Poll Results: Shilling for the Library?

Posted on April 25, 2012 by admin

Oops, so sorry for the delay. I promised to write about my opinions on the whole “shilling for the library” topic, so here we go. First of all, I should discuss the results: out of a total of 16 votes, 69% were okay with librarians or library employees “shilling” library social media sites (i.e. commenting as if they were not employees or without disclosing their relationship with the library in order to promote the library or its services and programs), and 31% were against shilling. I have to admit, I’m quite surprised by the results.

Personally, I am not okay with shilling for the library. I think it’s an ethical thing, and as a professional (with professional ethics and an advanced education), I just feel that it is wrong. I think it undermines all that we try to do in the library and it also insults the intelligence of the community, since at some point people will figure out that you work for the organization. People these days are very savvy about shilling and misleading representation, in the US even bloggers have had stricter rules regarding disclosure. I don’t see how being a non-profit or public organization suddenly makes the ethics of the situation shift or change–that sounds like justifying shady behaviour to me. Note, when discussing in the original post what “shilling” means, I included a definition and link. I’m not talking about promoting a service/program while disclosing that you work for the organization (“Hi, I’m a librarian at XYZ library. We have some fantastic programs, you should check them out!”) but rather hiding or not disclosing the fact that you have a relationship with the organization, which seems to me to be a conflict of interest (“The XYZ library has GREAT programs, I go there all the time!”). My personal litmus test is if it isn’t okay to do in the private sector, then it’s probably not okay to do in the public/non-profit sector either.

Frankly, if you feel the need to shill for your library in order to get more people in the door, then you probably have some problems and need a lot more help then a little posting on FaceBook or Twitter shilling your library will be able to fix.

Do you have a thought/opinion that you’d like to share? Think I’m out to lunch? Agree with me? Leave a comment below!

D-

Portfolio Updates

Posted on April 7, 2012 by admin

Hello,
I just updated my portfolio (click Portfolio at the top on this page to view). I’ve embedded my group’s fun promotional video on library reference services for 20- and 30-somethings, which we filmed for INF1310: Intro. to Reference. We spent HOURS working on this project; I co-wrote the script, had a little part, and co-directed it. I had an AMAZING group to work with, it was such a great mix of different personalities and everyone brought such unique and strong skills to the table, which I think is reflected in the final outcome. Everything happened to just come together as we filmed it, though it took many, many hours to shoot and get it “just right”. Mari, our editor and “the librarian”, spent countless more hours editing and rendering the video; I think she did an amazing job, much better than I could have anticipated.

I’ve also recently added a copy of my other group’s slideshow for INF2143: Issues in Children & Youth Librarianship, where we came up with a fictitious (but somewhat plausible, I hope) partnership between the Flemingdon Park Library (part of the TPL) and the Ontario Science Centre, where we proposed creating a children’s science literacy program aimed at low-income families in priority neighbourhoods, particularly Flemingdon Park because of it’s proximity to the OSC and the high number of low-income families, who cannot afford to attend the OSC, which has admission prices from $13-15 for children (plus the IMAX experience) and $20 for adults.

Finally, I’ve embedded my Zombie Lover’s Reading Map, which is a project for INF1006: Workshop on Reading Maps. This is still a work in progress. I’ve tried to add call numbers from the Oakville Public Library’s catalogue, as they are my local library system, and they’re pretty groovy. I was very fortunate to job shadow at the Central branch recently and see the inner workings of the library (cataloguing, acquisitions, ILL, Halton Services Databases, etc.). The people I met were all extremely nice and professional and I learned so much that day and had all my questions answered.

