What I learned from Windows 8 about cloud computing?

I have written about cloud computing before in an attempt to make sense of its potential impact on libraries (Scale, 2009; Scale, 2010). Well, recently, I had the privilege of helping a friend to set up a Skype account on a laptop using Windows 8. The experience made me realize that cloud computing is a total change from my assumptions and what I learned in the era of stand-alone computing. Here are some of what I surmise about the reality of cloud computing.

1. Software programs will no longer be installed on machines, but rather, we have to access them as "apps" that are delivered to our computer or computing device (tablet, laptop or smart phone) over the Internet.
2. Clicking a save button to save changes to our documents will be redundant. Documents will automatically be saved as we work on them.
3. No more interruption from automatic downloads and service updates. At least, not when we are working on documents.

References:

Scale, M-S. E. (2009). Cloud computing and collaboration. Library Hi Tech News, 26(9), 10-13.

 

Scale, M-S. E. (2010). Assessing the impact of cloud computing and web collaboration on the work of distance library services. Journal of Library Administration, 50(7-8), 933-950.

Libraries as ideological institutions?

While I've been absent from the blogosphere, I've been thinking deeply about the library as an institution. I have attended a talk at my faculty, been reading a critical perspective author and have read recent articles in the news mentioning perspectives of what the library has become today. In this blog post, I want to discuss these ideas that I have been grappling with and raise certain questions at the end.

To begin, I must mention that I attended a talk by John Buschman  entitled "Neoliberalism in democratic-educative institutions". This talk was put on by Faculty of Information and Media Studies. University of Western Ontario through the funding of Jean Tague-Sutcliffe for a visiting scholar to present a lecture at the faculty. While this lecture is deserving of its own blog post, for the purposes of this blog post, I just want to mention that the main idea that Buschman communicated to me in this lecture was that neoliberalism has infiltrated the institution of libraries. Buscham also called for librarians to resist neoliberal ideology from changing how the institutions of libraries operate (personal communication, March 12, 2014).

Buschman's conclusion is also echoed by Dilevko (2009). Dilveko also calls for librarianship to become progressive and reject the neoliberal project for the library as an institution. Yet, Dilevko (2009) does acknowledge that the library does have a neoliberal heritage. This is mainly due to the contributions of industrialist and entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie. In Dilveko (2009), one can read how Carnegie set up a non-profit foundation to not only fund the establishment of public libraries, but also to fund library education. However, both Buschman and Dilevko's conclusions seem ironic, as in my interpretation, Carnegie could very well, through his interest, be playing the capitalist role of funding an institution that would conceal class tensions and relations. Isn't it a capitalist strategy to justify inequalities by making it seem that anyone who accesses and uses information rightly can become successful in the capitalist meritocratic society?

This brings me to my final analysis of trends in libraries today, where they are moving to become "community centres". Take for instance Wilkins (2014) words 'foolish me for still thinking that public libraries were establishments where silence always reigned supreme'. He continues:

In the last decade or so, I have been a regular user of Concordia’s downtown Webster Library. There, I have had the opportunity to see that the bad habits developed in high school are finding a second life in the university. “Silence” signs have been replaced with the more gentle “in this part of the library students can expect” notices. Indeed, many libraries, including the Webster, have been divided into various zones where library users “can expect” differing levels of noise.

In certain areas, cellphone use is not tolerated, at least in theory. The same can be said about food and drink. Then, of course, there is the socializing.
It seems that libraries, particularly the new “mega-libraries” like Montreal’s Grande Bibliothèque, Seattle’s Central Library and England’s Library of Birmingham, are becoming more community centres than anything else. In a recent BBC interview, Tony Durcan, director of culture in the Northumberland City of Newcastle, referred to the 21st-century library “as a quality public square, with a roof on top.”

As such, Wilkins makes observations that libraries are becoming community centres, with a de-emphasis on the individual consumption of information and media to a place where there are greater social and community interaction and consumption of technology, information and media. No longer are we emphasizing the library as an institution that supports an individual's quest or thirst for knowledge, but rather are redesigning our spaces to facilitate social learning and group interaction. (However, the irony is that some of these changes in libraries have come about in order to make libraries more "customer-friendly").

In another article, McCambridge (2014) discusses that library visits have increased. While librarians have pointed to several factors for the increased visits, including recession and technology, in her title, McCambridge suggests that this increase has been due mainly to libraries "madly innovating". And what are these innovations? 

