Phases, or, Thoughts on Syracuse

December the 15th marks the conclusion of my studies for my MSLIS at Syracuse. I suppose that means that it's time for me to think about my experiences there, and perhaps share a few of those experiences with you. A year and a half ago, I applied to several schools for my library degree (I call it that as I think they all give them different acronyms). In no particular order, I applied to the University of North Texas, Rutgers University, University of Washington, and Syracuse University. I was accepted at North Texas, Rutgers (on a wait list), and Syracuse. Of all these universities, Syracuse was simply stellar in talking to me and getting me up to speed. That (as well as their reputation) had a great deal to do with my choice to pursue my MSLIS there.

Job Search Update

Readers,

As you might know I have been searching for a professional position as a librarian over the past month. After approximately 50 applications and several interviews (with a few different places), I am excited to share with you that I have accepted a position at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as the Cataloger & Technical Services Librarian. Jen and I are both thrilled about the job, about the institution, and to explore an all new area. I just want to tell you that you'll see lots of updates about the move and our experiences moving and discovering a new place.

So, what does the position entail? Well, here is the official description:

The Cataloger/Technical Services Librarian’s primary responsibilities are cataloging, managing the library automation & e-resources technology, and receiving & processing materials for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Library. The Catalog/Technical Services Librarian will also support the museum’s general operation by participating on teams and projects, and serve as a reference librarian as needed.

So, I get to catalog and do reference - two of the things I love to do as a librarian! I will also have a hand in the creation, cataloging, and implementation of a new library collection, which is really thrilling. Any other questions? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!!

(Here's an image of the museum under construction as of February 28th of 2010. Click the museum's name above for recent photos!)

In Defense of the Museum

Last week in one of my classes, a discussion arose about whether or not digital libraries are "the great equalizer" in the "battle" between museums and libraries. As you can imagine, I had some things to share on this point, and so I want to share with you the original post, followed by my response.

Visual Explanations and Classification

Remember my previous post about Edward R. Tufte and Classification? Well, my presentation was well-received, and I would like to share it with you.

What is a Digital Library?

As I discussed earlier this week, my final semester at Syracuse as an MSLIS student started on Monday. During the course of the semester, as I have done in the past, I want to share with you discussions that arise from class, as well as questions that come to mind. This week, I (and my fellow students) have been asked to answer this question:

What is a Digital Library?

Fall Semester, 2010

Today marks the beginning of my final semester as an MSLIS student at Syracuse. It is frankly a bit odd to say that, but it is true. I will have been in graduate school for about a year and a half, much shorter (it seems) than many of my fellow classmates. I hope this semester is a great conclusion to the degree, as I am certainly taking some interesting courses:

Conclusion of Summer School

Remember when you were in High School, and the term "summer school" had strongly negative connotations? It's where the bad kids went - and the good kids were threatened with it if they didn't "get their act together." Well, I never wanted to go to summer school in high school, but I confess to you that I love summer school in my undergraduate and graduate work.

Spring Semester Reflections

As of Friday of last week, I have completed my Spring semester at Syracuse in pursuit of my MSLIS. I have Summer and Fall to go, and I plan on completing my degree in December. Honestly, you probably already knew that, so let’s get right down to it - what was my semester like now that it has passed?

This was the busiest academic semester I have ever had, frankly. I don’t want to whine and moan about it, but I will tell you why in the course of this post. If you’ll allow me to toot my own horn a bit, I will share that I earned a 4.0 this semester, and have received very positive feedback on all my assignments this semester. Of course, I am still just a fledgling librarian, but I cannot say that doing well in my classes is injurious to my career.

That said, what did I take this semester?

Well, my final two required courses are out of the way now - the first of these required courses was IST 616 - Information Resources, Organization and Access. I called this class “basic cataloging and classification.” The course explored cataloging standards and formats (aka metadata) as well as looked broadly at classification schemes. I really enjoyed the broad view used in this class - I was exposed to many different standards and practices, making me a much more adaptable librarian. Here is a pretty good example of the “stuff” I did this semester:

















http://www.scribd.com/doc/30301737/Social-Tagging-Library-of-Congress%E2%80%99-Subject-Headings-and-Library-Catalogs
















The other required class was IST 613 - Library Planning, Marketing, and Assessment. The workload in this class was among the heaviest I have had, but in the end I produced a comprehensive project plan for a local library. As I know more, I will share it on here, but I have been asked to implement the plan. Fun! The course provided me with real-world project planning experience, which is very useful in my career.

