The Information Specialist's Scoop

by Stephanie Bonjack

Here’s my theory: the proliferation of "shoppes" and "towne centers" may have satisfied a need (or collective desire) for designer sunglasses, fusion restaurants, and relaxing places to drink coffee, but commercial spaces will never satisfy all of the needs that a library can address. A great library has the potential to serve as a community hub, where resources and services intersect with work, learning, and culture. A space designed to facilitate such interactions while making the patron feel something – inspired, creative, curious – cannot be replicated commercially.

Image: Jose Vasconcelos Library

Authors: R. Gomez; IGI global 
Published: 2012

"The goal of this document is to portray the landscape of users and uses of public access to computers and the Internet in developing countries around the world. In 2007-2010, the Technology & Social Change Group at the University of Washington conducted a ground-breaking study in 25 countries, the Landscape Study, to better understand who uses information and communication technologies (ICT) in public access venues and how. Each country conducted a discrete section of the study and shared a report. All the data was then collated and analyzed. This book attempts to put all the pieces together in order to make comparisons and cross-references for further research."

Full text:

http://faculty.washington.edu/rgomez/publications/2012%20full%20book,%20libraries,%20telecenters%20and%20cybercafes.pdf

by SHARYN FLANAGAN:

"Interview with library director Sukrit Goswami. The subject? The future of libraries in an increasingly digital world:

[...]

"What are people interested in and what programs are they signing up for?

Up to now we’ve been letting the community tell us what they want, just putting the programs out there in front of them and letting them choose. The most popular are the health-related programs, particularly the yoga and fitness classes, and also the educational programs; people love those. Our own staff teaches the computer programs, and in the coming year we want to offer resume building workshops and classes for job seekers on how to write cover letters. I’ve taught these when I was at Glens Falls [library], and I love teaching classes, but can’t now due to time constraints.

We are constantly expanding our services and programs, and we do three to four teen programs a week now, too, that are all well attended. We have increased storytime for children, adding one session to Saturdays for parents who work on weekdays, and that’s been very successful."

Full interview here:: http://www.saugertiesx.com/2012/08/16/librarys-future-digital-world/

We are talking about reference and how it is changing in UPLIFT this week: August 15 at the Utah State Library & August 17 2012 in Ephraim, at the Karen A. Hunstman Library on the Snow College campus.

Reference and Services Trends in Public Libraries, 2012:

- Traditional reference work is less relevant to the needs of users
- Rather than worrying about reference’s demise, many librarians have been energized by their newly expanded roles
- Reconfigured or eliminated reference desks
- Consolidated desks and services
- Librarian and support staff work together on the one main desk
- Librarian can handle more complicated questions
- Increased training for support staff to handle basic reference questions
- The reference interview is as pertinent as ever
- Roving reference is more important—getting out to where people are
- Expansion of self-service options (self-checkout, online group study room reservations, self-service holds, and touch screen frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) on your website/ library catalog
- Reconfiguring online reference resources for smartphones and other mobile devices
- Librarians are exploring new roles in reaching out to meet information needs
- Reference through the stacks and other indirect means
- Reduction/elimination of print reference collections
- Greater marketing and promotion of online resources and services
- Librarians will spend less time staffing desks and more time outside of library walls
- Online reference: email, chat, Instant Messaging, and SMS (short messaging services) reaches users who may not visit the library
- Online reference requires continual marketing to be successful
- Collaborating with other organizations will do as much to keep libraries alive as any project or program
- Embedded librarianship: becoming an integral part. Getting close to users by getting out into the community; being actively present with the user at the point of need.
- The big shift: we’re not doing things “for” the community, but we’re being a part “of” the community
- Libraries are shifting from the physical to the virtual facilities and media; from an individual to a community focus; from being a collection library to being a creation library; from being an archive to being a portal

Esther Yi:

"For all their differences, Google and the DPLA do share a major hurdle: Copyright law, which prevents the digitization of orphan works, numbering around 5 million and constituting about 50 to 70 percent of books published after 1923. Orphans are works whose rights holders are not known; they may be dead or unaware of their entitlement. Google's settlement would have given the company license to appropriate orphan works for posterity—a move that would have opened up a trove of previously unavailable works, at the expense of granting Google unprecedented control through litigation. The DPLA faces a similar problem: As some members pointed out in a gathering last year, out-of-print and orphan works—content in the "yellow zone" of copyright—outnumber both public domain and in-copyright works, "making legal reforms necessary for the success of a DPLA," according to meeting notes. Jason Schultz, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley School of Law and a DPLA member focusing on legal issues, says that the coalition wants to strike the right balance between the rights of copyright owners to be properly compensated and the rights of public access. The DPLA will not violate copyright, and it will begin with a foundation of public-domain works. The organization is trying to figure out the best case for fair use of out-of-print or unpublished works to argue that public access to this literature benefits society and serves a "higher" purpose.