CIL2010: Paul Holdengraber & David Ferriero

David Ferriero (Fair-ree-o) is th 10th Archivist of the United States and "collector in chief". He now blogs at AOTUS.  Aotus is not a monkey or a pea (check Wikipedia) but it stands for the Archivists of the U.S.

The Archives is an independent agency that reports to the Office of the President.  They provide record management advice to government agency.  They also collect records.  The presidential libraries are part of the National Archives system.  They have also assumed some responsibility for the classification of information.  The National Archives has 44 locations & 10 billion items.  (He oversaw more locations when he worked at NYPL, so Paul jokes that this is a demotion!)

David is into his fifth month on the job.  He is meeting with staff as well as members of the stakeholder community.  Trying to get a sense of the staff.  In employee satisfaction, the National Archives ranks second to the bottom.  He is trying to understand what the issues are, so they can be addressed.  The current survey has a response rate of 77%.  He is reaching out through email, voice mail and even Facebook to encourage people to complete the survey and to be honest in their feedback.

David is the highest ranking librarian in the Administration!  Paul calls him "the most powerful librarian in the country."

Why is it important that a librarian be in charge of the National Archives?

When he was first contacted about the job, he felt that they were looking at the wrong person.  He got two phone calls, then a face-to-face meeting with the Obama transition team.  He then traveled to D.C. to meet with a larger group and realized that he could make a difference in the setting.  He always is looking to make a difference.

He has two important projects:

National Declassification Center -- 400 million pages that need to be declassified over the next four years.  At the end of December, the President issued another plan around declassification.  The government has an enormous backlog of documents that need to be declassified...records going back to World War II.  Only national security can keep a record classified. 

The federal government has 250 agencies.  2400 different classification guides.  They are suppose to be reviewed every five years.  Half of them haven't been reviewed in the last five years.

Open Government Initiative -- Dec. 9, 2009, Obama issued the initiative about Open Government Plan.  Three pillars.  Open government will be built from the bottom up.  A large of this will be built on social media.  This is where his blog comes in...Trying to get citizens involved.  To create community.

David - "You can't have open government if you don't have good records."  Records cannot be an afterthought.  Records need to be created with an eyes toward how they will be maintained.  The CIOs and record managers in each agency will need to work together.

What influence does the Administration have over the Archives?  FDR was the president that told agencies that they must deposit their records into the National Archives.  We at a similar point in history.  The Archives now must get agencies to deposit their electronic records.

Keith Richards - Rolling Stones - "The public library is a great equalizer". 

He sees part of the mission of the Archive is to educate the public about the government.  He meets with groups that come to the Archives and encourages children to write to the President.  He has seen letters sent to past presidents, including letters he wrong to Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson.  His military service record is in the Archives as well as those of many others including Elvis.

David - "Nice having a boss down the street, but not in my face."

David is touring each of the 44 facilities and is meeting with staff. 

At MIT, they never closed because they took federal money.  So he laughs when he thinks about D.C. shutting down for four days due to snow.  During that time, he walked around, talked to the guards, read the Lockheed Martin contract, etc.  He learned that the guards had never been given a tour of the Archives and that is something that he is now arranging.  They should know what is in that building and why guarding it is important.

Saving versus preserving - We're not saving material (electronic records).  His work is guided by the two acts (Federal Records Act & Presidential Records Act).  One of the acts still does not recognize email as an electronic record. 

Digitization - the large commercial digitization projects have developed standard language that locks up the content for some length of time (five years...or a lifetime).  But these are public records (e.g., Ancestry.com).  He recognizes the investment that the commercial firms are bringing to this effort, but these records should not be locked up.

Does David read on an ebook reader?  No.  There is something about print on page that has not been duplicated with ebooks.  He does a lot of reading online and uses many online resources in his work.  But he reads for pleasure on paper.

He sometimes reads a book every night.  He is currently reading a book about Abraham Lincoln being a vampire hunter.  (Lots of applause!)  Just finished reading a book about Walt Whitman and his siblings.  The author used collections at Duke Univ., NYPL and the National Archives to write the book.