That’s all for now. I have four papers and two projects to complete by early next week :-S

D-

Vote for Darrell for MISC Social Committee Co-Chair

Posted on March 29, 2012 by admin

Hello fellow iSchoolers,

I am running in this year’s MISC election for the position of Social Committee Co-Chair. If elected, I hope to bring some fun and creative planning to the MISC and to improve upon our already great existing Social Committee’s programs and events. Here is my official blurb from the MISC elections site:

I’m running for Social Committee Co-Chair because I think I’m a good candidate to bring some fun, creative events to the iSchool student body. As a commuter student, I also want to make sure that the commuters, part-timers, and students with families/family responsibilities can participate in our social events as well. This means scheduling some events during the day, on a weekend, or taking into account the fact that some students need to leave early to commute back home. I also would like to have an event or two that is kid-friendly for students with children. I want to ensure that everybody feels included. I am always open to feedback and am very approachable, so if elected I would be very amenable to hearing YOUR ideas. I have some experience with planning social events, such as through my informal “Stitch ‘n Bitch” craft group here at the iSchool (crafty iSchoolers, feel free to contact me if you want to participate!). Thank you for your consideration

Photo Courtesy: Peter Madison, Madison Photography. www.petermadison.com

D-

Another Quick Picture For You

Posted on March 28, 2012 by admin

from last night’s Reference Video Shoot…I present, Jae, the Mastermind.

Jae nailed it on the first take. Very impressive!

Reference Video: A Little Teaser

Posted on March 24, 2012 by admin

Last night, we started filming our reference video for an assignment in Introduction to Reference class. Our group is doing a fun 5-minute(ish) video aimed at promoting the library, and particularly reference services, to 20-30-somethings. We have some constraints in that we need to include certain criteria, but we’ve been given a lot of leeway to be creative, which is fantastic. Without giving away too much, I’ll just tell you that it focuses on a team of spies who infiltrate the library. It’s a funny video with lots of little cultural references, in-jokes, and tropes. So, without further ado, I will post a few teaser pictures. I’ll update here when it is posted, which won’t be until early April.

: Miss Emily P. as the Mastermind at Spy HQ

Miss Pam M. as 50s-esque housewife-cum-spy aka "The Muscle"

Me, as an elite hacker (1337 h4xorz) at a Paris café

Thank you for stopping by. I’ll be posting the link and updating my portfolio once the film has been screened in our class

D-

Portfolio: Coming Soon

Posted on March 13, 2012 by admin

This has been a very busy, but very productive, semester. This semester, I’m taking courses on issues in children & youth librarianship, an introduction to reference librarianship, a core course on representation, organization, classification, and meaning, and a very fun workshop on reading maps. Most of these courses involve some practical essays and assignments, which means that I will have several projects to upload to my portfolio here on iBrarian soon. Some of these projects include a fun and informative video on reference librarianship (which should hopefully be very creative and entertaining), a sample course resource page/LibGuide, a presentation suggesting a community partnership with a local library, and a fun reading map on the zombie horror genre and related materials (games, fiction, tv shows, movies, and non-fiction books).

I also have a couple job shadowing opportunities that I’m excited about, and perhaps an unofficial iSchool charitable/service organization that some of my colleagues have started. I have some personal fun projects that I’m working on as well, including knitting some baby blankets (I’m a novice knitter, and I started a little knitting group last semester for my fellow crafty iSchoolers), and I’ve recently inherited my “Nanny”‘s old recipes from my aunt, so I’ll be cooking and baking some of them and creating a little cookbook for my extended family. Oh, and I’m trying to read widely in some of the popular children/young adults fiction titles, so I’ve been working my way through Harry Potter and I plan on starting the Hunger Games trilogy soon.

This summer, I’ll be taking a course or two so I can take some of the pressure off for my final year, and hopefully I’ll be able to find a part-time library position so that I can gain some hands-on experience. All of this means that I have a lot on my plate at the moment, so I appreciate your patience if there is a bit of a gap between postings, but I’d rather use this space to write with a purpose and more of a focus than I would a more personal blog. Rest assured, I always have an opinion or three that I’m more than willing to share, and once I have the time to think things over and write them out, I’ll be posting them here

Thank you for visiting and please stop by again soon.

