Paper blogged by Sarah Leavitt

It’s less than a month until Pride weekend in Vancouver. This year’s Vancouver Dyke March is Saturday, July 31, 2010. Last year was the first time I organized the lesbrarian contingent for the Dyke March.

As it was the first time, I decided to keep things really low key. We met up on the day, put on official lesbrarian identification labels, did some group shushing action, and handed out lesbrarian approved booklists. We were a hit.

This year I want to do it again, but in a more collaborative and creative way. I think we can get more queer women (including bisexuals and trans women) who work in libraries, archives, and other information organizations to be delightfully dorky together. Last year some of our fans–writers, designers, and artists, joined our ranks.

Some suggestions for this year include:

• collecting queer books to give away, or we could check them out for a year, to be returned at the next Dyke March. We could also register the books on Book Crossing and track where they end up?
• updating the book list, and making a list of queer positive books for kids and parents, and teens
• something with a book truck
• book talks at the park (perhaps we could get on stage and do 60 second book reviews between performers?)
• reference desk at the post-march festival in the park

I fuss a bit about being so book focused, but oddly I don’t fuss about playing with and embodying librarian stereotypes. If you have any ideas for this year’s lesbrarians, let me know. This year we’ll aim for a lesbrarian planning potluck so we can hang out a bit more and be a bit more organized. Depending on the time, and people’s preferences, we might just meet at Rhizome Cafe. Let me know when you are free to meet.

Read more about last year’s lesbrarian shenanigans

Join the lesbrarian email list

Photo of Francisco-Fernando Granados by Erin Watkins

The best thing about my job is the people. This might be a strange answer coming from someone who works in the back in systems and technical services. My coworkers are smart, talented and hardworking. Our users are creative, quirky and compassionate. I work at a small art and design school–would you expect anything different?

I adore our students. I saw one of them at a party where he sat cross legged on the floor with bunches of bananas on his shoulders. He was in the library a few weeks ago wrapping the legs of the light tables with cassette tape for an installation. There’s another student who is often comes to work in the library, who works at my favourite neighbourhood stationery and typewriter fetish store. There’s a first year student who was in one of my tour groups on my second day of work. I regularly see him on the bike path, and he hollers “hello librarian!” when we pass.

There’s a prof from somewhere else who’s on sabbatical. He’s religiously in the library working hard on his next book, sitting in a study carrel by the window, typing away for at least 5 hours a day. There’s an artist from around the corner, who comes in every Saturday morning to read the paper, and browse the new issues of magazines. There’s a ceramics technician who comes into browse the magazines with his big ceramic cup of coffee.

We’ve just added a regular feature to our news blog: Pssst…, which are user profiles and recommendations. We have a fantastic library school practicum student, Erin Watkins, who has made this happen.

I want to highlight the people in our community and our collections and services. We’ll seek out people who use the more unique collections–menus collection, artists’ books, sound effects, etc. I imagine that some people might answer that their favourite library resource is the space, a specific database, the gorgeous magazines, meeting rooms, and the staff.

We know that people will start looking for information by asking their friends. The “People who liked this also liked” recommendations are a human discovery layer and also drive sales. In addition to putting a more human face on the library website, I hope that this will be a way for our users to discover new resources. Perhaps people will request to be profiled, but I suspect that we’ll have to ask people if we can interview them.

I’m excited to highlight our collections and users. I’m also excited to have conversations with our users about what they use and what they love.

Read the first Pssst! feature

Image by goddess_spiral, used with permission

I recently bought a iPhone. It was a bit unnerving to sign a three year contract with a cell phone provider. Three years is an awfully long time commitment. It’s definitely longer than most of my romantic relationships. Having the internet in my pocket or bag has changed how I keep track of appointments, but it hasn’t really altered how I manage my task lists.

Scheduling

About a month ago I gave up my paper organizer. Picking out the perfect one-day-per-page organizer is a yearly ritual. There’s something about hand writing appointments, meetings and other important things, in my little pink (this year’s colour) book that cements things in my mind. I also like flipping the pages and ripping off the perforated corners of each day as it passes. I find this immensely satisfying.

I’m now using Google calendar for work and home. I have 5 calendars: work (where I track shifts that are not 9-5), meetings, events, life, and bills. I’ve imported Canadian holidays. This is working really well. I’ve shared events and life calendar’s with my partner, which has made finding times that we’re both free a little bit easier.

To do lists

I’ve dabbled with various ways of keeping and managing task lists, but I always come back to a written to do list. There’s something about the physical act of writing things that I need to do that helps me remember what I need to get done. I also find it satisfying to draw little boxes and  checking off items that are done.

I have two separate lists: a daily list, and a more long term list of things I need to accomplish over the next 4-6 months.

