An Anaheim Adventureland - ALA12 Part one, early in the morning

My arrival in Anaheim was delayed by most of a day due to mechanical problems at my departure airport. I am beginning to think that the fates are conspiring against travel to the Southwest. Ticketing was limited and expensive, and like always the airline had overbooked. I finally arrived in the midst of rush-hour traffic, and thankfully the cab driver was safe and a focused on keeping my fare down all at the same time.

The hotel my colleague arranged is beautiful--it's a resort with somewhat gated access. The rooms are spacious and comfortable. I was worried about the ice machine outside the door, but with my blessed earplugs, no worries.

The first full day I was here I met with a colleague from home and visited the exhibits floor during opening. It is always nice to get away and talk business with personal conversation. I met with folks from Alexander Street Press, always welcoming and good to know.

Saturday:

The first session I attended Saturday was focused on distance education and embedded librarianship,"Embedded librarian best practices: You can do it, we can help." I tweeted a lot from the session, but was happy to learn that instruction and research consultation methods didn't vary a lot. The presenters from Miami University (OH)-Hamilton, Katheen Pickens-French and Krista McDonald, shared their concept for best practice--the rule of 3. Their lit review and practices has supported not overloading students with time, resources and communications. They limit the reference referrals to three at a time, and keep communique short. Course pages and content in Sakai are streamlined to provide students what they need for immediate use, and this results in learning and research success on the part of students. The second speaker, Kathleen Langan, from Western Michigan University presented her proxy librarian model, in which instructors are taught to incorporate research and instruction concepts into their coursework. There has been an overwhelming response to the work, and the use of their courseware (D2L?) is the primary means by which the infolit concepts are taught and reinforced. Third, Paul Betty from Regis University (CO) also works to embed his and his colleague's presence in courseware and on-site consultations throughout their many campuses in western Colorado. The effort is showing positive response with its emphasis on collaboration between students, faculty, instructional designers and the librarians. His cautionary tale is to be careful about engaging all students in all sections during the same week in a semester--it can be overwhelming and require more than a day's work to respond to online forum posts.

I have grown intersted in literacy at all levels and for all types of information, but most particularly for adults with medical care needs. I attended the ALA-OLOS / ALA-LITERACY session, "Literacy for all: Adult learners @ your library. The primary audience was public libraries, yet the message is universal and as a librarian I have a responsibility to engage. Without literacy, what good is my knowledge and how successful can I be in transmitting it? I will say that I took a lot of personal development and brainstormed ideas for how I can take this back to my own public library and develop programming for our community. The moderator was Julie Machie from the Detroit Public LIbrary, Dina O'Brien and Jacquie Brinkley both spoke about their program success in Plymouth,MA and with the califorinia State Library, respectively. Most interesting was a personal perspective shared by a constituent of the California program, George Lizzeralde. Some ideas I pulled away from the session, in no particular order:

1. Classes at NPL could include information organization; further literacy program focus; and the health care information organization.
2. The key component for success of any literacy program is getting the learner past the shame factor. Once one or two have confidentially and successfully entered and completed the program to meet their goals, they can be enlisted to recruit more participants.
3. One way to negotiate this is to use a marketing program that emphasizes the support the learner will receive, "There is no shame in not knowing how to..."
4. Using broadcasters to announce your services with public service announcements can lead to great success. It worked well for DPL. The call should include participants and volunteers.
5. Grants are available.
6. Outreach to hospitals, employers, chambers of commerce, charitable organizations, churches, doctor's offices, etc., can all help get the word out about your program.
7. Be sure to report the cash value to your budget for the volunteers in your program. Your board and other governing organizations need to see what is happening to your bottom line in return for the program.
8. Understand what the learners' goals might be: learning their ABCs, sharing a book with their child, completing a job application, completing an insurance claim, reading Rx labels.
9. California learners expressed an interest in going further and an adult learner leadership program with focus on public speaking, leadership and advocacy/facilitation skills.

George Lizzeralde experienced first hand his graduation from high school with the inability to read. He termed the experience, "the shameful secret that kept him in bondage."  Neither his parents nor his wife, or employer knew that he could not read. It was only when he was beginning to lose his eyesight that the secret became known. He asssessed at a 2nd grade reading level when he entered the program in 2004 and in 2012 he demonstrated a 7th grade reading level and the ability to read his own disability paperwork and forms. The confidential nature of the program assured his ability and freedom to learn without shame. His confidence and self esteem have grown.

