Being a library, people think that we are a dumping ground for books they have lying around. They don't have to be in good condition or current, the library will take them.
I wonder if that says something about the library, do our collections look so old/tatty/moldy that people think we want their unwanted crap?
Today's case, the Agencija za Iselenistvo of the Republika Makedonija (aka the Agency of Emmigration of the Republic of Macedonia). Within a three week period I have received 2 parcels from them containing books. Not just any books, boring books. They were all in Macedonian and mostly about Macedonia. From a critique of Macedonian philosophy at a level which most of our readers would have trouble understanding (even if they read Macedonian) to an entire book dedicated to analysing the poetry of an obscure (and quite dead) Macedonian poet to the history of Macedonian fantasy fiction (which, for what it's worth, is a lot longer than I would have expected).
Firstly: They're all old-looking books. I don't know if it is the paper the items are printed on, the bland covers or the fact that they're mostly 5 or 6 years old.
Secondly: They are not suitable for a public library. I know that the concept of a 'free public library' is different from culture to culture (and, honestly, I am unsure if Macedonia has a public library system), but why on earth would you pick a small library service in the middle of nowhere to send your crap to?
Thirdly: I don't want donations! These books are all freely available for me to purchase through our suppliers. If we thought they were worthy of adding to the collection, I'd have added them to the collection.
Donations are a wonderful thing when they are done right. We receive a heap of Mills and Boon style romance books from readers who read the book once and then think "I'll never read it again". These books are immaculate and we have our own special collection of them (all catalogued with a title of "Romance paperback" and a call number of PB ROM).
Honestly, I am just a bit confused as to why a government department in Europe would be sending libraries around the world books that they may not add? Postage is not cheap, especially for heavy items like books. We've received letters from them before in the past, they never mentioned they would send us anything.
All of this aside, I did actually add a number of the books to our collection. A book of short stories, some things on Macedonia which would be of interest to ex-pats living in Australia, those kind of things.
Ah well, that's my rant for today. (Can you tell I was struggling for something to say this week?)
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Standards, guidelines and recommendations
After my whinge last week about the building audit's recommendations, I am back with yet another document to complain about this week! (aren't I great?) It's not really a complain thing, more of a comparison thing I guess.
Living Learning Libraries: Standards and Guidelines for NSW Libraries was released recently and is now available from the State Library of NSW website. The report provides target figures for different areas of libraries, including membership per capita, opening hours per capita (or per number of branches), number of internet terminals, number of programs run, etc. It gives 3 levels of figures; a baseline figure (all libraries should meet this); an enhanced figure (you're a good library if you meet this) and; an exemplary figure (you're a brilliant library if you meet this).
What is interesting about this document is that it provides you with an 'out' clause for each of the target figures. For example, if you have 4-7 library branches then you should have a total opening hours per week of at least 238 hours (we have 5 libraries and 242 so yay to us). It says that this number may vary depending on staff numbers, the location of other community services, the structure (ie central library + mobile libraries) and the size of each library and the communities surrounding them.
I had a look at some of the different targets and compared my library service's performance against them. I even followed the definitions they provided (ie an active borrower in Victoria is someone who has used the library in the last 3 years, in NSW it says 2 years). It turns out we're a tad (actually a lot) under their benchmarks in a few area but that we rock in terms of internet access and program numbers. One of our main problems is that we have a very large populace with very low literacy and mobility. Also, our residents are quite transient and will often move to our area from overseas and then find work (and better living conditions) elsewhere so they'll move there. Many don't stay long, they are just there to bolster numbers.
Part B of the document refers to guidelines which libraries should follow in order to implement the standard targets. An interesting guideline was that it recommended the Library Manager be "an appropriately qualified librarian". I don't actually believe that we actually need a librarian to run the library service, especially in an environment where you have qualified librarians managing the librariany stuff. Running a library service is very similar to running any other kind of business, the only difference is that we don't make a profit and that we share information with anyone who asks for it (instead of trying to steal it from our competitors).
One of the guidelines that I understand (but find frustrating) is the guideline saying 'Based on knowledge of particular cultural needs and trends, a collection exists for a particular language when there are 500 residents speaking that language as their major language at home'. Lucky for us (with our 18 languages) we collect in a lot of languages. Unlucky for us, there are 26 languages with more than 500 speakers in our area. Some of these (ie Dinka and Samoan) have so few items published in them that there is no way we could support a collection even if we wanted to. Others (such as German and Spanish) are either leaving the area or dying off. That being said, our council area has 151 different languages spoken at home so I think we're doing well to collect in 18 of them.
The guidelines also refer to People Places, the document I complained about last week (it was the one that our building audit referred to when criticising our collection space in libraries). I actually found a copy of it online (click here to view) which, one day, I may read.
Living Learning Libraries: Standards and Guidelines for NSW Libraries was released recently and is now available from the State Library of NSW website. The report provides target figures for different areas of libraries, including membership per capita, opening hours per capita (or per number of branches), number of internet terminals, number of programs run, etc. It gives 3 levels of figures; a baseline figure (all libraries should meet this); an enhanced figure (you're a good library if you meet this) and; an exemplary figure (you're a brilliant library if you meet this).
What is interesting about this document is that it provides you with an 'out' clause for each of the target figures. For example, if you have 4-7 library branches then you should have a total opening hours per week of at least 238 hours (we have 5 libraries and 242 so yay to us). It says that this number may vary depending on staff numbers, the location of other community services, the structure (ie central library + mobile libraries) and the size of each library and the communities surrounding them.
I had a look at some of the different targets and compared my library service's performance against them. I even followed the definitions they provided (ie an active borrower in Victoria is someone who has used the library in the last 3 years, in NSW it says 2 years). It turns out we're a tad (actually a lot) under their benchmarks in a few area but that we rock in terms of internet access and program numbers. One of our main problems is that we have a very large populace with very low literacy and mobility. Also, our residents are quite transient and will often move to our area from overseas and then find work (and better living conditions) elsewhere so they'll move there. Many don't stay long, they are just there to bolster numbers.
Part B of the document refers to guidelines which libraries should follow in order to implement the standard targets. An interesting guideline was that it recommended the Library Manager be "an appropriately qualified librarian". I don't actually believe that we actually need a librarian to run the library service, especially in an environment where you have qualified librarians managing the librariany stuff. Running a library service is very similar to running any other kind of business, the only difference is that we don't make a profit and that we share information with anyone who asks for it (instead of trying to steal it from our competitors).
One of the guidelines that I understand (but find frustrating) is the guideline saying 'Based on knowledge of particular cultural needs and trends, a collection exists for a particular language when there are 500 residents speaking that language as their major language at home'. Lucky for us (with our 18 languages) we collect in a lot of languages. Unlucky for us, there are 26 languages with more than 500 speakers in our area. Some of these (ie Dinka and Samoan) have so few items published in them that there is no way we could support a collection even if we wanted to. Others (such as German and Spanish) are either leaving the area or dying off. That being said, our council area has 151 different languages spoken at home so I think we're doing well to collect in 18 of them.
The guidelines also refer to People Places, the document I complained about last week (it was the one that our building audit referred to when criticising our collection space in libraries). I actually found a copy of it online (click here to view) which, one day, I may read.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Building audit
The Building Audit of Victorian Public Libraries 2007 was a report created to get an overview of public library buildings in Victoria. At 258 pages it's a bit lengthy so I must admit that I just read through the presentation available at http://www.libraries.vic.gov.au/cgi-bin/infonet/org.cgi?detail=1&id=40 and attempted to formulate some ideas.
The report uses a benchmark (People places) to identify where we're going wrong.