I’ve tried other electronic ways of managing a task list, like Remember the Milk and Outlook.  Neither really worked for me. I felt like I was spending more time entering tasks and found I really missed drawing little boxes and check marks. Right now this hybrid way of keeping my schedule online, and keeping my to do lists on paper is working for me.

How some other people do things

When I was transferring my life to Google calendar I started asking friends and people I work with how they keep on top of things. Many couples said they share Google calendars so they know when/where the other one is working, or when upcoming events and parties are. At work some departments seem to use Google calendar to schedule meetings. Right now collectively we aren’t using this in the library.

I was pretty stunned to learn from a few people that they don’t keep task lists at all. One person said they often feel stressed out and overwhelmed. I’m not sure if the lack of to do list contributes to this stress, but for me, I can’t imagine how it wouldn’t. A coworker whose work involves a lot of routine tasks keeps track of the non-routine things by using Post it notes on his monitor.

Do you have any wisdom to share about keeping your schedule and tasks organized?

I’ve had an iPhone for a couple of months now. Here are some of the apps that I like and use regularly:

• Skype (free) – I haven’t been successful in setting up Skype on my laptop that’s running Ubuntu. Apparently I’m not the only one. My living in the future moment is when I’m talking to someone using Skype on my phone. I’m not a phone talker, so my plan doesn’t have many minutes. This is useful for when I’m feeling chatty.
• Bump (free) – handy for trading contact information. If the other person has Bump installed you can touch your phones together to save the other person’s contact info.
• Urban Spoon (free) – useful for finding restaurant by neighbourhood, type of food, or price. By shaking your phone it turns the search into a random slot machine.
• WhatTheFont (free) – identifies what the font used in a picture or a web graphic. Perfect for typophiles and font geeks.
• NeoReader (free) – universal 2D symbology barcode reader that I learned about from an ad in Dwell magazine. I don’t really need to access consumer product websites faster, but I have a special place in my heart for barcodes. I’m also mulling over possibilities of using them in our library to connect various physical locations in the stacks to our related content on our website.

I didn’t think I’d play games on my phone. I’m not into computer or console games, but I love board games.

I quickly developed an obsession with PopCap Games’ Plants vs Zombies ($2.99), a cute and addictive tower defence game. They’ve also made Bejeweled 2 ($2.99) and Peggle ($2.99). Bejeweled is a great way to waste one minute increments of time at while waiting for the bus, though I wish the boosts that are available on the computer game were available on the iPhone. In Peggle you try and hit pegs with a ball. It feels a little bit like pachinko. It’s a bit too random and I’m not a fan.

I enjoy puzzle games and got great recommendations from the Cataloguer Guy (CG) I work with:

• Angry Birds ($.99) – a puzzle game where you launch birds to squash pigs. Sounds weird, but it’s fun, addictive, and gets tricky quickly.
• Puzzle Quest ($4.99)-  a hokey medieval quest game, where you basically play Bejeweled against Ogres, Zombies and Giant Rats. It wasn’t worth $5, but I’ll continue to play it.
• Crayon Physics ($4.99) -  by adding bits to the drawings you move a ball from one place to another. I like the simple interface and how it uses the touch screen. It’s challenging and I’ve been stuck at the same level for a few days.
• Geocaching (free) – Not a CG recommendation. I’m using the free version, but there’s one that’s $10. So far on the 3 geocaching adventures I’ve gone on, I’ve found no caches, but ended up going to some interesting places I wouldn’t have otherwise gone to. I’m not sure how accurate the GPS on the iPhone is, but I’m quite sure I’m crap at finding caches.

I’ve installed apps for various social software sites like Facebook and Twitter (Twitterific – free). I’m still undecided about location aware social software sites like Foursquare and Gowalla, but I occasionally check in on both. I like the design and interface of Gowalla better, but I like the useful tips that people write about specific places on Foursquare. I hate it when people blast all their checkins on Facebook and Twitter.

What iPhone apps do you use? Which other ones should I check out?

First, I don’t see the point of this app.

BookMyne allows you to add more than one library that is using a SirsiDynix product (and is paying for Web Services) to your list of libraries. The GPS in the phone can identify where you are, and you can either search for libraries using proximity (from 10 to 300 miles) or using an interface that looks like Google Earth. You can then do a keyword search of one library in this list, and put a hold on an item, or renew your books.

I can’t think of a use case where you would need to add more than one SirsiDynix library to your phone. Perhaps if you had kids that went to a school where the library was using a SirsiDynix product, and your public library was also using a SirsiDynix product? Both the public library and school library would need to be paying extra for Web Services and have their libraries set up to access through this app. Currently there are no libraries in British Columbia using this. Granted, it was only added to the app store earlier this week, but still…

Someone from a special library asked if it was possible to restrict the app to one library as it would be a way for a library to market their services and collection on the iPhone. The sales representative replied that it wasn’t. This made me think that this app is more about marketing the vendor than it is about marketing our libraries to our users.

