Virtual Librarianship

Collaborative text reference

2009-07-27T16:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a week since the launch of the nation's first collaborative text reference service - My InfoQuest. It's led by the Alliance Library System and participated by over 30 libraries from all over the country.

I'm not a texter myself but always interested in how libraries can use texting (and other new technologies) to serve the user community. Text reference is definitely a good idea and I'm curious about the types of questions that users ask when they text librarians, and how librarians answer them given the limits of message length - one message can't be longer than 160 characters and it's going to be a challenge for librarians who are used to being thorough and compelete.

By the way, the Handheld Librarian Online conference is coming up soon - apparently librarians are very active in search of new ways to deliver services. :-)

Back from Denver

2009-01-24T23:00:00.001-08:00

I spent last week at the ALISE conference in Denver. There were a bunch of interesting presentations and the ones that caught my attention were mostly related to reference education. I've been thinking about designing a course specifically on digital reference lately as I notice it's getting harder and harder to canvas the important issues of this topic in a ref intro class. After all, there's only so much room in a reference intro class to talk about the digital venues via which reference service can be provided.

The reference researchers at Drexel University have created a learning community for reference instructors to share experiences teaching digital reference and learn from each other. It's a fabulous initiative that's built on the use of the question answering component of IPL in reference education. I'd be happy to learn more about it and see how I, as a reference instructor, can benefit from this learning community.

Social nature of librarianship

2008-07-22T12:57:00.000-07:00

Librarians are social creatures, especially in the virtual world. You can always find them on the forefront of online social networking technologies -- Facebook, Twitter, Friendsfeed, and many other such sites I never even heard of.

Although I understand well the appeal of connecting with others on the Web, I can hardly find time to do it myself. So I'm constantly amazed by how my colleagues keep up with the fancy sites and widgets that propel them to mingle in the virtual world.

This morning I discovered the "retagrr" site while visiting Stephen Francoeur's Twitter page. He has a "retagrr" page that neatly displays his Web presence - you will gasp at how busy he is traveling across the Web. One must be very good at time management to be able to maintain the presence in all those social networking sites. :-) I have to say I happen to be very inefficient in that department, so I'm not an active participant in the online social world in our profession. But networking with your colleagues via the Web indeed creates new venues for the exchange of information, thoughts and ideas - as Thomas Friedman puts it, it flattens the world.

Tumbled libraries - my prayers are with my colleagues in China

2008-05-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

I've been closely following the news about the horrendous earthquake in my home country China, especially the conditions of the libraries in the cities/towns that were affected by this disaster. If you can read Chinese, you can get the update from the website of Library Society of China.

Almost all the libraries in the area close to the epicenter of the quake toppled and quite a number of librarians were buried under the rubbles. Some of them have been rescued after being trapped in the debris for three days, but some others are still nowhere to be found.

It's extremely difficult to read all about this, and my eyes welled up every time I saw the ghastly pictures of the quake aftermath. Let's just hope all this will be over soon, but the scars left by this tragedy will haunt us for years, and decades to come.

The InfTubey Award

2008-04-21T16:13:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon this on the web -- the InfoTubey Award -- an award given out to libraries using videos to promote their programs and services. It's indeed a fabulous idea - both the award and the video promotion!

I have always wanted to create video podcasts introducing American libraries to my Chinese colleagues -- shooting footages at various different types of libraries, interviewing librarians, and providing a glimpse into the American library system for librarians in China.

Unfortunately, my plate is quite full at this moment, but if I could get some help and tech support, I'd definitely make it happen.

librarians in uniforms

2008-04-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

I teach reference, and one topic that often comes up in class is "how to make a reference librarian more approachable". Of course, personal traits are important - you need to exhibit your willingness to help via eye contact, warm smiles and relaxing body gestures. In addition to that, I always ask my students what they think of things like name badges and uniforms that could make librarians more identifiable, thus more approachable. Almost unanimously, they agree that it's fine for academic librarians, but never for public librarians. One of them commented that "I don't want strangers calling my name when I'm walking on the street." Fair point.

In the United States, we rarely see librarians wearing badges or uniforms. But in China, it's quite common. I worked at a university library in China five years ago and librarians there are given uniforms, but they don't have to wear it. The so-called uniform is more like a lab coat; some of my former colleagues did wear it to work, but I never liked it.

In some other Chinese libraries, especially in the affluent regions, uniforms are quite well-made. A few months ago I saw on the web pictures of female librarians in uniforms from a public library in the east coast of China, and I was amazed by how much they looked like flight attendants. Dont' get me wrong -- in China, flight attendants are one of the pretties professions.

