Library Stuff

I was browsing through the latest issue of AALL Spectrum (GASP, a print resource) and came across a fantastic article (page 6) [PDF] about a librarian who sends out a daily e-mail summary of Stanford faculty/students/staff (basically anyone) who has made news. And how does he do it? By setting up keyword searches on Lexis and Westlaw (the article doesn’t mention any other tools, but I’m sure he relies on blogs and the open web as well). The best part is that not only does he send out the e-mail summary, but the law school uses these updates and displays them on their web page. This information is also used for the alumni magazine. It has become so popular that some of the faculty have started to feed him information to include in his e-mail summary. Also, library staff members act as reporters, looking for news as well.

First off, this content delivery service screams weblogs/RSS. Second, think about the marketing that is being accomplished here. The library (and this librarian in particular) is becoming the parser of information for the law school. They see him as an asset to the school and appreciate the work being done. Kudos to Paul Lomio at the Stanford Law School library.

The article also talks about self-promotion and how everyone can enjoy their “15 minutes of fame”. I’m into self-promotion in a big way, as long as it’s done tactfully and purposefully. Promoting oneself for the sake of promotion is egotism, which is a character flaw.

Gary Price linked to this article on how weblogs can be used in libraries. While the issue has been brought up before (and there is not anything mindblowing about the content here, although it is a well-written overview), I always feel the necessity to share these pieces as they display the continuous push toward libraries using weblogs in their buildings. I believe that we are close to a tipping point, in that soon there will be more libraries that have use weblog technology than those that do not. I’m going to give it another year or two and see if the library society as a whole changes due to content being displayed in weblog format. The numbers have increased exponentially over the past year (of course, nothing empirical to back it up) and I can guess that they will triple that over the next year. By that time, I surmise that the bigger library systems will grab hold of weblogs. We’ll see.

Take a look at this interview with Tim Sanders, entitled, “Do you suffer from new economy depression syndrome?”. First, the term ‘Inforuption’ is awesome, one which I will be using in my future talks on Keeping Current. That term can be paralleled to another term, NEDS:

“NEDS is an acronym for new economy depression syndrome. It’s a mental state that a result of a combination of information overload and frequent interruption resulting in and erosion of personal close relationships. The symptoms are anxiety, fatigue, stress and lower productivity and irritability in a team environment.”

Another quote:

“What we’ve noticed is that the survey respondents have strong personal relationships at work in homes suffer less symptoms despite being attacked by the same amount of information. The number one solution is resiliency through warm living. That means a certain amount of face-to-face contact, phone contact on long-term e-mail relationships and living in the warm channels, contributing warm thoughts and ideas. Those create shock absorbers that can help you deal with this information.”

I learned this quickly after my panic issues in March, and Walt Crawford and Karen Schneider have mentioned similar concepts on occasion. They talk about taking breaks from technology, getting away from the monitor, and spending time with family and friends. Agreed. Also, I would like to add that taking time for oneself if also very important. I’ve found that since joining a gym and working out 3-4 times a week has not only decreased my stress level, but I am interacting with others in a different environment than at work, and it has, ironically, enhanced my work on this weblog. On the days that I work-out, I write more. It must be a brain-chemistry thing, although I have no scientific evidence to back it up.

But the non-techie interactions that Sanders talks about is important. If you feel any sort of NEDS-like symptoms, as I have on numerous occasions, turn off that IM account for a day or two; don’t send e-mails to the guy sitting 15 feet away; get out of the physical environment that you currently find yourself in; go to lunch with a colleague or friend and DON’T talk about work stuff; interact with others in a social context (in addition to joining a gym, I have been on a softball team for the past few years); get another hobby aside from what is causing your stress level to increase.

I find it amazing that this type of living can cut down on information overload…One more point, related to yet another quote:

“If you and I went back and forth twice with email – that it! I’m right to call you rather than e-mail reply. That’s a habit. I think you have to be conscious about it. That’s why there’s a motto across my cubicle that says “In a world of Inforuption, love is a killer app”.

I have had the fortune to have met a colleague (a big techie) at last years CIL conference. We have made it a habit (or tried to) to touch bas via phone at least twice a month, just to see how each other is doing. Sometimes we talk about library work, but other times we talk about family, friends, and life. I love it, and look forward to speaking with him whenever we can. It’s hard for us (we both lead busy lives), but those phone conversations are healthy, and we both know it. One last example. When I was going through my rough spot last month, I received many encouraging e-mails, but one that really blew me away was from another colleague. I actually called her to thank her for her message, and we spoke for about 30 minutes. Much better (and more personal) than any IM or e-mail conversation could ever be.

The e-mail address steven [at] librarystuff.net was getting spammed a lot (500 messages today alone), so I’ve deleted the account. If you want to reach me, use my contact form, or via IM (NYlibrarian). Sorry for any inconvenience.

I would like to give Michael a standing ovation for his post on the 10 Things I’ve Learned Presenting at Library Conferences, especially number 6: Be mindful of acronyms.

After doing an entire 45 minute presentation on tips for keeping up at CIL this year (in which RSS was mentioned many times throughout), one attendee asked, “What is RSS?” An applause burst out from the entire room. Oops. I got out of my chair and did a quick shpeal on RSS, then reminded them of the next day’s presentation on RSS (which Jenny wound up doing alone – bless her heart) which, I’m told, was very successful.

Also, my take on self-promotion: consider it marketing and you can get passed the whole ego thing. During my “Fall Speaking Tour” last year, I pushed my book because I wanted it to sell a lot of copies, and so did the publisher. Karen is right in that library publishers don’t market as much as they could, but this could be due to limited funding. So,I figured it was up to me. Actually, I asked the person monitoring the talk to mention the book in my introduction and I mentioned it briefly at the end. It was no big deal. If the marketing parallels the talk, why not provide more resources, and if those resources happen to be something you wrote, than so be it. Don’t forget that people get the opportunity to speak at conferences because they are good at what they do and others know about it, most likely due to good marketing on a weblog, Listervs, etc. I’m not saying that it’s all Me Me Me (and I agree with Michael here), but a small bit of ego-pushing at a talk is a good thing.

If you present (or are going to present) at conference, keep in mind Michael’s list (as well as additions by Jessamyn and Karen).