An Introduction to Open Access for Librarians

Posted on by jessamyn

Can’t believe I haven’t linked to this before, but it is very worth reading: Removing the Barriers to Research: An Introduction to Open Access for Librarians by Peter Suber. If you like this, you might also enjoy something I’m sure I haven’t posted “How and Why To Free All Refereed Research From Access- and Impact-Barriers Online, Now”

“The serials pricing crisis is now in its fourth decade. We’re long past the point of damage control and into the era of damage. Prices limit access, and intolerable prices limit access intolerably. Every research institution in the world suffers from intolerable access limitations, no matter how wealthy. Not only must libraries cope by cancelling subscriptions and cutting into their book budgets, but researchers must do without access to some of the journals critical to their research.”

what is going on in ILS nowadays?

Posted on by jessamyn

While this is just a series of slides, I think a narrative can be made that combines them in lieu of the actual talk that was given. Library Technology 2004: The Current State of Library Automation and Future Trends. Of particular note: bigger libraries, and more of them, are going with similar vendors so consolidation of large library resources becomes simpler and searching gets more federated. And, on the next to last slide, “Small, rural libraries continue to struggle with automation.” Too bad. [unalog]

extra staff hired to implement no pron policy

Posted on by jessamyn

Add this to one of the hidden costs of filtering: additional staff to keep tabs on patrons. Phoenix AZ public library system has a “no pornography” policy and Internet users in the library have no option to have unfiltered access. Note the odd contruction in this sentence “The computers in Phoenix’s libraries now filter all Web sites that are classified as pornographic” Do you really think all porn web sites are filtered? Filtered by whom or what? And how? What about textual pornography? What does “objectionable for minors” mean anyhow? While I’m always happy to see more jobs available for librarians, it’s sad that they need to come this way. As a side note, we found that porn viewing and printing went down when we switched to a self-serve print server that patrons interact with. Formerly, circulation staff had had to hand printed pages directly to patrons and take their money and there was some speculation that this interaction with staff was part of the reason for the problematic porn printing.

Google + libraries = I still don’t know

Posted on by jessamyn

I’d like to see this Google/library overlap really hit the popular culture consciousness. I’d like to see folks songs about the bookmobiles and people writing me letters at my library saying “I will still come there, even if all the books are available online” I’d like to see some good library art and some good library rallying songs and manifestos. I don’t think we have to be anti-Google to do it, I think we just need to stick up for our own wonderful selves and explain why the idea of a publicly owned space for enhancing your own info-lexicon is a social good and one worthy of funding, support, and appreciation. Google will always be a wonderful tool for librarians and others to use, but Google will never belong to me. Google will never have a comfortable chair, and sometimes you just want a comfortable chair.