Beyond redesigns of spaces designed to create more room for collaborative and creative intellectual activity, some augmentations to function have been added, making libraries more attractive and “sticky” community centers. For instance, the Chicago Public Library offers a free “Maker Lab” with access to 3-D printers, laser cutters, and milling machines. Washington State’s Lopez Island Library lets people borrow musical instruments. The Library Farm in Cicero, New York, even lets patrons interested in organic gardening borrow plots of land.

If you notice from both quotes, both Wilkins and McCambridge mention that libraries are playing the roles of community centres. Again, like Wilkins, McCambridge mentions the shifting emphasis from accessing information and media to a more social role of the institution of libraries, one where the is more provision of social services and programming. In one regard, libraries are beginning to look more like YMCAs, and are placing more emphasis on entertainment to attract users and visits. This is an interesting conundrum regarding the library as either a neoliberal ideological institution or as a progressive community-based/community-owned institution. In one sense, libraries in responding to neoliberal and public sector management pressures to quantify their value, are using neoliberal marketing strategies to attract higher numbers of users and visits. At the same time, libraries are acting as progressive and de-emphasizing the individual while giving more attention to the social and communal role of libraries.

So I end with several questions. Can the library as an institution be neutral? Can we balance two conflicting ideologies and contradictions? Can we both be a progressive social institution that seeks to eliminate "alienation" and bring about class solidarity, community and equality? Can we also be an institution that provides resources to launch new enterprises and entrepreneurs into success within the current neoliberal capitalist economy? Which ideology is in fact more dominating the institution of libraries today?

References

Dilevko, J. (2009). The politics of professionalism: A retro-progressive proposal for librarianship.  Duluth, MN : Library Juice Press.

McCambridge, R. (2014, March 10). Library usage soars as libraries get madly innovative. NPQ: Nonprofit Quarterly. Retrieved from https://nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/23815-library-usage-soars-as-libraries-get-madly-innovative.html

Wilkins, R. N. (2014, February 25). Silence in libraries seems to be a thing of the past. Montreal Gazette. Retrieved from http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Silence libraries seems thing past/9544828/story.html

Latest research update: The library consulting community as an Electronic Network of Practice

It has been almost two months since I've updated this blog. I've been working steadily on my proposal. Below is a draft layman's summary of my updated research direction. I've even included a biographical note on how this current direction relates to my past research and future direction. Missing though is a statement on my social media specialisation.

Abstract:

While the majority of librarians work in large institutions or government entities, there is a growing library-based community of members that are taking risks and starting their own self-employed consultancies. Until now, this community is not well studied by the academic literature. In my presentation, I introduce the library consulting community. Further, I map the existence of this global group as an electronic network of practice through Twitter and Blogs.

Electronic Network of practice (eNoP) is a term coined by Teigland and Wasko (2005) to study communities of practice that are organised through computer-mediated communication, rather than physically co-located. Communities of Practice (CoP) is a concept developed by Wenger (1999) to discuss a group that meets together to learn and reflect on their group identity and what it means to experience the world as members of their group. However, Teigland and Wasko (2005) suggest that CoP is meant for groups that are face-to-face, but needs to be adapted for groups that operate and organise themselves in electronic or computer-mediated space.

After reviewing the literature , I discovered that there are virtually no studies that use these frameworks for analysing librarians, especially seeing that librarians do use blogs and online spaces to discuss their practice. I therefore apply the eNoP framework to studying the little studied library consultant community that discuss their practice online via blogs and tweets.

Biography:

Mark-Shane Scale is a 3rd year student in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies. He is pursuing a PhD in Library and Information Science. He holds a Master's degree in Library and Information Studies (MLIS) at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus. Mark-Shane’s Masters research has primarily been focused on the information and knowledge universe of small business owners. His PhD research continues this focus, but this time focuses on how blogs as social information spaces connect small business owners to knowledge sharing stories created and shared on the Web by other small business owners.

References:

Teigland, R., & Wasko, M. (2005). Knowledge exchange in electronic networks of practice. Encyclopedia of information science and technology (pp. 1757-1762) IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-59140-553-5.ch309

Wenger, E. (1999). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity (1 pbk ed.). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

Public library publishing teen magazine

Photograph showing a magazine for teens produced by the Toronto Public Library

As is my custom, whenever I venture into new territory, I like to visit libraries and take away any artifacts of my experience or trip to the library. In January 2014, I had the opportunity to visit Scarborough and took home a magazine for teens produced by Toronto Public Library. The magazine, Young Voices, showcases the literary work and visual art of youth aged 12 to 19 (highschoolers). In this post, I showcase this magazine, Young Voices, and give my opinions on it as well as espouse my views on libraries as publishers.

