ITI Bloggers July 17th, 2009

I ran into ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels at the ALA Awards Reception on Tuesday evening.  In this year of all years, he told me that ALA had exceeded attendance expectations and, in fact, posted record attendance.

Despite glum economic conditions and financial pressures on library budgets of all kinds, it seems nothing could stop ALA members from showing up in Chicago, even though, Keith reported, some paid their own way.

ALA has officially posted the conference results on the American Libraries blog:  “22,762 registrants, along with 6,179 exhibitors, for a total attendance of 28,941, possibly the highest ever.”

As is typical of conferences this year, the official statement noted, that exhibitors took less show floor space than usual–12% less–and also noted that high attendance numbers don’t necessarily translate into higher revenues, but that the goal of $2.1 million was exceeded.

Numbers, of course, don’t say anything about substance.  But based on the stories we’ve blogged, I’d say the program was as rich as ever.  And I still have stories I could write up.  But seven consecutive days and nights into this, I’m going to have to call our conference blog done at this point.

I must confess it was with trepidation that we took on the task of covering this event in blog format, but I for one (and I know my team mates will agree), enjoyed the experience thoroughly.  Watch for further stories coming out of the event in ITI Newsbreaks, Information Today, ONLINE Magazine, Computers in Libraries, and Marketing Library Services.

Thanks to my co-bloggers:  Barb Brynko, Kathy Dempsey and Marydee Ojala for working with me on this most challenging, but equally rewarding, task.

This is Dick Kaser, ITI, VP, Content — Signing off from ALA Chicago . . .

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ITI Bloggers July 17th, 2009

Chris Cairo at the ALA Inaugural Banquet

It was my honor to  present  Chris Cairo, Director Project Development Area, Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library,  the Information Today/ALA Library of the Future Award at a special ceremony just preceding the Inaugural Banquet on Tuesday night.

The award recognized Chris’ work in spearheading the development of “The Learning Curve @ Central Library,” a project which combined creative use of library space with computing technology to give young people a rich library experience.

I’m negotiating with Chris to run a story about the project in an upcoming issue of Computers in Libraries magazine.

Dick Kaser, ITI, VP, Content

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ITI Bloggers July 17th, 2009

Lopez on the stage at the Closing General Session. (Guess which publisher sponsored his appearance?)

When my alarm went off at 6:15 a.m. on the last day of the conference, I was sorry that I’d agreed to cover the Closing General Session that started at 8. But when Steve Lopez finished talking shortly after 9, I was sorry that his presentation was over. Wow.

Like many others, I know Steve Lopez’ name as that of a newspaper columnist. Now people are getting familiar with him as author of The Soloist, a book that was recently turned into a movie. It’s the true story of how Lopez stumbled across a homeless man who was playing a grungy violin on the streets of Los Angles – and playing it amazingly well, especially considering it only had 2 of its 4 strings. Intrigued and thinking this might make a good column for the LA Times, he approached the man, which completely startled him. Thus began an uneasy, unconventional relationship that has continued for more than 4 years since. Those who have read the book or seen the movie know the rest of the story. Those who haven’t are really missing something.

Lopez had a easy-going speaking style. He related to librarians by saying that he got married inside the Philadelphia Free Library. He also complimented Philly’s library for its One Book, One City treatment of The Soloist, saying the system organized 120 events around it, some of which he appeared at. He urged others who wanted to know how to do great One Book programs to look to the Free Library as an example.

He also revealed that his son had graduated with an M.L.S. a year ago and was still looking for a job. He threatened the audience that he wouldn’t leave until one member agreed to retire or leave the profession so his son could finally get a job and get off his father’s payroll. After these laugh lines, Lopez got down to the business of telling a very serious story.