What is his greatest burden?  What keeps him up at night?  (Vampires!)  "It is the electronic records, clearly."

Greatest joy - getting to know the staff and the collection itself. 

What recommendations to those here today?  Push your supervisors.  Look for opportunities to be involved.  Get your ideas out there.

Who does he look to for direction?  One of his best hires in his entire career was Josh Greenberg at NYPL.  He learns continually from him on digital information and packaging information.

CIL2010: Digital Commons: Building Digital Communities using Digital Collections

Jim DelRosso, from Cornell's ILR School (and Digital Commons), is the presenter.

Interest -- people have interests which brings them to the library.  Assessment helps libraries understand interest in larger contexts. Jim notes:

The need to listen to our patrons is related to the how much they agree with us.
The need to educate our patrons is inversely related to how much our patrons disagree with what we are doing.

Outcome-based assessment - How are user lives going to be different once you implement the service? 
Once you understand what they need and how their lives will be different, you can creative effective marketing of the service.  (I can tell that he took IST 613 - Planning, Marketing and Assessing Library Services in the SU iSchool!)

They are not only surveying users, but also gathering information from Google Analytics.

We need to dig deeper into how user audiences interact with collections.  This needs to be studied.  He doesn't know of good studies on this topic.  If you know of any, let him know.

Interest should lead to a sense of ownership among users.  A sense of ownership has nothing to do with who bought the material.  It is who values the materials.  A sense of ownership comes to light through user-generated connect, user-requested, and user-organized connect...all which can occur in/with a library.

They are uploading a lot of user-created content to DigitalCommons@ILR.  But libraries do continue on scholarly content, which means they may be judging the content.

Jim notes that browsing digital content needs to be improved.  He'd like to see a Pandora (music) for books.  Can tagging help?  Can users not only add tags, but delete tags? (see Powerhouse Museum)  That would help to ensure that the tags are appropriate, because people who are really invested in the collection will want the tagging to be good.

Investment is Jim's last point.  If people are invested, then the interact more directly with each other.  Librarians are part of the conversation, but not the center of the conversation.  (He just quoted Dave Lankes.)  Libraries need to create places where conversations can occur.

Jim believes that investment look a lot like community.  When people are invested in something, they find those that are also invested in the same "topic" and create communities.

Should we weed digital collections?  Should we accept everything?  We need to know what other options are available for digital content.  If something doesn't fit our collection, we need to be able to refer the user/contributor to someplace else.  You do need to know and communicate what type of content is truly appropriate for your collection.

CIL2010: What is the Computers in Libraries Conference?

I am again at the Computers in Libraries Conference (CIL) in Crystal City, VA. Nearly 2,000 people are attending this year, including participants, speakers, exhibitors, and people who are coming just to visit the exhibits. People have come from 47 states and 17 countries. This is the 25th year of this conference and one person (Marshall Breeding) was honored for attending all 25!  Every year, it seems like 50% of the attendees have never been to a CIL before.

I'm sure that CIL has changed over the years. Currently the speakers and audience are focused on the use of technology in libraries in order to improve library services.

By libraries I mean public, academic and special libraries of all sizes. I suspect that most participants are from public and academic libraries. Here, however, the type of library that participants are from doesn't matter, but the fact that the library is using or wants to use technology to serve its users better.

By technology, I generally mean computers, handheld and mobile devices, social media, social networking tools, databases/OPACS, and Internet technology. People here are interested in the use of technology to improve user/patron services, to connect better to user communities, to deliver library content in new ways. This is a group that has some interest in digitization, but a larger interest in how those digital materials can be used in new ways. (Think of WolfWalk and Duke Mobile.) Yes, there have been sessions here on digitization, but it is not a major focus for this conference.

What is very interesting to me is who attends CIL. This is a group that includes librarians and library workers...those with MLS degrees and those without...and here they are seen and treated as equals. In fact, academic degrees here really don't matter, but rather what you do (for real) and what you know.