First of all, I must say that I was impressed with it. Definitely love the fact that a library is playing the role of publisher, by producing a magazine. Secondly, I love the idea of giving a space to unknown writers and artists to showcase their work. Further, by focusing on the youth, I believe that the magazine prepares these young ones to be the future authors, illustrators and contributors to tomorrow's literary and artistic works. From the publication itself, it is stated that teen students working Toronto-based writers and mentors played a part in the production of the magazine (Toronto Public Library, 2013).

My only fault with the magazine though was that it was not clear from the publication when it was started and how long it has been running. Currently, the website version of the publication seems to be up to 2011 (Toronto Public Library, 2014). One would have expected that a library produced magazine would have a volume and/or issue number. Apparently, the publication is an annual one, hence perhaps the librarians did not feel it was necessary. However, I still feel that publication information should have been provided so that one would not have to contact the library or make the suppositions that I am now making.

Nonetheless, I am hoping that those in the Caribbean region take note of this great initiative and embrace the role of the library as publisher. Even if libraries publish e-zines using free online platforms, they would in this regards continue to reinvent the institutions of libraries as places for a community of readers and writers (or storytellers).

References:

Toronto Public Library  (2013). Young voices 2013: Magazine of teen writing and visual art.

 

Toronto Public Library  (2014). Teens: Young voices 2014: Magazine of teen writing and visual art. [Website]. Retrieved from http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/teens/young-voices-magazine.html

How can librarians make use of animation? Here are a few YouTube examples

Recently, an online conversation with one of my librarian colleagues got me thinking about how libraries can use animation. So I decided to do a preliminary search of YouTube to see what examples I could find on the subject. In this blog post, I report briefly on some of what I have discovered.


First is an animation (seemingly not from a librarian) that shows a 3D walk-through animation of a library (uploaded by Chris Collins). Definitely good for library design and space planning.





The second video is entitled 'Daring School Library Media Orientation Animation'. This is a good example of how libraries can use animation for giving students an orientation to the library space and resources. (Uploaded to YouTube in 2012 by Gwyneth Jones using GoAnimate software).






I also found this third YouTube video of animation teaching library etiquette. This one also uses GoAnimate online animation software. (Uploaded to YouTube by  MsBookDiva in 2011).

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Finally, I showcase another animation video entitled: "Library Rules Pirate Style". This one also uses Go Animate platform. (Uploaded in 2012 by YouTube user by chasulee).




References:

chasulee. (2011, Sep 15). Library rules pirate style. [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywxsywgw_cA

Collins, C. (2012, May 17). 3D walk-through animation of a library - 123Dview.com [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yH5w6D0abbY

Jones, G. (2011, Sep 7). Daring school library media orientation animation. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR3_5EfGxEs

MsBookDiva. (2011, Jan 6). Library etiquette. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4vXVRg7kO4

What I've been learning so far from my storytelling course with iVersity?

So I have begun a new journey to improve my craft of storytelling by signing up for the online course "The Future Of Storytelling" on  at iversity https://iversity.org/courses/the-future-of-storytelling?r=c4bab. This course is interdisciplinary and taught by German professors, but done in English. And so far, the course has been transformational and inspirational.

One of my favourite moments in the course so far, is the lecture by/interview with Dr. Hans-Christoph Hobohm. In his session, Dr. Hans-Christoph Hobohm, an information science professor, presented in a library space, the origins and history of storytelling. Hobohm in his short 22 minutes video summarised much of what I have learned from my readings on storytelling from both my comprehensive examination and self-directed studies. He also added a new dimension or perspective to what I already knew. Hobohm suggests that storytelling, contrary to what Walter Benjamin and others have argued [1], has never ceased from being around us.  Hobohm in talking about storytelling from past to present, indicates that how stories have been told have changed with technology, but that stories and storytelling are continuously being told in every human epoch and generation.


I particularly enjoyed when Hobohm discussed storytelling in library and information science. He suggested that librarians are awakening to the idea that 'libraries are houses of stories' and as such have been inviting authors and people to tell their stories in libraries. He also talks about storytelling in knowledge management, archival science and oral storytelling. Here he discusses stories as a way of capturing information, tacit knowledge and even wisdom.

