Just read John Barnes' (Executive Vice President, Marketing & Business Development, Gale) "Open letter to the library community" describing how:

"...EBSCO, persists in a practice that drives up costs while limiting access to information...", that "...vendors should support libraries with advocacy efforts and sponsorships..." and that "If you worry about information costs going up, we ask you [the libraries and librarians] to take a stand."

Although you could see this kind of statement as self-serving (siding with their customers against one of their biggest competitors), I think this may be a case of technically all actions being in your self-interest.  (We still think there's altruism despite this interpretation.)

This is very interesting to me, given my new position as Collections Librarian.  It presents a problem:  clearly this can and probably does happen.  Information vendors are businesses and it makes business sense to create micro-monopolies wherever possible.  And this does increase costs that are passed on to the customer.  But it's very difficult to see - when there's only one price, it's impossible to compare it - and very often these are resources that libraries cannot operate comfortably without so we can hardly boycott them.

What would YOU do?

[ Found via "Open letter to the library community from John Barnes, Gale" from Against-the-grain.com ]

Labels: Subject: Collection Development, Subject: Librarianship, Subject: Money, Type: Commentary

 

I've had the item "Consider how to contibute to the organization of global goods (primarily information)." in my RTM to do list for quite a while but I keep postponing it, not knowing exactly how to accomplish such a task. Some of the more popular ways the general public find information (such as checking Google or asking their friends) don't really allow for such outside assistance. The creation of a new tool or method wouldn't really help unless it somehow fits into what they're using already.

One area of possibility is through the use of del.icio.us. I like del.icio.us and I think, despite the fact that the majority of people don't use it directly, let alone know what it is, that it is such a valuable storehouse of "tags" (along with other similar tools) and therefore metadata that could support future/behind-the-scenes organization of information, that it might be a good place to focus my efforts. Then I was thinking about how libraries and librarians use delicious: not very much. But how COULD we?

Not wanting to redo all the work that is put into the catalog, perhaps what could be created is a plug-in that automatically creates and updates a del.icio.us bookmark that corresponds to each record in the catalog (and vice versa) so that the work is only done once but the content reaps the benefits of being both controlled within the catalog and "out there for the world to see" in del.icio.us.

I don't have the programming expertise to develop something (yet) but perhaps someone out there does? I give this idea away into the public domain... Have at it!

 

Haven't posted in a while for one primary reason: I've been looking for a new job, found one and moved to Thunder Bay! Whew!

Although the move is technically completed the new (town)house is still filled with boxes to unpack and sort out. (The kids have build a fort out of them in the living room... I should post a picture of that... lol) We don't even have internet access at home yet so I have to make do with the occasional dribs and drabs at work between actual WORK. Speaking of which, I've settled into my new job (on my 6th day here) and am excited about my new responsibilities and projects! (Yeah, I'm a dork.)

Thunder Bay, although cold (had to shovel the driveway already last Tuesday), is really nice. There are plenty of walking paths, places to play for the kids, and it's easy to get around town. I think we'll like it here.

Have you recently moved? How did it go? Or are you happy where you are and don't plan to live anywhere else?

 

Listened to another Age of Persuasion episode again today. This one was called "Old Media, New Media, Borrowed Media, Blue Media" and was about the fall of television and the rise of, well, other things: events, the web, viral video, and other wacky things. This was a very entertaining episode. You should listen to it.

Of course, I had to listen to it with my librarian-ears. This is what I heard:

1. Just like some companies are "marketing" with things other than "media", such as GE's purchase of a water recycling plant to make an impression for their sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics, librarians and libraries could do something to make ourselves known and liked. Given the non-profit nature of librarianship, we can't go out and buy utilities for the townsfolk, but maybe volunteering time in some way would help?
2. Like I said before, this episode talks about how TV advertising is dropping. I've always thought that libraries should advertise on TV given how popular the medium is. But if it's dropping (and I'm sure it is) off the map, then perhaps we can hop on other media without missing the boat this time.
3. "No brand can afford not have to have it's own web site." Now pretty much all libraries have web sites nowadays. But we're certainly not treating them as the seat of our "brands". We need to do that. Somehow.
4. Finally, be different. Just like stunts like the counterfeit Mini Coopers or the Honeyshed shopping channel.

C'mon people... these ideas are golden! Or are they? Hmmmm...

Labels: aboutLibrarianship

 

I like listening to Terry O'Reilly's radio show on CBC (http://www.cbc.ca/radio/) called "The Age of Persuasion" (http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/age_of_persuasion). But the latest I heard (not on the radio but rather from a blog for CBC podcasts - http://cbcpodcasts.wordpress.com/) was called "The Sport of Persuasion" (http://cbcpodcasts.wordpress.com/2008/01/19/episode-2-the-sport-of-persuasion/) and was about the connection between sports and advertising. Now, I'm not a huge sports fan but I am a little OCD so, since this was next on my rather hastily compiled list of things "2" listen to (http://delicious.com/mjthomas43/2listen), I had no choice but to give it a go. Also, as a librarian and productivity-fanatic, I always try to pull something useful related to librarianship out of whatever I'm experiencing.

Try this on for size: Since we librarians want patrons to act a little more like us, in that we'd like people to give a little more thought to how authoritative their sources are, to read more or at least learn more, and to plan their searching a little more, particularly in the realm of academia (read university students and professors), there are a couple things that this podcast indirectly suggests we could do.

1. Just like sports stars are popular at least in part because of the amazing things they do, we librarians need to showcase some of the "amazing" things that we can do. Patrons are often surprised and thankful for some of the things that we can and will do but this information does not get out enough. We need to brag and communicate such bragging. lol
2. People tend to act like the people they admire. Also people admire the people they act like. This may be used in the library by us emulating the people that our patrons admire. Academic librarians can and should act more like faculty in some important ways. (This also seems like a supporting reason for faculty status.)
3. And just like advertisers attach celebrity sport stars to their product to add instant attraction, the library should select and connect ourselves with a "celebrity" of sorts, again, perhaps a popular prof for us university libraries.

I don't know if these would work or not. But they seem promising to me. What do you think? We don't want to embarrass ourselves. lol

(Of course can you even comment about the effectiveness of a marketing effort on yourself? We all think advertising doesn't work on us, and we are all wrong...)

Labels: aboutLibrarianship