03.16.09
Posted in ACRL at 1:52 am by George Eberhart
Ira Glass
Closing keynoter Ira Glass made his debut Sunday morning in complete darkness for a few minutes to demonstrate the intimacy and impact of radio. Thirteen years ago, the host and producer of NPR’s This American Life figured out that he felt most comfortable giving public lectures in a studio setting, so he came equipped with a CD player and other audio equipment that allowed him to play clips from previous shows and use music as transitions between his stories and his comments about them.
Glass talked a little bit about story research (which he suspected librarians might enjoy, although he also expected his audience would all look like Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), but his major focus was on the techniques he uses to create effective storytelling. “We need characters and a plot,” he said, “and we need them to be pleasurable surprises.” He added that “most journalism makes the world seem smaller and stupider and less interesting” because it tries to eradicate the narrative. “But we live in a world where stories provide hope.”
His formula is a combination of anecdote, more anecdote, and then a brief commentary on the anecdote, glued together with engaging instrumental music that pushes the storyline forward and creates anticipation as well as ambience. It’s the same technique, Glass said, that rabbis and priests use in their sermons: “Even Jesus used this method in his parables.” He placed responsibility on much lameness in radio news on the “topic sentence” (the opening sentence of a composition that states the theme). Unlike every other NPR program, Glass said he does not begin his show by announcing the guests and topics; instead, he launches immediately into the first story and lets the narrative draw listeners into the magic of the tale: “When I hear people’s stories, the world seems to make more sense.”
Perhaps the greatest audience reaction occurred after Glass actually asked for ideas on what to do with the archival tapes of This American Life and whether any institutions would want to keep and preserve them. You could almost hear the bidding process taking tangible shape in the low rumbles of reaction. Glass admitted that he did not take a long view with his program and that he thought its value was in its immediacy in the present: “If it all got destroyed and went away, it wouldn’t be such a bad day,” he said, “but maybe you guys know better than me.” Indeed, before too long AL DIrect may well be carrying news of a new acquisition by a university audio archive.
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Posted in ACRL at 12:13 am by George Eberhart
ACRL's fish-toss winner
One fun panel presentation (”If Fish Markets Can Do It So Can We”) involved the first competitive fish toss in ACRL history. Unlike the huge salmon and halibut that the fishmongers at Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market throw around at each other (and sometimes at unsuspecting customers), these were plush fish toys that four hardy volunteers agreed to pitch dramatically into a receptacle. A Russian librarian (left, named Ekaterina, I think) won the competition. The whole point, as Temple Associate University Librarian Steven Bell explained, was to show that libraries need to fashion a memorable user experience (UX) in addition to providing essential information.
According to Rutgers Associate University Librarian Valeda Dent Goodman, the UX involves psychological, interactive, and value-based components. “Starbucks sells coffee, but their success is based on something else” — customers value the experience because they remember the friendly or innovative interaction with the store’s baristas. As the poster child for a successful user experience, Starbucks is in the same category as Google, Apple, and the BlackBerry in developing simple, trustworthy, and innovative products that focus on people’s participation.
The Difference Factor
Bell commented that libraries need to concentrate on their Wow Factor (the fish-toss quality that makes users say, “Your service is awesome”) and their Difference Factor (the user experience that can prove more valuable than a Google or Wikipedia search). There is also a Fidelity Factor that keeps users coming back to the library, instead of merely being wowed once then crawling back to their online searches. Bell said that library high-fidelity involves the totality of UX (web access, reference, the OPAC, systems, and circulation) that, when presented in a convenient and meaningful way, retains the user’s loyalty.
Brian Mathews, user experience librarian at Georgia Tech, mentioned some of the ways his library did usability testing on library spaces as they prepared for a recent renovation: “We tried storyboarding, psychodemographics, mapping, and decision trees to find out why the user experience works for some people and not others.”
When users complain, you have to listen, Bell emphasized, but you have to go beyond their recommendations. Henry Ford said that if he had asked people how they wanted to improve their transportation, they would have said “faster horses,” not an affordable new car like the Model T.
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03.15.09
Posted in ACRL at 10:01 pm by George Eberhart
Robin Chase
Robin Chase, cofounder and former CEO of the car-sharing company Zipcar, was described in 2007 by Business Week’s Helen Walters as a transportation design visionary, and she is still hard at work challenging groups and individuals to confront the reality of global climate change. As ACRL’s invited green speaker, Chase knew her audience on Sunday morning was already eco-committed, so she got our attention by noting there was “Lots of fabulosity here.”
