Library Webmasters vs. Library Web developers

Chris Stearns replied to my posts with an interesting take on this subject:

Steve
I know exactly what you mean. That describes a lot of places. I've been
at Auburn since July and was very lucky to get in at a time when our
systems department got its first official Director of Library
Technology, who recognized the need to broaden the dept's skill set, and
he hired several new full-time people to fill in some gaps he
identified as deficiencies, so I was hired as the
programmer/developer/database guy, even though I'm not a "real"
programmer, though like you I'm trying to learn and improve in that
area. I've been using Ruby/Rails almost exclusively since I got here
and that's forced me to get really deep
into Ruby, which has forced me to try and learn the kind of stuff most
real programmers could do without blinking. I had been a staunch PHP guy
previously, and looked into Python and Java, but couldn't get real
enthused about them. Mainly I'm just trying to do a good job and not
make my boss regret dedicating one of his positions to programming!

Steve Brantley wrote:

Chris, thank you, an astute observation. My institution falls right into
this category:

"So libraries tend to have people who can configure and maintain
third-party systems, and people who can manage websites with FrontPage
and Dreamweaver, but have tended to have trouble getting people who can
provide advanced scripting/programming and database skills to do
everything from generate custom RSS feeds to build solid database apps
from scratch."
It would be great if we could somehow manage a way to hire "Any smart,
capable coder with a decent professional attitude" but even better would
be if I was supported to learn to be an adept coder. There never is
quite enough time to teach myself. ;)
Steve

Chris Stearns wrote:
Libraries tend to see themselves as "libraries" but not as large
organizations with a broader set of technological needs.
It seems to me that part of the problem is that, traditionally, many
libraries have employed a "systems librarian" and a "webmaster".
Typically, the systems librarian configured and maintained the ILS
machines in conjunction with their vendor, and also probably dealt
with other third-party databases as they came into the picture. This
person, or another server person, probably knew a little perl or
something similar and did a little scripting from time to time.
Additionally, the webmaster was often a current or former librarian
(in bigger libraries/systems) who used FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc. to
publish web pages. This person may or may not have become a coder in
the process. So libraries tend to have people who can configure and
maintain third-party systems, and people who can manage websites with
FrontPage
and Dreamweaver, but have tended to have trouble getting people who can
provide advanced scripting/programming and database skills to do
everything from generate custom RSS feeds to build solid database apps
from scratch.
This need didn't exist ten or even five years ago in the way it does
now. I can remember back in the 90s how nobody really trusted
web-based apps because they tended to be slow and difficult to use. Back
then we wanted something to load locally and serve over the LAN.
Now that's flipped to some degree, and people expect to be able to do
some sophisticated things online. As Steve has pointed out, so much more
is expected from an online
presence these days, and rightly so. The rub is that the career goals
and personalities of librarians and programmers/coders tend to focus
their interests in different directions. Sure, you can find some
hybrids, but coders tend to want to write code, not go to library school.
Any smart, capable coder with a decent professional attitude can learn
the ropes in his industry, whether that's online catalog sales,
insurance applications, or libraries. Just the view from here.
--
Chris Stearns
Software/Programming
Auburn University Libraries
http://www.lib.auburn.edu

U.S. National Archives and Google to digitize historical films

Historical Films Set to Air Online

"The National Archives and Google have announced that they will work together to digitize historically important films from the archive's vaults. The videos -- which include newsreels from World War II and documentaries produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- will soon be available at no cost to scholars and students."

read original blog post here:
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=1045

Sweet huh? Now, we can download DVD qualiy files to burn our own DVD-R's or will we be stuck simply watching low quality google video format on our desktops? If we want high quality reproductions, will be be able to get the for free or will we still have to pay for the discs? Whatever the case may br it is a step forward.

