Back from California

New photo album at Picasa with the trip.

American Library Association Annual Conference:

re: chat ref--about 30% of users are in the building but won't leave their computers to come ask questions, so it is reasonable to ask if they're present & if we may come to them.

RUSA Codes--liaising with users--the point was made that librarians from ALL departments teach (yes, including tech services). Based on their survey of all types of libraries across the US, time spent on liaison work ran from 11% to 31% of the workload. Liaisons would like more training; there is not clear standard on what liaison responsibilities should be. Liaisons should meet in small groups to share their current practices, challenges & strategies (e.g., how to establish trust as a new liaison, how to set boundaries). While there is no one way to do liaison work (varies by institution, academic discipline, personality of librarian), it is helpful if groups establish responsibilities & expectations in written form, and share these with each new librarian.

Media Literacy [Copyright & Fair Use]--owners retain the rights to "derivative use" (e.g., thumbnails of websites) but not to "transformative use," which adds value & uses the product for a different purpose than the original (e.g., using an entertainment film snippet in the classroom to increase communication skills & critical thinking by commenting on a social aspect of the film). Fair use is not supposed to stifle creative uses of that expression.

LITA Top Tech Trends--small literary journals & presses are going open access because it is less costly for them; we need to become better at manipulating data, visualizing it, using it; libraries can provide technology like scanners for circulation, provide in-house podcasting booths, etc.

LITA - Joe Janes--People are "in the library" when they are on our website, asking a chat ref question, renewing a book online, in databases, etc. They are interacting with info provided by the library or with staff. A library is all 5 of: place, stuff, support, interaction, & values. Libraries have to be somewhere (specific physical place) & everywhere. We need to ask: when don't the users want to be "in" the library? What is the library "in"? The user is the library, not the librarians or staff. [My, Kim's question for us: How do we make it easier for users to be the support & interaction & values?]

Monday we trooped to the Orange County Court to get our marriage license, with our conference friend Mara and our friendly Justice of the Peace Ken; had our brief ceremony; & are now legally recognized in CA, a few other states, & a few countries (Canada, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark?).