One of the things that got my goat about this report was that it bemoaned the fact that our collection areas in general are too small. I think this is very backwards thinking. Sure, a library has a physical collection. People come in daily to browse through our shelves and pull off what they want to borrow. But we are so much more than that. We have a virtual collection (which doesn't need floorspace). We encourage people to meet in our libraries by providing community spaces such as tables and chairs, lounge areas, cafe areas, study areas. Why on earth would we want to be increasing our collections at the expense of the things that draw people in?
At a time when traditional library usage is declining, I honestly don't believe that we should be limiting ourselves in this way. We don't have a huge amount of people coming in these days to ask us reference queries (of course, with the demographic of my library community, we probably never did). More people come to us because they can borrow (for free) movies and reading material for pleasure. To get people to borrow our items we are offering other services: a safe space; a friendly ear; someone to help you with finding information to solve your problems.
Pfft to reports trying to make us into scary places with tomes of wisdom.
The report uses a benchmark (People places) to identify where we're going wrong.
One of the things that got my goat about this report was that it bemoaned the fact that our collection areas in general are too small. I think this is very backwards thinking. Sure, a library has a physical collection. People come in daily to browse through our shelves and pull off what they want to borrow. But we are so much more than that. We have a virtual collection (which doesn't need floorspace). We encourage people to meet in our libraries by providing community spaces such as tables and chairs, lounge areas, cafe areas, study areas. Why on earth would we want to be increasing our collections at the expense of the things that draw people in?
At a time when traditional library usage is declining, I honestly don't believe that we should be limiting ourselves in this way. We don't have a huge amount of people coming in these days to ask us reference queries (of course, with the demographic of my library community, we probably never did). More people come to us because they can borrow (for free) movies and reading material for pleasure. To get people to borrow our items we are offering other services: a safe space; a friendly ear; someone to help you with finding information to solve your problems.
Pfft to reports trying to make us into scary places with tomes of wisdom.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Really Dodgy Archives (aka RDA)
RDA just clicked. The little man who turned the lights off in my head at the ACOC conference the other week decided to come visiting and turn them back on. Thankyou little man.
Okay, if we ignore authority data (which we shall), here is how things stand.
Currently most library systems have two types of records, a bibliographic record and a holdings record.
The bibliographic record contains all data about the 'thing'; title, uniform title, author/s, contributors, language, date published, etc etc. The holdings record contains data about the individual copy of the 'thing'; the barcode number, the unit price, the date added to the system, etc.
Good still? Good.
What RDA plans to achieve is four types of record; work, expression, manifestation and item. Using a direct comparison between what we currently have and what RDA wants us to have, the bibliographic record correlates to the manifestation record and the holdings record correlates to the item record.
Still good? Me too.
Because we have all these fancy, intricate ILS/LMS/library systems at the moment, we are stuck into the current way of thinking (bib record + holdings record). Therefore, what RDA are going to do as an interim step is combine the work/expression/manifestation records into one file (the MaRC file) and the item into the holdings record. This interim step allows for everyone to think what we would like for the future.
Because of this, it appears that we are walking forward in the cataloguing world at the pace of a relaxed snail. In reality, we are laying down the foundation for the next generation of cataloguing (which will be integrated into the next generation of ILS/LMS/library systems).
I'm still not terribly excited, but at least I understand what is going on.
Okay, if we ignore authority data (which we shall), here is how things stand.
Currently most library systems have two types of records, a bibliographic record and a holdings record.
The bibliographic record contains all data about the 'thing'; title, uniform title, author/s, contributors, language, date published, etc etc. The holdings record contains data about the individual copy of the 'thing'; the barcode number, the unit price, the date added to the system, etc.
Good still? Good.
What RDA plans to achieve is four types of record; work, expression, manifestation and item. Using a direct comparison between what we currently have and what RDA wants us to have, the bibliographic record correlates to the manifestation record and the holdings record correlates to the item record.
Still good? Me too.
Because we have all these fancy, intricate ILS/LMS/library systems at the moment, we are stuck into the current way of thinking (bib record + holdings record). Therefore, what RDA are going to do as an interim step is combine the work/expression/manifestation records into one file (the MaRC file) and the item into the holdings record. This interim step allows for everyone to think what we would like for the future.
Because of this, it appears that we are walking forward in the cataloguing world at the pace of a relaxed snail. In reality, we are laying down the foundation for the next generation of cataloguing (which will be integrated into the next generation of ILS/LMS/library systems).
I'm still not terribly excited, but at least I understand what is going on.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The acronyms of doom, part 2.
I may have fallen asleep in a lecture or two at university but I don't recall ever snoozing during a professional conference. Unfortunately the recent ACOC conference seemed to have that effect on a few people in the audience.
It was hard going. There was an expectation that everyone understood FRBR (either pronounced "Ef Are Bee Are" or "Fur-burr") and not everyone did. In fact, I think a lot of us didn't. If you didn't understand these core principles then the rest of what they said made little sense.
I went along as a representative of the public library sector, there weren't many of us there. Cataloguing seems to be the domain of the academic library. It's like the Hindi caste system.
Brahmin = national and state library cataloguers (all hail us)
Kshatriya = academic cataloguers (if you want to be a REAL cataloguer, you should work in a university)
Vaishya = vendor & special library cataloguers (our cataloguing is of decent quality and we know what we're doing...in our own special way)
Shudra = public library cataloguers (me! the unwashed masses who use the beautifully created records of the upper-classes).
I suppose at least I'm not an untouchable (the highschool and primary school cataloguers, cataloguers whose opinion seems to mean little to those of our upper castes). Bah.
Anyways, rant aside, the conference was hard going. I thought I knew what was going on until just after afternoon tea, then it all fell apart in my head.
In my last blog post I talked about the 4 levels of RDA - work, expression, manifestation and item. I found out at the ACOC conference that all catalogue records being created were at the manifestation level with extra details from work and expression levels. I glossed over the fact that there were two types of MaRC records, one for catalogue records and one for authority records.
According to the powers that be of RDA, there will still only be two types of MaRC records, one for catalogue records and one for authority records. How on earth does that work when there should be at least 4 levels of records? There should be a MaRC format for authority records, that is seperate. There should THEN be a MaRC format for each RDA level; work, expression, manifestation and item. There won't be...just the one MaRC file which will include everything.
I know I'm not explaining myself well, but I am:
a) Venting
b) Confused myself
c) Aware that noone reads this
It was frustrating sitting there and aware that I understood the theory of FRBR and even the theory of RDA...the implementation just didn't seem like it would follow the theoretical model they were proposing. Maybe I missed something.
End rant.
It was hard going. There was an expectation that everyone understood FRBR (either pronounced "Ef Are Bee Are" or "Fur-burr") and not everyone did. In fact, I think a lot of us didn't. If you didn't understand these core principles then the rest of what they said made little sense.
I went along as a representative of the public library sector, there weren't many of us there. Cataloguing seems to be the domain of the academic library. It's like the Hindi caste system.
Brahmin = national and state library cataloguers (all hail us)
Kshatriya = academic cataloguers (if you want to be a REAL cataloguer, you should work in a university)
Vaishya = vendor & special library cataloguers (our cataloguing is of decent quality and we know what we're doing...in our own special way)
Shudra = public library cataloguers (me! the unwashed masses who use the beautifully created records of the upper-classes).
I suppose at least I'm not an untouchable (the highschool and primary school cataloguers, cataloguers whose opinion seems to mean little to those of our upper castes). Bah.
Anyways, rant aside, the conference was hard going. I thought I knew what was going on until just after afternoon tea, then it all fell apart in my head.