Ever the journalist, Lopez explained that it was often hard finding fodder for columns on a continuous basis. He likened being a columnist to “having a pet monster that’s always hungry.” Hence, when he first saw the downtrodden violinist playing on the street, he wanted to find an angle to write about. He soon realized that this man, Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, had a lot inside of him but that he wouldn’t let it out easily (if ever) because he was mentally ill. But he was also an outstanding, classically trained musician. The intrigue, as well as the hunger for a great story, kept Lopez coming back to help Ayers “get back on track,” as Ayers called it. It took a couple of months before the writer had learned and substantiated enough to get his first column out of the story, but people connected with it immediately. Lopez went on to write more over the years and to use Ayers’ plight to bring the problems of the homeless and the mentally ill to light, asking people at City Hall, “How can you let this go on just a few blocks away?”

A long line of librarians wound around the hallway waiting for Lopez (far right) to sign copies of 'The Soloist.'

When Lopez finished telling the story that had awed the audience, he took a few questions before making his way into the lobby area to sign copies of The Soloist. His publisher, Penguin, generously gave everyone the copies for free, and it must’ve taken Lopez well over an hour to finish signing for the hundreds of people in the queue. What a perfect example of using a powerful human story to reach people and to make them want to read. I wonder what stories lurk near your own libraries that you could tell to your public?

~Kathy Dempsey, editor, Marketing Library Services newsletter

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ITI Bloggers July 16th, 2009

"There's no place like home ..."

OK, so looking stylish at a breakfast meeting has its benefits, what about those poor tootsies? While these ruby-red patent-leather heels are perfect for a meet-and-greet at the start of the meeting, you won’t see them for long on the convention floor. Plenty of repeat ALA convention-goers were seen hauling out a spare pair of sandals or well-worn sneakers out of their tote bags to change into “something a little more comfortable” for the miles ahead on the exhibit floor.

Barbara Brynko
Editor-in-Chief
Information Today

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ITI Bloggers July 16th, 2009

Tina Creuger and Linda Busse unveiled a few of Gale's latest products and services.

Gale, part of Cengage Learning, brought some of the comforts of home to its booth at ALA … soft chairs, books, and a blender full of smoothies. But attendees weren’t flocking to the booth for all the perks. Instead, they were asking Tina Creuger, vice president of marketing communications, and Linda Busse, director of corporate communications, about one of Gale’s latest offerings: Career Transitions. Librarians who are helping their patrons negotiate the job-hunting maze are looking for vetted resources to assist  in searches for government job banks, library career training, and business outplacement.

“With the economy today and the changing job market, people were very interested in getting more information about our new electronic resource,” says Busse. The one-stop, self-paced application guides users through the ins and outs of the job-search process. They can drill down into data about companies, industries, and career paths as well as insights about statistical information, re-training needs, and web tools, all of which are designed to help patrons in their decision-making process.

But Career Transitions was just one of the new products Busse and Creuger introduced during the conference. Check out two others …

Coming this fall:
Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia This digital version of the 17-volume encyclopedia transforms the popular pages of this opus into an interactive resource with multimedia enhancements including video, maps, photos, and links to periodicals, websites, and news. Experts worldwide will keep information on the 4,000-plus animal species fun, lively, and up-to-date. “Although geared for fifth grade and up, this is a resource that attracts just about any age,” says Creuger. “Video clips and sound bites provide a window into the animal world. Even very young kids are thrilled to hear the actual sound of a lion roaring.”

Coming this winter:
Power-Glide Language Courses, Inc. (powerspeaK¹²) As Rosetta Stone moves out of the library market and into the corporate arena, Gale will be filling the void as it distributes a new line of web-based, world language-learning products to libraries. The first five language modules will include Spanish, French, Chinese, German, and Spanish ESL. The curriculum, which blends language-learning with activities, lessons, and games, lets users  track their own progress via a dashboard. “Users can toggle between program modules to concentrate on their individual needs,” says Gale’s Mark Cormier. “If adult learners need more help with grammar or conversational skills, the course will let them concentrate on whatever they need most.” Look for language modules in Arabic, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Vietnamese on the horizon.

P.S. Thanks to Gale for providing shuttle service for attendees during the ALA Annual Conferences during the past 40 years. This year, the shuttles made the trek between the Chicago hotels and the McCormick Convention Center one less thing to worry about.