Using a USB drive at the reference desk

I got a free 128 MB usb drive at Office Depot when I bought 100 DVD-R discs. I am donating it to our reference desk since we so often have students who create huge searches with multiple files, but have no way of moving them to their laptops. An unintended technological hindrance to access is the wireless network client. In order to receive ANY network service to their laptops, students must have a client application on their machine which allows them to log in. Unfortunately, the students are missing the mobile media with which to download the client and load it on their machines. The computer center makes it available for download or gives it away on a cd IN ONE LOCATION on a big campus. We can alleviate this problem by using this donated usb drive to store and transport the client software to students who don't have it.

chicago and the library universe

Librarism has a list of Chicago area librarian websites/blogs here.
I hope he'll list meeven though this blog covers far more than the library-verse. Right now I'm totally diggin the itunes radio stream from http://www.hardrockin80s.com Hard rockin tunes from the late 80s and early 90s. OK, so I had already moved on from that phase by the 90s, but dang this stuff feeds a need every now and then.

snippets from a LITA-L post on technical skills for the librarian (a hobby horse of mine)

Thanks To Karen G. Schneider www.bluehighways.com and Leo Klein for their posts to the LITA-L listserv which prompted this blog post.



K.G. Schneider wrote:
I have experience in the library industry. Terminology, practices, and goals are really what matters for the head of library IT plus the ability to communicate effectively.

That works both ways, as well. One reason some organizations insist on an MLS is that there is the assumption that it will be easier to communicate with an MLS. (This isn't articulated in most cases, but I've definitely heard it implied in rationales for using someone with an MLS.) But this doesn't address the communication skills required by the MLS to communicate with the IT specialist, whether or not that person has an MLS. For that matter, it doesn't address the responsibilities of the MLS to understand how technology fits into the library's mission and goals and to stay abreast of the major... shall I say Top Tech Trends? :)
Karen G. Schneider
kg@bluehighways.com


Let me combine Leo's earlier statement with Karen's:


Leo said: "I'm sure requirements vary but having a 2nd Masters is par for the course in most academic places I've ever worked. I'd say far more horrifying is requiring a knowledge of "Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Javascript, HTML, CSS, Metadata, C++ and Java or Visual Basic". To which I generally reply, why not Greek and Latin as well? --LEO"


Is not this the elephant in the room?


Library education does not USUALLY include database design, scripting languages, or server administration as part of the curriculum, but any
IT employee in a library should have these skills (as a library student in 98, there was only one student who ran a linux server as extra credit. The other techy students were getting Masters of Information Science degrees). Karen's point is well taken. It is terminology, practices and goals which make a successful IT manager not a masters in computer science.


The model of the systems librarian or IT librarian has fundamentally changed. The skills for the front line worker are not taught in the library education, and the managerial skills only come from experience. Public service oriented librarians have gleaned just enough about Web services and Web 2.0 technologies to be hungry, and there is no one staffed in most libraries who has the time to help them. If there is someone who can implement open source or commercial software, it is usually because they just happen to have the skill because they are techy by nature. What libraries need now are skilled Web developers who either have the MLS or equivalent job experience, or librarians who have been properly trained in programming, networking and administration to successfully perform in house library software development.

Steve Brantley
brantles.blogspot.com

faculty status for librarians

Thanks to Will Owen and Bill Drew for their posts to the LITA-L Listserv which prompted my post.

Will Owen wrote:
Bill,

I'd like to suggest that a love of scholarship and learning, or even working as a librarian with scholars, just isn't the same as doing scholarly research yourself. Maybe even go further and suggest that most library research (or at least publishing) is quite different from academic scholarship. It's a different process, different, tools, different patterns of thought and use of resources. So a librarian with
some hands-on, first-person experience with the academic research culture /might/ be preferable in certain positions. Certainly true for the collection development position Dartmouth was advertising. And not a bad idea for the IT position, given that we are now finding ourselves in the business of supporting digitized library collections, and perhaps even participating in the creation of them. Good digital collections may add intellectual value to the materials digitized in them, and
someone with an appreciation for the scholarly apparatus again /might/
be a preferable candidate. This is not to imply as you said in an earlier post, that "This clearly shows that our own profession does not put any significant value on the MLS. " Our faculty put significant faith in our librarians' ability to manage information resources, to provide access to scholarly material, to design complex systems that aid them in their research. But they sure as heck don't think of us as their colleagues in the research process, or as scholarly researchers, and frankly, I'm inclined to agree with them. That's one of the reasons that I think that "faculty status" for librarians is a load of bollocks, but that's a whole different flame.