In my last blog post I talked about the 4 levels of RDA - work, expression, manifestation and item. I found out at the ACOC conference that all catalogue records being created were at the manifestation level with extra details from work and expression levels. I glossed over the fact that there were two types of MaRC records, one for catalogue records and one for authority records.
According to the powers that be of RDA, there will still only be two types of MaRC records, one for catalogue records and one for authority records. How on earth does that work when there should be at least 4 levels of records? There should be a MaRC format for authority records, that is seperate. There should THEN be a MaRC format for each RDA level; work, expression, manifestation and item. There won't be...just the one MaRC file which will include everything.
I know I'm not explaining myself well, but I am:
a) Venting
b) Confused myself
c) Aware that noone reads this
It was frustrating sitting there and aware that I understood the theory of FRBR and even the theory of RDA...the implementation just didn't seem like it would follow the theoretical model they were proposing. Maybe I missed something.
End rant.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
RDA and the acronyms of doom
It's like a brand new Harry Potter novel: Harry Potter and the acronyms of doom.
Synopsis: Harry is forced by his evil muggle foster parents to attend a cataloguing conference provided by ACOC, one of the older acronyms of doom. Whilst there he learns about RDA, FRBR, JSC, FRAD, FRSAR and the other new acronyms of doom. He witnesses a fight between the new acronyms of doom and the old acronyms of doom (MaRC, AACR2, CAVAL, NLA) and realises that whoever wins, everyone loses. Can Harry overcome the evils of acronyms or will he be defeated by his archnemesis, He Who Must Not Be Catalogued (otherwise known as HWMNBC)?
*insert dramatic musak*
Tomorrow I will be in amongst the acronyms of doom at the latest Australian Committee on Cataloguing (ACOC) conference in Sydney. There I will find out all about Resource Description and Access (RDA) which is the brand spankin' new cataloguing structure all of us poor little cataloguers will have to follow. The goals are admirable. A record's linkages will be logical with each record having four levels.
Example (errors are my fault, sorry!)
Work: The Bible.
Expression: English Language version of the King James Bible.
Manifestation: 2003 printing of the King James Bible, Large print edition.
Manifestation: 1999 audio copy on 12 CDs of the King James Bible.
Item: The copy I have in my hand.
This is how I understand things. That means, if I want to reser
ve a bible (any bible) then I can reserve at the Work level. If I want to reserve an English language version of the King James Bible then I can reserve at the Expression level (I may receive a printed copy, I may receive an audio copy...there may be a way to set this by format, I guess it depends on the system's implementation). If I want to reserve a particular manifestation (ie the 2003 printing only) then I can reserve at Manifestation level. If I want to receive the copy where I highlighted the passages that I needed then I'd reserve at the Item level.
All very nice. Unfortunately we've had a good 20-30 years of having a catalogue record (an amalgamation of the Work + Expression + Manifestation) and a holding record (the Item). This means that every system we use is geared towards this two level structure and will need to change. I don't really seeing that being cheap. If all of the major institutions (State Libraries, National Libraries, Library of Congress, etc) all implement this and force their vendors to allow it to be implemented then MAYBE us libraries with poor vendor systems will get the trickle down effect...maybe not. There are still library systems out there that don't use MaRC, the main exchange format for library records.
Let that bun-fight begin!
Image courtesy of http://www.imagesofthepast.co.uk/ , (c) 1902
Synopsis: Harry is forced by his evil muggle foster parents to attend a cataloguing conference provided by ACOC, one of the older acronyms of doom. Whilst there he learns about RDA, FRBR, JSC, FRAD, FRSAR and the other new acronyms of doom. He witnesses a fight between the new acronyms of doom and the old acronyms of doom (MaRC, AACR2, CAVAL, NLA) and realises that whoever wins, everyone loses. Can Harry overcome the evils of acronyms or will he be defeated by his archnemesis, He Who Must Not Be Catalogued (otherwise known as HWMNBC)?
*insert dramatic musak*
Tomorrow I will be in amongst the acronyms of doom at the latest Australian Committee on Cataloguing (ACOC) conference in Sydney. There I will find out all about Resource Description and Access (RDA) which is the brand spankin' new cataloguing structure all of us poor little cataloguers will have to follow. The goals are admirable. A record's linkages will be logical with each record having four levels.
Example (errors are my fault, sorry!)
Work: The Bible.
Expression: English Language version of the King James Bible.
Manifestation: 2003 printing of the King James Bible, Large print edition.
Manifestation: 1999 audio copy on 12 CDs of the King James Bible.
Item: The copy I have in my hand.
This is how I understand things. That means, if I want to reser
ve a bible (any bible) then I can reserve at the Work level. If I want to reserve an English language version of the King James Bible then I can reserve at the Expression level (I may receive a printed copy, I may receive an audio copy...there may be a way to set this by format, I guess it depends on the system's implementation). If I want to reserve a particular manifestation (ie the 2003 printing only) then I can reserve at Manifestation level. If I want to receive the copy where I highlighted the passages that I needed then I'd reserve at the Item level.All very nice. Unfortunately we've had a good 20-30 years of having a catalogue record (an amalgamation of the Work + Expression + Manifestation) and a holding record (the Item). This means that every system we use is geared towards this two level structure and will need to change. I don't really seeing that being cheap. If all of the major institutions (State Libraries, National Libraries, Library of Congress, etc) all implement this and force their vendors to allow it to be implemented then MAYBE us libraries with poor vendor systems will get the trickle down effect...maybe not. There are still library systems out there that don't use MaRC, the main exchange format for library records.
Let that bun-fight begin!
Image courtesy of http://www.imagesofthepast.co.uk/ , (c) 1902
Thursday, October 16, 2008
RFID : 3 down, 2 to go
I may be slightly premature here (I am writing this in advance) but, finger's crossed, by the time this post goes to air we will have 3 of our libraries RFID tagged up. This has involved lots of work (particularly for other people).
Isn't it exciting?
Isn't it exciting?
Thursday, October 9, 2008
MODS
Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) is a schema for a bibliographic element set that may be used for a variety of purposes, and particularly for library applications. The standard is maintained by the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress with input from usersIt is funny, I recently joined an Australian listserv for librarians interested in library systems and library technology - aliaLIBSYSTEMS. It was thought that all the other standard listservs were aimed more at US librarians and US libraries and that we needed something specific to us. I think they're right.
Of course, just after I signed up to this, one of my other listservs, NGC4LIB simply exploded with discussion. NGC4LIB (or Next Generation Catalogs [sic] for Libraries) talks/complains/discusses/bemoans the new generation of catalogues and opacs that are available for libraries to use. Mostly I just watch them all complain about how noone does anything and then they have discussion on ways we could fix stuff and then it peters out and starts again. The past little while has had an absolute heap of emails revolving around how MaRC is an antiquated format and should be bought into the new era (and why it hasn't been and etc etc).
Being a cataloguer I am aware of what MaRC's history and how it has (or hasn't) evolved. What I really wasn't aware was of some of the projects out there to 'modernise' MaRC and bring it into line with what the world is currently using, xml based schemas. The currently MARCXML scheme is a tad crap.
100__$aWest, Christian,$d1982-.Becomes:
245__$aThis is my title /$cChristian West
650_0$aBiography.
<record>Which, logically, makes sense. It's just HUGE, sizewise, in comparison to the MaRC part and rather hard to read if you're not a computer (MaRC is also hard to read if you're not a computer, just not as hard as the MARCXML bit).
