The Call Number

Letter from the Editors: Notes on Community

2011-04-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

At the heart of every library institution is a unique community and culture. The differences in philosophy, policy and practice between archival, public, academic and special libraries can seem insurmountable as a result of a feeling of separation from the world outside of one’s own library. Rather than seeing a greater community as a challenge, communication, memberships in larger organizations, and education, can begin to make librarians part of something greater than their immediate environment. What may first seem like a roadblock can be an opportunity for networking, understanding and growth. A question that comes to mind then is how can we best support and sustain a network of relationships that leads us into the future? In this issue, Editor Jane Gilvin examines how professional organizations and conferences can help young professionals and students establish a sustainable network, while co-editor Kim Galloway explores the networking possibilities available within our own SLIS.

Community can be preserved by archives, as the larger Hollywood film community is preserved at the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills. Contributor Alison Leonard shares her experience visiting the archives with one of SJSU’s own community groups, the Society of American Archivists SJSU Student Chapter.

Community can also be built around a library, bringing together people with similar interests, or those with disparate experiences. Heather Hoffman’s contribution to this semester’s newsletter examines how community is built and defined at a library serving two different populations: a university and the wider public.

What meaning does the word community have to you? Do you hope your work in the library and information management world will serve a particular community? Have you experienced a particularly welcoming or unwelcoming community as a patron or employee of a library? We hope this edition of the Call Number will encourage you to start a dialogue about how networking and a professional community can enhance your education and your career in library science.

Kim Galloway & Jane Gilvin

SAA tour of the Margaret Herrick Library

2011-04-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

By Alison Leonard

In June the Society of American Archivists SJSU Student Chapter organized a tour for students at the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills. The Library is part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that is most famous for its academy awards, aka “the Oscars."

Altogether the Academy is housed in three buildings in Los Angeles. The first is the Fairbanks Center, where the Library is located. Douglas Fairbanks was a leading cinematic actor in the 1920s. He was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as the first president of the Academy.

The Academy was founded in 1927 and the library was established a year later in 1928. The second building is the Pickford Center in Hollywood, and is named for Fairbanks’ one-time spouse, Mary Pickford. Pickford was also a leading actor in early cinema as well as a crusader of film preservation. This building is where the Academy’s Film Archive is housed.

Finally, the Academy Headquarters, in Beverly Hills, is where the executive offices and Samuel Goldwyn Theater are located.

The Academy’s website describes its institution as, “the world’s preeminent movie-related organization, with a membership of more than 6,000 of the most accomplished men and women working in cinema.” Regarding the library it states, “By 1941, the Academy library had gained acclaim for having one of the most complete motion picture-relate collections in the world.”

The library goes on to describe itself as “the World’s Preeminent Cinema Research Facility” and as we learned on the tour, it may just well be. Margaret Herrick, whom the library is named after, was the Academy’s first librarian and long-time executive director. Her long and important history with the Academy lasted from 1940 until 1971.

Cinema researchers from all over the world use the private, non-circulating library, which is available by appointment only. There are two reading rooms contained within the library, the first is the Cecil B. DeMille Reading Room named for American film director and producer, and the second is the Katharine Hepburn Special Collections Reading Room for manuscript and other archival material.

Our hosts were library staff members Barbara Hall, Research Archivist, and Ann Coco, the Graphic Arts Librarian. They did a super job preparing for our visit by having so many wonderful special collections on display for us to see.

The Academy subscribes to about 60-70 film publications, some of which are now only available online. This includes publications for people in the industry, theater owners and trade publications, as well as publications for the movie going audience, i.e. fan magazines. Barbara and Ann said that most researchers request materials from writers, directors and actors. Many researchers ask to see a specific film script or materials on a specific person. Film scripts are one of the many items the library collects. Interestingly enough, when the Academy requests scripts from writers, they often submit their favorite version, not the final version that appears on the screen. The typical library users are students, film scholars, historians, and film industry personnel. We learned that many researchers like to start their research by looking at scrapbooks, which can provide background on an individual’s family and other important people in their lives.

The Graphic Arts Collection within the library has an extensive poster collection and has ample information about the collections available online, including a collection that traces the history of African-Americans in cinema from 1921 to 1995. The digitization of the poster collection is a first priority of the library.