And finally, what might have been my favorite class thus far, IST 604 - Cataloging of Information Resources. This class was an in-depth look at metadata creation, specifically with AACR2 and MARC. The class was very congenial, and it became more of a seminar type class rather than a normal class, with students and professor all working together and discussing.

Overall, I feel that I have really matured as a student and as a professional this semester, and have integrated many new concepts into my knowledge schema.

End of the Semester

Readers,

I know I haven’t been posting as much recently, but this and next week are the end of the semester. I am in the process of wrapping up a couple of major projects, and so I will be back writing then. In the meantime, if you want to know what the end of this semester is like, listen to this:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFq-HHA0k2E

Historical Maps Tutorial

Readers,

I just wanted to share with you that I just wrapped up another presentation about cataloging, and this one focuses on Historical Maps. I’ll embed it below, and here’s a link to it:

Historical Maps Tutorial

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Open Source vs OCLC Paper

Readers,

As promised, here is my brief essay about OCLC and its open source alternatives. Enjoy, and if you have comments, etc, let me know!

Jason

OCLC vs Open Source by Jason Dean

Open Source vs OCLC

For my Cataloging course (I refer to it as advanced cataloging, as it is beyond the basic metadata class) I am required to examine a “special issue in cataloging.” For my topic, I selected the rise of open-source alternatives to OCLC. It’s not done yet, but to whet your appetite, here is the introduction. Let me know what you think!

Founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC was the world’s first highly successful version of a computerized network to share bibliographic data between libraries. Today, OCLC stands for Online Computer Library Center, reflecting its global reach and mission. The databases of OCLC hold “173 million bibliographic records that represent more than 1 billion individual items held by participating institutions.” These records are shared by the approximately 72,000 member libraries of OCLC, spread throughout the world. Why then would a library not want to be a member of this bibliographic juggernaut? This paper provides a broad survey of the positive and negative implications of using OCLC for bibliographic data sharing, as well as examining alternatives to OCLC, and their strengths and weaknesses.

ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition

Hello - I just would like to let you know that Jen and I will be attending the ALA annual conference in June - if you are going, we look forward to seeing you there! We are certainly excited to attend!

Link: Dear Steve Jobs, iBooks has me Nervous

Dr. Dave Lankes has posted his thoughts about the new iPad application, iBooks. I am a bit surprised by the lack of writing about this happening in the library blog community. However, Dr. Lankes has some great points, and to whet your appetite, here is a quote from his original post, as well as a link taking you there:

What makes me nervous about iBooks, the new eBook app from Apple targeted for their iPad, is not what you might expect. DRM, cost models doesn’t worry me. These are mostly imposed by the publishers, and we saw how this played out in music and MP3’s. It is certainly not that eReaders or the move away from physical books in some way endangers the future of the library. Libraries are about knowledge and facilitation, not artifacts and stuff.
No, what worries me about iBooks is that it is so damn boring. I actually found myself angry and disappointed after the big iPad announcement. I expected so much more. I was a little apprehensive about posting these thoughts because I haven’t actually seen the iBooks software. So for all I know, everything I am about to say is there, but there just wasn’t enough time to talk about them. So if that is the case, Apple, my bad. If not, what were you thinking?!
Link: Dear Steve Jobs, iBooks has me Nervous, by Dr. Dave Lankes.

Is Cataloging a Dying Specialty?

As a fledgling librarian interested in cataloging, the question “Is cataloging a dying specialty?” is one I have reflected upon at length. My answer to that question, is simply "no." Like so many emphatic statements, though, this one comes with exceptions and explanations. However, let me expound upon my “no” with three points.

First, someone has to catalog all these new items being produced, regardless of their format, etc. - that work has to be done by a person somewhere along the way. Irrespective of how automated processes become, an “actual person” will have to sit down and examine the item being cataloged, and then put that metadata into whatever form of record is used at that time.

Second, from an art library perspective (and one that actively collects photography monographs) a great deal of art publishing is moving to a "self-published" model, meaning that these items are not widely held, and nor would they typically be collected by the Library of Congress, or any copyright deposit library, leaving them uncataloged. This leaves the cataloging to the library which acquired the work, namely an original cataloging record. The photographer David Bram talks about this some, and highlights this in his blog post:

Book Publishing.

Third, even if there are records for the item being cataloged, the cataloger might need to make changes to the record in order to comply with the rules for their library, or a differing edition of the item. Even changing a cataloging record requires a decent amount of knowledge about standards and formats for cataloging.

In the course of my work at the Carter, I have found a myriad of older items that either lack a cataloging record, or have outdated (pre-AACR2r) records. These items must have records created for them, or need to be updated on a need-based system to integrate them into the catalog.

Is cataloging a growing field, though? I would say no to that as well - but not one that is dying.