Apparently, these beautiful uniform-wearing librarians have been in the public's praises. In oriental cultures, well-dressed, smiling, gentle and courteous professionals are definitely a strong manifestation of the concept "service-orientation" .

aNobii and Library Thing

2008-03-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

I've used both Library Thing and aNobii to join a social network of book readers who share my tastes and preferences. Both sites are easy to use, but aNobii has more individulized options and a more aesthetically pleasing interface. The downside is that it's only a Beta version, and not nearly as popular as Library Thing. I guess I'll just have to keep my accounts on both sites and see if the traffic in aNobii increases. Right now, there's not much activity going on and some features of the site are not used to their full potential. I hope one day it can blossom into something similar to Dou Ban in China, which has the same service infrastructure as aNobii, but is much better promoted and used.

The Hollywood Librarian

2008-02-22T15:17:00.000-08:00

I've wanted to see this documentary "The Hollywood Librarian". But it's only available for screening. I wrote the producer/director an email, hoping to get her to come to San Jose and have a screening at our school, but I haven't heard from her yet.

It would be fun to see how librarians are portrayed by Hollywood. I still remember when I was taking the reference class, our instructor showed us a clip from Sophie's Choice, in which a scene took place in a library. The reference desk in that library looked very intimidating and cold and the librarian very unfriendly. That's of course an example of what reference librarians should NOT be - but what an unfortunate stereotypical image that reference librarians have!

Censorship-Fighting Librarian Dies

2008-01-29T11:56:00.000-08:00

I heard it on NPR this morning:

"Day to Day, January 29, 2008 · Librarian Anna "Jeanne" Layton defied a Davis County, Utah, commission in 1979 by keeping a banned book on her library's shelf. She was fired for her decision but took her case to federal court — and won. Layton died Saturday. She was 77. "

Click Here to listen.

Web 2.0 and Reference

2007-12-05T15:33:00.000-08:00

Influence of new technologies

The development of library services is always under the influence of new technologies. Nowadays, you can't go to a library conference without hearing words like "Web 2.0", "Library 2.0", "Social networking". Apparently, these are the new trends of technologies and services applicable in the library environment and attracting librarians' attention. But before we go any further to link them to reference - the library component that our class is focusing on, we need to make sure we know what those terms mean. A few Google searches have resulted in the following definitions:

A social network service focuses on the building and verifying of online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others, and which necessitates the use of software. (see Wikipedia.com for more)
Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users. (see Wikipedia.com for more)
Library 2.0 focuses on user-centered library services. (see the Library Journal article on Library 2.0 for more)

Basically, we can see that the changes that libraries are embracing is to build a customer-driven environment by taking advantage of the Web 2.0 technologies, including social network services. With the key concepts cleared up, let's move on and take a look at how libraries are doing at the Web 2.0 age.

Examples of libraries incorporating Web 2.0 in their services

Facebook applications related to library services

LibGuides: distribute library content to Facebook users
LibAds(sm): promote library information sources on Facebook
Mini Library: mini search box of The European Library, central access point to Europe's national libraries

Blogs

Flickr

McGrath Library Flickr Page

Youtube

What's happening @ your library

Denver Public Library Youtube Contest for Teens

Second Life

Librarians are moving reference desk to the virtual world - visit Cybrary City I & II, Info International Island and Info Island in SL

Finally, two books and a talk that might help us better understand library services and Web 2.0:

SL lecture - a new experience

2007-11-30T11:23:00.000-08:00

Last night we had a class meeting in Second Life and about 30 people were there. I invited an experienced and knowledgeable SL reference librarian, Daisy, to come and give a talk on what it's like to provide reference services in SL. Since we are an advanced reference class and one of the learning objectives is to develop "awareness of the emerging trends of reference services", I think it'd be interesting to give students some exposure to SL reference and see what they think about it.

However, SL is definitely not an ideal place to have an online meeting and we encountered many difficulties during the meeting - the name tag object I created for students to display their real name suddenly became defective and students were not able to get their name tags as they were supposed to according to the instructions I sent out earlier; some of the students were not able to enable their voice feature so they couldn't hear the speaker; they didn't know how to control their camera so they weren't able to see the slides; -- all sorts of problems. Fortunately we had tech support from our SL campus director Jeremy throughout the meeting, but still, the experience was flat-out frustrating for many students.

I asked them to report their feedback on a Blackboard discussion forum - apparently most are negative. They don't see the value of providing reference services in SL and some of their comments are really bitter. Of course they are entitled to feel however they want about SL reference as SL reference itself is very controversial among librarians. The whole point of the guest lecture and the tour to Info Island last night was to introduce them to SL reference, and then they can decide whether they like it or not. Their perception would be groundless if they didn't spend time in SL and see what it's like to offer reference service there. So now no matter what their opinion is about SL reference, I know they have a personal experience to back it up.

