Partnerships that Work: Tikatok, Drop-in Science, and Community Learning Too

Wednesday May 6 2009 10:45-12:00pm

Boston Public Library (BPL) Director of Partnerships and Communications, (and 2009 Library Journal rising star), Koren Stembridge facilitated a panel to discuss the benefits of community partnerships and to highlight three from the BPL.  The BPL has over 100 different types of partnerships going on at any given time.  Most of these are neighborhood specific and can range from creating murals, to raised garden beds, to festivals.  This session focused more on system-wide partnerships.  But first....

Why partnerships?

• Partnerships double our ability to reach outside of our own institutions to those who can help us.
  
• As the technological landscape has become more participatory, it stands to reason that users now expect to participate more in our libraries.
• The tough economic climate provides an excellent opportunity for libraries to serve as a port in the economic storm by providing career support, increased programs for kids and stress relief.  The evidence so far supports this, as use at BPL is increasing.  Overall use has gone up 10% every month for the last year and card signup has increased by 33% in the last year.

Before entering into a partnership, your institution should ask the "Five W's" (who-what-where-when-why),  Some of these questions may include:

Why

• Does it add value to your institution? 
• Does the partnership fill a need?

What

• Programs
• Services
• Giveaways
• Fundraisers 

Who

• Schools
• City departments
• Individuals
  
• Vendors.  Yes even vendors.

When

• Timing is everything.  Partnerships have an ideal time.  Strategize for the maximum impact

Where

• Onsite vs offsite?  Benefits to both.

Whatever you decide to do, think outside the box.  However don't work outside the capacity of your organization.  Don't partner with orgs that don't support the core values of your library.  Use a partnership checklist.  (available at the back).  Be hands-on.

The following examples work for the BPL, but could easily scaled back for a smaller institution.

Tikatok Books

Tikatok Books is a primarily web-based 2.0 community where kids can write, illustrate, share and publish their own high quality hard, softcover or digital "print on demand" books. Tikatok works with BPL and other libraries to create a flexible online and offline program to help kids write books.  A couple weeks later, the kids have the books in their hands!  

Libraries are perfect environments for bookmaking activity, as they provide an environment where childrens librarians are enthusiastic and highly skilled at stimulating cretivity and patrons are education-focused.  

Drop-in Science

Beverly Nadeau, Boston public schools science elementary science specialist, gave an overview of how Drop-in Science works. Drop-in Science is a grant-funded program that provides easy-to-create youth explorations in science kits. These kits provide materials to create objects that educate students about scientific concepts.  Objects such as a mini-catapult, a thumb piano, or a mini-wind turbine.  The lessons associated with the kits fit into the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks as well as MCAS tests. After the lesson, the kids get to keep the item.  Lessons revolve around Physical Science (Chemistry and Physics) for grades 3-5.  The best part is that each kit comes with a manual designed for a non-science person.  So anyone can learn.

Melisa Baily, from the BPL talked about how successful the program has become.  Students at BPL, which has a large percentage of Latino and African-American students has been a huge success.  Instructions included to use when assembling kits with kids.  Having helpers is good as well.  Pairing little kids with older people helps as well.

Benefits: A whole different group of kids are coming in to work with the kids.  Word of mouth is positive.  Appeals to boys.  Not in school, which appeals.  Kids love being able to take the projects home and share with family and friends.

Countdown to Kindergarten

Krystal Beaulieu spoke about the Countdown to Kindergarten program whose mission is to enhance early learning opportunities for pre-k kids.  The program was started 10 years ago to ease the transition to kindergarten from pre-school, home, or wherever.  The program benefits kids and parents by explaining the process of choosing a kindergarten and how to prepare for kindergarten. 

The program includes:

• Workshop for spanish speaking families.
• Info to parents to help in choosing a school.
• Working with the Boston Children's Museum on a Countdown to kindergarden night.  Such a sucess that it was turned into a permanent group.  
• Transition activities such as

• Talk, Read Play: A guide to help parents work with their kids to reach developmental milestones.  
• Play to Learn: Free facilitated, structured play times.