<datafield tag="100" ind1=" " ind2=" ">
<subfield code="a">West, Christian,</subfield>
<subfield code="d">1982.</subfield>
</datafield>
<datafield tag="245" ind1=" " ind2=" ">
<subfield code="a">This is my title /</subfield>
<subfield code="c">Christian West.</subfield>
</datafield>
<datafield tag="650" ind1=" " ind2="0">
<subfield code="a">Biography.</subfield>
</datafield>
</record>
MODS is a way of simplifying this by using actual terminology in the tags rather than the MaRC numbers which, although nice for their day, are a bit passe in terms of the way we currently code.
From what I gather, the MODS record will look something like the below:
<titleInfo>This seems a bit easier to me to read, especially if you're a programmer. You don't have to worry about what all the numbers and indices refer to. This wouldn't matter if you were programming in a vacuum, but if you want your records to be used by nerdy young people programming at home, this is probably the best way to go about it. You instantly know that the 'topic' of my book is Biography. You many not know what the lcsh 'authority' for it means, but you get the general gist of the whole thing. It is still pretty big, granted, but it is a lot easier to understand.
<title>This is my title /</title>
</titleInfo>
<name type="personal">
<namePart>West, Christian</namePart>
<namePart type="Date">1982-.</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm type="text">creator</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<subject authority="lcsh">
<topic>Biography.</topic>
</subject>
Anyways, that is my rant for today. I was just very fascinated when I had a look at MODS and thought I'd share.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Web 2.0 program for one of our libraries
Although we completed the Learning 2.0 program at the start of the year, one of our branches is currently making a big push for their staff to complete/start the program. I am actually really happy that this has happening. Although half of the staff had already completed the lessons, the others had really only reached activity 4 (the one about posting a message to your blog and registering it).Because extra staff are now doing the program (or finishing the program) it has again generated a buzz of excitement in the branch about these kinds of technologies. I get to monitor the program (now that the official one has finished) and it is interesting to see what other people are writing about in the Learning 2.0 blogs.
Korfball anyone?
Picture courtesy of Wikipedia - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/DSCF0090.jpg
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Brisbane City Library - Built from Lego Blocks and steel
Oooh, pretty. According to one of the staff at the library (I took a tour), this is one of the top 5 buildings in Brisbane that people 'love to hate'. It reminds me of the Ernst & Young building in Melbourne, a giant mass of glass and steel that is on top of something else (in the case of the E&Y building in Melbourne, it's propped up above the old Herald-Sun offices by yellow poles; in the case of the Brisband Council City Library, it's propped up above some Lego blocks by grey poles and then propped up AGAIN above the grey box by some yellow poles).
The library inside is fascinating. It is over 3 public levels (as well as a basement level featuring a $2mil book sorting machine which is reminiscent of a mail sorting machine). They force all new members to go to an obscure corner of the top level to join, thus ensuring that they give themselves a tour on the way up. They also have all kinds of funky interior features such as glass meeting rooms which made me feel like I was having a meeting in a fish bowl (designed to prevent people shooting up/having sex in obscure meeting room corners) and neon lit shelf ends ("the non fiction section is in the hot pink area next to the go-go dancers").
Interestingly enough, although they have a heap of self-check machines and a giant book sorting/automated returns machine, they don't currently use RFID. Reasoning for this may have something to do with the cost (if you have 32 libraries I am guessing that tagging all of your items would not be cheap).
An interesting thing to note was that they receive all of their items totally shelf ready. Some items (ie some LOTE items) were sent from the supplier to an external cataloguing/processing agent and then to the libraries. I wonder if Brimbank could possibly do something similar, especially as we order some of our stuff direct from the country of origin (ie our Maltese DVDs come to us direct from Malta). That being said, Brisbane's LOTE collection was tiny compared to ours.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Holidays and the drive through library
My last post was sent whilst I was away on holidays. I cheated and wrote it beforehand and scheduled it to 'post' itself whilst I was away. The beauty of technology.
Whilst I was sunning myself in Queensland I had a chance to visit a few libraries. At one library I had a tour of their absolutely fantastic building (I am sure it is worth squillions of dollars). At another library I snuck in and looked around without anyone being any the wiser.
The 'snuck around' library was the Logan Hyperdome Library at the Logan Hyperdome shopping centre. The only reason I went there was it had a drive through. I'd never experienced a library with a drive through before and I was very excited. I have determined that the drive-through is only there because they have no parking and it is better to have people queue in a car to return/pick up items than park illegally.
Interesting concept though. According to their advertising, you can go into the library, select your books and set them aside to pick up later through the window. Nearly every library I've worked at has been of the opposite persuasion...take your books when you select them cause we don't have room to store them.
I'll write about Brisbane City Library (the squillion dollar one) next time.
Whilst I was sunning myself in Queensland I had a chance to visit a few libraries. At one library I had a tour of their absolutely fantastic building (I am sure it is worth squillions of dollars). At another library I snuck in and looked around without anyone being any the wiser.
The 'snuck around' library was the Logan Hyperdome Library at the Logan Hyperdome shopping centre. The only reason I went there was it had a drive through. I'd never experienced a library with a drive through before and I was very excited. I have determined that the drive-through is only there because they have no parking and it is better to have people queue in a car to return/pick up items than park illegally.
Interesting concept though. According to their advertising, you can go into the library, select your books and set them aside to pick up later through the window. Nearly every library I've worked at has been of the opposite persuasion...take your books when you select them cause we don't have room to store them.
I'll write about Brisbane City Library (the squillion dollar one) next time.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Why use barcodes?
Brimbank Libraries are considering stopping the use of barcodes. Fairly soon we will be totally RFID and, when that happens, we don't see the need to have barcodes AND an RFID tag on the book. In fact, the only things we are looking to stick on our items are an RFID tag and a call number sticker. No more stamping and spotting and stickering for us! Our RFID tags will be printed with a pretty design and come with a barcode number printed onto the tag itself. We will then pop that tag on the outside of the item so that the book is 'branded' as one of ours.
There are some problems with this. Our vendor have given us dire warnings about sticking the tag on the outside of the book. They believe that the constant rubbing of the book against other books (and in bags, etc) will damage the tag beyond belief. We are testing this currently and, after heaps of tests, the only thing that seems to kill the tag is if the tag is bent in the wrong spot (which will occur whether it is stuck inside the book or outside the book) or if you scour the small chip in the middle of the tag with something sharp.
Honestly, our items are only meant to last between 5-8 years anyway so it's not going to cause untold grief if they die early.
I think that I must be missing something important though. I have not been able to find another library that has stopped using barcodes because they are using RFID tags. 3M (our RFID vendor) know of only one other library in the world who don't use barcodes, and they were a library that went direct from a card catalogue to RFID...they are also a special use library in a government department and don't have our turnover issues.
If anyone out there can think of any other negatives to doing this then I'd love to hear them. Currently, all I have are the fact that RFID tags could be damaged on the outside of the item (even though I will cover them with contact or some kind of plastic laminate) and that our RFID tags will have numbers printed in a range and we won't have duplicates (so multi-part sets in Chinese or Vietnamese will not have an RFID tag on each item). I am getting around this second bit by probably buying a Brother P-Touch printer to print up labels with the barcode number on them. We will then stick these to items such as mutli-part sets and onto part of an AV item.
There are some problems with this. Our vendor have given us dire warnings about sticking the tag on the outside of the book. They believe that the constant rubbing of the book against other books (and in bags, etc) will damage the tag beyond belief. We are testing this currently and, after heaps of tests, the only thing that seems to kill the tag is if the tag is bent in the wrong spot (which will occur whether it is stuck inside the book or outside the book) or if you scour the small chip in the middle of the tag with something sharp.
