal with remaining "relevant" and all the anxiety that brings the way we do? I just get fed up with it. And here my aggression is aimed more at academic institution administrators who may be too short sighted to see the inherent value we possess.

And, as usual, I deeply enjoyed the ACRL keynotes because they are wider and more entertaining than real, applicable panels, but they get me thinking about big picture issues, and often inspire me. I particularly took Jad Abumrad's keynote as a call to creative arms, which spoke to me as an artist/writer and a liver of life. Lawrence Lessig's keynote was also inspiring, but in a political and economic way that seemed to call for the unburdening of information from out beneath the chains of profits and capitalism. I appreciate that idealism.

Ultimately I am glad I went to this conference as it helps me navigate the development of my professional career, but next time I will remember to be more relaxed -- I stressed too hard about proving my professionalism, and it had adverse effects on my health.

**Edited to add (5/5/2015)
Today I discovered the ACRL 2015 Virtual Conference Web site!
You can view the keynotes without a login, and you can view the other presentations as screencasts using your login.

But most importantly, I also discovered the closing highlights montage, and briefly at 1:04 someone you may recognize is grabbing a beer for her coworkers from Gale in the exhibit hall!

Bookish By Nature

A bookish blog for a biblio bebé, I'm back in a library and I'm starting a graduate program to become an official librarian. I spent a year away from my library but couldn't stay away from libraries; I visited them in New York, Buenos Aires, on a cargo ship in the Atlantic, Amsterdam, Berlin, Philadelphia... in my time away a few things grew very clear in the landscape of my opinions: a library does not exist without physical books; the best libraries are those that librarians do not grip too tightly in their need for control and order; I may have fallen into a career in libraries but fate tripped me: I'm bookish by nature. 

Amsterdam Public Library:
#1 in the Netherlands, #1 in the world 

And how about information? I crave it, and I choose the nutritional internet when we're talking digital. Philosophically I could discuss prosthetic knowledge as it applies to information science for a while (knowing how to find information is more important that actually knowing the information), yet facts and methods and themes swim through my mind screen at random: putting myself on a digital information diet was the wisest thing I've done. I pretty much unilaterally reject BuzzFeed, xoJane, and Facebook. I choose my trusted sources and I seek my information from those places while continuously scrutinizing their slant, each source's tone, each one's gimmick. I admit I am addicted to the internet; aren't we all? Have you ever seen Tiffany Schlain's film called Connected: An Autoblogography? Twitter, running ProQuest searches, looking for high res images on Google, all of it literally gives you an uptick of dopamine similar to eating a piece of chocolate, smoking a cigarette, doing a line of cocaine... My approach to consuming information could be likened to an omnivore that insists on locally raised organic meat: I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna enjoy the heck out of it, but it's gonna be quality and guilt free.

The library of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam:
library porn, basically 

To further rely on this metaphor, I will graze on printed matter indiscriminately all day, and in this way I relate to the narrator of Camus's The Stranger: I too would read the same half torn newspaper story a million times if stuck in a prison cell. I want to run my fingers over a hardback's paper weight, inspect the binding (double fan adhesive bound? saddle stitched?), smell the ink, study the font, inspect the dust jacket's inside flap matter... bored on a public bus, I will snatch up the very dirtiest scraps of the SF Chronicle and scan the headlines... idly eating an afternoon snack, I will peruse the weekly circular ads, judge their graphic design team's use of color, font, grid, and flow. And to focus: when we talk books, we talk content, we talk typography, graphic design, engineering... we could talk books forever...  those beautiful multidimensional carriers of civilization—Thoreau got it right...