from access to association

Yesterday was the start of the Electronic Resources & Libraries conference, which is being held at UCLA. (There was actually a reception on Monday night at the Fowler Museum but, since I'm on a vanpool, I haven't been attending any of the evening events.) I went to the office first before trekking to Covel Commons for registration and some breakfast. (Conference registration actually includes breakfast, including a hot dish, and snacks!) I was actually a bit late getting there, so I had to eat my breafkast--fritatta and a muffin--rather quickly.

I then headed two buildings over to the Northwest Campus Auditorium to listen to the keynote speaker, Elizabeth Goodman. Goodman, whose background is in interaction design (she admits she's not a librarian), is currently a PhD student at the UC Berkeley School of Information. She was a great speaker. And she had a fabulous-looking Powerpoint presentation, too.

Goodman started her talk by saying that libraries are very stable--they've been around for a long time and they are trusted, even with personal information. She then said that it's time for libraries to move beyond just providing access to also providing associations--that libraries should be building relationships between things and with data. She asked us to think about the mobility and ability of information--how fast can it move?--and that libraries should not just be about connectivity but about connections--connections between people, between people and information/data/objects.

She then presented us with three "information science fiction," as she calls them. These are basically thought-provoking ideas designed to make us think differently about the way we do outreach and provide access and services.

1. Public displays outside the confines of the library: Publicize things that seem internal to libraries in order to create associations and identifications. She gave the examples of displaying library statistics and tag clouds representing borrowers, subjects, etc. This "personal data visualization" can be displayed in the same way as murals or city screens. When people see these statistics or tags, they could identify with the words--e.g., Oh, I read those kinds of books;I didn't know that that many people like those books, too.

I think this is a very interesting idea. Out of sight, out of mind. So, what would happen when you put the library in people's faces? People know libraries are there, but this kind of display would remind them, nudge them. We've read the article about people turning to libraries more during these tough economic times, so how many more would be reminded of its value? At the same time, I think that people do have such a need for identification and affinity that even seeing words that apply to them or to which they can relate might just in fact encourage them to check out their local libraries or to utilize them even more.

[2/12/09: I'm not sure if Goodman mentioned this example in her talk, but this is exactly what DC Public Library is doing with their circulation data, or more accurately their OPAC searches. Look at their data visualization.]

2. Patron matchmaking: Building on the trust that people have in libraries, why not provide an opt-in matchmaking service where patrons can be introduced to each other based on their borrowing habits? Libraries already have your information, and this is a way for them to create connections by facilitating intellectual matchmaking and brokering relationships. This has nothing to do with romantic matchmaking (though I can imagine relationships springing from such matches); instead, this is about matching people who have the same reading interests.

Goodman knows, of course, that this would be difficult to realize given the privacy laws (and I would add to that, the additional expense and manpower needed), but think about it. People like book clubs. This is the same idea, except on a more individual level. She gave the example of her books being recalled; while she hates the people who recall her books, she is at the same time interested in meeting them, as she would then have someone with whom to discuss the book, give her ideas, etc. I find this an intriguing idea, even if perhaps a little creepy.

3. Enhancing digital texts with relevant resources: Goodman admits that this isn't fiction; it's something that's already happening. This is basically linking to other documents and texts related to your topic. Essentially, when you have a digital text, have a system that automatically detects names of places, people, things, etc. and provide links to other texts and documents about these. This would then provide a new "reference room" for online resources.

I've already seen something like this. When I visited Purdue University in 2007 as part of being ARL Diversity Scholar, one of the sessions talked about something like this. They showed us a text of a geological survey and linking that to older surveys and doing a mashup with an area map. I believe they also showed how this can be applied in something like a literary text and how there could be links to places and people. This makes good sense. I certainly often look up things when I'm reading. But how would one do this on a massive scale and actually linking to authoritative sources? I'd imagine it would be more feasible to link to searchable Internet sites, but is that really what we'd want? Otherwise, it would take so much work, and it could get very unwieldy.

I think that Goodman presents some fascinating ideas. Though libraries are often seen as static, they actually are the opposite. And I think these ideas show, in a more obvious way, how dynamic libraries and their resources can be. The notion of access seems rather passive, when libraries do in fact provide connections. So, why not indeed move to providing associations? Why not become community centers in all the facets of that phrase? Food for thought, that's for sure...

denver midwinter

From January 22-26, I was in Denver for the ALA Midwinter Meeting. There were lots of banners welcoming ALA to Denver along the 16th Street Mall and around the Convention Center. The following two pictures are of 16th Street. That's the gold-domed Colorado State Capitol Building in the background of the second picture.