Class Update

Next semester, I will take 9 hours of class credit. At the end of the semester, I will have 22 of 36 credit hours required for my MSLIS. It’s exciting to be over halfway through my degree program, and even though I don’t feel like I have learned a great deal, when I actually think about it and reflect upon it, I have learned so much. My classes so far, for the most part, have been great. So, let’s recap, shall we - as of December, here are the classes I have completed:

IST 601 - Introduction to the Library and Information Profession: A broad overview of the field and an orientation to the School of Information Studies. Describes the past, present, and future of information studies.
IST 511 - Information and Information Environments: Key components of the field and its relationship to other fields and professions. General structure, issues and problems, research, and literature.
IST 605 - Information Resources, Users, and Services: The discovery and use of print and electronic resources and delivery of services in libraries to meet information needs of varied patron communities in a broad range of contexts.
IST 600 - Library Budgeting
IST 600 - Library Marketing
IST 600 - Library Fundraising
IST 618 - Survey of Telecommunications and Information Policy - Public policy issues of the digital environment, including freedom of expression, intellectual property, economic regulations, privacy, security, access, standards, and dissemination of public information. Application of economic, legal, and political science concepts to policy analysis.

All in all, that’s 14 credit hours so far. Next semester, I will be taking:

IST 613 - Library Planning, Marketing, and Assessment: User-focused planning, marketing, and assessment of activities that support core functions of libraries, such as collection development, systems, and public services.
IST 616 - Information Resources: Organization & Access: Introduction to theories, tools, and standards for information organization and access, including cataloging rules and formats, content analysis, indexing, classification, and fundamentals of information retrieval systems.
IST 604 - Cataloging of Information Resources: Cataloging rules, standards, and metadata schemes; bibliographic utilities; formats of print and nonprint materials; cataloging software; management issues.

I am thrilled about what I am going to learn next semester. In my work at the Amon Carter Museum Library, I have already done some assessment, as well as cataloging - two areas (especially cataloging) that interest me very much. 604 means I get to become very familiar with two things - MARC, and AACR2. I’ll explain more about these standards soon, so stay tuned.

My Time on the Reference Desk

Yesterday I sat down with a library staff member to observe for an hour at the reference desk of the Amon Carter Museum Library. The observation was very fruitful, as I learned about the many facets that constitute working the reference desk in the library.

First, staffing the reference desk in the library includes many different tasks. Of course, one does fulfill reference duties, which are top priority while working the reference desk, but a person staffing the reference desk is also responsible for observing patrons and protecting the artwork that is displayed in the library. Another responsibility reference desk staffers are charged with is to continue their normal duties if they are not fulfilling their reference duties. Meaning that they need to continue cataloging and circulation duties if they are not answering reference questions.

After a general demonstration of tasks associated with working the reference desk, I learned that the Carter library answers reference questions in three ways: through e-mail, phone, and in-person. The library also answers reference questions through postal mail, but this option is rarely used - the library might receive three questions through postal mail in a year. Most reference questions from the public are submitted to the library through phone calls, followed by email, and then in-person reference sessions. Museum staff members mostly submit their reference questions in-person, with a few phone and email questions submitted.

After giving me a rundown of the monthly reference statistics, I was then shown the steps taken to answer most reference questions. Many requests deal with information about a specific artist or artwork. If this is the case, the person working the reference desk generally will consult the bio files first. The bio files are simply a collection of ephemera about a specific artist. While the patron consults these items, the person working the reference desk then will consult the library catalog to see what items the library has about the topic. Before pulling books, the patron is consulted again to narrow their request a bit further, and then if they are needed, items are pulled from the stacks and brought to the reading room. A phone reference interview needs to be more specific, so that the resources can be pulled and consulted with the person on the phone. If the needed resources are found, they can be photocopied or scanned and emailed to the patron.

However, as a non-profit institution, staff members or volunteers of the Amon Carter are not allowed to value, or authenticate works of art. If a valuation or authentication request is made, the patron is referred to an appropriate appraiser or authenticator.

Overall, my time observing was very illuminating as to the multiple roles of working the reference desk. One does not simply answer patron questions - one also has a number of other responsibilities to manage. I look forward to observing again next week!

Carter Blog

Readers, I just wanted to repost something you might have missed. I write occasionally for the Amon Carter Museum Blog, where this post that I authored was originally posted on June 18. Enjoy, and have a great weekend!