The whole process takes place over the course of a year.  CTK works with libraries to have kindergarden days. Teachers from neighborhood schools come to the events.  Programming includes pennant making, face-painting, physical activities, and a parade to a local business.  Kids can also sign up for library cards at the library events.  Working with the library makes sense as they share the core learning values of the program. 

Sherry Eskin from the Honan-Allston Branch of BPL talked about how the program works from the perspective of a library.  Because the shirts that kids need to attend all CTK events are only available at BPL branches it brings people into the library that might not otherwise come.  The shirts are displayed in the library. Info on the program is available in 8 different languages.  The event shows that the library is a place for community gathering, and fun.

Keeping Collections Open: The Boston Library Consortium and the Open Content Alliance.

Keeping Collections Open: The Boston Library Consortium and the Open Content Alliance.
Wednesday 2:45
Barbara Preece, Executive director BLC. Maura Marx Digital Services Manager, BPL, and Cathy Norton Director MBL/WHOI

Internet Archive Scanning Eperience.
13 sites, doing projects via the Open Content Initiative @ BLP

Why OCA, not google? 2005 GoogleBooks approached BPL. Harvard, Michigan, Oxford , Stanford, NYPL all signed to indivitual restrictions. Google access only. BPL could not put collections out on their web or in any other way than through Google.

Benefits:
· Bibliographic accuracy
· Worked with Mission – FREE TO ALL Everything should be openly available.
· Working with Google was like feeding a fire brigade. Google’s pace, Google’s profit.
· Ability to repurpose/reuse as needed
· Ability to make freely available via web, OAISTER etc.
· The consortium has freedom of self determination

COST to Consortium 10 cents/page
PROJECTS
1. $170,000 Sloan Foundation to scan John Adams persional library - at own library site and at LibraryThing (as part of the DeadPeople group) – scholars can compare what John Adams had to what Thomas Jefferson had. (and LibraryThing has more storage)

2. 2nd big project. Kehle/Austin project Government documents -- (Brewster Kehle and wife) Cost: 60 million dollars.

3. They are paying out of BPL budget $100,000 genealogy and local history. The archives built a download tool to check usage.

Information for potential participants
· Lifetime management, access and storage forever. You can serve them up or download them.
· They are offering scanning to groups outside the BLC. Interested libraries should contact Barbara Preece.
· There is a “basecamp” group of 90 interested persons who receive regular email
· Each book has its own metadata scanned in Boston, scanned in the Internet Archive http://www.archive.org/details/university_of_california_libraries at Cal State Library
· BPL 18 libraries. They do about 1000 books/weeks.

ORGANIZATION
Each institution has a point person.
Libraries pay for transportation for the materials.

The archive hires the staff and implements. There are over 10 SCRIBES. 2 shifts per day do the digitization.

Scan on demand. BPL does this for the BLC. (of which MBL/WHOI and Umass Dartmouth are partners)
BPL wants to digitize orphan (pre23) materials.
Orphan materials bill now in congress.
Consortium raised money for the materials and equipment.

NYT “Libraries shun deals to place Books on the Web” Front page 2007.



MBL/WHOI’S WONDERFUL PROJECT

The Encyclopedia of Life, Biodiversity Heritage Library, Biodiversity Informatics from MBL/WHOI
See this presentation
http://www.slideshare.net/Kalfatovic/global-library-of-life-the-biodiversity-heritage-library/
See their Portal: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ They use tag clouds in their portal

They partnered with 10 major museums including the Field Museum, Smithsonian, British Museum… To get the old Taxonomies up on the web. 80% of these holdings were Unique! Researchers before open access had to go to individual museums. 50% is Pre-1923!

