The Ubiquitous Librarian (Brian Mathews)

John Berry sets libraries back 50 years; or Elsevier Editor complains about the profession and tells us how to do our jobs (glad he’s not my boss)

John Berry is so 1950. He'd probably only be happy if we unplugged the computers and brought back the card catalog. Seriously, this dude is so McCain in an Obama-world. He's one of those people who loves to complain, criticize, and toss around monkey-wrenches—without offering any SOLUTIONS. It's time to wake up Mr. Van Winkle-- the revolution has passed you by.

His latest column tries so hard to be relevant, it's just so sad. I can just picture Berry and Gorman sipping tea at ALA conference talking about the glory days of the profession—back when it was noble and respectable.

I have to disagree with him on pretty much everything– in fact, I feel that my library is more humanized now as we have become user-focused / user-driven. I hear over and over again from students saying that the library inspires them and makes them more productive and creative due to the changes we've made… but John Berry doesn't care about that--- he only wants a big dusty book collections and an army of librarians sitting behind a giant reference desk shushing patrons.

Final Thought:
There are those who “teach” and those who “do”--- John Berry is obviously a teacher.

Furthermore:
What it comes down to is that Berry is an elitist, trying to perpetuate the divide between the have/have-nots. This is fitting for someone who hasn’t seen the frontline in probably 30 years. We have many staff without MLS degrees that make significant contributions to our organization everyday. What I really think it comes down to is that Berry has lost touch with the modern patron.

Consortium Loan Still Failing

I did a similar post on this topic last June—but here goes another trip down memory lane.

I requested a book from another library in my consortium and received this email:

Dear:   BRIAN SCOTT MATHEWS
 
The Item you requested from another library is not available. 
 
Reason:   INA - Item not available; please request again
 
Call Number:   Z682.4.C63 B4 2007
Author:   Bell, Steven J.
Title:   Academic librarianship by design : a blended librarian's guide to the tools and techniques / Steven J. Bell, John D. Shank.
Location:   Law General Stacks
Enumeration:   c.1
Request date:   2/13/2008 01:14 PM
 
Note from the Library: 
 
If you need to reply to this message, reply to: xxx@yyy.zzz 

I can’t blame Georgia State University here because this sort of thing happens all the time. BUT… instead of sending me a rejection notice (we can’t find it on our shelf—good luck!) why don’t they just pass my request along to another library? I see two other schools in our system have this title available for checkout. If I order something from Netflix and warehouse A doesn’t have it in stock then they’ll send it from warehouse B or C.

Wouldn’t it be better customer service to help the user instead of bailing on them? And look at that email address-- am I really supposed to reply to that if I have questions? I imagine this must frustrate patrons. They go through the process of identifying a book they want, place a request for it, and then get dropped with no real explanation. This can really create a bad impression for the user-- the library is too much of a hassle-- and it makes us look bad even though it's not our library. It seems like there should be a better sense of accountability. I'd like to see stats for the number of failed requests.

And here is the kicker. When you look at the catalog it still indicates that the item is available for checkout.

You’d think that if someone could not find the book on the shelf that they’d report it missing. (???)

Oh well, I’m sure Steven Bell would just say "buy the book."

note from a cubicle farm

I was out sick last week and now I have to move out of my cozy office and into this place:

Tragic, huh? Please bear with me... new posts coming soon.

Follow-up

My stay in this refugee camp is supposedly temporary. We have a major HVAC (air/heating) project underway and several of us are homeless for the time being. I’m afraid I’m going to end up like that guy in Office Space, tucked away in the basement. Forgotten.

Librarians think like trees (a photo commentary)

The problem with librarians is that we think like trees instead of as a forest. Are we driving ourselves into extinction by failing to see the big picture?

See also: Can we ever really move beyond the self-centered library?

Netflix’s Wack Collection Management Policy and their Devolving Reference Services

I really like Netflix, even though they throttle me from time to time. However, their collection development policy is very poor. There are tons of movies that are out which they do not provide, films like The Emperor, Conan the Barbarian, Twin Peaks season 1, Gleaming the Cube, and Wild in the Streets.

It would be one thing if they implied, this movie is out but we don't have very many copies, therefore you might have to wait a while to receive it —but they don't. Instead they list it “release date unknown” which is the same language they use for movies which have not been released on DVD yet.