If you are one of the patrons of the Amon Carter Museum Library, all that you might see is the reading room, and one of the fine library staff members helping you find what you need in the library. The reading room is a great space - quiet and welcoming – designed by architect Philip Johnson. At the east end are the periodicals which the Carter subscribes to, along the south wall are the major reference works in the library (catalogue raisonné, etc.) and the Bio Files. On the west wall are the study alcoves, and the north wall displays the collection of exhibition catalogs held at the Carter. It’s a wonderful space, and as I said, really the only space that most patrons of the library see. Behind the scenes, though, it’s a different world.

For example, how does the Carter decide what resources to add to the library’s large collection of over 100,000 items? What path do these items take from the bookseller to the stacks? What happens when a patron requests a book? What about interlibrary loans? Also, the library is just not books, periodicals, and ephemera. It is also a repository for some very important archives – such as the archives of Laura Gilpin, Eliot Porter, Karl Struss, and important records relating to the history of the museum itself. What of the archives, then?

My mind was filled with these questions when I began volunteering at the library here at the Carter. My name is Jason Dean, and I am a student at Syracuse University earning my Master’s degree in Library and Information Science. Before I started my library science program, I contacted the Carter library about providing me some practical library experience. So far, working at the Carter has provided me with a wealth of experiences and knowledge, some of which I would like to share with you – and I might even be able to answer some of those “How does it work” questions I posed above.

For my first post, allow me to give you a brief description of how the museum selects what resources are purchased and then added to the collection. There is a document that states a broad collection development policy. It’s the tool that guides what the library collects. Though it offers some solid boundaries, it must also be flexible enough to accommodate new subject matter that may relate to new art entering the collection or special research projects. Any of the staff members (including curatorial staff) can propose the purchase of a book, but the final “veto” power rests with Sam, as he is the library director. Individual librarians have influenced the document as well, with their interests and their quest to expand the collection of the library in a meaningful way. These purchases can be sourced from any number of businesses, from ones we use every day – Amazon – to specialized rare book dealers. If an item falls within the areas outlined by the collection development policy, then the subject is researched to see if it will fit into the collection of resources we have here. If it does, then the item is purchased and integrated into the collection.

We also receive a great number of books which are gifts, or books that are sent in exchange by other museums. When the Carter exchanges books with another museum, generally we will send them exhibition catalogues they are interested in, and in exchange they will send us the books we want that the other museum has published. As I mentioned above, we have some very generous donors that give books outright to the library frequently. These gifts are recorded, and then they are researched to see if they fit into out collection.

Depending upon the size of the item purchased, it might simply go into the extensive bio files and skip the next step in the process altogether. However, if Sam, Jon, or Mary Jane think it best, the item will go on to the next step in the process.

What happens to the book next? Do we just put it on the shelf and leave it be? This question will be answered in the next post, which will take you through part of the behind the scenes area in the library. I hope you enjoyed this small look into the library, and I also hope you’ll keep checking “The N-Files” blog, as there is some great information about this wonderful library on the blog.

IST 511, Final Day

(Originally posted elsewhere on July 24.)

Just got back to the room from the end of session barbecue. It feels great to be done with this part of the courses! It’s such a relief, but I will also look forward to the fall semester, and more opportunities for learning. Overall, it was a phenomenal experience – one of the best educational experiences I have ever had. Scott and Natasha did a great job giving everyone beginning the LIS program a level playing field so we can all now go forth and get more into the finer points of librarianship.

Our poster session was today, which I very much enjoyed. It was great to hear people’s comments about our idea, and talk to many people about an issue of which they might not have been aware. It was also fun to see what other groups had created in the short time we had for the assignment. Overall, it was a nice day, and a great way to wrap up this week of intensive study. I sure am ready for home, though!

- Jason Dean

IST 511, Day Four

(Originally posted elsewhere on July 23rd.)

Today’s discussion was about ethics, our profession, and the many concepts and ideas that those phrases bring to mind. We started off by talking about the definition of what librarianship is to the public as well as how we define ourselves. I felt that this was a very interesting topic, and a great formal introduction for everyone in the class. This topic was followed by a broad discussion of ethics, and areas in which the ethics of our profession might conflict with other ethical schema. In all of these conflict areas, there is no easy or clear cut choice as to what one should do in those situations. It confirmed for me that librarianship is very much a dynamic field, and a profession I am proud to associate myself with.

We also talked briefly about how to resolve complaints in the library – specifically when patrons object to materials in a library collection. This discussion highlighted for me the need of libraries to have a broad array of well thought out policies to deal with a myriad of problem areas. This enables all library staff, and not just accredited librarians to make good, clear decisions according to pre-established guidelines.

After class, our group wrapped up our poster project by completing our brochure. I look forward to the opportunity to share what we have learned in this process with everyone who attends the poster session.

- Jason Dean