After quoting Goddard Institute for Space Studies Director James E. Hansen — who stated in 2008 that if we just go ahead with business as usual for the next 10 years, we will have 0% chance of averting the catastrophic effects of a global temperature increase of 3 degrees — Chase said that only massive behavior change in collaborating on the use and reuse of scarce resources will begin to reverse this trend. As an example, she said that in 2008 alone, 300,000 zipsters (users of urban Zipcars) averted 600,000 pounds of CO2 emissions by using 5,000 shared cars across North America and in London.
Indeed, she noted that libraries, as repositories of shared information, are the true precursors of the Zipcar concept and challenged the audience to come up with other ways to engage in Sharing 2.0 — the collaborative sharing of many resources (work, play, infrastructure, financing) by many groups. Wikipedia is a good example of people making use of “excess mental capacity,” with the reward of pride in contributing to the world’s knowledge. The secret of shared resources is that they must be greasy (easy to use) and fill a genuine need (beyond mere curiosity).
Collaborative use of excess capacity could also involve building open wireless mesh-networking systems on the backs of existing single-use systems. For example, the E-ZPass system in place on toll roads uses single-use automobile transponders that key into an existing wireless network. What if a way could be found to free up the unused bandwidth to provide other wireless services for the driver?
The sticking point, of course, is trying to convince corporations to buy into this new way of thinking; it can be done, as Zipcar demonstrated when it had to deal with insurance companies that had never covered risks on automobiles shared by multiple users. “We had to retrain the insurance industry to think in a different way,” Chase recalled.
Also, there should be a different set of rules for small-scale businesses than large-scale ones. Michael Pollan, in Omnivore’s Dilemma, described how government regulations required meat-packing companies to have a separate and exclusive restroom for the industry meat inspector. That might work for corporate giants, but not for small, rural chicken farms: “When you go to a small scale, you need a different kind of contract between individuals.”
One questioner asked for concrete strategies to deal with vendors who are still forcing libraries into traditional contracts and university administrators who are not ready for a paradigm shift. Chase answered that the strategy is different for every company and each individual; but the best way is to appeal to their personal or financial incentives. Self-interest still rules, she said.
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Posted in ACRL at 12:58 am by George Eberhart
ACRL's green giveaways
In 2009, ACRL conference planners set a precedent that will be difficult for ALA members and staff to ignore. As the most eco-friendly major event ever held by an ALA division, ACRL’s 14th National Conference, March 12-15, may well serve as a model to follow for other units and ALA itself. Two of the most prominent green features were the sturdy, pragmatic, green conference bags made of recycled materials (contrasting sharply with the oversized orange bags used at recent ALA conferences) and the tangible lack of handouts at program sessions (thanks to presenters making their materials available through the Virtual Conference).
Left to right: Kerri Odess-Harnish, Kate Zoellner, Charles Forrest, Karen Munro, Juliet Kerico, Paula Walker
It wasn’t easy being the first to be green. The Green Component Committee, established after the last ACRL conference in 2007 in Baltimore, had to make much of it up as they went along and essentially wrote their own charge (which in essence was “reduce, reuse, recycle”). First, they prepared an online survey to find out what green features ACRL members wanted to see in their conferences. The top five preferences were:
- 95% - recycle paper handouts
- 90% - recycled materials in the convention center
- 87% - donate excess food or compost wasted food
- 77% - put a limit on promotional items and giveaways
- 75% - reduce paper handouts
Charles Forrest and Tory Ondrla
Because ACRL made the committee a structural component of conference planning, it was able to work proactively with the local arrangements and virtual conference committees. The ACRL staff, especially Conference Supervisor Tory Ondrla, was strongly committed to sustainabilty and encouraged the committee at every step. At a Saturday panel session on “How to Green a Library Conference,” committee members summarized the greenest features:
- 240,000 mailed paper pages were replaced with electronic mailings (including an online-only service manual for exhibitors that also eliminated some 200 binders).
- 80% of all attendees signed a Green Pledge that committed them to put sustainable ideas into practice. Everyone who took the pledge earned a green leaf watermark on their badges.
- Green Speaker Robin Chase, cofounder of Zipcar and current CEO of GoLoco, was invited to speak Sunday morning on how libraries might model useful approaches to the crises of resources.
- The badge holders, like the bags, were made of recycled materials.
- The giveaway timers, which sit next to you in the shower and alert you when four minutes are up, were a big hit (someone said they “made a big splash”).
- The program book was printed on recycled paper in soy ink, at no extra charge to ACRL.
- Leftover promotional items were donated to local charities.
- Leftover food was donated to Fare Start, a culinary training program for jobless and homeless people.