Second, the functionality is disappointing. For almost everything on my iPhone, I’m able to pinch to zoom in and out, and if I turn my phone from being vertical to horizontal the screen also flips. When I did a catalog search the titles were getting cut off This is standard functionality that I expect on my phone. Both of these things are missing from BookMyne.

Third, Bookmyne doesn’t meet my expectations of how things should look and work on my phone. I like the clean and elegant interface of the iPhone and the clean and elegant design of apps.  It took me several minutes to figure out how to find and add a library so that I could search. I noticed that I wasn’t alone–a few other iPhone toting Systems and IT folks had puzzled looks on their faces while poking at their phones.

The SirsiDynix sales representative kept repeating how innovative this application was. The iPhone has been around for about 3 years now, so marketing an iPhone app as innovative struck me as slightly delusional.

The press release (PDF) quotes Talin Bingham, the CTO as saying that “BookMyne® provides meaningful patron interaction with their library, which is one of the fundamental objectives that drives all development at SirsiDynix”. I don’t see how BookMyne provides meaningful patrpn interaction.

Instead of an iPhone app, I’d rather see improvements made to the OPAC so that it displays and works better on all smart phones, or an API so that libraries can develop their own apps to market their libraries to their communities. This would be better than a pointless, ugly iPhone app that doesn’t quite work, and seems to market the vendor, not the library.

Image by cwalker71

I’m still buzzing from a conversation I had with Glen Lowry where we brainstormed how the library could be “activated as a space for artistic and research inquiry”.

Right now I work at a small university library at an art and design school. Currently there is no programming happening, which doesn’t seem to be that uncommon for a university library. We have an exhibition space that we let students and classes to show use to show their work. There’s also a small display case upstairs.

The library is used heavily as a place to study, sit and ponder, do group work, and occasionally nap.  Some weekday afternoons there are students sitting in the stacks because there isn’t enough space. On the weekend the library is used primarily as a safe and comfortable space to work. There is a regular patron, who is professor somewhere else, who is writing his fourth book in our library, and a few other authors have told me that they wrote large chunks of their novels in the study carrels.

I think the library has a huge potential to be utilized as a space for events or programming. We could host readings, like the University of British Columbia’s Robson Square branch has done for the past 7 years. We could bring out some of our artist book collection, that is usually in locked filing cabinets, for people to browse. We could also invite book artists or book arts groups to collaborate with us. We could invite students studying curation to set up exhibitions on our walls. We could set up chairs outside on the street and screen local experimental film, mainstream animation, or carrels of slides on our windows at night time. We could set up a living library. There’s a whole lot of things we could do.

We could invite and encourage students and faculty to make site specific installations, or do site specific performances. One of my coworkers talked about the library as a type of laboratory. I like this word as it implies exploration, investigation, looking for new ways to do things, and learning from failures. I love the idea of experimenting to find new ways of arranging and providing access to our physical and electronic collections.

I love how the Vancouver Public Library has a public art program.  I especially loved the recent aerial dance performance that utilized the inside concourse and outside walls as a stage.

I’m keen to experiment and activate the library space. Does your university library do any programming? How could your library’s space be utilized in new ways?

Friday night I went to see a free Aeriosa Dance performance at the Vancouver Public Library. Aeriosa is an aerial dance company that performs in non-traditional spaces. The performers wore climbing harnesses and danced on the walls. Five minutes into the performance my brain had shifted, so that it became normal to see people dancing on vertical walls. They created a sense of awe and magic by using a space I’ve been in hundreds of times in an unexpected way.

The first part of the performance was inside the concourse of the library. It was exciting and a bit nerve wracking to watch one of the dancers climb up 5 storeys on the inside glass walls. They used books, and traditional library stereotypes like glasses, and the sound of shushing, and typewriters to link the piece to the place. While many people recognize those as library stereotypes, I thought they were too obvious and outdated.A graphic designer friend remarked that the shapes their bodies made in the cubes looked like the VPL logo.

The music was interesting, but unsettling and I didn’t like it. Various musicians were located in different parts of the concourse, and at different levels. The music played with the echo of the space. I like that I didn’t like it and spent quite a bit of time pondering why.

The percussionists lead the procession outside to the South Plaza for the next part. Three people dressed in red danced on the government tower. There was a lovely energy — people were excited, curious and I felt a connection with all the people watching the dancers slowly run along the walls, perform elegant slow motion acrobatics, and push off the walls as a group to make formations with their bodies, like skydivers. I enjoyed watching the crowd. Many people were standing with their heads flipped back looking up. Some people were lying on the ground looking up. It was delightful.