The library holds more than 1,000 special collections containing the ephemera of such luminaries as Katharine Hepburn, Alfred Hitchcock, George Stevens, John Huston, and Gregory Peck. The collections are so varied that I could not begin to list everything that they contain, but some examples of the library’s offerings include reviews, articles, press releases, lobby cards and personal correspondence. Special collections are further broken down into several categories including: the personal papers of directors and performers, studio records such as MGM or Paramount, association records, and collector’s records. The collector’s records are an assortment of ephemera from fans or writers who have a large collection that the Academy has acquired. The library also holds costume design sketches, and production design drawings.

One of the most requested collections is the Hays Production Code collection from the 1930s. According to NPR’s website, The Hays Office, a self-imposed arm of the industry, was created to enforce the code in response to growing concern in the government and among United States citizens regarding the moral content of films. This code was the precursor to the current rating systems and some say that the movie industry has not been the same since the institution of the so-called “Hays Code.” As a result scripts were reviewed for violence and morality and changes were suggested in order to quash public criticism of Hollywood. This was a code that was created in 1930 and affected all movies in production after 1934 until 1967 when it was abandoned. For more information on the Hays Code, see this full article.

For me, one of the most interesting parts of the tour was seeing the documents contained within the archives. It was exciting to see a telegram from Billy Wilder to Arthur Miller complaining about Marilyn Monroe’s bad behavior on the set of “Some Like it Hot.” One passage stated, “The fact is that the company pampered her, coddled her and acceded to all her whims. The only one who showed any lack of consideration was Marilyn, in her treatment of her co-stars and co-workers…Her chronic tardiness and unpreparedness cost us eighteen shooting days, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and countless heartaches.” This is but one example of the many important documents that chronicle the film industry’s contribution to American History in the 1900’s to today.

Alison Leonard has a background in fund raising with international organizations including Meridian International Center-a contractor for the U.S. Department of State and WNVC International Public Television. Alison holds an undergraduate degree in history from Virginia Tech, and a Masters in International Transactions from George Mason, which included study abroad at Oxford in England. She enjoys swimming laps, biking and hiking. She has visited over 90 national parks in the U.S. She has run into bears on the trail but thankfully no mountain lions.

Snapshots From the Reference Desk: Building Community Daily

2011-04-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

By Heather Hoffman

Anyone who has worked the reference desk, even for a day or two, would agree that you see it all, and it is certainly not boring. My experience interning at a merged public and academic library has given me an interesting perspective on how a library community can be defined, and how it evolves over even short periods of time,creating a fluid but cohesive collective experience.

Answering questions in equal measure between students or faculty and public patrons can be a little disorienting, yet at the same time, it reminds me that the person on the other side of the desk or phone is essentially looking for the same thing. What patrons want is the human input into that answer. It is this factor that turns these shared experiences into something resembling a community, even if it doesn’t fit a traditional definition. This sense of community is one that changes daily, because no two human interactions are ever the same. I have noticed that the regular fluctuations create a sense of comfort and familiarity for the patrons and, I would argue, the staff as well. We may all be creatures of habit, but even those routines are never done in exactly the same way every time – a little mutability makes sense to us.

Old-fashioned etiquette manuals frequently referred to the concept of “the roof is the introduction” (Sherwood, 1884); that is, if you find yourself in the company of a stranger, but under a trusted roof, you can feel some certainty of affiliation. The more time I spend at the reference desk, or walking around the library, the more I see this kind of interaction in play. It might not be expected, what with the “town versus gown” concept (the public library patrons interacting with the university students and staff), and it certainly is not occurring everywhere and constantly. However, when you see a spirit of cooperation between two patrons at the desk, willing to offer help or advice to each other in a trusted and comfortable space, it is heartening, not least if one is a student and one a public patron.

Every time I hear that libraries are disappearing, I remember the crowd waiting to be let in, patrons trying to find an empty seat (in an eight floor library, to give you an idea), or eating their lunches while hunching over a research paper or job application. I might concede that the physical concept of a library is mutating, but I would also argue that the sense of community that evolves with every patron walking through the door means the “library” isn’t going anywhere quickly.