Honestly, our items are only meant to last between 5-8 years anyway so it's not going to cause untold grief if they die early.
I think that I must be missing something important though. I have not been able to find another library that has stopped using barcodes because they are using RFID tags. 3M (our RFID vendor) know of only one other library in the world who don't use barcodes, and they were a library that went direct from a card catalogue to RFID...they are also a special use library in a government department and don't have our turnover issues.
If anyone out there can think of any other negatives to doing this then I'd love to hear them. Currently, all I have are the fact that RFID tags could be damaged on the outside of the item (even though I will cover them with contact or some kind of plastic laminate) and that our RFID tags will have numbers printed in a range and we won't have duplicates (so multi-part sets in Chinese or Vietnamese will not have an RFID tag on each item). I am getting around this second bit by probably buying a Brother P-Touch printer to print up labels with the barcode number on them. We will then stick these to items such as mutli-part sets and onto part of an AV item.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Amlib goes to OCLC and our catalogue comes underway
Hello all, today is a good day. Yesterday Amlib (our library management system) announced that they had been acquired by OCLC. Lucky Amlib! I'm a bit suprised actually, Amlib is quite a small LMS compared to, well, OCLC's company size. I know that they are interested in AmlibNet, the online version of Amlib. They're possibly interested in it because you can change everything about the interface. That would mean they could use the one piece of software and port it over to many different language groups. A Chinese language version of Amlib could easily be created by an enterprising customer (or, as OCLC have just purchased it, probably by an enterprising staff member).
Some other good news is that I am going on holiday for 2 weeks on Monday. Yay to time off work!
Some updates from work. I am still creating our library catalogue. I have posted some screen shots below to show you what it will look like. The 'New Books' box on the right comes direct from an rss feed and scrolls whilst you're looking at it. Results are grouped and I'm still working on neatening some things up on that page. Enjoy!
The catalogue search page
The results page
Some other good news is that I am going on holiday for 2 weeks on Monday. Yay to time off work!
Some updates from work. I am still creating our library catalogue. I have posted some screen shots below to show you what it will look like. The 'New Books' box on the right comes direct from an rss feed and scrolls whilst you're looking at it. Results are grouped and I'm still working on neatening some things up on that page. Enjoy!
The catalogue search page
The results page
Monday, July 28, 2008
Slackers update
Hello to the few people left who check this.
Sorry I've been away from blogging for 2 months. I am a slack-arse.
Let us see, what has happened in the past few months?
1. http://www.brimbank.vic.gov.au/ got launched. We have met mostly positive feedback from the public. Staff have had mixed reactions, mostly to do with not being able to find things. The speed is an issue too, we have too many style-sheets and they all take AGES to load in IE (not so bad in Firefox for some reason).
2. I finally got rss feeds working from Amlib using very hack-ish methods. I edited a report file to be in rss format (which took ages I can tell you, stupid validators). I then ran the report to create a file called maltese.rss.txt (because Amlib wouldn't let me call it maltese.rss). I then upload the file to our server and alter the name of the file in the process.
Currently all of the above is happening manually. I am working on getting it all happening automatically. I can definately run the report and create the maltese.rss.txt file automatically. My only problems is in the auto-ftping (and that is to do with network restrictions more than anything else). I am planning to sweet-talk IT around tomorrow, so here's hoping.
3. I began creating the shell for the new Brimbank Libraries Catalogue. Oddly enough, it looks very similar to the website and uses the same style sheets (which of course means it initially takes ages to load). I've popped a screen display of it at http://www.tas666.com/library/brimbank_netopacs/MainMenu.htm . None of the links work really so don't bother with those. And things will look odd in certain parts as I adjust them. Feel free to comment on it if you hate it (or love it).
How's that for an update?!
Sorry I've been away from blogging for 2 months. I am a slack-arse.
Let us see, what has happened in the past few months?
1. http://www.brimbank.vic.gov.au/ got launched. We have met mostly positive feedback from the public. Staff have had mixed reactions, mostly to do with not being able to find things. The speed is an issue too, we have too many style-sheets and they all take AGES to load in IE (not so bad in Firefox for some reason).
2. I finally got rss feeds working from Amlib using very hack-ish methods. I edited a report file to be in rss format (which took ages I can tell you, stupid validators). I then ran the report to create a file called maltese.rss.txt (because Amlib wouldn't let me call it maltese.rss). I then upload the file to our server and alter the name of the file in the process.
Currently all of the above is happening manually. I am working on getting it all happening automatically. I can definately run the report and create the maltese.rss.txt file automatically. My only problems is in the auto-ftping (and that is to do with network restrictions more than anything else). I am planning to sweet-talk IT around tomorrow, so here's hoping.
3. I began creating the shell for the new Brimbank Libraries Catalogue. Oddly enough, it looks very similar to the website and uses the same style sheets (which of course means it initially takes ages to load). I've popped a screen display of it at http://www.tas666.com/library/brimbank_netopacs/MainMenu.htm . None of the links work really so don't bother with those. And things will look odd in certain parts as I adjust them. Feel free to comment on it if you hate it (or love it).
How's that for an update?!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Brimbank launches trial website
That's right, after a month or so away, I've finally updated and with news this time. If you all head on down to http://development.brimbanklibraries.vic.gov.au/ then you can give comments and stuff on our website. I'd appreciate it if anyone who reads this did.
Some things to note, I've FINALLY gotten around to doing some multilingual things. If you go to Services and then Collections you'll see some of what will happen for the live website. Click on the Dinka button (err, Thuɔŋjäŋ in the top right) and the page should translate. You'll also see that some of the menu items will translate too. If you go back to English they'll go back. Eventually the whole site will translate. I don't think I have funding to get the alt text for images translated just yet but I will in the next fin year (come on July!).
Also look at the quick pick section (ignore the animation, we're working on that)...I finally found a use for a reading blog! Noone will go to it if we advertise it as 'reading blog' but if we stick it on every page as a review of our material, hopefully people will go to it. I'll just have to remember to put links in so that people can reserve the items.
That's all for now. Enjoy peoples!
Some things to note, I've FINALLY gotten around to doing some multilingual things. If you go to Services and then Collections you'll see some of what will happen for the live website. Click on the Dinka button (err, Thuɔŋjäŋ in the top right) and the page should translate. You'll also see that some of the menu items will translate too. If you go back to English they'll go back. Eventually the whole site will translate. I don't think I have funding to get the alt text for images translated just yet but I will in the next fin year (come on July!).
Also look at the quick pick section (ignore the animation, we're working on that)...I finally found a use for a reading blog! Noone will go to it if we advertise it as 'reading blog' but if we stick it on every page as a review of our material, hopefully people will go to it. I'll just have to remember to put links in so that people can reserve the items.
That's all for now. Enjoy peoples!
Friday, April 11, 2008
Translating a library webpage
Everyone has told me that setting up translations for a library webpage is difficult and involves a lot of planning and careful consideration of blah blah blah. Maybe I missed something but I have found the translation part of our new library website to be one of the easiest parts (so far).
Here are the steps I've followed.
Step 1: Make a website.
Step 2: Decide that you want the entire website to be in this alternate language (with the exception of news items which will be translated into alternate languages at different times).
Step 3: Copy all of the text you want translated into a Word document.
Step 4: Send to accredited translators.
The only real problems I have had with this is creating some language-specific content for each of my key languages. ie finding online resources to link to in the website links pages. Apart from that it all seems quite straightforward.
