Perspectives on Liberty: A Chilling Effect

Perspectives on Liberty from a lawyer (Bill Newman), a librarian (Peter Chase), and a journalist (Rob Weisman).

I can see one of my fellow bloggers blogging away furiously in front of me (hi Jenn!), so instead of providing a play-by-play, I thought I'd share a few selected quotes from this session.

"There were many minor acts of courage" - Peter Chase

"The government is winning" - Bill Newman

"So far, we can still get companies to talk to us...I think there's a potential for this Judith Miller case to have a more chilling effect." - Rob Weisman

"What's the impact of not only betraying the source, but putting a chilling effect on other people that would talk with you?" - Rob Weisman

"Patrons are aware that it's quite possible that people are snooping into their records" - Peter Chase

"I hope that you will remember that people trust you with that information" - Peter Chase

"In first amendment parlance, we're talking about a chilling effect" - Bill Newman

"I think there is cause for optimism that Congress is following the people" - Bill Newman

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That's all from me; this blogger heads home this afternoon.

My first conference was a great experience. I learned a lot and met some wonderful local librarians. Many thanks to Beth Gallaway for the opportunity to blog (blog-ortunity?), and especially to the MLA for generously awarding me a scholarship to attend.

Digital Commonwealth: "This is a great opportunity for collaboration"

That's what Steven Dalton had to say about Digital Commonwealth - www.digitalcommonwealth.org

The DC portal will be live around July 2007 - stay tuned! In the meantime, there's plenty of good information on their site.

Digital Commonwealth is seeking member institutions. Please visit their membership page to learn more: http://www.nmrls.org/digitalcommonwealth/fee-schedule.htm

This session is jam-packed with information. Here's a small taste.

Digital preservation - Steven Dalton
DC is *not* providing preservation services, but will provide information resources to help members. Example: http://www.nmrls.org/digitalcommonwealth/digital-preservation.htm

Many things can go wrong

• poor quality image/sound
• inadequate metadata
• obsolescence of hardware/software, or hardware/software failure
• loss of functionality
• proprietary file formats
• deficient back-up, poorly implemented migration strategies
• human interference

How to address these problems?

• address digitzation programmatically: know your collections, users' needs, and let products define creative process
• codify selection policy & follow
• comply w/ standards, best practices
• establish quality benchmarks for digital products
• commit to ongoing education

"This is a great opportunity for collaboration"

Decisions to be made

• digitize in-house, or outsource
• build a repository, or outsource

These programs cross departmental, institution, even disciplinary lines - involve appropriate stakeholders!

Virtual archives: Digital collections Gregor Trinkaus-Randall

Benefits

• Users retrieve info w/out human intervention
• Enhance access
• Remote retrieval of images
• Extraordinary image quality
• Possibility of full-text search, cross-collection indexing
• Improve control over collections
• Alternative format for fragile objects

Risks

• Time and money
• Investment in equipment
• Institutional commitment to traditional preservation of source materials
• Commitment to full integration of technology into info management processes
• High risk of loss!

Project considerations

• What purposes will digitized products serve?
• ID characteristics of source docs - size, type, etc.
• Capabilities of available technology
• In-house or contracted out

As a library school student with a keen interest in digital collections, I greatly enjoyed this session. I'm looking forward to seeing the live portal this summer! Thanks very much to our presenters.

"Focus on the needs that they meet, not the methods that they use."

That quote from Karen Calhoun, in her presentation On Competition for Catalogs and Catalogers.

Some notes from her talk this morning:

Rethink the catalog in light of a changed world: the current model is broken.

• Users not getting what they want
• Content has changed, users have changed
• Library service model must change
• Catalog must change, and cataloging must change

Disintermediation: decrease in guided access to content; users are more self-sufficient
How do we save users' time in this new arena, when the service model is not longer library-centric?
Shift in user preferences for Web-based info & multimedia formats

Popularity of digital resources as primary sources (e.g. Valley of the Shadow, http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/)

Social networks can fulfill information needs (e.g. LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/)

"Catalogers have been through hell in the past ten years."

A new kind of cataloger:

• examines assumptions
• involved w/ all types of info objects
• moves to next gen systems & services
• make info more visible and easier to use
• metadata and beyond

Focus on the needs of particular disciplines & communities
Example: http://vivo.library.cornell.edu - both a resource portal (through a curated index) and social networking site for life sciences at Cornell
(Blogger's note: this looks like a great resource!)

Opportunities for cataloging and catalogers:

• More digitization --> more full-text search --> more metadata. Metadata recycling & reuse will be crucial.
• Digitization projects are an opportunity for catalogers
• Archives and special collections are on the rise; there's likely to be "a ton of work" for interested catalogers

Increasing visibility of collections and services

• We need to be where our users' eyes are; their eyes aren't on library webpages
• Offsite storage as a challenge to browsing
• Partnerships
• Robust, interconnected discovery & content delivery systems

Metadata is a strategic issue, yet 'library-type' metadata will need to be reexamined

Blurring of lines between public services & technical services

For more on this topic, check out the forthcoming piece in Library Hi Tech - Being a Librarian: Metadata and Metadata Specialists in the Twenty-first Century: http://dspace.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/2231

Karen's report to the LOC: www.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf

Two points from Technoschism

Two points stand out in the notes I furiously scribbled during Stephen Abram's talk.

First, this quote: "Are we going to be there, or are machines enough?"

Second, after showing an amazing map of academic content depicting the cross-referencing that goes on between disciplines, he pointed out two areas that appear very isolated, with very little cross-talk to any other discipline. Those two disciplines? Computer science and library science.

Blogger intro - Jen Ferguson

Hi all,

Greetings from one of the Team of Jens blogging from MLA. (How many of us are there? At least three, I think.)

My name is Jen Ferguson, and I'm about halfway through the MSLIS program at Syracuse. I'm another one of those career changing folks. My background is in science, and I'm currently working as a molecular biology research assistant at Wellesley College while I work towards my degree. I still love science, and I could certainly see myself in an academic science library someday. Hmm, or perhaps running a digitization project...or working in archives...or any number of other things. That's the beauty of this field, isn't it? Everything is just so darned interesting - how am I supposed to choose?

The first day of my first conference ever has been quite a whirlwind! And now I have to cut this short and head to dinner and the mellifluous tones of Tom Ashbrook.

Cheers,
Jen

Millenials suggest ways to improve libraries

Since my fellow bloggers have already done a nice job of describing 'Meet the Millennials' with Stephen Abram, I thought I'd just share the teens' responses to the last question from the audience. That question was "What can we do for you?"

Some of their ideas:

• Expand collections for a wider selection of books for their age range
• Have more digital e-books (not audio books, but digital texts)
• More interaction with people in libraries; less focus on technology
  
• Brighter colors, more attractive and vibrant-looking facilities
• Designated spaces for teens to hang out

And finally, the most popular suggestion: get rid of overdue fines, and instead move to a system where you can only borrow a book after you return the book you have.

Every single panel member was incredibly poised and well-spoken. If you're reading, panelists, thank you!