Book Review: Minus The Imple.

Today I had the pleasure of finishing a book written by my mentor and colleague Bob Chandler. His novel has been years in the making, and I have seen firsthand the many struggles he has overcome to hone this work for public consumption. Below is my review, which I am also posting to his blog. I urge everyone to download or purchase the book, which has won a prime position on my bookshelf.  Congratulations Bob, on a job very well done.

Minus The Imple is a book about the pleasure of living and the importance of self-worth. The inaugural novel and fictionalized true story of Robert R. Chandler explores the growth of a boy destined to experience both heartbreak and overwhelming happiness. Throughout the course of first loves, sexual trysts, college inebriation, marriage, and divorce, readers are swept along on a journey of self-discovery rarely initiated by most. Describing a finely crafted tale of phenomenal experiences, Chandler invites readers to question their souls, their strengths, their weaknesses and everything in between. To quote the gifted author: “It’s simple, really…” Recommended for public and academic libraries, as well as anyone searching for perspective on the harsh but joyous realities of life.

-Erin Dorney, May 2008

What is an Unconference, Anyway?

Today I presented my first poster session at the WNY/O ACRL Spring 2008 Conference in Niagara Falls. I wanted to post my materials here for everyone who was unable to make it. The URLs in my handouts are linked, so feel free to click on them and learn more about unconferences, library camps, and some examples of virtual learning.

UnconferencePoster.pdf

WhatIsAnUnconference.pdf

WebTrainingResources.pdf

I’ve been getting lots of interest in my poster. People seem to have heard of the term unconference but are unsure about what it really is. Some people have mistaken it for a piece of software or a program, which is something I am going to take into consideration for future explanations. One attendee from Canada mentioned that they had tried the library camp theme at their university for students to sort of control their own learning sessions, without much success. However, the idea has potential. Once I have explained the term, most people seem to nod and state that it sounds beneficial.

I’m here with a few other colleagues from RIT, who will be presenting shortly. I plan on adding my thoughts about the speaker sessions sometime this weekend. Also, mega thanks to Bob Chandler for helping me pull all of the supplies together for my poster!

Graduation & Mountain Bikes.

Okay, so I’ve been away from my blog for a month now. If anyone is stalking me on here, my apologies. It’s not that I’ve decided that blogging isn’t for me; no, not at all. I’ve been incredibly busy. I graduate in 19 days with my MLIS, a task that has been two years in the making. Everything is wrapping up with my final two courses (Survey of Telecommunication and Digital Information Retrieval). In between my last two group assignments, I’ve managed to have two poster sessions accepted for next month: one on May 2nd at the WNY/O ACRL Spring 2008 Conference and one on May 19th at Cornell University Libraries Professional Development Week. I’m extremely excited, as these are my first poster presentations (minus the practice session we did the first semester of library school) and feel very honored to have been accepted. I hope to eventually get copies of my poster linked here on my blog so that everyone can see them. I’ve also been pretty busy with the job search (applications, interviews, life-altering decisions… yay!).

Amidst all of the above, I had the chance to be fitted for and purchase my first mountain bike (a Giant Cypher). I’ve been saving for this bike for a long time, and am really looking forward to testing it out. I picked up a nice helmet (a Giro Hex - gotta protect the brain now that all this library information is inside of it!) and a brand new hydration pack (a CamelBak L.U.X.E). My bike is on backorder because I’m so short I needed a size small, but its delivery coincides perfectly with my graduation. School will be out and I’ll have lots of time to ride! This will probably become a hybrid library-mountain-biking-blog for a bit.

It’s finally spring and seems like everyone is busy. Tell me, what are you up to?

Info Career Trends Article.

This was published in early March and I completely forgot to post about it on my blog. I wrote an article for Info Career Trends (LISjobs.com’s career development newsletter) titled Positive Priorities. The article talks about the different responsibilities I juggle as a current graduate student and employee. In talking about my own experiences, I also offer some advice to anyone in a similar situation. The three methods I use to prioritize are visualization, resisting tempting distractions, and having a positive outlook.

I really enjoyed writing for this publication & having the opportunity to work with Rachel Singer Gordon (Editor). She is always looking for more people to contribute. I’m also working on another article to be published in May about finding and landing student awards and scholarships, getting funding for conferences, workshops, and other continuing education opportunities.

UNYUNC.

(Upstate New York Unconference)

After mulling them over for a bit, I believe I am ready to share my thoughts about my first unconference experience. The conference in Syracuse last week (discussed here) attracted approximately 70 participants the first day and 50 participants the second day, even in the face of inclement weather (sooo typical). I was there for both days facilitating sessions and taking real-time notes for the wiki. Notes from all of the sessions (including additional information and linked resources) can be found on the wiki, and I encourage attendees to check it out as well as those who were unable to make it upstate.