Using the above, I have translated all of the menus, all of the image descriptions and all of the content. The only pages I have not translated so far are topical news articles that won't be around when we launch the website. Instead I am going to write up some articles specific to the communities that read these languages and use those instead. Oh, I also haven't translated the minor language specific pages I have (ie I have a list of languages that we collect material in, each of those languages has a brief description of the library services we offer and then our standard brochure translated into that particular language).
To get all of this done, I have used a Joomla tool called Joom!Fish. It is marvellous. It allows you to easily translate a webpage without changing the structure of anything OR having to re-create your entire website. The program does not automatically translate things (like Google Translate or Babelfish) but instead gives you a box containing the current page data and then another box where you type in what you want to appear in that language. So when my patron looks at our website and changes it into Dinka, the main page will contain Dinka language translations of everything I've translated. I could also, if I wanted to, change pictures and applets to be Dinka specific. It's quite clever.
Joom!Fish, relies on a language file being present which contains all of the default text that Joomla supplies translated into different languages. For example, when you try to log in and the password is incorrect, Joomla supplies a message saying "your password is incorrect". The language file changes that to "blah blah blah" in whatever language it is for. Unfortunately I'm having trouble finding a Dinka language version (which wasn't unexpected) and an MSA/Arabic version (which was unexpected). Ah well, if it comes down to it I'll just make one.
Here are the steps I've followed.
Step 1: Make a website.
Step 2: Decide that you want the entire website to be in this alternate language (with the exception of news items which will be translated into alternate languages at different times).
Step 3: Copy all of the text you want translated into a Word document.
Step 4: Send to accredited translators.
The only real problems I have had with this is creating some language-specific content for each of my key languages. ie finding online resources to link to in the website links pages. Apart from that it all seems quite straightforward.
Using the above, I have translated all of the menus, all of the image descriptions and all of the content. The only pages I have not translated so far are topical news articles that won't be around when we launch the website. Instead I am going to write up some articles specific to the communities that read these languages and use those instead. Oh, I also haven't translated the minor language specific pages I have (ie I have a list of languages that we collect material in, each of those languages has a brief description of the library services we offer and then our standard brochure translated into that particular language).
To get all of this done, I have used a Joomla tool called Joom!Fish. It is marvellous. It allows you to easily translate a webpage without changing the structure of anything OR having to re-create your entire website. The program does not automatically translate things (like Google Translate or Babelfish) but instead gives you a box containing the current page data and then another box where you type in what you want to appear in that language. So when my patron looks at our website and changes it into Dinka, the main page will contain Dinka language translations of everything I've translated. I could also, if I wanted to, change pictures and applets to be Dinka specific. It's quite clever.
Joom!Fish, relies on a language file being present which contains all of the default text that Joomla supplies translated into different languages. For example, when you try to log in and the password is incorrect, Joomla supplies a message saying "your password is incorrect". The language file changes that to "blah blah blah" in whatever language it is for. Unfortunately I'm having trouble finding a Dinka language version (which wasn't unexpected) and an MSA/Arabic version (which was unexpected). Ah well, if it comes down to it I'll just make one.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The Library Science collection
A bit off topic for this week I guess (seeing as it's not to do with my website project) but I am currently weeding our library-science collection and, well, I am starting to wonder what other libraries have in their collections.
A list of some of the less relevant things I have:
I'd love to know what other libraries have in their collection though. So far I have kept a single book on building a library (it goes through how much space you should assign for each collection and I really haven't seen much else on the topic before) and reports that staff refer to frequently such as our annual report and a couple of years' worth of the survey of Victorian public libraries. Most everything else is available online, it's not like we need much of the book trends stuff in hardcopy anymore.
A list of some of the less relevant things I have:
- Library Service in Victoria produced by the Library Council of Victoria in April 1970 (and purchased later that year). Rivetting stuff. Highly relevant to a library in 2008.
- Stress Control by Steve Bell. We actually have a large number of books on controlling stress, it doesn't really invite confidence in me having a good working environ here does it?
- The Publishing and Review of Reference Sources which was published in 1987. Again, highly relevant, especially with the chapter on modern publishing methods such as the optical disk and those expensive online databases such as DIALOG.
I'd love to know what other libraries have in their collection though. So far I have kept a single book on building a library (it goes through how much space you should assign for each collection and I really haven't seen much else on the topic before) and reports that staff refer to frequently such as our annual report and a couple of years' worth of the survey of Victorian public libraries. Most everything else is available online, it's not like we need much of the book trends stuff in hardcopy anymore.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Photographs in the library
We've decided to hire a professional photographer to give us some good quality images of our community using our libraries (instead of buying stock images). I imagined it would be a doddle; hire a photographer, line a bunch of people to come in, allow 10 minutes per person, tada, photos. Mostly it was easy, I'd just kind of forgotten about the people element of things.
1. Finding a photographer. We sent out three requests, two came back. Of the two one was better than the other. (easy).
2. Line a bunch of people to come in. I contacted a key representative at each of the branches doing this. They 'enthused' the staff to contact people they thought would be good in their photos from a wide range of backgrounds, nationalities and age groups. This didn't work too bad. (moderately easy).
3. Allow 10 minutes per person. Ha! You look at all those glamour shots in the glossy magazines and think "well, they probably took 50 photos in quick succession, picked the best one and then photoshopped the crap out of it". I can tell you not at all.
a) Lighting - it changes. It's dark. It's light. It needs a flash. A lesser flash. No too little. A bigger flash. Flashity flash flash flash. It's actually quite impressive, the camera's flash is connected wirelessly to every other flash in the building (two ones with umbrellas and a hand-held extra flash) and so when you click 'take photo'...FLASH!
b) Backgrounds - blurry, not blurry, wide lens, angled badly, move the furniture, lift the couch, stand on phone books, sit on phone books, how about we use the encyclopaedias to bolster up the wheely chair. But, having looked at the proofs, it's amazing what you can do with two phone books and a bit of focus.
c) People - they don't do what they're told (I'm one of them by the way, it turns out that move right means move right, not turn to the left).
d) Parents - 'why isn't my child featured more?' 'she smiles all the time, I don't know why she's crying now' 'she's so cute when she's throwing the $10,000 camera around isn't she?'.
4. Photos. These came out brilliantly. Some photos looked a bit boring to me (yup, it's a building, woo) but others came out amazingly good. There is one of a guy sitting on a couch reading a book. When the photo was being taken I though 'ho hum, very ordinary' but, when I saw the low quality proof I was sent, it's amazing. Also, the one of a guy with dreadlocks dropping books onto the head of an Italian man was very funny.
When our new website is launched I'm going to feature these photos all over the place. I'll post here to let everyone know. It's been an experience, I can tell you that.
Oh, and for anyone deciding to do this in the future. If your library has a steady stream of visitors coming in, I'd suggest not trying to do a time sheet beforehand unless you desperately want certain faces in the photos. Because of the time taken with each person (and the fact that people coming into the library are interesting and are very photogenic doing what they normally do), you can cause much angst to people who are on the time sheet and are either unphotogenic, unhelpful or impatient.
1. Finding a photographer. We sent out three requests, two came back. Of the two one was better than the other. (easy).
2. Line a bunch of people to come in. I contacted a key representative at each of the branches doing this. They 'enthused' the staff to contact people they thought would be good in their photos from a wide range of backgrounds, nationalities and age groups. This didn't work too bad. (moderately easy).
