Re-positioning libraries as safe spaces for answering career-related queries

I came across this news article about a young engineer who got two job offers (McGregor, 2015). He took to Quora, an online question-and-answer website, to ask for advice about which company's offer to accept. Representatives from both companies responded with one rescinding the job offer.

This caused me to reflect on my first publication (Scale, 2008) that compared how libraries matched up to Facebook as a "social search engine". While I will not go into a detailed summary of the journal article, I just wanted to make a few points about how this young engineer's problem highlight a missed opportunity for the positioning of libraries and highlight what I think libraries can do to change this.

Let me begin by mentioning that "social search" can be defined as the use of online platforms for locating individuals with the expertise to answer one's query (people search) or for locating information from search results informed by a community of users that input data into the online platform (human intermediary search) (Scale, 2008). Social search comes as a development of the Social Web or Web 2.0 era, where search engines and algorithms no longer dominate how users find relevant information online. Instead, human beings are now connecting online to retrieve information from online personal sources rather than documents.

This brings me to the points I wish to make in this post. How do libraries position themselves in this era?

1. Libraries need to position themselves as social search engines which preserve privacy, contain little to no advertising and maintain the confidentiality of queries.

2. Learn from Apple's Siri for i-Phone & i-Pad. Promote and provide a listing of the types of questions that we librarians can answer or are good at answering. 

Point 1

Librarians need to promote to library users the benefits of getting their answers from us as opposed to the online competition. Sure enough, online sources can get an individual quicker access to people sources and information, but online also leaves a trail and the Internet does not forget. Librarians though will forget.

We could even make this optional where users can be taken into a closed room, read a confidential non-disclosure agreement form to be signed by both the librarian and the library user, before the individual divulges their query.

This brings me to a concern about virtual reference, which keeps a virtual memory of queries and does not forget. Luckily, virtual reference services can do so with the removal of personal identifying information. Nonetheless, I find it on the side of caution that such system by requiring authentic users to login can still keep track of where queries are coming from. So I am still kind of wondering about this and need to research this some more.

Nonetheless, I would advocate for librarians to be selective of which technology or technical solutions are used for the purposes of virtual reference. Even when we use online platforms, ours must be distinctive from our competitors that collect personal information and maintain a public record of such information.

Point 2
I refer here to the experience of using Apple's Siri for i-Phone and i-Pad. Sometimes after using Siri, Apple's artificial intelligent virtual agent, I find that she presents a listing of some of the questions that she can answer and some of the information that she can provide.

How do library users know what questions to bring to the library reference desk? In my experience, as a library user, users coming to the reference desk get varied levels of service and do not know with certainty if a competent staff member will be on hand to handle their queries. One unhelpful experience is sufficient to prevent a user from being a return client.

Hence, it is necessary to reduce the chances of this uneven service delivery from happening in the first instance by highlighting what we are competent at answering. We must provide a way of assuring our patrons or users about the types of questions we can answer or provide information for and what they can expect us to answer or find answers for.

Even if we do not have the sources to answer all our users query, we should be able know where we can refer users and provide a list of questions for which we can refer users if we do not have the answers. That is, librarians should also know what areas we can competently advise users so that even if we do not have the answers in our library, we can advise users about where to go next and explain the pros and cons of getting the answers from the sources we refer them to. (In a way, this points to a need for deep subject expertise).

Some of the challenges

I do acknowledge that one of the challenges of doing this type of reference work is reduced library budgets and problematic staff shortages. In some libraries, the staff does not have the time to walk the users through a long decision-making process but stop short at just pointing them to the sources. This process makes the library little different from Google or original Web search that just directs users to the highest ranked or used sources that possess possible answers. This forces users to still have the work to determine the relevance and pros and cons of the sources retrieved. This is why I like the special library environment where librarians can provide a framework for extracting relevant and useful information and coming to a decision about which sources to use.

A possible way forward
For me, the young engineer's question could be viewed as a missed opportunity to re-position libraries to the wider public as safe spaces to ask questions and conduct inquiry, especially about career and entrepreneurial information. I for one believe that a dedicated career information resource librarian should be in every public library. This person would specialize in helping users answer career related queries and help them locate career-related information for all stages of an individual's career journey. These librarians should be dedicated to answering reference queries related to career, business or entrepreneurship questions ad questions about choosing educational programs.