As a student, I found the unconference particularly helpful. I was able to take a lot of what I have learned in my various courses and see it applied to real life situations. For instance, I can read about creating a balanced collection all day long, but after hearing from some libraries who have faced book challenges and differing community views, I have a better idea of (and more appreciation for) collection development. I would encourage any library students in the area (from UB or Syracuse) to either volunteer or attend if this event takes place again (I’m fairly convinced that it will). It’s an excellent and zero pressure way to network with librarians and will set you apart from the hordes of other LIS graduates when looking for a job. It’s also just a fun way to get some of the “inside scoop” on what’s happening in the libraries in Upstate NY.

I don’t believe that traditional library conferences will be disappearing anytime soon because they offer lots of things that the library crowd enjoys, including trips to interesting places (aka time spent outside of the library), opportunities to speak with vendors and face-to-face networking and reconnecting with peers. However, I think that library unconferences are going to continue to gain popularity. At the core of it, they are about learning and sharing, without any of the “bs”. For one thing, librarians will always be attracted to free or low-cost learning opportunities (because that’s what we offer to our patrons). Secondly, an unconference offers the type of informal and unstructured learning environment in which everyone can participate without falling asleep during a powerpoint presentation and can leave the room to attend another session without feeling rude.

I just read about an upcoming unconference being hosted by the Arlington Public Library in Virginia. It’s going to focus on “the greening of public libraries.” If it wasn’t a 7 hour drive away from me, I would totally be there. I would love to see more libraries hosting and participating in unconferences. Also, perhaps this “unconference” idea is something that academic librarians could massage into a new learning model for students. Maybe freshman orientation sessions could be held in a similar fashion (i.e. informal, unstructured, discussions with the students instead of talking at them, learning from them as they learn from us, etc).

Edit: Just came across another resource, a newly created wiki for library unconferences.

Library Spaces.

Last week I had the opportunity to view one of the College of DuPage Teleconferences titled Library Spaces: Future Needs. The presentation was a part of the Library Challenges & Opportunities 2008 series, and offered a lot of good advice (and examples) of changing needs in public and academic libraries. A couple of main concepts that I took away are discussed below.

Zones - The architects featured in the teleconference (Elisabeth Martin and Jeffrey Hoover) specialize in library design and planning. They introduced the new (to me) idea of “zoning” your library based on the different types of spaces/services that are provided. Some of the zones could include a welcome area, the living room zone (the heart of the library, where information is being used via computers, collaborative seating, couches, etc), the information commons (where users are seeking information and assistance), the youth zone (in public libraries), programming (auditoriums, conference rooms, instructional spaces), administrative/support services (office areas) and a civic zone (courtyards, garden, paths and walkways). They showed a variety of library floor plans where they had zoned using different colors, and it was very interesting to see “the big picture” in terms of locations. I would actually like to do this (just out of curiosity) with the floor plans of RIT Libraries. Hmm… perhaps I will.

Technologies - What library-related conversation would be complete without a discussion of new technology?? Not a one. We learned about Helsinki City Library’s “Information Gas Station” (iGS), a mobile reference service unit (the Information Barrel), that users can visit at malls or at different locations. Another concept was the use of ATM technology at self-checkout stations for users to pay fines on the spot. Collapsible shelving as well as retractable bleacher systems were also mentioned.

A common thread throughout the teleconference was providing opportunities for collaboration and flexibility. This can be accomplished by taking into consideration future space needs and changing services. Although we may not be able to predict the future, we can take steps like utilizing reconfigurable furniture, looking for success in other industries (merchandising the collection similar to bookstore displays, having a concierge-like presence in the welcome zone), remembering that the reference desk is usually a barrier and weighing the use of lighting and features that add to ambiance with space used for the collection (although library real estate is valuable, there must be a balance). We can also remember that users tend to gravitate toward the perimeter of the room rather than the core (necessitating seating there), to give every seat access to two outlets and provide visually connected spaces as well as quiet, private spaces.

The speakers advocated for a library “self-examination”. One of my favorite parts was when they showed two diagrams I have crudely recreated below:

The lines represent the collection and the dots represent users. In the older model, the collection was at the center. In the new model, the resources in the collection are centered around the user. I think this way of thinking can be applied not only to the physical arrangement of a library, but to the mindset librarians should now be looking towards. Instead of simply coming here to use our resources, patrons are coming here to gather with others, to seek assistance, and access resources specific to their need. The collection is no longer the biggest draw (for student users at least). Books are no longer the magnets for libraries, we must aspire to provide other services including a neutral, safe space, points of access, and offering customized and personal assistance based on our users’ needs.

Libraries & early intervention.

Today I attended an hour long Early Intervention Program through RIT’s Center for Professional Development (CPD). This is a training session that has been implemented for RIT faculty and staff in light of recent events involving school violence (Illinois, Virginia Tech).