In the course of discussion, a member of the audience who works in Mecklenberg County asked what can be done to help the incarcerated to come forward to learn. Learning has shown to decrease recividism and yet the shame factor and exposure that would be inevitable from within the walls of their prison keeps them from coming forward for participation in the literacy program. Juliet offered a solution: their program is called TLC-T is for Technology, L is for Literacy, and the C is for Careers. By offering the program with this diverse curriculum, it doesn't have to be known outside of the 1:1 tutoring what purpose the learner is seeking.

The importance of your metadata

I partook of a webinar today presented by BePress (Berkeley Electronic Press) and Google Scholar. Ann Taylor moderated the session and Darcy Dapra, Partner Manager, Google Scholar, provided 45 minutes of engaging talk about the way bots browse and index materials on the web, particularly institutional repository indexing with Google Scholar bots to make the materials accessible in the Scholar searches.

The session was informative about the basic technology behind web crawling and focused on using appropriate metadata to maximize efficiencies for crawlers. The methodology behind excellent web search services involves three steps: Crawling, Indexing and Ranking.

Crawling is typically done by the GS bots in parallel, meaning that a pool of sites is created and then simultaneous search-retrieve-analysis is performed. Bots are interrupted in their automated work by running into non-navigable Javascripting or POST data in URLs. File organization is also important to efficient crawling. Non-linear (exponential) browsing is faster than linear (list) browsing. To address these problems it is recommended that file organization and links are structured so that HTML HREF links are used without POST information AND articles to be indexed are only two layers in from the homepage.

Indexing the documents requires  excellent metadata. Indexing is interrupted or made weak when:

• sufficient bibliographic metadata cannot be identified
• selected metadata schema does not provide enough relevant detail
• included data is incorrect or incomplete
• documents are partitioned per outdated structure and size guidelines, such as those intended to speed download times

General purpose schemas allow all things to be described, but not all things are described well with these schemas. Scholarly articles need:

1. Journal, volume, issue and page number
2. ISSN
3. Publication date
4. Monographic series info for conference proceedings, etc. (ISBN)

Best practices for metadata include using full author identification, without abbreviations, full institutional names to avoid confusing one for another, using complete documents in one file (no partitions), and relying on direct links without intervening registration or copyright acceptance pages. Redirects should be used, HTTP 301 in particular, and should remain in place for at least 12 months after site migrations as this can be read by a crawler to remove the page URL from its index.

Ranking methodologies were not discussed in the time I was on the webinar call.

The above information is likely basic for most readers, and yet it served to bring me back in the loop on the basics of crawling and metadata reading by those crawlers. As our institution continues work on its own institutional repository, it is important for me to have this understanding.  We are in the process of interviewing candidates for a metadata librarian position. I hope this review can help others to find a foundation to building their own understanding of the importance of appropriate metadata.

For additional information, the speaker suggested a review of the About Google Scholar pages as a starting point.

A chronicle of who we are, where we have been

I had the pleasure of reading an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education this morning that paints the beautiful story of the other side of my work in academic libraries. It is this hidden story, the tale from the perspective of private or research library collection owner that I must bear in mind and encourage others to bear in mind for all interactions involving gifts-in-kind.

Carolyn Foster Segal wrote the essay I mention above. She describes the life course of a reader's and researcher's library with such personal, heartfelt eloquence, anyone with a life light shining from within would rightfully give pause and recall their own relationship with books. Her recollections reflect many of my own feelings about the library I have built in my own home, and combined with that of my writer-public safety officer-martial arts instructor-husband. While not on the verge or retirement, we are having the same conversation about downsizing our collections.

For each individual there are emotional and cognitive ties, as Segal describes. For some, it is a pride of ownership, and knowing that the book needed is just over there on the shelf. Yet when the day comes, and either owner or family member must reconcile the practicalities of thousands of titles that must find a new home, the choices are difficult. For some, the collection has become an extension of self, and parting is like severing a limb. When a choice is made to offer the collection, for sale or donation, a grieving process is in place or just beginning.

I think it's that letting go part that is difficult for me as an individual, and so it is simpler for me to empathize with the donor when that piece is disappearing or leaving the home. Using compassion combined with practicality has worked for me. Transparency on all parts of the process of consideration, acceptance or rejection, and what will happen to items not selected from the donation for the collection are all part of the larger picture. Book collections are organic, they have a life and they are a life of their own. Handle with care, and outcomes will meet expectations.