Nonetheless, every public library should know its users and the questions that users are most likely to need answers for and provide a dedicated subject librarian to address those questions. Again I realize that this is an ideal in the present time of austerity and economic uncertainty. As such, I lament that we need greater advocacy to let politicians, economists and other authorities that make funding decisions know that the quality of library services depend on the type of deep expertise that we provide in areas that are important to communities. For example, seeing that current authorities are interested in job creation, we can advocate that libraries can provide value to the labour market and the economy if given sufficient funding and staff to provide a dedicated librarian for career and business related questions. Of course, I realize that this means focusing on priorities that fit into the neo-liberal paradigm in which libraries are now working.


Reference:

McGregor, J. (2015, May 7). A young engineer asked for career advice online. Big mistake. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2015/05/07/a-young-engineer-asked-for-career-advice-online-big-mistake/?wprss=rss_business

Scale, M. (2008). Facebook as a social search engine and the implications for libraries in the twenty-first century. Library Hi Tech, 26, (4), p. 540-56.

My experiences using e-book/audio book platforms and subscription services

I took some time over the summer to experiment and explore a number of online e-book and audio subscription services. In addition, at the time I began my exploration, an article emailed to me from my network entitled "What’s better than Kindle Unlimited for $120 a year? This free alternative" (see Randall, 2014) also inspired me to think more about my experiment. The result is this preliminary report on my experiences using three e-book/audio book platforms or subscription services: Reading Rainbow, OverDrive and Audible. The limitation, I have only attempted to use these platforms on one device, the iPad.

• Reading Rainbow app for iOS - free version
• OverDrive - free through my public library
• Amazon's Audible - 30-day trial version

I begin with the Reading Rainbow App downloaded from the App Store. Reading Rainbow was a television program when I was a kid, and now that I am a parent with girls that like to read, I decided to check out this app. Rather than being an app that talk about books and featured children performing reading, the app was essentially a "Library of Children's Books, Kids Videos & Educational Games" (See the i-Tunes review). After the long introductory video, the app visually organizes books by islands of interest (located in the sky) with interesting titles such as "the Animal Kingdom", "Genius Academy" and "Action Adventure & Magical Tales". The child can then navigate to an island of interest and access books and educational videos in that genre or topical island. In addition, the readers in the free version can check out up to five e-books into their virtual backpack. The reading experience is not only one where narration is provided, but to some extent, limited interactivity is built into the picture books, where readers can touch the page and experience certain (motion and sound) effects.

While Reading Rainbow was a hit with my first born who wanted me to subscribe so that she could access more books and return the books she had already read, I could not bring myself to do so, knowing that I had a free public library 15 minutes away from where I lived. Yet, considering that we had limited time to spend at the library each week borrowing books and that my first born devoured the books borrowed within 2 days, it seemed that access to e-books would perhaps be a better option for such a voracious reader. This brings me to the free library alternative, OverDrive.

In 2012, I blogged about my first experience using OverDrive (See that blog post here). However, at that time, I used OverDrive, I did so using the laptop. This time however, I used OverDrive with the iPad, and I must say, OverDrive is better used with iPad than a laptop. Just the portability alone and the fact that you can curl up into a chair without something warm or hot (especially in the summer) in your lap makes the iPad or tablet computer a better option for reading e-books or listening to audio books versus the laptop.

That said, to get started, you have to download the app and get your library card in hand. (Setting-up can be quite a daunting process compared to Reading Rainbow's app). Once you are set up and learn your way around the app and the library's website, you are good to go. OverDrive is definitely not as intuitive and easy as ReadingRainbow, where you can just navigate to islands of interest. Rather, navigation here requires browsing images of book covers or tapping on hyperlinks organized by genre. However, the plus side is that you can search for what you want (whereas Reading Rainbow forces you to just explore what they have available). While OverDrive was great for downloading both e-books and audio books, I do not think it sparked the enthusiasm of my firstborn as much as Reading Rainbow. Nonetheless, my firstborn enjoyed listening to the audio books and hopefully learned some new words and how they are pronounced or sound, compared to just reading the text by herself.

Another thing about OverDrive is that the collection is limited. For one reason or the other, the selection of books was particularly limiting for my peculiar interest in Judeo-Christian theology. I found few books (7 from four authors) discussing Jesus. On the other hand, I could not access the Word of Promise audio Bible that I had previously borrowed in CD-form from the same public library and had to settle for a less dramatic King James version. As such, I conclude that OverDrive perhaps may not be a platform to go for a specific hobby-related interest, but more what is the popular interest. Another down side to this, is that you only get 14 days to listen to or read the books borrowed. In addition, some books that you may be interested in may have to be placed on hold as someone else is currently reading or using the file. So you might have a queue waiting for an e-book or audio book to become available.