- Exhibitors were given an opportunity to showcase their green products and services in the program book.
Seattle itself is on the cutting edge of sustainable practices, which made this conference the perfect place to start. The Washington Convention Center was already engaged in many green practices, among them:
- carpet made from recycled fabric in the exhibit hall
- reusable pipe and drapes
- reduced lighting during exhibitor setup and takedown
- abundant recycling bins
- water coolers in the hallways and exhibit floor for free refills to avoid purchasing bottled water
The committee plans to develop a manual of green conference practices and post it online for other ALA units and chapters. Committee cochair Charles Forrest summed up their work: “We are dealing with limited and shrinking resources and we have to constantly keep in mind how our activities affect the environment of the planet. We must introduce alternatives in order to be environmentally responsible.”
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03.14.09
Posted in ACRL at 1:26 am by George Eberhart
Sherman Alexie signs copies of his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian
ACRL’s Friday afternoon keynote was given by the popular Seattle poet, novelist, humorist, and filmmaker Sherman Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian whom The New Yorker described as one of the top 20 writers of our country. Alexie is also an accomplished speaker and knows how to please a crowd, even one composed of academics. His opening words: “I love librarian conferences. There are thousands of hot, near-sighted women here. . . . Those oatmeal sweaters just do it for me.”
Alexie’s offbeat humor, however, is most often a mask for a serious take on race, humanity, assumptions, politics, and patriotism. In eastern Washington State where he grew up, most people are white and any Indian stands out. “But as I travel the world,” he said, “I’ve become ambiguously ethnic. People generally think I’m half of whatever they are.”
When he walks into a library, the librarians don’t know what to make of him: “They wonder, What kind of books might he like? What section should I steer him toward? Then they ask leading librarian questions to get me to reveal myself.
“‘Where are you from?’
“‘I live just down the block.’
“‘Well, how long have you lived there?’
“My standard answer: ‘12,000 years.’”
But it was the librarian on his childhood reservation that asked him, “What kind of stories do you like?” That’s always the best question, Alexie said. “My answer was, ‘Funny ones, usually about Indians.’”
Alexie noted that everyone assumes all Native Americans love nature. “Not true! For me, the outdoors is one large hallway between buildings. I’m allergic to everything that grows. Crazy Horse didn’t have to pause to take a Zyrtec while he was attacking Custer.”
After the session, someone asked whether he was working on another film, perhaps a sequel to Smoke Signals (1998). He said he had no plans for another movie, but he’s working on an idea for an HBO series about an all-Indian basketball team. “It’s only at Stage 2 of about 9,000, so don’t expect anything soon.” Other projects include turning The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) into a play produced by a Seattle theatre company: “It would be sort of High School Musical, but set in real life.” And there is a sequel to True Diary in the works that he is calling The Magic and Tragic Year of My Broken Thumb.
And here’s one thing you probably didn’t know about Seattle, courtesy of Alexie: “In Seattle, whenever there is a march — even against the Iraq War or in favor of gay marriages — eight people come dressed as sea turtles.”
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Posted in ACRL at 12:27 am by George Eberhart
The ACRL exhibit floor is usually a no-nonsense affair. Rarely do you see Elvis impersonators or talking robots, and giant fuzzy characters from kid lit are nowhere to be seen.
AL Direct Editor George Eberhart at the sit-in
However, when I heard that Alexander Street Press was holding a 1960s-style sit-in to celebrate the launch of its new online multimedia collection, I decided to join in and demonstrate that even American Libraries could engage in gonzo journalism (left). After providing the crowd with flowers for their hair, the bell-bottomed and headbanded Alexander Street presenters demoed The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960 to 1974, a web-based collection that records the Zeitgeist of the era with narrative, documents, music, and video. It even has an option for users to contact the project advisers directly about submitting their own materials to be added to the collection. The sit-in only lasted 15 minutes, but the masses were energized and felt empowered to “Bring back the Sixties for serious scholarship.”
Another vendor that specializes in multimedia is the UK-based Adam Matthew Digital, which had a booth seven aisles away from the sit-in. One of their collections is a fascinating study of the social history of Britain from 1937 to 1965 in which academics interviewed, observed, photographed, and eavesdropped on ordinary citizens to learn their thoughts, habits, likes, and dislikes. Even their diaries (500 of them), dreams, reading preferences, cinema experiences, and the graffiti they scribbled on the walls of the pubs they frequented were of interest and recorded. The Mass Observation Online archive offers an invaluable glimpse into what life was like in England during the Depression, World War II, and the postwar era.