D-

Dear Libraries: Social Media is not That Innovative

Posted on February 2, 2012 by admin

This might sound a bit controversial, but please bear with me. I’ve been attending the Ontario Library Association’s (OLA) Superconference 2012 in downtown Toronto. The theme of this conference is Innovation. We’ve had some excellent plenary presentations about technology and innovation by some fantastic speakers, including Tom Wujec of AutoDesk and Jonah Lehrer, notable author and Contributing Editor for Wired. We’ve learned about new and emerging technologies and how to encourage the innovative and creative areas of our brains. One of the presentations I attended was on social media for libraries. I’m not writing this post in response to the presentation per sé, and it’s not aimed at anyone in particular, it’s just that the presentation brought forth for me some issues I’ve been noticing surrounding libraries and social media.

To put it bluntly, we are well behind the curve when it comes to (let’s face it, not so new) technologies, particularly social media. I don’t think libraries should be patting themselves on the collective back for having a FaceBook page or Twitter account. I don’t think contemplating maybe possibly installing a FourSquare check-in in a year from now is particularly forward thinking either. This is not innovation. This is not proactive thinking. This is reactive thinking, and it’s part of the reason why libraries are, in general, behind the curve. Yes, FaceBook is apparently going public, but it’s not new. Neither is Twitter. If your library doesn’t already have an account on both these social media platforms, you are well behind the times. I think that if we’re still at the level of having to explain why social media is relevant and what social media is, we’re having some serious problems.

Yes, libraries are a public service but this is where we can borrow from corporate business models (I know, I cringed at that as well, but there are some lessons we can learn from the private sector–take the best ideas that we can apply and throw away the rest); we should be identifying trends before they become too trendy. We should be finding those trend-setters (individuals, businesses, brands, etc.) and we should be predicting where we need to focus our own branding, programming, and marketing campaigns. Find those people that are ahead of the curve or at the forefront of these technological trends and hire them, talk to them, emulate them, do whatever it takes to identify and learn from those forward-thinking centres of influence. [Remember, social media isn't just about targeting teen or youth audiences--in fact, the average Twitter user is a 33.5 or 39 year-old female, depending on which study you go by]. Unfortunately, with looming budget cuts and hiring freezes, we may not be able to inject some of that fresh, innovative energy into the library sector, and this is not a good thing.

So, before we boast that we’ve just created a FaceBook page or Twitter account, perhaps we should take some time to do some research and see where we should be headed, where the next social media account should be created, and where we’re headed with Web 3.0, not struggling to barely keep up with Web 2.0. We should be looking at other technologies and trends (such as eBooks), and we should be forward-thinking in what the library of the future will look like. Otherwise, we are at risk of becoming obsolete.

To Specialize or Not to Specialize?

Posted on January 29, 2012 by admin

This is a question that has been playing on my mind since starting this program. Everyone seems to have a different answer. Should we, as library students, specialize in a particular area (not just public vs. academic vs. special libraries, but even more specific, such as reference librarian vs. children & youth librarian vs. readers’ advisory librarian, etc.)? Is it helpful or harmful to specialize, given that the job prospects aren’t necessarily as rosy as some iSchools lead students to believe? If I find a particular niche that I think I might be interested in and can excel in, should I start focusing my electives in that one area, or should I keep my options open and try to take a little bit of something here and there in order to increase my employability? I don’t have any answers to these questions, by the way, so I’m hoping my readers will contribute below with a comment or opinion or some personal experience.

Right now, I’m definitely interested in the public libraries sector, with specific interests in children and youth (particularly “tweens” and teens) librarianship, readers’ advisory, and reference librarianship. Of course, it’s early days yet in my program and I need to do more research into these various fields and ideally get some on-the-job experience so that I can narrow down my interests. I plan on dabbling in the various areas that I’m interested in, but I’m not so sure if I should focus on those areas specifically in my limited number of elective courses, or if I should take some courses in, say, archives or government document librarianship, in order to increase my employability (or rather, increase my chances of actually finding a job once all is said and done).

Once again, any and all input, advice, and personal experience is welcome and appreciated. I’m sure my fellow iSchoolers have similar questions and concerns about this topic.

Thanks again for stopping by,

D-

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