That brings me to Audible. Audible requires setting up an account with Amazon or signing into your existing account with Amazon. That said, I was offered a 30 day trial version of the service, enabling me to download the app and experience it. It is from this app that I was able to access the Word of Promise audio Bible, which I downloaded and was able to listen to even without Internet Access. The strange thing about this was that my CD player and radio died 2 days after I downloaded the app (must have been jealous).

Compared to OverDrive, Audible seemingly offers a greater variety of books for one's peculiar hobby-related interest. Further, you do not have to wait in a queue for a popular book. You can essentially get any book that you want for either a monthly or annual fee. Randal (2014) mentions that Kindle Unlimited charges $9.99 a month, but the fee for subscription to Audible is 14.95 per month. With this price, I will just stick it out at OverDrive and perhaps just buy the e-book that I really want that the library does not provide access to.


Now listening to audio books is like listening to the radio. When I was a child, there used to be radio dramas. And listening to audio books, (especially fictional ones) or those that employ dramaturgical or theatrical elements, reminded me of those days when I'd listen to radio dramas. Yet, I am a more visual person, and eventually tune out audio as background noise (apart from the interesting fiction books like the ones my firstborn were listening to). Further, I can only listen to one book at a time and could not fathom downloading a new audio book daily, weekly or monthly. What this means is that I would have to download books that I'd want to hear for a year, and then listen to each book until it is completed, before going on to the next book. As such, I don't think paying $14.95 per month is justified for listening to audio books, just the same way that I am unaccustomed for paying to listen to radio stations with their annoying ads.

That said, I end my report on my experiences here. Up next (in the future) is my report on the experience using Google Play as a platform for accessing e-books.

Reference:

Randall, T. (2014, July 31). What’s better than Kindle Unlimited for $120 a year? This free alternative. Bloomberg Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-31/what-s-better-than-kindle-unlimited-for-120-a-year-this-free-alternative.html

The social media job of a Virtual Public Services Librarian (VPSL)

I attended a session with the presenter Virtual Public Services Librarian (VPSL) for Essex County Libraries, Adam Craig. Adam presented on his position as a VPSL, and what his work involves. Essentially his work boils down to 5 major activities:

• database selection
• print reference
• troubleshooting
• programs
• and social media

The above five activities are what Adam stated took up most of his time and are done either daily, weekly or monthly. For me, the aspects of his social media job that was the most fascinating involved:

• tweeting (or writing tweets)
• Facebook status updates
• writing blog posts
• checking statistics and social media accounts for interaction
• managing the library's social media accounts

Adam also outlined some of the non-traditional skills that one could apply or use for the job, which involved making use of one's hobbies such as:

• playing around social media
• working with graphics software like PhotoShop
• creating online videos

Adam also advises that one informs their use of social media with research, which includes

• finding out what is going on and new developments
• reading terms of service agreements
• checking Tech blogs like Wired

Adam also uses or leverages his social media skills into actual programs such as running training programs for seniors in Facebook use as well as for small businesses (Facebook page management; Blogging and microblogging etc.).

By and large, the presentation validated my own experience as a Departmental Librarian,  in which I did similar things except for blogging and tweeting (Please note: I do not blog or tweet for any institution. My blogs are all hobbies and personal/professional interests that I pursue in my own time, with my own resources). While he was doing his presentation, I could relate to it. I was also impressed that he did do training programs for small businesses. I however also noted, that far from being a job that he could do at home, he spent much of time travelling and interacting face to face with customers/library users and others. Hence he is a virtual public services librarian that does most of his work in physical locations and with face to face interaction.

In answering reference queries: The need for experience

In a Facebook group that I am a part of, a certain question came up about the use of Library Assistants (LAs) in an academic library to provide reference services. The person asked if any librarians in academic libraries currently practice using LAs to provide basic directional and informational services as well as basic navigational instruction on the use of the OPAC while sitting at the reference desk on rotation.  the person also inquired about the practice of using library school students at the Associate and Bachelors Level to provide the same service. I gave a response that I think might be useful if I share here for others.

Firstly, I am definitely of the opinion that library assistants can be trained to do reference, especially if given an expert system/document to guide them in brainstorming where to go to find information for general reference queries. However, in my experience, neither training librarians or library assistants can really compensate for their own personal experience in doing academic research that requires them to use a variety of research resources. Sometimes, your inter-disciplinary background in library research or understanding research requirements are necessary to help you better meet the needs of patrons.