I really want to watch Twin Peaks . I noticed last year that Season 1 was available, but Season 2 had not been released on DVD yet. Season 2 came out this past spring and Netflix automatically pulled Season 1 from circulation. I emailed them and received this response:

"I can understand your confusion regarding " Twin Peaks : Season 1" not being available in your queue any longer, and I will do my best to assist you with this. Unfortunately, on rare occasions titles may need to be removed from circulation. Either the titles were out of print and we could not replenish our stock to meet demand, or the DVDs continued to experience high breakage or defects. In unusual circumstances such as these, we do need to remove the titles from distribution.   Due to the subsequent long waits and inconveniences this situation presented to our customers, we decided that until a workable solution was reached, it was best to remove these problem titles from our inventory."

This was more than six months ago and Twin Peaks season 1 is still unavailable.
(Anyone out there have it?)

I guess this is the equivalent to a book being “lost” or “missing from shelf” – I hate when someone calls or comes in and I have to try and explain that to them, but at least our patrons can try other lending options. If we suppressed those records, people would probably look down upon us, oh your library doesn't have this? So we mark it unavailable effectively stating, well we used to have it, but we don't anymore, sorry.

Netflix also applies this strategy to series as well. Imagine reading War & Peace or Brothers K and several of the chapters were missing—that's essentially what Netflix does:

GETTING HELP

Another issue that I have with Netflix is that they've abolished their email customer service: it's all done via phone now. For an online business, you'd think they would provide online assistance, but the world really is flat and it's probably cheaper to export questions abroad. I am sure that it will greatly reduce the influx of questions/comments because “problem customers” like me won't bother to call and ask about Twin Peaks , season 1. Email emboldens people, and that's the problem, it costs too much to deal with them. More discussion on phone-only service here .

Maybe we should consider desk-only reference help? If students prefer face to face— why bother with all these newfangled technologies? Come and ask us your questions the old fashioned way!

ACRL 2007 – what might have been

ACRL 2007 – what might have been

Oh Baltimore , what could have been. Apparently ACRL isn't feeling the Ubiquitous Librarian either. 0-2 so far with proposals for the 2007 conference. Maybe the Annoyed Librarian can provide some advice about how to get proposals accepted? Unlock the door for the rest of us! I guess I should have tried to work the terms information literacy, scholarly communication, effective practices, usability, curriculum focused instruction, or professor-librarian collaboration into the title—those seem to be the same old regurgitated themes that ACRL loves.

Here's a look at what might have been:

#1 The Reference Question--Where has Reference Been? Where is Reference Going?

Short Abstract: Fifteen years ago technological innovation challenged librarians to “rethink reference.” What has driven change—strategic decisions made by librarians, external forces, or some combination of the two? How must reference change to thrive during the next fifteen years?

Panel:

• James Rettig, University of Richmond
• Jerry D. Campbell, University of Southern California
• William Miller, Florida Atlantic University
• Cheryl LaGuardia, Harvard University
• Brian Mathews, Georgia Tech

I was really looking forward to meeting this panel, especially Jerry Campbell. I'm hoping we might find a new outlet for this talk, even if we do it via phone/skype and release it as a podcast. Talis , interested?

#2 The Intuitive Reference Approach: interacting with students through blogs

Short Abstract: While reference transactions are in steady decline, students still require assistance with research. This session introduces a proactive approach toward reaching students through their personal blogs.

This was based upon the white paper I wrote: Intuitive Revelations: The Ubiquitous Reference Model . It was actually the start of the whole ‘ubiquitous' librarian approach. Hmmm, maybe this session could fit in somewhere like the Blended Librarian ?

My suggestion/lesson for ACRL 2009: submit 10 proposals!

Charging for overdues is insulting!

The War in the Middle East, missiles in North Korea, gay marriage, the future of energy, the current heat wave and the impending agricultural impact, Big Government trying to censor schools and libraries with lame DOPA… All minor issues compared with my topic today: Library Fines.

I know I spend a little too much time in a bubble of idealism, but I was pretty surprised to discover that libraries still charge fines for overdue materials. If there is anything we can do to update our image, its getting rid of overdue fines, or late charges as the ALA President calls them. We’re living in a Netflix era now!It’s ridiculous to be charged $27.50 for a book that is 11 days late.

Users should not be fined, but simply lose privileges. Ban them from borrowing any more books, maybe take away their database access, but ‘late fees’ are not good. After a month or so, claim the item as ‘lost’ and have the patron return or replace. Charging for overdues is insulting! Thanks UGA!

Ok, I guess all the baby boomers can flame my blog now and call me irresponsible and delinquent, but honestly I think your fines are antiquated!