The percussionists lead us around the outside of the building to the North Plaza to watch the last piece. Dancers moved like lizards along the moulding of the building. They bounced and moved in slow arcs through the air. The shadow of their bodies looked like a kaleidoscope on the buildings across the street. By the end of the performance there were about 1000 people in the library plaza but it didn’t feel crowded in an ugly way. It felt like we were in the living room of the city sharing a wonderful moment with the dancers and each other. I bumped into people I haven’t seen since the Fall. I met up with my friends who I got separated from and we lingered on the South Plaza, wishing that it was a few degrees warmer.

VPL does a great job of programming. There are kids’ storytimes at branches across the city. Almost every night there are talks, readings, and film screenings at the Central branch downtown. As part of the Cultural Olympiad, there is Ron Terada’s The Words Don’t Fit The Picture and Christian Kliegel and Cate Rimmer’s Walk In/Here You Are. Vanessa Kwan’s Vancouver Vancouver Vancouver was also on the North Plaza. In the concourse, Jeremy Turner and Geoffrey Farmer’s Broadsiding hang in the spaces between the pillars inside. From July 2006 to December 2009 VPL organized numerous Library-specific art projects. There’s also the Writer-in-Residence program, Poet Laureate program, and One Book One Vancouver, a city wide book club.

I’m proud to live in a city where so much is going on at the library. I think that it’s important that it’s free and financially accessible to all.

A couple of weeks ago I had an awesome conversation with a faculty member about “activating the library as a place of artistic and research inquiry”. I’m still formulating my thoughts on this, hopefully I’ll be able to articulate some of them soon.

Avi and Leah with the blindfolded mannequin

Avi Silberstein, the Outreach Librarian for Greater Victoria Regional Library describes their provocative and engaging Freedom to Read Week display.

We thought it would be fun to have a mannequin – blindfolded – at the entrance to the library.  So we made a few phone calls and visited a few stores, and after some persistence were able to convince the owner of a local consignment shop to loan us a mannequin.

We picked out a mannequin that was lying on her stomach with her hands near her face, dressed her up in clothes from the consignment store, and propped a book up in her hands.  Then we tied on a blindfold.  We put her up on a table, and filled an adjacent table with banned/challenged books.  We also made sure to put up some signage explaining the display and that the books were there to be borrowed.

The response we received was overwhelmingly positive.  Patrons loved it, staff loved it, and more than anything it got people to stop in their tracks and walk up to the display for a closer look.

A couple of years ago I heard about Scandinavian libraries where you could “check out” a person and talk to them about their life. It seemed like an interesting way for people to develop empathy for people who are not like themselves.

The living library concept has been adopted by libraries all over the world. The hope is that the information passed on by a human book will help counter ignorance, prejudice and discrimination.

The living library concept has been incorporated into the Olympic homeless pavilion. This pavillion has been set up to explain the poverty in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to journalists, spectators and tourists from around the world. Visitors can listen to a Real Homeless Person from the Downtown Eastside talk about their experiences. I agree with the Vancouver Sun article that argues that this idea is contrived.

Nobody needs publicity shots of smiling politicians, pre-canned 200-word testimonials or human books to find out about life in the city’s poorest neighbourhood.

You just need to go outside.

The homeless and destitute still fill our streets. And they will be there in their unnatural habitat, whether you like it or not, for the world to see, during the Games.

I am angry and frustrated that so much money has been spent on a spectacle, while there have been cuts to social services like education, libraries, and legal aid. The homeless need homes, not to be books in a living library.

I think there’s a broader culture in libraries of only talking about the good things outside one’s library or institution. Conference sessions are rife with “how we done it good here” sessions that present positive success stories. I learn more from stories about how things went horribly wrong, or the hiccups and mess ups that happened along the way.

Starting a new job, I knew it was going to be full-on for the first 6 months. There’s new policies and procedures, formal and informal things about the organizational culture, new people to work with, and in this case for me, completely new subject matter.

I’ve had a casual but uninformed appreciation for art. On the reference desk I often have to ask users what medium a specific artist works in, what country they are from, and if they are alive or dead. Thankfully most of the users are generous, inquisitive and kind. Provinding reference services is collaborative affair—I’ve got some skills on how to find stuff and an ability to teach, and the user has useful information and is often keen to learn. This semester I’d like to learn more about art reference.

I’ve been thinking about and reading quite a bit of management literature. This has surprised me. Some of the other unlikely things that I’ve been thinking about include: organizational culture, community development in an academic setting, supervision and management styles, the library as place, and time management.

In the fall, I started writing about different issues. I either wrote things that I knew would get me into trouble, or posts that were extremely vague, over generalized and uninteresting . This semester I hope I can find an appropriate balance and find my voice again. For me blogging is a way to reflect on the things that I’m doing and learning. I hope to find the words to talk about the things that that are broken at MPOW, or things that have gone wrong during various implementations.