Barbara Brynko
Editor-in-Chief
Information Today

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ITI Bloggers July 16th, 2009

As my fellow editors and I attended sessions and events and stopped by ALA exhibitors’ booths we had scant time to keep up with email. I was able to monitor it just enough to know that press releases were pouring in from vendors who had decided to use the occasion of the ALA meeting in Chcago to release a number of important new products and announce key product enhancements.

We were able to cover some of these things as we made our rounds, with some stories posted here on the blog.  We also published three related stories on our ITI’s NewsBreaks service:

• Gale PowerSearch 2.0 and new knowledge portals
• New ProQuest platform announced
• SpringerImages

Paula Hane, ITI NewsBureau Chief, prepares an internal report weekly to make sure that all of us are fully informed of what’s happening in the market.  We regard her report as valuable  “proprietary business information” and we generally don’t circulate it outside our own editorial shop.  In this case, I’d like to break the rules and share it with you, since the staff resources we had in Chicago were simply not sufficient to cover everything that was happening in Chicago.  So here you go . . .

News This Week July 15, 2009
Compiled By Paula Hane

News Items We Are Following

Mark Logic announced a new version of its flagship product, MarkLogic Server and a productivity tool for developers, MarkLogic Application Services 1.0.

An agreement was announced between Blackwell and Ingram Digital, giving Blackwell e-book distribution rights to libraries around the world via Ingram’s MyiLibrary platform, with the exception of the UK and Canada. The agreement will allow Blackwell Digital Services customers to discover and order MyiLibrary e-books via Collection Manager, the Blackwell interface.

Amazon has dropped the price of the Kindle 2 to $299 instead of $359 (still overpriced, imho).

From the WSJ: A nonprofit group that provides continuing education for lawyers is making its books available for sale on the Kindle, underscoring the widening appeal of the digital reader. The discounts off print prices for digital works from the Practising Law Institute will be much smaller than those typical of Kindle best-sellers.

Northern Light announced MI Insight, a new service that unifies a company’s tracking of product markets, competitors, events, and trends in one easy-to-deploy, turnkey solution. Each MI Insight is customized to the client’s specifications, populated with content, and editorially supervised by Northern Light research professionals.  MI Insight can be integrated into a SinglePoint strategic research portal, a Northern Light Business News portal, or deployed as a MI Insight portal.

The Associated Press and the UK’s Media Standards Trust have announced a digital news “microformat” that proposes specific content and metadata to be coded with every online news story. The proposed microformat would include what a story is about; where it was written; who wrote it; where it was published; the news principles it adheres to; and any usage rights associated with it. (www.mediastandardstrust.org/medianews/newsdetails.aspx?sid=46551)

Gale, part of Cengage Learning, announced the transformation of Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia into an interactive, media-rich online portal.  This new digital version will be available this fall.

Unlimited Priorities Corp., a company specializing in support for organizations within the information industry, has announced the sale of AgeLine, an online bibliographic database produced by AARP, to EBSCO Publishing. Unlimited Priorities initiated the transaction, helped manage the process, assisted in the negotiations and acted as the exclusive strategic and financial advisor to AARP.

Gale and K12 Inc. announced an agreement to develop and distribute a new line of world language-learning products to libraries. Power-Glide Language Courses, Inc. (known as powerspeaK¹²), a subsidiary of K12 Inc., will develop web-based language courses, which Gale will distribute exclusively to the library market.  The courses developed for Gale customers will use the research-driven powerspeaK¹² language learning methodology which includes a variety of multi-sensory activities to take full advantage of the brain’s ability to acquire language.

Copernic announced the new myCopernic, a personal search portal that develops a search profile for a knowledge worker that is used to provide relevant search results from different sources.

LexisNexis announced plans to redesign LexisNexis Statistical, which includes new single search capabilities for multiple content sources, integration of statistics and datasets as well as their relationships, faceted search results, and improved relevance ranking—expected to launch Jan. 2010. Full-text for thousands of statistical publications and tables is being migrated onto a new XML-based publishing platform.

