NET EFFECTS: HOW LIBRARIANS MANAGE THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF THE INTERNET

a presentation by Marylaine Block for the Information Today E-Libraries Conference, May 7, 2003


NOTE: This presentation is based on my book of the same name, to be published in August by Information Today.


RECLAIMING THE RIGHT TO SELECT

Build our Own Indexes and Selection Policies:

  • Librarians' Index to the Internet Selection Policy http://lii.org/search/file/pubcriteria

  • Selection Policy for Best Information on the Net http://library.sau.edu/bestinfo/selpolicy.htm

  • Colorado Virtual Library for Kids http://www.aclin.org/ -- click on Kids, then click on Teachers. Note that teachers can then search for sites that are appropriate not only to grade level but to state mandated curriculum guidelines.

    • Build Our Own Search Engine

  • Fiat Luxe Initiative http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA232358

    • Create Our Own Digital Library

  • JSTOR: the Scholarly Journal Archive http://www.jstor.org/

  • Making of America http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/

  • Digital Library Federation http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/b/bib/bib-idx?c=dlfcoll



    • RESCUING THE BOOK

    Use Books as Springboards for Community Discussions

  • Center for the Book http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/

  • If All of Seattle Read the Same Book http://www.spl.org/wacentbook/seattleread/samebook.html

  • Waterboro Lib Blog: What Books Cities Are Reading Together http://www.waterborolibrary.org/blogs/blog381402.htm#onebook -- updated January, 2003.

    • Make It Easy for People To Get Exactly What They Want

  • Morton Grove Public Library: MatchBook http://www.webrary.org/rs/matchbookabout.html and their Fiction-L Booklists http://www.webrary.org/rs/FLbklistmenu.html

  • Hassle-Free Access: River Bend Library System's QuadLinC http://qlweb.rbls.lib.il.us/

  • You've Got Books To Go http://www.library.vcu.edu/cfapps/jbc/instruct/newbooks/pda/

  • Patron oriented Blogs, such as Library Notes, from Wilton Public Library http://www.librarynotes.net/ and Waterboro Public Library Blog http://www.waterborolibrary.org/blog.htm

    • Select Books Young People and Guys Will Like

  • Guys Read: a Literacy Initiative for Boys http://www.guysread.com/

  • Recommended Graphic Novels for Public Libraries http://my.voyager.net/~sraiteri/graphicnovels.htm



    • TRAINING OUR CHANGING USERS

  • Teach them indirectly. See Multnomah County's Homework Center Social Issues Page http://www.multcolib.org/homework/sochc.html

  • Enlist students to teach each other. See the Peer Information Counseling Program, University of Arizona http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/library/teams/ust/pichome.htm

  • Teach Them through Their Personal Interests -- see Multnomah County Library's Genealogy Tutorial http://www.multcolib.org/train/jumpstart/family/ and Tacoma Public Library's guide to Researching Your Older Tacoma Home http://www.tpl.lib.wa.us/v2/NWRoom/Build.htm

  • Challenge them to show off their web research and site construction skills. See Thinkquest http://thinkquest.org/


    IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, JOIN 'EM

    Key Idea Sources

  • The Shifted Librarian http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/

  • Wilton Library: Innovative Internet Applications in Libraries http://www.wiltonlibrary.org/innovate.html

    • Use their Tools of Choice

  • RSS for NonTechie Librarians http://www.llrx.com/features/rssforlibrarians.htm

  • RSS Workshop http://gils.utah.gov/rss/

  • Reference by Live Chat. See Bernie Sloan's Digital Reference Services Bibliography http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~b-sloan/digiref.html and his guide to Digital Reference Question Logs. http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/~b-sloan/log.htm

  • The Handheld Librarian http://www.handheldlib.blogspot.com/

  • PDA Initiatives for Health Sciences Libraries http://educ.ahsl.arizona.edu/pda/lib.htm

  • Science and Engineering Resources for Your PDA http://www.library.ualberta.ca/pdazone/science/index.cfm

  • Wireless Librarian http://people.morrisville.edu/~drewwe/wireless/

  • Services Mentioned on College Library Websites http://www.library.carleton.edu/staff/karen/College%20Lilbrary%20Websites.htm



    • DISAPPEARING DATA

    Web Site Maintenance -- Link Rot, Security, etc.