“The purpose of this training program is to raise our awareness as it relates to recognizing disruptive behaviors and the resources available to manage potentially dangerous situations.”

What is the role of the library in terms of early intervention? Depending on when students decide to enter the library, we don’t necessarily see the same faces day after day like other administrators, faculty, and staff. This makes it a little more difficult to notice any student in particular changing their daily habits for the worse.

However, we are an excellent resource for students who are struggling with issues including mental illness, depression, family or relationship issues and violent behavior. We provide access to information, both physical and virtual. If students have the courage to ask for assistance (even under the guise of “this is for an assignment”), we provide support in locating authoritative information that could possibly change and save lives. In reference situations, we need to be aware of warning signs. Although I would not advise straight out confrontation, we can surely provide a kind, sympathetic, non-judgmental ear and point students to pertinent information.

Regardless of position, subject specialty or liaison area, librarians should be prepared to answer some of the typical questions young adults in the college realm may have. These questions include eating disorders, mental disease, relationship issues, suicide, stalking, and violence. In many cases, college is the first time that students are on their own, outside of a family environment and in a new (and challenging) community. Retention rates clearly show that not all students can adjust to these changes.

The library has long been considered a safe and neutral place, especially on college campuses. Perhaps we can continue this feeling by embracing our students so that they can let their guard down within our walls and seek our assistance. After all, that’s what we’re there for.

Library Camp @ Syracuse.

Upstate NY is having its first library unconference! Nope, that wasn’t a typo. What is an unconference, you might ask? It’s sort of like an unbirthday!

“An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is created and managed by the participants (generally day-by-day during the course of the event) rather than by one or more organizers in advance of the event.” - Wikipedia

Okay, so maybe it’s not really like an unbirthday… But more information on Library Camp @ Syracuse, including a nifty FAQ for the newbies, can be found on the wiki. The down and dirty is that it’s taking place in Syracuse, NY on March 4th and 5th and costs US $40 for one day and US $75 for both days (with discounts for students!). I’ll be there as an iSchool student volunteer facilitating sessions and taking notes for the wiki!

There will be some very cool breakout sessions on March 4th including 2.0 show and tell, metadata, public 2.0, social networking, open source, funding, assessment, customer service, balancing the old and the new and I can’t resist a shameless plug for the session I will be facilitating with Jen Sullivan and Scott Nicholson on next generation catalogs (content to be added ASAP)!

The breakout sessions on March 5th focuses more on Collection Development.

What should you do? Visit the wiki, register for the unconference, contribute some content, share with your colleagues and visit Syracuse in March (come on, who doesn’t love the snow?!)!

Web two point what?

Welcome to Erin 2.0!

Below I have compiled a list of all the websites/applications that I currently have a profile/account on that might fall under a loose definition of Web 2.0 (interactive, social, collaborative, sharing, login). It was interesting to put together, and I didn’t realize that I had this many user-names and passwords that I (on occasion) remember correctly.

• Flickr - Photo sharing
  • I have photos listed as private as well as public.
• Facebook - Social networking
  • I have a profile accessible to friends only.
• Blogger - Blogging
  • I have a private blog available to friends and family and two public blogs: one that was created for a Syracuse University course and one that was created to describe my SUNYLA Conference experience.
• WordPress - Blogging
  • I have a public blog (the one you are reading!).
• Livejournal - Blogging/journal
  • In high school I had a private Livejournal account, which I have since deleted. For a current Syracuse University course I was required to make a new account in order to contribute to a class blog.
• LinkedIn - Social networking
  • I have a private profile (defeating the purpose?).
• Second Life - Virtual world
  • I have an avatar and am exploring Second Life.
• AOL Instant Messenger - Messaging system
  • I have had various AIM screen names (SN) since I was at least 14. I currently use my AIM SN to chat with friends only (and do not typically disseminate my SN to colleagues).
• MSN Messenger - Messaging system
  • I have a public MSN SN used for internal work communications.
• Pidgin - Messaging system
  • I use Pidgin to log into my work SN and my AIM SN at the same time, allowing me to talk with friends and peers simultaneously.
• Inbox - Email
  • I use inbox.com for my email account. It’s free, has lots of cool features (notes, multiple calendars, on-line storage space), and is very good with spam and advertisements (very unobtrusive).
• eSnips - Web storage
  • I heard about eSnips at the 2007 NYLA Conference in Buffalo, NY. It’s a free, web-based storage site where you can upload and save documents and other important items. I use it to store papers for class that I can then access from home and work without having to email them to myself every time!
• Google Reader - RSS feed reader
  • I use Google Reader to stay abreast of many blog updates.
• Roc Wiki - Wiki
  • I am a member of, but have yet to substantially contribute to this community wiki. However, I visit it all the time, mostly to find out restaurant information.
• Wetpaint - Wiki
  • I am a member of the Syracuse Library Camp wiki.
• Webshots - Photo sharing
  • I used Webshots in college to organize digital photos. Because most of them involved rather unprofessional behavior, they are now located in private albums unavailable to the public.
• LibraryThing - Book cataloging
  • I have a LibraryThing account to share my reading lists with friends as well as keep track of what books I currently own in my personal collection. I recently reached the limit for a free account and am thinking about purchasing a life membership for US $25.00. I also receive occasional free books as an Early Reviewer, which is totally sweet.
• Del.icio.us - Social bookmarking
  • I have a del.icio.us account with public and private bookmarks saved.