Attendees are very technology savvy. They come with technology - laptops, smartphones, cameras, etc. - and they use it constantly. This is a group that networks both in person and online. This is a group that values what each person does and knows, and wants to be able to tap into it.  Networking here can lead to job opportunities, project opportunities, and the sharing of cool ideas.  But networking here isn't just a three-day thing...it means staying connected afterward with those you value through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr and SlideShare.

For me, this is a conference full of energy from people and ideas. Everyone leaves the conference both tired and jazzed.

Finally, if you want to follow the conference, go to its new blog/content site at www.libconf.com.  All of the keynotes are being screencast on that site.

Question: How are you assessing the impact of your digital collection?

A colleague is looking for examples, resources and case studies on the assessment of digital collections.  He is looking for information on assessments that aren't just counts (number of hits), but on the impact of the digital collection to the user community.  If you have examples of assessments that you have done - or maybe pointers to case studies, etc. - please let me know.  Thanks!  He will be very grateful.  (And I'll share what I hear with you.)

Event: Digital Libraries à la Carte, July 26-30, 2010, the Netherlands

As received via email.

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From 26 – 30 July 2010, Ticer’s international summer school "Digital Libraries à la Carte" will be held at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. You can pick your choice from a completely renewed ‘menu’ of five one-day modules.

• Module 1: Strategic Developments and Library Management
• Module 2: The Library in the Scholar's Workflow and Research Data
• Module 3: Libraries - Partners in Teaching and Learning
• Module 4: Mobile Technologies in Education and Library
• Module 5: Web 2.0 and Linked Data in Libraries

The informative website can be found at www.tilburguniversity.nl/ticer/2010/. Those registering before 1 May 2010, will receive a €150 discount.

Learn about:

• Supporting your institution’s strategic goals
• Your library’s return on investment
• The role of libraries in research assessment
• Digital scholarship
• Data management and re-use
• The scholar’s workflow
• Research support services
• Web lectures
• 21^st Century literacies
• Physical learning spaces
• The use of mobile devices by teens and young adults
• Mobile technology in teaching and learning
• Mobile enhanced library services
• eReaders in education and libraries
• Web 2.0
• User-centred design of next-generation library services
• Linked data
• Open annotation

The course is targeted at library managers/directors, deputy librarians, library middle management, digital library project managers, IT/systems librarians, IT specialists, information specialists, research librarians, teaching and learning support staff, and publishers and researchers.

Course director is Wolfram Neubauer, Library Director, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETHZ). Top speakers will present their views. Below is just a small selection.

• Paula T. Kaufman, Dean of Libraries at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, measures the return on investment of her academic libraries.
• Carole Goble, professor at the University of Manchester, is director of the MyGrid project and knows how to get in the scholar’s workflow.
• Tony Hey is Corporate Vice President of External Research at Microsoft Research and an expert on data-intensive science.
• Andrew Treloar is Director of Technology at the Australian National Data Service and can tell us how to get started with research data services.
• Susie Andretta is senior lecturer in Information Management at the London Metropolitan University and editor of the Journal of Information Literacy.
• Kristen Purcell, Associate Director, Research at Pew Internet & American Life Project shares research results on the use of mobile technology by teens and young adults.
• As E-Adviser Teaching & Learning at JISC, Adam Blackwood explains how to enrich the student’s learning experience with mobile technology.
• Tito Sierra, Associate Head for Digital Library Development, NCSU Libraries, successfully concluded several mobile library projects.
• Anne Christensen, responsible for the beluga system at the State and University Library Hamburg shares her expertise on usability.

This learning experience is recommended by LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries), SURFfoundation, JISC, DEFF (Denmark's Electronic Research Library), CBU/KUB (the conference of university libraries in Switzerland), Helsinki University Library, and NFF (Norwegian Association of Special Libraries).

Further information

Ms Jola Prinsen, Manager Ticer

Tilburg University, Library and IT Services

P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands

Tel. +31 13 466 8310, fax +31 13 466 8383, jola.prinsen@uvt.nl

www.tilburguniversity.nl/ticer/2010/