LexisNexis also announced InterActionIQ, which analyzes communication within an organization based on e-mail, calendar listings, phone calls, and event schedules to identify new or underutilized relationships and provide contact information.

Informa Healthcare has announced that the new interactive www.informahealthcare.com beta site will go live in July. The site will combine all of the Informa Healthcare pharmaceutical and medical journal titles currently listed on InformaWorld.com and InformaPharmaScience.com on one platform.

The Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) and DuraSpace have announced that they will launch a one-year pilot program to test the use of cloud technologies to enable perpetual access to digital content. The pilot will focus on a new service, DuraCloud, developed and hosted by the DuraSpace organization. Among the NDIIPP partners participating in the pilot program are the New York Public Library and the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has launched an enhanced e-mail alert system to inform the public about new government publications available for sale. Subscribers can select from more than 100 different subject areas.

Userful announced the “Secure Your Funding” initiative to help libraries, community colleges and other public sector organizations apply for, and receive Broadband Technology Opportunity Program stimulus money.

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) announced that its widely used system for classifying physics-related subjects, the Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme (PACS), will be licensed to the publishing community under a fee structure beginning Jan. 2010 (previously it had been free).

From PaidContent: McGraw-Hill is trying to sell BusinessWeek—or as MGH says, “it is exploring strategic options.”

Microsoft announced the business model and launch timing for Azure, the cloud operating system it announced last fall. Azure will be offered for purchase through a consumption-based pricing model and will be available in mid-Nov.

Microsoft also said that its forthcoming Office 2010 (due in first half of next year) will have lightweight, FREE, browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote–all based in the cloud.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia, are joining forces to make health and science information more accessible and reliable. This collaboration is the first of its kind for both organizations. NIH subject matter experts will contribute to Wikipedia.

Springer Science+Business Media is offering all journal articles which deal with the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, free of charge on www.springerlink.com. The articles can be found by using the search term ‘H1N1.’ A total of 318 scientific articles will be available to print out or download from now until Dec. 31, 2009.

Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief, Information Today, Inc.
Editor, NewsBreaks, Infotoday.com

Posted by Dick Kaser, ITI VP, Content

P.S.  Though you can’t get this report on an ongoing basis, you can sign up for our electronic news service for free.

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ITI Bloggers July 16th, 2009

On Monday, LITA sponsored its annual Ultimate  Debate forum.  While prior years have focused on such volatile subjects as the future of libraries and cataloging, this year it was all about “Library 2.0,” which all-in-all generated fewer sparks but some good substance.

Speakers included  Meredith Farkas, Cindi Trainor, David Lee King,and  Michael Porter, with Roy Tennant moderating.

Though panelists’ views ranged on what exactly “Library 2.0″ is, Cindi reminded us that the term is derived from Tim O’Reilly’s notion of a Web 2.0 environment of 2-way communications that facilitates interactive services, collaboration among users, community models, and software-as-a-platform services.

In libraries, 2.0 tends to be equated with brands such as Twitter, Facebook, flickr and mediums of expression such as blogs and wikis.  ILS vendors also tout 2.0 features like user tags, patron submitted book reviews, and data derived reading recommendations.

Panelists noted that though many libraries have implemented blogs and wikis and are using Twitter, Facebook and flickr to promote their libraries, the brands themselves are not the point, and the hours that go into these new activities are difficult to justify with hard evidence.

“Every hour spent, takes us away from what we used to do,” observed Michael Porter.  “The beauty of these tools is emotional, but we have to report in numbers.”

Another issue is archiving.

“We are entrusting our knowledge and hard work to great sites that may not be there in the future.” said Meredith Farkas.  ” How can we back up this work so our hard work isn’t lost?

For those challenged individuals (like myself) who are having difficulty understanding what exactly some of these tools are actually good for, David Lee King suggested emersion.