This is the convention center with the famous Big Blue Bear looking in. (The work, by Lawrence Argent, is actually called "I see what you mean.")

While in Denver, I got to eat some good food (see here and here) and go on a mountain parks tour. I also got to attend meetings, visit the exhibit hall, and got together with colleagues. I will talk about these in future entries.

honoring history

I was very excited when Obama got elected, but from the time of the election to January, I was preoccupied with other things to pay too much attention (i.e., illness, holidays, work). But, during this period, I did notice, on a colleague's Facebook status, that Northeastern University Libraries was hosting an all-day inauguration day viewing, and I thought that our library should be doing something like that, especially since we had been active in voter registration (non-partisan, of course). However, as this didn't fall under my purview and I was too overwhelmed with my own work (who isn't in my department?!), I didn't think much about it.

On the Thursday prior to the inauguration,the campus sent out an e-mail indicating that there would be viewings all around campus. That nudged me into thinking about it again. My library hadn't planned on doing anything (our College Library had planned two viewing areas in their building, though), but my colleague in my department and I managed to pull something together at the last minute.

So, the Friday before the inauguration, I ended up spending my day preparing for our very own viewing. I figured that we should have some sort of display of books--we are, after all, a library. So, I did some research and gathered materials. I distributed posters to the other libraries. And I helped set up the presentation room and the display.

For the display, I found a couple of turn-of-the-20th-century Harper's Weekly issues--one that showed pictures from inaugurations past and one that showed pictures of Taft's inauguration.

I also found books about inaugurations and about Obama. (All our books by Obama were checked out, though my co-worker brought her own copies that Tuesday.) My co-worker suggested displaying The Guide to the American Presidency and Public Papers of the Presidents, showing a few inaugural speeches. So, we had a good mix.

On inauguration day, I brought in some pastries from King's Hawaiian (get it?). My co-worker brought in red, white, & blue fruit salad (berries, pomegranate seeds, & yogurt), trail mix, and hot & cold drinks. She printed up the menu & recipes for the inaugural luncheon and put it near the food.

My co-worker also brought plastic ribbons and streamers that two of our other co-workers gamely turned into bows. They did a great job of making the library look quite festive.

Despite the short notice, we had a pretty good turnout. So that was nice. Unfortunately, our broadband connection wasn't cooperating, and our feed kept skipping. (We don't have satellite feed in the building.) That just goes to show that the Internet is not always the answer.

In a way, I was glad that we hadn't had time to advertise, or else we would have gotten more people than we could have fit in the room. However, if libraries do really want to move towards being centers of activity, as I think they should, then having a space for these kinds of events is something that needs to be taken into account. Our library building is currently undergoing renovation, and I hope that the the new design allows for greater space flexibility. Hopefully, the new presentation area will address the technology deficiencies, too.

Technical difficulties notwithstanding, I think it turned out quite well. I hope my library will have more occasion to do programming related to current events. I basically think that libraries and their collections can be connected to pretty much anything, and doing such programming emphasizes such connections. Creating displays would then just be a way to pull together people's conceptions of what libraries are (a depository for books & other materials) and making tangible connections between events and records of such events.

library deja vu

While at UVA, we took a campus tour, which included a stop at the Brown Science & Engineering Library in Clark Hall. I'm not sure why they chose that library to show us, but I think it may be because of the murals.

As soon as I saw those murals, I thought, hey, I've seen this before. Then it clicked. This is Clark Hall and I had just visited UCLA's Clark Library the month before. When the librarian at the Clark Library was talking about the murals in the foyer, he had mentioned that Clark's younger male companion was the model for the men in the murals. So, when I saw the murals in Clark Hall, particularly the one in the first picture above, that tidbit immediately came to me. Then, I vaguely remembered the librarian mentioning something about Clark and UVA, too. That was a bit of a coincidence to see these two places a month apart!