3. Allow 10 minutes per person. Ha! You look at all those glamour shots in the glossy magazines and think "well, they probably took 50 photos in quick succession, picked the best one and then photoshopped the crap out of it". I can tell you not at all.
a) Lighting - it changes. It's dark. It's light. It needs a flash. A lesser flash. No too little. A bigger flash. Flashity flash flash flash. It's actually quite impressive, the camera's flash is connected wirelessly to every other flash in the building (two ones with umbrellas and a hand-held extra flash) and so when you click 'take photo'...FLASH!
b) Backgrounds - blurry, not blurry, wide lens, angled badly, move the furniture, lift the couch, stand on phone books, sit on phone books, how about we use the encyclopaedias to bolster up the wheely chair. But, having looked at the proofs, it's amazing what you can do with two phone books and a bit of focus.
c) People - they don't do what they're told (I'm one of them by the way, it turns out that move right means move right, not turn to the left).
d) Parents - 'why isn't my child featured more?' 'she smiles all the time, I don't know why she's crying now' 'she's so cute when she's throwing the $10,000 camera around isn't she?'.
4. Photos. These came out brilliantly. Some photos looked a bit boring to me (yup, it's a building, woo) but others came out amazingly good. There is one of a guy sitting on a couch reading a book. When the photo was being taken I though 'ho hum, very ordinary' but, when I saw the low quality proof I was sent, it's amazing. Also, the one of a guy with dreadlocks dropping books onto the head of an Italian man was very funny.
When our new website is launched I'm going to feature these photos all over the place. I'll post here to let everyone know. It's been an experience, I can tell you that.
Oh, and for anyone deciding to do this in the future. If your library has a steady stream of visitors coming in, I'd suggest not trying to do a time sheet beforehand unless you desperately want certain faces in the photos. Because of the time taken with each person (and the fact that people coming into the library are interesting and are very photogenic doing what they normally do), you can cause much angst to people who are on the time sheet and are either unphotogenic, unhelpful or impatient.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Facebook and my ILS
Now maybe I'm just having a bit of a whinge (okay, I'm having a lot of a whinge), but a certain ILS that I have used was very keen on becoming a next-generation-style ILS. They were open to any ideas from us (the ILS-using customers) about how they could integrate the ILS into other areas of our library, aka Web 2.0. Why is it then that they won't allow me to integrate into Facebook?
I suppose my biggest gripe is probably with Facebook actually. I designed a small applet that would plug into Facebook and search our catalogue. Easy. It uses a custom-made form that sends the request on to our online catalogue. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't really like me using my form and adds a bunch of gobble-de-gook into the form to kill it. This extra data is very important (from Facebook's perspective) in that it allows me to keep track of who is using my applet and, maybe, store their data so that I can market to them. Of course this extra data is in no way compatable with my ILS' catalogue.
I sent off an email explaining my plight "Dear ILS, Please let this work. People won't click on a link that says 'search the library' but they might fiddle with a box that allows you to search the library. Hugs and kisses, C". Unfortunately they said "nup, can't be done, besides, people who want to search the library will click a button, just make it a link". I think the help people missed the point, I want LESS steps, not more. If I wanted more steps I'd put in a wizard.
Step one: Click "Search the library"
Step two: Choose what kind of item you want and click "Continue"
Step three: Select which library you want your item to be located at and click "Continue"
Step four: Choose the language you want your item in and click "Continue"
Step five: Choose what colour you would like your covers to be and click "Continue"
Step six: Type in what you would like your item to be about and click "Search" or choose from our predefined searches in the "Predefined Search Wizard" which has an easy 65 steps.
Maybe I'm too picky...and a minimalist. Less is more (more or less).
I suppose my biggest gripe is probably with Facebook actually. I designed a small applet that would plug into Facebook and search our catalogue. Easy. It uses a custom-made form that sends the request on to our online catalogue. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't really like me using my form and adds a bunch of gobble-de-gook into the form to kill it. This extra data is very important (from Facebook's perspective) in that it allows me to keep track of who is using my applet and, maybe, store their data so that I can market to them. Of course this extra data is in no way compatable with my ILS' catalogue.
I sent off an email explaining my plight "Dear ILS, Please let this work. People won't click on a link that says 'search the library' but they might fiddle with a box that allows you to search the library. Hugs and kisses, C". Unfortunately they said "nup, can't be done, besides, people who want to search the library will click a button, just make it a link". I think the help people missed the point, I want LESS steps, not more. If I wanted more steps I'd put in a wizard.
Step one: Click "Search the library"
Step two: Choose what kind of item you want and click "Continue"
Step three: Select which library you want your item to be located at and click "Continue"
Step four: Choose the language you want your item in and click "Continue"
Step five: Choose what colour you would like your covers to be and click "Continue"
Step six: Type in what you would like your item to be about and click "Search" or choose from our predefined searches in the "Predefined Search Wizard" which has an easy 65 steps.
Maybe I'm too picky...and a minimalist. Less is more (more or less).
The hyperlinked library
I had the pleasure of attending two excellent professional development thingymabobs last week (aka I sat and listened to people speak but calling it training would imply I had a formal-ish teacher).
The first one was called The Hyperlinked Library and was held by Michael Stephens of TameTheWeb. What a fascinating day. Not only did everything he said ring home, I also got to shmooze with other library staff who are interested in the Brimbank Libraries website which is being developed in Joomla. I got plenty of business cards and, unfortunately, have managed to lose the one I got from Michael Stephens. Ah well, he's easy enough to find an email address for.
It turns out that other libraries have tried using Joomla for their website. One lovely lady from *unnamed country library* did not like it at all. She'd used an older version of Joomla and remembered only problems in creating a community portal. After 3 months of glaring at Joomla, I'm apt to believe her. But I will make this work if it kills me (or, more likely, if it kills my job-share partner Andrew).
In Brimbank-Joomla news, we finally have a visa card which we can use to order things online. I don't think council appreciated us asking for a cheque for US$2 for our hosting for one month. Ah well. Visa it is! Huzzah! Because of our Visa, we now have a lovely new location for our Joomla site (previously we were using the boss' webspace).
For those interested in having a squizz : http://www.brimbanklibraries.com . Isn't it wonderful? Tricked ya! Maybe by the time someone reads this post I will actually have the website there, but currently it's a splash screen. We have a sandbox with the actual trial website on it.
The second personal development thingy was a leadership forum where library 'leaders' spoke about what they had done and then we split up into little focus group-esque things to talk about the issues that leaders face. It sounded very much like something I could have slept through but actually turned out to be very exciting. Hurray for training.
The first one was called The Hyperlinked Library and was held by Michael Stephens of TameTheWeb. What a fascinating day. Not only did everything he said ring home, I also got to shmooze with other library staff who are interested in the Brimbank Libraries website which is being developed in Joomla. I got plenty of business cards and, unfortunately, have managed to lose the one I got from Michael Stephens. Ah well, he's easy enough to find an email address for.
It turns out that other libraries have tried using Joomla for their website. One lovely lady from *unnamed country library* did not like it at all. She'd used an older version of Joomla and remembered only problems in creating a community portal. After 3 months of glaring at Joomla, I'm apt to believe her. But I will make this work if it kills me (or, more likely, if it kills my job-share partner Andrew).
In Brimbank-Joomla news, we finally have a visa card which we can use to order things online. I don't think council appreciated us asking for a cheque for US$2 for our hosting for one month. Ah well. Visa it is! Huzzah! Because of our Visa, we now have a lovely new location for our Joomla site (previously we were using the boss' webspace).
For those interested in having a squizz : http://www.brimbanklibraries.com . Isn't it wonderful? Tricked ya! Maybe by the time someone reads this post I will actually have the website there, but currently it's a splash screen. We have a sandbox with the actual trial website on it.
The second personal development thingy was a leadership forum where library 'leaders' spoke about what they had done and then we split up into little focus group-esque things to talk about the issues that leaders face. It sounded very much like something I could have slept through but actually turned out to be very exciting. Hurray for training.