Will Owen
Chapel Hill

> --On February 20, 2006 11:43:10 AM -0500 "Drew, Bill"
drewwe@MORRISVILLE.EDU> wrote:

So unless one has a second masters or a doctorate one does not have a love for learning or scholarship? How about a lack of time, money or support?

&Wilfred (Bill) Drew
AOL Instant Messenger:BillDrew4
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Benjamin Franklin)

Preach it Brother Will!
I say this as a librarian at a university where librarians have faculty status and have publishing requirements. A handful of people (I can count the number on one hand) have achieved tenure in the past 14 years, whereas there have been 5 or more times as many bright dynamic young librarians who have either left before they had to deal with research and writing requirements, or been discuouraged from even applying because of the requirements. It is tragic how many good people we have lost because there is no incentive to fulfill tenure requirements. And another thing? How is it that a major university in a desireable metropolitan area cannot fill mid-level positions for lack of qualified candidates? I say the faculty requirements have a great deal to do with
it. Especially since other institutions in the same area whom offer similar salaries and benefits have applicants breaking down their doors for a manager of electronic resources position.

Steve Brantley

Critical theory and MMPORPG

The following is from the electronic journal CTHEORY. I suggested that it should be linked from the Game On blog run by Beth Gallaway

The Author is an NYU professor and a founder of the radical software group (RSG)

CTHEORY: THEORY, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE VOL 29, NOS 1-2
*** Visit CTHEORY Online: http://www.ctheory.net ***

1000 Days 033 16/02/2006 Editors: Arthur and Marilouise Kroker

~Warcraft~ and Utopia
======================
~Alexander R. Galloway~

The theme of "imagining life after capitalism" is once again the
topic of academic attention, renewed mostly through fresh interest in
certain messianic or predictive claims about the transformation of
the mode of production. Now, however, computers and the information
economy play a central role in the debate.[1] The theme of utopia, in
the work of Fredric Jameson for example, is closely tied to this
question, utopia being a site in which possible non-capitalist
scenarios are worked out, worked through, or otherwise proven not to
work at all. Here, I will examine some of the problems and challenges
for the task of imagining life after capitalism, then I will discuss
two interesting areas -- networks and play -- that have historically
represented threats to or departures from capitalism. Finally, I will
describe how networks and play have in recent decades become entirely
synonymous with the present mode of production and exchange.

Burks Oakley thoughts on "Web 2.0" transcript

Here is a url
http://www.online.uillinois.edu/oakley/podcasts/Web2.0_Transcript.html
and here is the Burks Oakley blog entry with names and urls for other "Web 2.0" software and or services

Thoughts on streaming video in libraries

I sent this post as a reply to a VIDEOLIB LISTSERV thread about video distributors, streaming content, and libraries being forced to license the rights more than once.

original post:
Gary Handman, Head Media Resources Center, Moffitt Library, UC Berkeley.
I'm very interested in distributors that opt for limited-term licenses rather than in-perpetuity licensing...makes absolutely no sense from a buyer's perspective: this ain't ejournal territory, in which content in a database changes and expands over time (in which case limited-term licensing makes sense). What we're talking about is paying for access to the same film over and over and over again. This kind of economic model wasn't foisted on us in the days of analog...why should it be in the days of digital?