Overall, I did my job, and I got my students some SL experience with regard to reference, but I would never go through this again the next time I teach this class. Managing a SL meeting and a tour is too challenging and SL gets really laggy when over ten people are walking simultaneously. Therefore, I will resort to plan B when it comes to the intro of SL reference - making a Machinima about it and show it to students. If they feel intrigued, they can go explore it themselves; if not, well, fine with me too.

Anyways, last night was s a good learning experience for me as well. I took some snapshots of the meeting:
Our guest speaker - the beautiful Daisy

The meeting was held at the amphitheater on our SL campus

Daisy had her slides up on the virtual projection screen

A SL panel on education

2007-11-18T12:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I attended the MWAIS sponsored Second Life panel on how to deliver education in SL. All the panelists were experienced educators in SL and one of them even had the chance to show President Carter around in SL.

They shared their teaching practice in SL and it once again made me think that SL is more beneficial to some subjects than to others.

Here are a couple of snapshots from yesterday:

I was on TV

2007-09-27T12:26:00.000-07:00

I was on the KQED Quest program Tuesday night, talking about the use of Second Life in education. It was fun.

Reference librarians' approachability

2007-09-07T23:33:00.000-07:00

I had a stimulating conversation with Greylin, the wonderful SL expert/SLIS student in SL this afternoon. We talked about our understanding of how reference librarians should present themselves to users. Greylin says when she works as a SLIS student guide to help out visitors to the SLIS SL campus, she takes the proactive approach and offers her help by asking them "Can I help you", instead of waiting for them to come and ask for information. I like this idea and I agree with her that reference librarians in SL should provide their services this way (and they certainly do!), but our opinions diverge in terms of whether real life librarians should assume the same approach.

I think it would be a bit intrusive for reference librarians to come up to someone and ask whether he/she needs help in a real life library. Greylin explains that of course librarians don't have to sneak up on people (she did the funny sneaking-up gesture when she said this), but for those seemingly lost and confused patrons, such greetings will make them feel a lot better. I couldn't agree more - but this shouldn't be the job of a reference librarian, but more appropriate for the receptionist at the information booth usually located near the entrance of the library.

Approachability-wise, I firmly believe that reference librarians should have the customer service mentality and appear friendly, inviting, encouraging and amiable. I hate the stereotypic image of librarians that's harsh, rigid and intimidating and it needs to be completely rehauled. But I really don't think it's necessary for them to always keep an eye on patrons and initiate the service to those who look like they are in need of help. It's reasonable that they are expected to say "can I help you" (with a warm smile on their face) to people near the reference desk who seem hesitant to ask their questions. But having to scouring for patrons to help is just a bit beyond the responsibility of reference librarians.

Anyways, it's fun discussing issues like this with Greylin. SL has brought up new topics in reference as well as motivated us to revisit some old ones. I love SL. :-)

Advanced reference

2007-07-31T09:31:00.001-07:00

I was supposed to teach reference intro in the fall semester, but at the last minute I am reassigned to teach advanced reference. Although starting over on course prep is a bit of a headache, I'm actually glad that I get to teach reference at the advanced level. It means more flexibility in choosing what you want to cover in the course. I'll definitely have a component of how current technology has impacted reference work, e.g., how the Web 2.0 sites have been adopted in delivering reference services, and how reference librarians are thriving in the world of MMUV. Well, it's going to be a lot of fun, I think.

Second Life - one of the worst "Web sites"?

2007-07-10T09:03:00.000-07:00

Time magazine rated Second Life to be one of the worst Websites. It's just ridiculous. Second Life is not even a Web site.

With the magazine being so widely circulated, such a low-level mistake will certainly make them look stupid.

New image - professor/librarian

2007-06-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

Finally I had some time to explore the virtual commercial world in SL and bought myself some outfits, shapes and skins (about 8 dollars), and created a new image that can be presented to my students in the coming fall. Here it is:

Me standing in front of the reception hall of our school's SL campus

Me looking a bit confused (I haven't figured out how to make different faces yet)

Our SL campus

2007-06-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

Our school has a 16-acre campus on SL and here's a snapshot of my avatar in front of one of the buildings there:

I'm a Chinese but my avatar doesn't look Asian at all. I need to explore around a bit more to learn how to create an image that reflects my real self. But I do know some people who made their avatars look entirely opposite to themselves. One of them did so because he thinks avatar appearance is overrated. Well, although I'm not one of those people who are obsessed with how they look in SL, I have to say, being able to create an avatar and make him/her appear however you want, is definitely part of Second Life's charm.