Monday, February 4, 2008
The TREVOR Awards
For those of you who missed me speaking at Gulliver, let's just pretend I was awesome. In reality I was suprised that my voice lasted as long as it did (I'd been sick with a cold and, well, Friday I sounded like a frog with laryngitis). I think I owe my clearness to numerous cold and flu tablets and lozenges. Thankyou Cepacol.
Anyway, the talk didn't go as bad as I expected, I even got questions! I was nowhere near as good as Deb from Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation who 'wow'ed everyone with props and funny anectdotes, but noone fell asleep.
Luckily I stayed around after the forum for the presentation of the TREVOR award (presented by Alan Brough who, funnily enough, is about to start studying to be a librarian). The TREVOR (which stands for Trophy Recognising Excellence in Virtual Online Resources) was won by two libraries, Wellington Shire won the country award and Brimbank Libraries won the metropolitan award. I was shocked. As was the woman in charge of databases for Brimbank Libraries who had said earlier in the day "oh well there's no chance we'll win that!"
The trophy itself is a monument to bad taste. Imagine a netball trophy covered in those 'wow' stars from powerpoint presentations (sparkly blue of course) with a billboard on the top saying TREVOR.
Ah well, we won it though. Our patrons are learning. Next maybe they'll start joining our Facebook profiles and we'll have a gazillion friends and have MEGA events. 900 people at our storytimes, etc.
Anyway, the talk didn't go as bad as I expected, I even got questions! I was nowhere near as good as Deb from Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation who 'wow'ed everyone with props and funny anectdotes, but noone fell asleep.
Luckily I stayed around after the forum for the presentation of the TREVOR award (presented by Alan Brough who, funnily enough, is about to start studying to be a librarian). The TREVOR (which stands for Trophy Recognising Excellence in Virtual Online Resources) was won by two libraries, Wellington Shire won the country award and Brimbank Libraries won the metropolitan award. I was shocked. As was the woman in charge of databases for Brimbank Libraries who had said earlier in the day "oh well there's no chance we'll win that!"
The trophy itself is a monument to bad taste. Imagine a netball trophy covered in those 'wow' stars from powerpoint presentations (sparkly blue of course) with a billboard on the top saying TREVOR.
Ah well, we won it though. Our patrons are learning. Next maybe they'll start joining our Facebook profiles and we'll have a gazillion friends and have MEGA events. 900 people at our storytimes, etc.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Gulliver's travels
Guess who will be speaking at the Gulliver Forum this Thursday? That's right, it's me! By speaking I mean I'll be doing a short presentation on how I found the Learning 2.0 program. By presentation I mean some powerpoint slides whilst I cower behind the lecturn. (I hope there is a lecturn).
I probably should have written this earlier so you could all organise to come and listen to fantastic me. Ah well, I'd actually prefer there weren't too many people there, my public speaking skills are a tad rusty.
I am probably going to speak about how I enjoyed the program but, as an organiser for my library, found that most of our staff were either slightly under-confident about their skills or found it difficult to get time at work to do the program. In fact, the vast bulk of people who completed it did the majority of work from home.
Anyways, just thought I'd let you all know. The forum will be held at the Rendevouz Hotel in Melbourne on 31 January to 1 February from 9.30 onwards. I will be speaking the afternoon of the 1st (again, by speaking, I mean 5 minutes of me bitching about the negative aspects of the program and then closing on an inspirational statement about how it was all worth it because RSS rocks!)
I probably should have written this earlier so you could all organise to come and listen to fantastic me. Ah well, I'd actually prefer there weren't too many people there, my public speaking skills are a tad rusty.
I am probably going to speak about how I enjoyed the program but, as an organiser for my library, found that most of our staff were either slightly under-confident about their skills or found it difficult to get time at work to do the program. In fact, the vast bulk of people who completed it did the majority of work from home.
Anyways, just thought I'd let you all know. The forum will be held at the Rendevouz Hotel in Melbourne on 31 January to 1 February from 9.30 onwards. I will be speaking the afternoon of the 1st (again, by speaking, I mean 5 minutes of me bitching about the negative aspects of the program and then closing on an inspirational statement about how it was all worth it because RSS rocks!)
Look at this laptop? I want one.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Translation tools
I hope everyone is having a lovely summer (or winter for my one non-Australian reader). Some of you have time off (and are gloating to me about it) and others are working through like me.
For those of you working through, this week's topic will be translation tools. ie Babelfish/Worldfish from Altavista, SysTranBox or Google's fancy ooh-la-la Language Tools.
I've always been a big Babelfish person myself. It is powered using the SysTran language tools and was one of the earliest big online translation tools. It uses SysTran software to power it and is rather good in European languages. It also contains the CJK languages.
SysTranBox (being powered by SysTran) has the same functionality as Babelfish but also contains translation in Arabic (but no CJK).
Google Language Tools is perhaps the most interesting tool though. It is fairly new but very comprehensive. It translates in the major European languages in addition to Arabic and the CJK languages. What is interesting though is that it allows you to perform searches in one language and have search results in another. It translates my search term, performs the search and then brings results back translated for me.
iePicture this: I am at the reference desk in my big armchair with a daiquiri in one hand and a Mills & Boon novel in the other when suddenly a young woman comes in wanting recipes in Arabic. Having the l33t cooking skills that I do (I can make porridge and I can sometimes not burn toast) I know that I will have to consult the internet. Onto Google Language Tools, I type in 'recipes' and tada, I have one column for Arabic recipe websites and another column of English translations to them. I can look through my column to see if there is anything that stands out as being useful and, once I have found something that seems good, I click on the Arabic result and my patron has her recipes. She then proceeds to worship me as the god of knowledge that I am.
Ah, I love my dreams. A shame I don't like daiquiris or Mills & Boon.
The worst thing about all of this is that none of the major tools translate Vietnamese. For that I use VDict Translation. It translates. It's quick. You can also roll over words with the mouse and it gives you brief definitions...lovely.
For those of you working through, this week's topic will be translation tools. ie Babelfish/Worldfish from Altavista, SysTranBox or Google's fancy ooh-la-la Language Tools.
I've always been a big Babelfish person myself. It is powered using the SysTran language tools and was one of the earliest big online translation tools. It uses SysTran software to power it and is rather good in European languages. It also contains the CJK languages.
SysTranBox (being powered by SysTran) has the same functionality as Babelfish but also contains translation in Arabic (but no CJK).
Google Language Tools is perhaps the most interesting tool though. It is fairly new but very comprehensive. It translates in the major European languages in addition to Arabic and the CJK languages. What is interesting though is that it allows you to perform searches in one language and have search results in another. It translates my search term, performs the search and then brings results back translated for me.
iePicture this: I am at the reference desk in my big armchair with a daiquiri in one hand and a Mills & Boon novel in the other when suddenly a young woman comes in wanting recipes in Arabic. Having the l33t cooking skills that I do (I can make porridge and I can sometimes not burn toast) I know that I will have to consult the internet. Onto Google Language Tools, I type in 'recipes' and tada, I have one column for Arabic recipe websites and another column of English translations to them. I can look through my column to see if there is anything that stands out as being useful and, once I have found something that seems good, I click on the Arabic result and my patron has her recipes. She then proceeds to worship me as the god of knowledge that I am.
Ah, I love my dreams. A shame I don't like daiquiris or Mills & Boon.
The worst thing about all of this is that none of the major tools translate Vietnamese. For that I use VDict Translation. It translates. It's quick. You can also roll over words with the mouse and it gives you brief definitions...lovely.