Nedra Peterson
Visuals can be a major help in conveying complicated concepts to restless students. As Nedra Peterson (right), director of the Woodbury University library in Burbank, California, explained during a Cyber Zed Shed presentation, “Students are visually oriented. Any tactic you can use to engage their attention is fair game. That’s why we use film clips, pop music, and commercials to explain key concepts in information literacy for our required class in library instruction.” Apparently the video and audio formats induce an emotional “affective state” in the students, which stimulates their brains and triggers recall of content later on. Peterson showed how she uses a clip from High Fidelity to introduce cataloging and collection arrangement, and a clip from The Ring to demonstrate effective research techniques (find the lighthouse) and critical thinking.
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03.12.09
Posted in ACRL at 11:50 pm by George Eberhart
ACRL’s 14th National Conference in Seattle is the greenest in ALA history, as organizers were quick to remind everyone. The meeting opened with an ecological bang March 12, as attendees picked up their recycled conference bags (furnished by EBSCO) containing a beverage mug (furnished by Innovative Interfaces) made from 100% corn plastic, and a shower timer filled with blue sand that runs out after four minutes as a hint to turn the water off. You see, as Conference Committee Chair Betsy Wilson said before the first keynote speaker began, by using the shower saver ACRLers can save the city 90,000 gallons of water by cutting their normal eight minutes in the shower down to four; at 2.5 gallons a minute, that’s 10 gallons per shower times 2,841 attendees for three days! And even the plates in the lavish Exhibits Reception were made of sturdy, recyclable bamboo.
The first keynote speaker was to be Canadian journalist and economic activist Naomi Klein, the award-winning author of Shock Doctrine and No Logo. I had been looking forward to hearing her opinion on whether the Obama administration’s stimulus package was a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, Klein had to cancel all of her appearances for the next month due to a personal illness — not life-threatening, but enough to warrant a break from her busy schedule.
Rushworth M. Kidder
Luckily, ACRL was able to find a substitute as eloquent and erudite as Klein. This was ethicist Rushworth M. Kidder, founder of the Institute for Global Ethics in 1990 and the author of Moral Courage and How Good People Make Tough Choices. Kidder had definitely done his library homework, as he had been the keynote speaker in Denver for the 70th anniversary celebration of the ALA Code of Ethics at the 2009 ALA Midwinter Meeting. Instead of talking about the economic recession, as Klein had planned to do, Kidder spoke about what he calls the “ethical recession,” a state of mind that threatens our democracy.
Kidder began by saying that somewhere in late September 2008, journalists, politicians, and even economists stopped talking about the inviolability of the marketplace and began to express moral outrage at the corruption, lies, and irresponsibility surrounding many financial institutions. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan admitted in October that he had been wrong to oppose some forms of government oversight, and President Obama has called for a new era in responsibility. But how do we rebuild a moral culture?
Some of the toughest ethical problems arise, especially for librarians, not from choosing the good over the bad, but from having to choose the better of two options that are both perceived as right and necessary. He told the story of an Ohio reference librarian who faced the choice of whether to reveal to a police officer investigating a rape case the phone number of a man who had just called in to ask about state statutes on rape. An organization promoting victims’ rights might demand one course of action, while a library organization would suggest another.
Kidder said the most amazing librarian he had ever met was Viktor Pestov, whom he met when visiting the Gulag Museum at Perm-36, the last Soviet prison camp standing and now a memorial to Russian dissidents. When Pestov was in his teens, he suspected the Soviet government was not telling the truth about the communist system; when he heard that Russian tanks had invaded Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring of 1968, he and a friend in the city of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) decided to become pamphleteers and let people know the truth. After nearly two years of cleverly and clandestinely distributing pamphlets (”it isn’t strange at all that Pestov became a librarian,” Kidder quipped), he was arrested and sent to Perm-36 for five years. For Pestov, who knew what the risks were, it wasn’t a choice; he did what he had to do.
In order to escape this ethics recession, we need to cultivate a culture of integrity, Kidder said. The moral compass of individuals will only come to the surface when they are exposed to ethical organizations and institutions. This is where libraries can help. Librarians are the standard bearers for the next generation, and the library is a haven of stability in a moral storm of turbulence, a safe place where individuals can develop an ethical outlook.
After the session was over, Kidder fielded a few questions from the audience. Columbia University Librarian Jim Neal asked him to comment on how new technologies affected ethical perceptions. Kidder said that advanced technology can allow a single unethical decision to wreak exponentially greater havoc. Think Chernobyl and the Exxon Valdez: “At any point we have a positive obligation to become moral futurists and think ahead of the curve on the use and misuse of each new technology.”
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