Research methods

2007-06-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

I've been working on my lesson plans for the class sessions that will be held on Second Life for my LIS research methods class in the coming fall. So far I could only see SL as an approriate place for methodologies like interview and participant observation. I plan to send my students over to Info Island to interview the librarians there; or if they want more fun, they could go to a gathering place for a special population (such as a gay club) for their participant observation practice.

I still need to work out the details and hopefully my students can learn effectively in this immersive world.

Now Now

2007-06-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

nownow is question-answering service provided to mobile device users. It's a fee-based service and you have to pay $0.25 for each question asked.

What you do is send an email to them and they email you back with up to 3 answers for your question; and their selling point is that the service bypasses the need to surf the web for information on the tiny screen of a hand-held device running on a slow network.

Well, I have to say I will definitely use the service when I tranvel and need quick information. I don't know how long you have to wait for a response, but it shouldn't be too long since you are paying for it. The service is still in the beta version and let's hope it doesn die before becoming full-fledged.

Libraries have come up with similar ideas of using SMS to offer reference services. I have seen messages about it on the dig_ref listserv. But I have no idea how many library have actually put it into practice. It'd be interesting to find out.

Librarians give adivce on everything...

2007-06-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

Check this out yourself - I feel a bit embrassed to repeat the headline here. But honestly, it's fun to read.

How should I look

2007-05-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

I've had an avatar in SL for a couple of months already, but I hardly spend any time thinking about how I want myself to look in the alternate universe. I'm still using the default newbie look, wearing the free shirt and pants I got from my orientation.

Honestly, I don't know what kind of image I want to project yet. I've met several librarians in SL and they look completely opposite to the stereotype image in most people's mind. They are attractive, pretty, and quite stylish in the virtual world. Maybe I'll join them and make my avatar appear both "hot" and "smart".

IM and distance ed

2007-04-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

I'll be teaching entirely online for my new job at SJSU. In light of the difficulty in scheduling office hours for my geograhically dispersed students, I've decided to make it easy for them to contact me at their convenience. I'll reply emails as immediately as I can, and they can also reach me via IM. I just got myself a meebo account, which aggregates all my three IM acounts (google talk, yahoo and aim), so that students using different IM services (at least the predominant ones) can all be accommodated.

Reference librarians are also using Meebo to provide chat reference services. I'm not sure if they like it better than Trillian or not, but at least it's free.

Educators vs. Librarians

2007-04-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

Librarians, especially reference librarians, seem to have the ready-to-help genes, no matter the person who needs help from them is a library user, or one of their peers. Last summer I conducted a survey among digital reference librarians and was overwhelmed by the number of responses that I received. It sort of misled me to think that all my future survey participants would be as responsive as the librarians. But soon enough was I "disillusioned" from the unrealistic expectation.

Recently I launched a survey among educators to examine their teaching practice in Second Life. It's been almost 30 hours since I sent out the survey link to the SL educators' listserv, and only 8 people responded. Maybe I didn't sound cordial enough in the invitation message; maybe educators, unlike librarians, are not necessarily "wired" to help others.

I love librarians!

LIS course on Second Life

2007-04-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

GSLIS at UIUC is offering a course on virtual librarianship, mainly about how to work in the virtual world such as Second Life as a librarian. Information of the course can be found here.

I have to say it is a wonderful idea to introduce Second Life to more practioners in the library world. Currently there are more than 400 librarians active on SL and I have run into a few of them during my brief visits to Info Island. They added me to a couple of librarians' groups, but I haven't got a chance to interact with other group members yet. But one thing is for sure - librarians are as nice and patient in SL as they always are in RL (real life).

Web 2.0

2007-04-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

I stumpled upon this Web 2.0 video on Youtube and it's quite well-made. A library 2.0 class could use this video as part of the course intro.

A commercial involving Second Life

2007-04-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

The vedio clip below is a Kit Kat commercial in the Netherlands. If you are a SL'er, you surely will find it hilarious.

Second Life in education

2007-04-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

Recently I've grown interested in exploring Second Life, the 3D mutil-user virtual environment as an educational venue. Quite a bunch of educators have been moving their classrooms to SL and I'll join them in the coming fall when I start teaching at SLIS at SJSU. But it's not an easy task to master the necessary skills to live a "second life". There's so much to learn - how to create an image for yourself, how to build things, how to travel, how to social with people, etc.

v3image published a book entitled "A beginner's guide to Second Life" and I'm thinking about buying it. Hopefully it could help me quickly equip myself with all the techniques to skillfully navigate in SL.

Another virtual spot

2007-04-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

Will post thoughts on librianship and the virtual world in here.