The Ubiquitous Librarian (Brian Mathews)

The Ubiquitous Librarian Returns: things I've been working on

Do I miss Atlanta?

 UCSB

Nah, not really. After living in Orlando, Washington DC, and Atlanta I was ready to move to a quieter part of the country. Coastal California suites me fine.

I am starting Week 3 here at UCSB. There are already several projects underway. I’ll post about those further down the road, but in the meantime here are a few things you might be interested in.

I have an editorial in the current issue of Library Journal titled “Libraries & the Inspiration Business.” I tried to build a case for libraries as a transformative experience. That is hard to do with just 800 words, so here is the hour-long version I did at Simmons College a few months ago.

If you want to hear me blabber some more, check out this 15 minute interview about the user experience stuff at Georgia Tech. Erin Dorney also wrote a very kind piece in the current issue of CRL News. Thanks Erin. A lot of people scratch their heads when I tried to explain my old job, but she seemed genuinely interested—it is good to see people intrigued by design thinking.

Some more stuff to fill your day…

My second to last column for the Journal of Web Librarianship is out in pre-print-- it is about social driven instruction.

Jon Bodnar and I turned our ARL Spec Kit into a reader-friendly article. It is in the current issue of Marketing Library Services and titled “An Inside Look at How Academics Promote Their Libraries.” It is not online, but I heard they were going to be giving away this issue at ALA.

Just a side note on ARL Spec Kits. I pitched an idea to them about “green initiatives”—they rejected it claiming that it is “out of scope for the SPEC survey program at this time.” I guess I have become one of those cliché west coast guys talking about the environment, organic food, and activism. I love ARL, but seriously, has there ever been a better time to consider this topic? For those interested, I recommend reading Gerry McKiernan’s The Green Library blog.

And if all that wasn’t enough, add the latest report from Rochester to your summer reading list.

Librarian As Entrepreneur

Editorials are so much easier than articles. Here is one I did for Info Career Trends: Librarian As Entrepreneur: A Blueprint For Transforming Our Future . I wrote it as a pep talk for the ‘younger' librarians. Oh, and personally, I don't see us as the Next Generation, but rather as the Now Generation.

Here are two nuggets from the piece:

• Take risks. Nothing is sacred; everything is up for change or renegotiation. We should support responsible risk taking. Librarians often ask how I persuaded my administration to allow me to use online social networks for library outreach. My typical response is that I didn't ask. They don't observe my classroom instruction or my reference desk encounters, so why should they be involved with the extension of those interactions? This depends upon the culture at your library, but I hope to see us evolve into more flexible organizations that empower staff, rather than remaining dominated by policy and hierarchy. We should to have the freedom to act professionally and responsively, and to address patron needs in a quick and appropriate manner.
• Initiate change. We can't always wait for others to do things; sometimes we have to make changes ourselves. If something is wrong, missing, or inefficient, let's not complain, but let's do something about it. I am inspired by the initiatives of two of my colleagues: Ross Singer, a web applications developer, was dissatisfied with many of the commercial products that we purchase, so he designed a value-added link resolver and is redeveloping the concept of "the library catalog." Bonnie Tijerina, an electronic resources librarian, recognized a gap in conference offerings and organized the Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference to address the need. We should take a solutions-based approach toward problems, and not settle simply for what is offered or for what has been traditionally accepted.

Assessment Stuff

Ok, so this is my latest article: The Role of Industry Standards: An Overview of the Top Engineering Schools' Libraries. It took me two years to write this due to motivation issues. It’s about engineering standards and kind of boring.

   

A far more interesting article in the same issue comes from Penn State: Assessing Reference: Using the Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program in an Academic Science Library

   

I am intrigued by the WOREP survey tool and hope that we use something similar in conjunction with LibQUAL+ this Fall. The gist of it is that it seeks to measure reference performance by collecting data from both the patron and the staff involved in a particular reference transaction and evaluating the success and satisfaction of the experience. Often times we (I) feel pretty satisfied with the assistance provided, but what do they think of us? While I am intrigued with the concept, if librarians/library staff know that they are being evaluated, I suspect they will provide a higher level of service… but we can let the assessment folks debate the validity; I like the spirit of the instrument.

   

Let’s get ubiquitous! Why not have a student walk around campus giving away a free iTunes song (.99 cents each) to 100 random people asking them to describe their most recent library experience. And leave it at that! I’d like to get outside our known user base, the people actually IN the library, and try and collect other experiences, even if they say “I’ve never been to the library.”