“To get Twitter,” he said, “you need to line up 100 followers and stay there for a month and say something more than I’m eating a sandwich now.”

The conversation took an interesting twist when Michael King observed that in the Web 2.0 world libraries stand the risk of “losing market share,” if they do not embrace the new options available in the 2.0 world.  Among the classic library functions now being carried out by internet companies are movie lending (NetFlix), reference request handling (KGB). and ebook distribution (Kindle)

For those libraries still on the 2.0 cusp, Cindi Trainor said, “Don’t be afraid to experiment, but think smart and take a risk management approach.”

Good examples of Libraries 2.0?  The panel sited the following as stunning cases in point.

• Lester Public Library
• Ohio University Libraries’ Biz Ref Blog
• Skokee Public Library’s SkokieNet
• Darien Public Library

Dick Kaser, ITI, VP, Content

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ITI Bloggers July 16th, 2009

Or should I say Movies? The Shanachies have already put together two videos of ALA in Chicago, one after Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers lunch, which is an introduction to the conference, and one at OCLC’s blogger salon, which features interviews with several well-known librarians. Each video runs about 15 minutes.

Marydee Ojala, Editor, ONLINE: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals

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ITI Bloggers July 16th, 2009

Jay Sachdev, CTO and Co-Founder, Mosio, texts a librarian

I must confess that once I hit the Libarry 2.0 pavilion at the ALA  Expo, I never got out.  Though there were less than a dozen vendors occupying that piece of show floor real estate, each had a fascinating story to tell.

When Mosio co-founder Jay Sachdev caught me taking a photo of Mosio’s Text a Librarian booth, he invited me in for a demo of the service that can empower your virtual reference desk.

Though those who text-in to your library remain anonymous, the software gives them a unique ID which helps you track the transaction.  You can set up autoresponders by time of day for politely informing readers who text in during off-hours that you have a real life, too, and will get back to them in the morning.  The software has reporting features, too.  And the best news of all is the price tag, which Jay said is $100 a month for up to 10 library laptops.

Sounds like a great way to take your reference desk virtual.

For questions where 100% accuracy may not be the key requirement–and who says the winsdom of the crowd is wrong?–Mosio has also been offering a Twitter based Q&A service, where anyone can text in a question for other Twitter members to answer.  Kind of like KGB, for free?  To Learn more and see what questions are being asked and what answers are being given, check out:  Twitter Answers . . .

Supporting mobile users is one of the hottest topics in libtech these days and was a key discussion point during LITA’s Top Tech Trends forum earlier this week.

Jay says Text a Librarian will integrate with your existing email and IM/Chat services, there’s nothing to download and no software to install, and as an extra bonus you’ll get RefStart, a web-based reference application that will help you answer all those questions that come streaming in.

Sounds like a good deal.  Check it out here.

Dick Kaser,  ITI VP,Content

PS:  At ALA, Mosio was powering the conference’s Text an Ambassador Service for show goers who wanted to find things out about the conference without having to search for an official information booth.

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ITI Bloggers July 16th, 2009

Nancy Harm demonstrated Luna's Photo Archiving and Sharing Service

During the ALA Expo Luna Imaging, which has provided digital imaging services to libraries for many years through its Insight service, was demonstrating the Web 2.0 aspects of its new Luna browser.  Director of Business Development Nancy Harm showed me how you can use Luna to link, embed, share, and expose your special image collections to the public, helping people discover  and actually use the images to convey knowledge.

Click here for a comprehensive demo of the Luna browser features.

For web users tired of perusing random, uncategorized images on web-based photo-sharing services, there are plenty of  way cool opportunities to work with photos here.  Nancy challenged me to sign up for a free account at lunacommons.org, build a collection and share it here .  I did.  And here goes . . . my quick study of how the City of Philadelphia evolved from Wm. Penn’s plat map in the 1600s to thriving metropolis by 1876.

Very cool!  You ought to try it yourself. Dick Kaser, ITI, VP, Content

P.S.  You can also embed your presentation on a web site or in your blog using the Luna widget . . .

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