The concept and the initial $$$$$
E. O. Wilson won the TET award. His wish was to create an encyclopedia of every species that lives/has lived on earth, which would be authoritative. Single website for every $50 Million Dollars from The Sloan Foundation. Lauch was in MAY beginning with Fish.

Now there is a separate Longevity project mapping genes implicated in the aging process.

· They made a name bank for authoritative taxonomic nomenclature
· Everything scanned can now be stored off site.
· Scientists have access at desktop and in the field.
· Science libraries need to focus on informatics.
· Portal blog http://biodiversitylibrary.blogspot.com/2008/04/bhl-portal-updates.html

Taxonomically intelligent scientific text parsing can increase retrieval dramatically from any name bank.
MBL WHOI has a tool which is open source which can import to ExLibris. Example: There have been many names used for the Blue Fish which are mapped via metathesaurus to the taxonomic authority file. They are developing open source bioinformatics tools.

Also of interest
UIUC is doing harvesting at University of IL http://illinoisharvest.grainger.uiuc.edu/help.asp

Tomthelibrarianblog http://tomthelibrarian.wordpress.com/
Umass Amherst – Fruit notes – another project http://www.umass.edu/fruitadvisor/fruitnotes/FruitNotes.htm

Brenda

Wait, you want to look OLDER?

If I had to pay for this conference out of my pocket, my 45 minutes with the career center would have been worth every penny.

My dilemma: I have positioned myself to move foward in my career, and my goal is to be a director of a small public library (next step). However, I look A LOT younger than I am. At least a decade. Which is lovely for my social life, but doesn't do much for my career at the initial meeting. TEN YEARS of potential experience in the workforce is automatically deducted because my family has good skin genes.

Well, Kelly Jo Woodside, from the Simmons College Career Library, and I brainstormed some ideas about how to look, gasp, older. It was pretty funny, actually, and random googling brought up two things--tailored suit and more makeup. This was actually to just look professsional in general, but perhaps it will help. Off to the makeup counter I go!

Then I had a mock interview with a representative from the BPL. I'll get to the details on the interview itself in a moment, but when asked about my lovely youthful appearance, the interviewer remarked that it's a "complete package," that my experience and ability to articulate will overcome my youthful appearance.

But the interview--wow! Many standard questions were asked, but the discussion after the interview was amazing. She broke down many of my answers and told me where I could make a stronger statement and which comments to avoid. She let me know where my strengths came across, and also gave me very helpful information about three areas that I need to develop before I interview for a directorship.

Also, we discussed some personnel issues in general, and I got some great resources and leads from her to further my own education in this area.

Go, Career Services, Go, Go!

I'm Ready for My Close-up, Mr. DeMille: Using Video Editing Software to Create Instructional Videos

You just had to be there. Scot Colford, Application Manager of BPL, discussion of using his camcorder to record video was excellent, but it was very visual and process related. In short, not very bloggable. Scott fearlessly took a packed seminar room into the guts of Windows Movie Maker step by step.

"Shoot more than you need."
"Don't trust the sound. Experiment. Add a mic."

He suggested a storyboard site to help you plan your video:
http://www.stripgenerator.com

http://www.rehanfx.org

Then, Elissa Cadillic, Training Coordinator at BPL joined the discussion and they presented a short training video.

Bet this will be the winner of the Academy Awards of Libray Videos. Scot's and Elissa's collaboration video on Branch Serials (branch cereals) was clever and entertaining. Again you had to be there. A really effective use of the skills and educational components. Kudos to these creative BPL staff members.

Other programs mentioned:
Windows Media Encoder
Flash
Camtasia
Fast Capture (FREE)

Lots of advice from Elissa regarding making training videos:

"Highlight the basics!"
"Save it first! Save it once! Save it again!"
"Not everything has to be dull, dry, and monotone!"
"Short and sweet!"
"Tell a story."
"Pick someone who has never done the process."

How long did it take?
Its possible to create in a night, but a full casted production can take a lot longer.

