CHOICE

Empowerment Through Information Technology

[seriously]


Jessamyn West
www.librarian.net/talks/simmons2

25apr05

Our patrons are not homogenous. It would be much easier if they were. Since they don't agree on everything, the "experts" at the public library step in to help out....

So, how was life at the 3rd largest library in the state?

• management - treats technology as just another resource like books or CDs doesn't know what a browser is
• staff - alternately critical and uncritically accepting lead tours bemoaning lack of computer use for research
• patrons - alternately confused/needy and demanding [stupid?] the more they use tech the more they hate our OPAC
• community - could look to library as a leader, but do they? DoL anecdote "we have to be mechanics, it's gone from toilets to computers"

Who do we have for leaders? DoL, Microsoft, local wifi initiatives, education folks?

80% of everything works perfectly and 20% doesn't.

Do you focus on the 80, or the 20? People need to do both, but someone needs to fix what's broken.

I work with and for the public. I can use public resources to address various sociopolitical concerns, if I decide to. Such as...

• homelessness - library cards for the homeless, safe places to congregate during the day, public restrooms
• unemployment - resume writing books and software, certification tests in online databases, access to daily papers for classified ads
• poverty - limits to fee-based services, equality of access, free programming, free ILL services
• the digital divide - email and technology classes, public computing facilities, free books about technology

What about less obvious, or more nuanced examples? it's all about choices, and choosing FOR one thing often means choosing AGAINST something else.... like the internet being the world's biggest library.... overt rules and decisions often create unforseen and unintended consequences. I'll talk about a few of them

• Hot Tech vs Cold Tech
• DRM - Do you own your ebook? What DO you own? What have you agreed to? [do you own the ability to read it out loud, to sell it, to change the format?]
• RFID - does it conflict with a privacy policy? Do you have a privacy policy?

what can you do? keep your technolust in check, require accountability for all spending, not just materials budgets, make sure funding follows existing priorities. [difference between privacy policy in the US and Europe] ["follow the money" example: post 9/11 homeland security, you have technology and you have aggressive marketing of technology]

Watch what the vendor says & know what to ask them. professional ethics, you have divergent goals

what can you do? careful planning, current awareness of new technologies & NETWORKING to see what your colleagues are dealing with. Learn the vocab so you can speak effectively to vendors: XML, blogs, RSS, APIs, &c.

• Money spent on any subscription services is money not available in the budget anually - upgrade costs are often a big unknown
• Operating system lock-in. Did you choose your OS? Are you aware of any security holes it might have, and the ways to prevent their exploitation? viruses are mostly Windows viruses
• Staff who do not understand technology make bad technological decisions. Purchasing technology is NOT the same as purchasing books, DVDs or office furniture.

what can you do? technology planning will ease the pain, all time spent at home reading Slashdot is now "research", know that there will always be some bugs. Learn about Open Source and good alternatives to expensive applications.

• see above: subscription services, can you rely on your interface?
• "out of the box" configuration may not be to your liking, then what? Can you fix it? Will you? Do you know how to do it right?time, money, staff ability, upgrades, "network neighborhood"
• The vendor makes choices you might want to be the one to make.
• if you want my business/patronage, ask for it by making your tools genuinely easy to use upgrade cycle, what upgrades to include, what to be compatible with? jamesian geniune options

what can you do? customize it, open source systems [Koha], and support, and in-house techs, learn about design

• buying products that filter for a variety of reasons often means you are overfiltering for whatever your specific purpose is [brief CIPA discussion here about what needs to be filtered by law]
• filters with unknown blacklists/whitelists may be filtering whoknowswhat... do you feel comfortable ceding control?
• DO YOU HAVE A POLICY? dealing with a lay population who only know about these rules and policies by watching tv, or reading MPAA/RIAA press releases in the media, copyright infringement IS theft? Don't be timid

antidotes: Peacefire, further reading, links about the US/CIPA situation, open source filtering

• Any public institution has to think carefully about going against the wishes of the government for PR reasons among others.
• Conflict in USAPA vs. the 1st Amendment needs to be carefully considered, for example.
• Track all encroaching legislation and prepare responses before you have to.

• "chilling effects" of over-self-policing
• passing on misunderstandings to a whole new generation of confused people
• Digital Rights Management may not be based on law, people are basing policy on legislation in some cases not even passed [fair use may allow for copying, for example in certain contexts - government policy policy vs corporate policy]

what can you do? how comfortable are you being a test case?

CreativeCommons, stay informed [ALIA example] and inform others, a pro-active response beats waiting for the knock on the door. Learn about Open Access models like PLoS

In the beginning was the word,
How carefully that word was chosen.
The word that allows yes, the word that makes no possible.
The word that puts the free in freedom and takes the obligation out of love.
The word that throws a window open after the final door is closed.
The word upon which all adventure, all exhilaration, all meaning, all honor depends.
The word that fires evolution's motor of mud.
The word that the cocoon whispers to the caterpillar.
The word that molecules recite before bonding.
The word that separates that which is dead from that which is living.
The word no mirror can turn around.
In the beginning was the word and that word was

CHOICE

• Internal Bleeding: The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes by Robert Wachter [review]
• Why Things Bite Back: technology and the revenge of unintended consequences by Edward Tenner [review]
  
• How Things Don't Work by Victor Papanek [review]

Jessamyn West is the editor of the weblog librarian.net and the co-editor of Revolting Librarians Redux. Her latest writing about technology appears in the Vermont Library Association newsletter. IM her at iamthebestartist.

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