Gary Handman

reply by Patty Hornbeck
Hornbeck, Patty wrote:

> Good point, Gary. Talk with your distributors! Many of them are trying to find their balance with this new service as well, and will listen and consider fair comments about their pricing and licensing terms. Buyers need be involved with setting the ground rules for the marketing of streaming media and we will never have a better opportunity.
> Patty _________________________________ Patricia Hornbeck Media Resources Development Coordinator Middlebury College Library and Information Services/#212 Middlebury, VT 05753
> (802)443-2268 phone (802)443-5698 fax Email: hornbeck@middlebury.edu

My reply:

I hope the distributors are listening! So many questions arise when we start talking about licensing. What about the quality of the product? If a library has three year license to stream a 320x240 pixel video to their patrons, are they also purchasing a dvd for their library collection as part of the price? Digital distribution of the media but with severely diminished quality does not make for an equal exchange. And we are being asked to pay more than once? puh-leeze!

What about features or feature-length films as opposed to shorter educational video? If they are streamed and have no physical counterpart in the library, can the media be projected to a group at an acceptable quality for programming purposes?
The only difference that _should_ exist between a library circulating a physical digital versatile disc and being able to deliver that same content over a network should be the ease of access to users (who knows? maybe as the technology becomes ubiquitous, networked audiovisual content will become an ADA compliance issue?!).

Social Web connects long lost library school nerds almost immediately!

OK, so I was posting a comment to the gaminginlibraries blog which is just getting off the ground.But anyway, Jenny Levine, aka "The Shifted Librarian" helped tremendously in setting it up and appears to be very active as an enthusiastic librarian and technology facilitator. While perusing her photos from flickr.com, I found a buddy link of hers to Mike Porter my old friend from Library school. He has this really extensive blog and almost 1000 photos on flickr as well. visit it! libraryman.com I tell ya, one week after listening to the burks on learning podcast, and I am shifting into high gear with "Web 2.0" social web, interactive and inter acTING Web services, however you like to slice it. I have Helen Georgas to thank for it all. She is our instructional coordinator and she's forging ahead to bring us into the 21st century with Web-based instructional tutorials using camtasia or ... oh what is that other one called... shuffle shuffle.. . We here in the academic world move at a slower pace, but rest assured, there are dedicated librarians chomping at the bit to bring information services to the Internet far beyond email ref. Wish us luck!

"Meatspace" heh heh

I saw this article in Wired and thought people might want to see it. Gamers in Second Life are making a living in the game space and no longer have to work in the “meatspace”
http://wired.com/news/technology/0,70153-0.html?tw=wn_index_1

what! you play video games?! 2 old 2 play

Slashdot posted an interview with the founder of 2old2play.com

“In it he discusses the future of gaming for older people, why we need communities like 2old2play, and how the gaming industry needs to refocus its efforts on the games it makes. Cool insight and worth the read for any older gamers.”
http://tinyurl.com/9c24o

all the other 'places' I live

Rather than repeating myself in several spots, I offer you the links... Livejournal, http://brantles.livejournal.com/ , Friendster: http://www.friendster.com/profiles/brantles . There is enough out there for you to get an idea of where I'm coming from. I plan on keeping this blog fairly personal and eventually only open to a few people of my choosing. For the time being, brantles.blogspot.com is not restricted.
So, why come here? I keep up with Web services and report my opinions on them. I am a librarian and I find a lot of interesting information I pass along.

latest meanderings

What a lame title for a post.
I've been freaking out about the huge amount of free (and pay) video available from a lot of different Web sites. youtube.com/, ess.tv/, channel101.com/ "The unavoidable future of entertainment" thelonelyisland, and sooo many others not to mention video.google.com
To top it off I saw this real UIC presentation in realmedia of Burks Oakley, an educational technology professor from UIUC about podcasts, and then Helen gave this cool presentation about captivate and camtasia (I prefer Camtasia thus far) We are kind ofg chomping at the bit here to get going with online tutorials for library instruction.
anyway, I want to investigate technorati tags and del.icio.us more as well. check burns podcast on web2 technologies. (burnso2.blogspot.com) I think.

first silly call to audioblogger from the ELL