Can this be uploaded to YouTube?

Save it 320X240 from Movie Maker. Follow the process to download on the YouTube homepage. This translates it to a Flash Video. YouTube does the rest.

How can you extract a DVD?

Don't extract copyrighted material.
If not copyrighted, go into the file and save as .mpg. Warning, these can be extremely large.
There is DVD "ripping" software (Nero - http://nero.com)

Are there helpful features in the production software?

Camtasia helps you to organize.

What about webcam?
Webcam are very poor resolution. Difficult to control. Better to use camcorder.

How to get started?
Have a plan. Put photos in Moviemaker. Make sure the outcome is what you want before you save. Make a little music video. Play!

Encounters with History: Learning and Teaching from Primary Sources

This was a program of the Boston Regional Library System. I was only able to get to the end of this presentation, so I missed the--already-blogged!--segments from:

Earle Havens, Acting Curator
Rare Books and Manuscripts, BPL
http://www.bpl.org/research/rb/collections.htm

Beth Prindle
Manager, John Adams Library Project
http://www.johnadamslibrary.org/

I came in at the end of the presentation from:

Ron Grim, Curator and Roni Pick, Director
Norman B. Leventhal Map Center
http://maps.bpl.org/
This collection has many maps with birdseye views—users can zoom in on the maps to see buildings, ships, etc.

Marta Pardee-King, Curator of Social Sciences, BPL
http://www.bpl.org/research/socsci/index.htm

Many electronic resources are available from home:
http://www.bpl.org/electronic/index.htm
Using maps with students helps illuminate the events/locations (e.g., when the outline of Boston has changed)
Often the BPL has both scanned images and transcribed text from historic documents; helpful so students can understand the text, but also can see the original.
Marta showed examples and discussed ways to use these documents with students:
:
Textbooks from an older era
Images of people, both old and recent
Examples of changing vocabulary
Political commentary (e.g. cartoons)
Minorities are also represented
For genealogists/beyond the census: Ancestry and New England Ancestors (In library only), city directories, town histories

For a list of primary documents covered by the Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework, see:
http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/hss/final.pdf
Appendix A

An issue brought up during Q&A:
Availability of the online materials/indexes means the use of the physical materials is increasing as well, as users are more aware of what exists in these collections, raising preservation issues.

BPL - Encounters with History

Wow! Ancient books that belong to you!

Earle Havens, Acting Curator at BPL talked about the greatest technology, the book, and held up some rare specimans for the audience, including a page from the first printed Bible, the originals of Shakespeare's works, and a book that saved a life in the Civil War (the gunshot hit the book in the soldier's pocket).

Adams gave his library to the country, Jefferson sold his 6,000 books for $25,000 to refurbish the Library of Congress after a fire. Beth Prindle, Manager of the John Adams Library sees this as a testament to John Adams, the farmer's kid from Braintree, as a true founder of democracy. The Adams Project shows Adams permanent record of his interaction with the book. Hundreds of these books have the mark of the owner: underlining, prices, ownership, and "interpretive commentary" Adams argued with his books. "John Adams never saw a piece of paper, he didn't feel compelled to write on it."

Beth Prindle says: BPL is about access, so they developed two websites:

On the Timeline: Personal context in a chronological order with links to his works and artifacts; His face ages asyou precede on the timeline. World history is also linked to the site to give a framework.

When you hold the book, Beth says, you have a powerful experience of holding the book that Adams held, but by putting these books online, the access and research capibilities are harnessed by the Internet. BPL is offering both experiences. Beth also spoke of exhibitions in other locations and unique things that mark early American history. and how this added curatorial content adds to the enjoyment of history and more research possibilities.

http://www.johnadamslibrary.org

Beth said passionately: If no one knows you have it, what purpose is it?

I had a chance to do a bus tour to BPL this spring so I encourage you to visit the exhibit soon, but for digital excellence also check out the website.