  • Karen G. Schneider on LII policy for link-checking, http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0204/0218.html

    • Preserving Access to Public Information

  • GODORT Legislation Committee http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/GODORT/legislation/

  • ALA Washington Office http://www.ala.org/

    • Preserving Digital Documents

  • Council on Library and Information Resources http://www.clir.org/home.html

  • Digital Library Federation http://www.diglib.org/



    • THE COST OF THE TECHNO-ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE

  • Open Source Systems and Software -- see oss4lib http://www.oss4lib.org/

  • Institutional Archives -- see College Archives Dig Deeper http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,54229,00.html and the Open Archives Initiative http://www.openarchives.org/

  • Free Online Scholarship -- see Peter Suber's FOS Newsletter http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/

  • Train your own techies -- see The Accidental Systems Librarian by Rachel Singer Gordon http://lisjobs.com/tasl/index.htm


    UP TO OUR EARS IN LAWYERS

    Prime reference: Mary Minow's Library Law web site http://www.librarylaw.com/

    Privacy

  • ALA Washington Office http://www.ala.org/washoff/

  • COPPA for Librarians http://www.ala.org/

  • Libraries and the Patriot Act http://www.ala.org/washoff/

  • The USA Patriot Act and Patron Privacy on Library Internet Terminals http://www.llrx.com/features/usapatriotact.htm

    • Filtering

  • Office for Intellectual Freedom of the ALA http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/newif.html

  • Libraries & the Internet Toolkit http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Our_Association/Offices/Intellectual_Freedom3/
    Intellectual_Freedom_Toolkits/Libraries_and_the_Internet_Toolkit/Libraries_and_the_Internet_Toolkit.htm

  • Internet Acceptable Use Policies http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/netpolicy.htm

    • Copyright

  • Regional Campus Nomad's Distance Education Page -- Copyright Issues http://internet.ggu.edu/university_library/disted.html#e

  • Copyright in the Library http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/l-intro.htm



    • CROSSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

    Crossing It Through Standards Compliance

  • W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI

  • HTML Writers Guild AWARE Center http://aware.hwg.org/

  • Bobby http://cast.org/bobby/

  • Accessible Webpage Design Resources http://library.uwsp.edu/aschmetz/Accessible/pub_resources.htm

    • Outreach to Groups with Limited Access

  • Digital Divide Network http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org/content/sections/index.cfm

  • Libraries - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation http://www.gatesfoundation.org/libraries/default.htm

  • Digital Divide Solutions http://www.asu.edu/DigitalDivideSolutions/

  • Health Care Information for Seniors on the Net http://marylaine.com/seniors.html

  • SOL [Spanish in our Libraries] http://www.sol-plus.net/index.htm

  • Arlington Library New Americans Information Center http://www.co.arlington.va.us/lib/info/americans/magazines.htm#websites



    • CONTINUOUS RETRAINING

  • Current Cites http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/monthly.html

  • The Information Professional's Guide To Career Development Online http://lisjobs.com/careerdev/index.htm

  • Blogs: See "Stop the World, I Want To Catch Up, Part 2" http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib148.html

  • Library Weblogs http://www.libdex.com/weblogs.html

  • Steven Bell's Keeping Up Page http://staff.philau.edu/bells/keepup


    THE CHAPTER I DIDN'T THINK TO WRITE: THE LIBRARY AS PLACE

  • BPL Guides to the Library http://www.bpl.org/guides/index.htm

  • Cerritos Library http://library.ci.cerritos.ca.us/ -- web cam, library photos, of a library designed to be exciting public space

  • King County Library System http://www.kcls.org/ -- front page header has images of people enjoying the library.


    ON NOT GETTING BLIND-SIDED BY THE NEXT TECHNOLOGY

  • Library Futures Quarterly http://libraryfutures.com/

  • The Defect in Realism http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib86.html -- in which I argue for thinking big and worrying later about how to fund your goals.




    • Marylaine Block, formerly head of reference at St. Ambrose University where she created the site Best Information on the Net [http://library.sau.edu/bestinfo/], is now a writer, speaker, and publisher of the e-zines ExLibris [http://marylaine.com/exlibris/] and Neat New Stuff I Found This Week on the Web [http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html]. You can send e-mail to: marylaine at netexpress.net.