ALIAQLD "Innovate, Evolve, Create"

Super Social Media Mastery (Mistress-y?) for Librarians

Freaks and Geeks :P

A personal post, which is mildly library related...

As well as being a mum of four and working part-time, I am also the Secretary of the Ipswich ASD Parents/Carers Support Group. ASD meaning Autistic Spectrum Disorders.

One of my children is diagnosed as Austistic, and my baby is diagnosed as having an Autistic Spectrum Disorder. It is not sad, or a shame. They are awesome, and smart, and interesting.

Now, having worked for a little while in libraries, I have noticed a massive over representation of people on the Autistic Spectrum, particularly those with Asperger's Syndrome. Everyone seems to have a child, or two, or three, on the spectrum, or are Aspies themselves.

Have libraries always been full of "freaks and geeks"? Is it only academic libraries where this is the case? Or is it something to do with the increasing importance of IT? I am very curious to see what you all think.

PS. I do consider myself a "freak" and a "geek", and therefore intend no slight by those terms.

P.P.S. I am not someone who believes that ASDs are some sort of modern disease. Although there do seem to be some environmental factors for some people with ASDs, my family history suggests that it occurs largely due to genetic factors.

Ebooks... awkward.

My position on ebooks in the library is… awkward (kind of like I am squatting on one foot - with my elbow in my ear –under a desk).

The excited, early-adopting techie in me loves the idea, while the open-access, liberal-thinking idealist hates the limitations and prices that the current models place on libraries and users. 

The recent tension between librarians, the American Library Association, and Publishers has made me feel like librarians may need to rally together to describe what we think is a fair and reasonable price.

I agree with ANNOYED LIBRARIAN that 3 times the price of a print book for an ebook allowing access to three simultaneous users seems a fair and reasonable price for a library to pay for an item. Would the library then have access to this item indefinitely, though? That would seem fair.

Current models for ebook packages allow the vendor or publisher to cancel the availability of any individual item in the collection purchased, without notifying the purchasing library. This is like a bookseller coming back three years after selling you a book and stealing it from your collection. The catalogue record remains, but when a library patron goes to look for it, it’s missing.

I am particularly frustrated with ebooks that cannot be read by text to speech software. Digital items should increase accessibility, not decrease it!

What is with vendors/publishers charging more than twice the print price for a single concurrent user?!

The Value of a Library.

Here in Queensland, there has been drastic action taken with the decommissioning of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Library, the QLD Emergency Services Library, and the QLD Corrective Services Library.

I do not know how these departments are going to meet their need for information resources in the future, and neither does anybody else, it seems. Also, what will happen to all the Librarians?

Libraries may cost money to run, but they provide vital professional services and valuable information resources to other professionals, researchers, scientists, and the community. These things, I'm afraid, are not able to be found elsewhere.

In an ideal, world, perhaps, the information (at least) would be free, but you will always need people who can efficiently order, filter, select and deliver information. Or someone to teach people how to do these things themselves...

Thanks for the "Thank you"

Perhaps I am generalising, but Librarians do their job because they want to help people find information. We don't get into the field because we think we are going to get rich quick.

So, when you teach a class in searching databases, and someone stops afterward just to say how much your class has helped them, it really makes your day.

Thank you for saying thank you.

Am I a hipster now?

So, I have started using the ios operating system. My kids still think I am a giant dork.

We are lucky enough at my workplace to have the choice between Windows and Mac when we sign in every morning. I was always a Windows user (kind of by default), until I tried to start making videos and capture footage of my desktop to create info lit tutorials.

The windows software package we have doesn't allow me to edit video or capture desktop video. I tried. I found the software that I needed was available for free on the web, but, of course, I cant download any software or updates for software without "administrator permission". That is not me.

The ios software package available to me, however, does contain video editing and QuickTime capture technology, which does exactly what I need.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been trying desperately to get used to doing without my keyboard shortcuts, and I think I am winning!

Occasionally I find my use of Mac is kind of clunky, but only because I am so "Windows socialised". I am hoping to become a fluent Mac speaker within the near future, but am dismayed that I have not yet become any more trendy or "down with the kidz".  :(

The story.

Born just outside Nimbin, NSW, outside a brewery, in the morning on the 1st day of April 1983.

I have been a cleaner at a middle school, a host in dubious bars and nightclubs, a nanny, a model, an elected student representative, a Greenpeace fundraiser, and a research assistant, before finding my calling and completing a Grad.Dip. in Info and Library Studies in 2008.

I have worked in the Public and Academic Library Sectors, and am now Faculty Librarian at a Regional Australian University. I <3 it.

When I am not at work, I am wrangling 4 kids, 3 pythons, 2 lizards, and a dog!

Oh, did I mention I drink a lot of coffee?