The items in this list (below) are applications/websites where I used to have a profile/account and for one reason or another, no longer do.

• Ning - Social networking
  • I was introduced to Ning during a summer course at Syracuse University. However, after we used it for class, I deleted my account because I just didn’t like it. It doesn’t seem as intuitive or user-friendly as other social networking sites, and I found myself not logging in for weeks at a time.
• MySpace - Social networking
  • I used to have a MySpace page, but deleted it because it seemed rather pointless to have both a MySpace and a Facebook account with virtually identical friends. More of my friends are on Facebook anyway, so I just deleted my MySpace account. I also find that Facebook has more options available for privacy settings (compared to the all or nothing of MySpace).

Hopefully this can give readers a glimpse at what one 23 year old is using on a day to day basis to accomplish her personal, professional, and educational goals. I am using 18 different services, mostly .coms. Boy, would I be lost if the net went down! Eventually, widespread OpenID may let me log into many of them using the same user-name and password, a novel thought!

How many of these applications/websites do you use? What other services do you use? Which services can libraries utilize? What are your thoughts on Web 2.0?

Social Bookmarking Workshop.

Today I had the opportunity to teach my first library-related tech workshop (something I anticipate doing much of in the future). As a student, this was a great and much appreciated opportunity. RIT Libraries held a Social 2.0 Week last April where I was able to co-present, but this year I was on my own! Previously this week, workshops on Web 2.0 Intro., RSS, and Flick/YouTube were held. Today was mine on Social Bookmarking and tomorrow there is a workshop being offered on Facebook Basics.

Although I’ve done presentations before (as an undergraduate & at various meetings & for graduate school projects), this was the first time I was facilitating a more hands-on type of learning experience. It was fun designing my Power Point (PPT) presentation (yes, boring, I know… but what are the alternatives??) and guiding users through the steps of creating their very own social bookmarking account. I described a few services available and then we spent some time tagging some websites using del.icio.us (my personal fav). Luckily, I had some assistance for the hands-on portion of the workshop from RIT’s Business Librarian. It really made a difference having someone in the audience available to walk around and make sure everyone was doing alright while I talked about different features. I will be assisting her in turn at tomorrow’s Facebook Basics workshop.

The feedback I did receive was positive, however there wasn’t as good of a turn out as I had initially hoped for. In the future, there are a number of things I would like to do differently:

• Electronic Access: Provide participants with a link to an electronic version of my presentation (PPT) and additional materials. I handed out printouts of my PPT, but even though I linked all of the images and logos to their respective websites, people can’t click on them and go there directly with a piece of paper. I would like to provide the option of reviewing the presentation after the workshop in case people would like to learn at their own pace, or be reminded of a certain aspect they may have missed the first time around. Eventually, I would like to include audio with these presentations so it’s a whole package deal, kind of like a web tutorial.
• Evaluation: Create a more detailed evaluation sheet. Or perhaps even provide a link to a web form for feedback/comments. Some people might feel uncomfortable telling me what they really thought of the presentation on a piece of paper (while I’m standing right there and they have to hand it to me as they leave). The evaluation sheet available for me today gathered only basic information (stats about the audience, where they heard about the workshop, and a rating scale of 1 - 5). It doesn’t have much room for additional comments, which I would have been interested in hearing.
• Marketing: More on my part. Although our library has large-scale marketing methods in place, I would like to do more of my own mouth-to-mouth advertising of workshops (especially the ones I’m teaching!). So I’m trying to think of interesting ways I could share information without being intrusive. For example, I probably wouldn’t message all of my RIT Facebook friends/co-workers, but I might create an event advertising the workshop or put the link in my “Posted Items”, forcing it to show up in my News Feed to create more general awareness.
• Information sharing. The last thing I would like to do is find out more information from workshop participants throughout the course of the workshop. I am interested in knowing things like: Do you know/use Firefox? What’s your knowledge of Social Bookmarking? What do you think it means? Do you have any ideas for how you could use this in your own life? I think that I can learn as much from them (and certainly unique points of view) about new technologies as they can from me.

Thoughts? Your own workshop experiences/tips?

I’m including my PPT here: social-bookmarking.ppt