In relation to point  of experience being required for quality reference work: I recall several circumstances where I was able to help persons in the past as a student library assistant because of my familiarity with academic research and library use from my undergraduate days. (My undergraduate degree was in Political Science with Statistics). I knew where to help an social scientist to find a statistical formula because I did courses in statistics and was familiar with the literature in the field and knew personally that the formula could be found in the back of text books. I also recalled an experience where I was able to point a Mass Communication student to a relevant encyclopedia, because of my own experience of using libraries as a student and finding subject specific encyclopedias. On the other hand, I have observed in my own experience that academic librarians without such experiences seek to  find everything using the databases. But one resource cannot meet every variety of research needs, and as such any one doing reference work needs to think through the research question or query as to the most likely resource that has the answer to satisfy the patron.

Musings on my readings: Approaches of the humanities needed for designing online library services

The new summer term has begun, and so has my readings on the folkloric aspects of my thesis idea. Generally, I expect my readings now to furnish theoretical perspectives to inform my research. Hence, for the rest of the summer I immerse myself in readings about folklore and storytelling to discover theories that can apply to online information provision.


With this, I've come across a website that I like that has given me various definitions of folklore over the centuries: University of Missouri's Department of English's Folklore, Oral Tradition and Cultural Studies course website: http://folklore.missouri.edu/whatis.html. The site contains a sampling of definitions of folklore from 1884 to 2007.

Part of the readings I've done also have informed me include Brenda Laurel's Computers as Theatre and Theodore Roszak's (1986) The Cult of  Information: The Folklore of Computers and the True Art of Thinking. Both authors are instructive of discussing the need for a more humanistic approach to information. Laurel discusses that engineers designing human computer interaction do not produce good humanistic design that will please human beings. Roszak discusses how information as defined by mathematicians and telecommunication engineers which help to spark the development of the computing industry separate it from humanistic and everyday meaning. As such, both writers have helped me to see that a mechanistic approach dominates computer human interaction and design, rather than the approaches of the humanities.

As such, I see as part of my mission in the thesis to discuss the need for online library services to be designed for human beings using the approaches of the humanities. For my particular thesis, my emphasis will be on discussing the approaches of folklore and storytelling to informing such designs of online library services. I look forward to this challenge. Stay tuned for more.

Jamaican Libraries need to implement business information services

Jamaica Library Service and the National Library of Jamaica to my knowledge do not provide any special library service to business persons. They offer a general library service to adult users, but none specifically aimed at providing the business persons with information. This is surprising considering that the more established library traditions of United States of America (see for example http://www.nypl.org/locations/sibl) and Britain (http://www.bl.uk/bipc/aboutus/index.html) do offer this service.

 In fact, one core public library mission according to the IFLA/UNESCO Public Library 1994 Manifesto is that of 'providing adequate information services to local enterprises, associations and interest groups'. http://archive.ifla.org/VII/s8/unesco/eng.htm

Manley establishes that providing library services to businesses should be done by every public library. When public libraries participate in the provision of business information services , they have the opportunity to directly impact economic needs and provide ‘a service of paramount importance to the community’ (Manley 'Preface'). Library service in providing business information can have the most impact on society, as this service touches every individual, including ‘those interested in earning a living’ among others (Manley 'Preface'). Business further impact on employment and a nation’s standards of living, both in terms of wealth and job creation. In this regard, Manley concludes that a library’s business information service is an extension of general library service which is to provide information to meet the needs of one's community.

What is a business information service?

According to Manley a business information service provides answers to business questions and in particular those questions  that cannot be answered personal experience (4). Library business information  service is a service offered by the library where users turn to the library to answer business question and the library helps the user to get his answer (Manley 6). Answers could be gotten through either the  library’s 1) providing selected materials and/or 2) serving as a ‘point of contact through which other information sources can be tapped’ (Manely 7)

Business information services are not the only contribution that libraries have made to the development of businesses. Yates indicate how libraries have shaped businesses from the founding of the first professional library school. She points out how in the 1890s and early in the twentieth century, that librarians helped businesses better organize and make accessible their own internal information through the vertical file ( 56). She points out that the vertical filing of papers ‘a new form of flat filing which evolved from the vertical card files used by librarians, was presented to the business world in 1893’ and became adopted by many businesses (Yates 56). Hence libraries have had a tradition of serving businesses information management needs. 

Works Cited:

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). "IFLA/UNESCO Public Library Manifesto." 1994. (November 3, 2004): International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). 2011. <http://archive.ifla.org/VII/s8/unesco/eng.htm>.

Manley, Marian C. Library Service to Business: Its Place in the Small City. Chicago: American Library Association (ALA), 1946. Print.

Yates, JoAnne. Control through Communication: The Rise of System in American Management. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1993. Print.