In addition to the Brown Library, I was able to visit the Small Special Collections Library, where I breezed through the exhibit on Declaring Independence and the display of the Poe Collection. I also quickly looked in the main entrance area of the Alderman Library, the research library. There's a cafe in that area. I didn't have time to go to the Clemons Library, the undergraduate library right next door, but I did take a picture.

I wish I had had more time to actually look around the libraries, but I was starving and I wanted to still make it to Skyline Drive before the sun set.

university of virginia

Last October, I visited DC. One of the things I did while I was there was to accompany a friend of mine to the University of Virginia (UVA). I've heard of Charlottesville and UVA (I knew they have Rare Book School there), so I was very interested in going. Plus, I was keen on leaf-peeping, and this would take us to the area.

UVA is a beautiful campus. Founded and designed by Thomas Jefferson, it embodies Jefferson's concept of an "academical village" of residences and classrooms around a large lawn. It, together with Jefferson's home, Monticello, has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

UVA is built on land that was once owned by Jefferson's good friend, James Monroe.

The lawn and the surrounding buildings was and continue to be the locus of campus. At the head of the lawn is the rotunda, which is patterned after the Pantheon in Rome. The rotunda used to house the library and was meant to be the focal point. This is unlike other universities of the time where the church or chapel was the center of campus. Here are three shots of the building: taken from the front (actually I'm not sure which side is the front, but this is the side that is not on the lawn side) with a statue of Jefferson in front, from the side, and the pillars overlooking the lawn.


For some reason, I don't have a picture of the rotunda taken from the lawn, but here are pictures taken from the rotunda, looking out at the lawn.

Here are other views of the campus, including the chapel and the amphitheater.

You can already see some of the wonderful fall foliage in the previous pictures, but here are some close-ups. Too bad it was cloudy and drizzly--imagine the shots I could have gotten.

UVA is a great campus. I didn't realize that it's a top university--currently ranked #2 public university (second only to my alma mater, UC Berkeley), though sometimes ranked #1. If only it wasn't in such an out-of-the-way location (meaning, not near a big city), I might consider going to school there. (But what am I talking about? I went to school in Newfoundland of all places!)

clark library

On September 22, 2008, I, along with a couple of UCLA librarians and reference desk assistants-in-training, went on a field trip to the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. Though the Clark Library is one of many UCLA libraries, it really is a trek to get there since it is located 13 miles across town, near USC.

The Clark Library is housed in this lovely mansion. It contains rare books and manuscripts, and is particularly strong in 17th and 18th century English literature and history.


I didn't take pictures of the inside, though. I think that's usually frowned upon around special collections. Bruce Whiteman, the head librarian, gave us a tour of the foyer, the drawing room, the reading room, and the stacks. In the foyer was its current exhibit on books with notable provenance. He pointed out the murals on the ceiling, which features nude figures and library/ knowledge symbolism. (Click here and here for other pictures of the library.)

Like most libraries, the Clark has space issues. It is in a bit of a bind, though, because, while it is situated on a property with extensive grounds (it occupies a square block and has another building on the premises), the terms of the donation explicitly says that materials can only be stored in the building.

After our tour, we partook of the scones, croissants, Devonshire cream, berries, etc. that the tour organizer, Debe Costa of College Library, brought for us. They were delicious! (Thanks, Debe!) If we had eaten outside on a picnic blanket, that would have been perfect. But we were rushed for time. (I had to be back on campus for my vanpool.)

apala social

On September 20, 2008, APALA held its 3rd Southern California social. I was so glad to finally be in LA to attend one. (I had seen emails on the listserv about the two other socials, as well as those held in Northern California, and I was envious.)

This time around, we met for dimsum at Ocean Star Seafood Restaurant in Monterey Park. There were over 20 people in attendance. I thought that's quite a lot of people. While the attendance was great, it really made it difficult to socialize. We were seated at two round tables, so we could really only talk to those at our respective tables. After lunch, some people had to go so there wasn't time to socialize with them. We did manage to get this group shot outside the restaurant, though.

A few of people stayed to get some dessert at Beard Papa's. They are known for their cream puffs, but people also got some of their boba. (I wanted to try their ice cream-filled puffs, but I didn't.)

I really didn't get to stay too long afterwards, which is a shame. I really would have liked to talk to the people there more, especially since some were coming from Santa Barbara and San Diego. I think, at least once, we should have a social at someone's home. That way we can actually mingle. We'll see.