I also learned from him about Story cubes, a board game for storytelling (See http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/kids/toys/rorys-story-cubes-in-pdq/759751003180-item.html). This game has dice, which instead of having dots, the dice have pictures. When we roll the dice, we must tell a story based on whatever pictures come up. As I saw this game, I knew that I would love to acquire it and use it for not only teaching future courses or classes in storytelling, but also in developing my own storytelling skills as well as those of my children.

The change in my outlook was evident today when I stopped by Indigo Chapters bookstore to look for the Story Cubes in hope of purchasing the last remaining one in stock at my London store. IndigoChapters no longer was a book store to me, but a 'storeroom of stories'. Games and books were transformed into stories competing for my engagement and finances. However, I left the store without any items, but hoping that one day, my own stories would be in that bookstore, screaming out for someone to purchase it.

Note:

1. Walter Benjamin (1969) discusses that the production of print literature, movies and television for the masses has killed storytelling. However, while one can contend that oral storytelling culture has suffered from print literature and movie production, one could also argue that with movies and novels come a new form of storytelling, which is the position that Hobohm and my online storytelling course maintains.

Reference:

Benjamin, W. (1969). Illuminations, ed. and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. Trans. by Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books.

Windows Surface: A tablet for librarians to consider?

For December 2013, a relatively new tablet is on the market, the Windows Surface. As such I wanted to weigh in my few thoughts on this device as compared with the iPad. (Just to make it clear, I am not paid from blogging or to blog about any of these technologies.)

Unfortunately, I have not played around with the Windows Surface. In fact, I must confess that I have only played around the iPad 1 that I borrowed from my faculty's resource centre. I recently used the borrowed iPad to watch videos for a free online course I am taking, read a thesis, and to read some electronic copies of journal articles using i-Books. Despite the inexperience in using Windows Surface, I still wanted to give my opinions based on research that I have undertaken on the subject of tablet adoption in libraries.


In Scale (2013), I found that some early adopter librarians adopted tablets based on their own personal experience with the device. This is problematic as it is clear that some have sought to incorporate personal devices meant for individual use into an institutional setting that requires the device to be used by many persons or multiple users (Scale, 2013).

In my view, librarians need a more logical and systematic approach to determining what technology to adopt and implement in libraries. Librarians need an approach that is based on the mission of the library and the design of the device to help the library carry out its mission. While it is true that tablets and e-readers are meant for consuming digital content of which libraries have a mission to collect and acquire (Scale, 2013), we need to see which devices are best designed to do so without compromising principles such as the privacy of our patrons as well as adopt devices that are designed for use by multiple institutional users and not the ones that are meant for personal individual use. (See also my blog post critiquing this and recommending instead smart touch screen tables).

In this regard, I appreciate Windows Surface, which has been designed specifically for use within institutions ('Surface RT', 2013; Intel® Corporation, 2012). Surface RT is a tablet device designed for multiple user accounts ('Surface RT', 2013). Further, the device is already compatible with Microsoft Office and SkyDrive cloud storage, making it a useful device for not only consuming electronic media, but also creating content. Finally, it allows one to use a keyboard, rather than having to use the small touch screen keyboard that I disliked on the iPad 1 (see previous blog post).


Hence I conclude that it is perhaps worthwhile for librarians thinking about tablet adoption for their institution to consider Microsoft's Surface. I recommend getting the vendors to demonstrate its capabilities. So if you are still doing shopping for the holidays, go over to the computer store and check it out. Anyways, happy holidays and new year to you all! And I hope you  continue to stay tune to this blog in 2014 for more updates and blog posts.


P.S.
I also looked back at my 2011 experiments with the iPad (see post 1 and post 2) and found that I have a greater appreciation for tablets today. My main areas of appreciation is the ability to enlarge the text to read of electronic journal articles or thesis papers as well as the capability to search and find a specific keyword. To me, these are the best part of e-reading over reading the printed page. However, I still prefer the navigation system of print. Let's see if future tablets will change my preference.


 
References:

Intel® Corporation. (2012). Business innovation unleashed. Intel® IT Center Tablet Hanbook. Retrieved from http://canada-it.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/tablet-for-business-handbook.pdf

Scale, M-S. E. (2013). Tablet adoption and implementation in academic libraries: A qualitative analysis of librarians' discourse on blogging platforms. Library Hi Tech News, 30(5), 5-9.

 

Surface RT - The original Microsoft tablet (2013). Microsoft Retrieved from
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-ca/products/surface