Spring Libraryland Tour

Our mission with Outside/In has been to take useful ideas from the larger world of trends (outside) to see how they apply to libraries (in). In that vein, we’re bringing you a roundup from our spring Libraryland conference tour, during which we made several stops and met hundreds of amazing folks and organizations along the way:

Libraries and Librarians at SXSW

Michael received an invitation to speak at the 2012 SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, on a panel titled “Making Stories: Libraries and Community Publishing.” He joined Amy Buckland of McGill University in Montreal, Char Booth of Claremont (Calif.) Colleges Library, and Nate Hill of San Jose (Calif.) Public Library to discuss libraries and the future of publishing.

We talked about ways in which libraries are community-minded, technologically aware, and interested in preserving local cultural heritage. We also discussed the ways publishers and media work to aggregate and curate information for their readers, and how some libraries and librarians are taking the “maker” ethic to explore ways libraries can help their communities disseminate their own news, write their own stories, and even venture into publishing. (Listen to the audio recording of that session.)

This was Michael’s first time at SXSW. It turned out to be a useful, interesting, and sometimes odd learning experience. SXSW attracts marketers, web entrepreneurs, and web designers of all types, and the sessions reflect that makeup. For those in the library field, it’s a great place to get feedback about projects from a variety of outside experts, particularly on projects related to technology.

Some highlights from the conference included listening to Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan speak frankly about the future of music publishing, meeting O’Reilly Media founder Tim O’Reilly, and visiting the exhibit hall to talk with various vendors from outside our library conferences, such as WordPress, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Make magazine. Hopping on the tricked-out Wired magazine party bus at 11 p.m. for karaoke, drinks, and nerdy conversation was pretty cool, too.

Roughly 90 librarians attended SXSW Interactive, some of whom also presented at panels. One librarian-related high point was hearing consultant Carson Block, whose session, “The Great Library Swindle: Your Rights Are at Risk,” was picked up by Time magazine’s tech blog. (Listen to the session here.) As SXSW described it, “Book publishers, municipal governments, and others seem hell-bent on library destruction, while many wonder if libraries are even relevant at all in the digital age. But if the library disappears, who will really defend your right to confidentially access free information? Business? The megaminds of the interwebs? Think again, compadre.”

PLA: E-Content and Amazing Librarians

The PLA National Conference, which is held every two years, was a whirlwind of librarians, ideas, meetings, presentations, and inspiration. Ebooks and e-content were hot topics of conversation. If you didn’t see the summary of the event from American Libraries online, be sure to check it out.

Computers in Libraries 2012

Both of us attended CIL 2012 and taught a three-hour preconference workshop about making videos for libraries. Video on the web changes quickly, so this workshop kept us on our toes. Plus it gave us an excuse to watch tons of great (and not so great) Libraryland videos.

Here are three we made on how to create videos for your library. We played these at the workshop, so consider this a bonus video from the Outside/In spring 2012 tour.

Finally, here’s a bonus video from comedian Louis C. K., titled “Everything Is Amazing and Nobody Is Happy.” In the video, the comedian talks about how we tend to complain about innovations such as airline travel, all the while forgetting how remarkable reality can sometimes be (like being able to fly through the air). To us, this serves as a reminder that even as we struggle to keep up with technology in libraries, we truly live in amazing times.

DAVID LEE KING is digital branch and services manager for Topeka and Shawnee County (Kans.) Public Library.

MICHAEL PORTER is currently leading the effort of the e-content–centric nonprofit Library Renewal and has worked for more than 20 years as a librarian, presenter, and consultant for libraries.

Latest Library Links

15h

Michael Kan writes: “Are you still using ‘chocolate,’ ‘naruto,’ or ‘monkey’ for your passwords? You really need to stop. All three are among the most commonly used passwords, putting your accounts at risk of hacking, according to new data from NordPass. The password manager’s sixth annual list of the top 200 most commonly used passwords is pulled from a 2.5TB dataset of stolen logins taken from various sources.” ZDNet offers tips for creating stronger passwords and improved security measures.

PC Mag, Nov. 14; NordPass, Nov. 13; ZDNet, Nov. 14
20h

John Sharp writes: “Athens and Fairhope are two fast-growing cities in the fastest-growing areas of Alabama, and there is no mistaking their conservative bona fides. But according to early statistics about library card applications, their libraries appear to be bucking a trend embraced by conservative-leaning groups and the Alabama GOP: Their patrons appear to be trusting the libraries. More than 60% of parents at Fairhope Public Library and Athens-Limestone County Public Library have signed off on all-access passes for their children with no restrictions on library usage.”

AL.com, Nov. 17
2d

Katie Gaddini writes: “Book bans may have mushroomed in the Trump era of reactionary politics, but they have a well-established history in America. One woman in particular, Norma Gabler, redefined the current strategy and logic behind modern book bans. Called ‘education’s public enemy number one,’ by critics in 1980, Gabler led the crusade against the so-called secular trend in school textbooks throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Even though Norma and her husband Mel worked together, Norma was the public face of their efforts for decades.”

Time: Made By History, Nov. 13
2d

Many members know Bill Ladewski as executive director of the Reference and User Services Association, an ALA position he has held since 2019. In early September, Ladewski added another title to his CV: director of Member Relations and Services. In this role, he and his team are charged with providing service and information to the Association’s nearly 50,000 members. Ladewski answered our 11 Questions to reintroduce himself to the ALA community.

AL: The Scoop, Nov. 19
3d

John Warner writes: “I understand what people mean when they invoke the term ‘institutional neutrality,’ but I don’t know how it’s workable in today’s world. Higher education institutions are built upon a foundation of actual values, values that are, by definition, not neutral. The Kalven report, the Rosetta Stone of institutional neutrality produced by a faculty committee at the University of Chicago in 1967, is not a call to make all work emanating from an institution ‘neutral,’ but is instead a call to make the atmosphere for scholarly inquiry and debate as free as possible.”

Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 15
3d

Angela Hursh writes: “Ever wondered how your library’s email performance compares to others? Benchmarks help you understand how well your emails perform in key areas and identify opportunities for improvement. They also allow you to compare your email marketing performance, set goals, and stay on top of trends. However, the lack of industry benchmarks for email marketing metrics specific to libraries has been bugging me. Metrics from similar industries don’t fully capture the unique aspects of promoting a library. To help libraries accurately measure their email effectiveness, we’ve created the first-ever library email benchmark report.”

NoveList, Oct. 22
4d

Rachel Hendrick writes: “Students and library vendors are pushing artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in higher education, but there are very few resources that help librarians and scholars separate the wheat from the chaff. Luckily, we here at Choice love a good assessment rubric. (In fact, we made a PDF of our assessment rubric.) Even the least tech-savvy of us can use a very simple AI literacy framework to think critically about whether an AI application is worth your time.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, Nov. 13