To illustrate, last Wednesday was a particularly frantic day on the desk and I had a raft of people needing something. One (public) patron was clearly agitated about the inability of his laptop to access the wireless network, and this was a question that was not going to be answered with “have you tried rebooting?” There were three of us working at the time, and everyone was occupied. We did our best to reassure the patron that we would get to him as soon as we could, and do what we could. At that point, another patron standing nearby piped up and said he could probably take a look at the issue. This one example clearly supports the notion of a library community being due, in part, to its humanness, particularly as two hours later, I looked up to see them still working together, having created their own small community within the larger one.

Sherwood, M. E. W. (1884). Manners and social usages. Harper & Brothers: New York Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=bVcEAAAAYAAJ&ots=5D6ZPhEJRJ&dq=manners%20and%20social%20usages&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Heather Hoffman is finishing her penultimate semester at SLIS, and having a hard time believing graduation is around the corner. Her two daughters and husband will also be glad when that occurs, and are okay with either an academic or public library gig, as long as it means book recommendations.

Using Conferences to Build Community

2011-04-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

By Jane Gilvin

One of the ways that librarians build communities is through professional association conferences. The Music Library Association (MLA) conferences happen once a year and are planned several years in advance. I had the opportunity to attend the conference when it was held in San Diego in March 2010 and Philadelphia in February. From this experience, I wanted to write an article to share some ways for students to make the most out of the opportunities a conference offers, as well as ways to save money.

First, many conferences offer student rates. Although students often feel financial pressures, attending conferences should be seen as an investment in their future. A student looking for ways to fund their travel can look to professional associations, schools and other sources, many of whom offer full and partial scholarships to students or new professionals. The time spent on writing applications can provide students with money to use for travel, fees and lodging for conferences Registering early and volunteering are two other ways to make conferences more affordable. For example, the MLA has a limited number of volunteer spots for members. In exchange for a certain amount of time spent volunteering, members pay reduced fees.

Two other expenses incurred are lodging and food. Attendees may be encouraged to stay and eat at the location of the conference. This can often be a reasonable fee, however, consider that you may be able to find a better deal elsewhere. A little bit of advanced research can give you a range of affordable options. As recently pointed out on the MLA list-serv, organizations enter into agreements with hotels or conference centers that may include guaranteeing a certain number of paying guests in exchange for lower fees on other services. When making the decision about where to stay, you will want to consider the benefits of staying at the designated conference hotel or an off-site venue. If you are staying at a hotel further away, it might be more difficult to participate in some of the unofficial activities or late evening activities. It also means that serendipitous meetings are less likely to happen. Using list-servs to find roommates is another way to save on housing costs.

The MLA offers two opportunities for new or student attendees to make connections. The first is a mentoring program. On the first day of the conference, you meet with your mentor at an official MLA event. From there, it is left to the participants to arrange meetings. I participated in the program last year, and my mentor was incredibly generous with her time. She introduced me to people in the organization that she knew matched my interests. A second program is the new attendee and student dinner. This is where you can meet your mentor, but even if you do not participate in the program, new attendees and students can meet other individuals who share the same professional and educational interests. Several students formed a new group, the Music Library Student Group (MLSG) last year, and this group is planning activities specifically for students throughout the conference. Student groups are a great way to meet your peers in an atmosphere that might be less intimidating than the social activities geared toward the entire association. It also offers a forum to discuss problems and experiences that are specific to students. Other associations may or may not have student groups, but they often have mentoring programs or orientation meetings with similar opportunities.

Conferences can be exhilarating, invigorating, tiring, expensive, informative and fun. Students can take advantage of the many resources, using conferences and associations as a way to establish their own library and archive community. Whether it is finding like minded people, or people in similar academic or professional settings, or meeting someone in a different position to provide a new perspective, conference attendance is beneficial to students’ personal and professional lives. More information about the MLA conference can be found at www.musiclibraryassoc.org, including present and past conference programs.

Jane Gilvin has co-edited The Call Number for two semesters. She is in her final semester at SJSU. Her experience while in school has included working at SJSU's Special Collections and Archives, a U.S. EPA records center, interning at the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies and the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound. This summer she will intern with the NPR music library in Washington, D.C.

Going the Distance: Finding Community across a Digital Divide

2011-04-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

By Kim Galloway

As students in a distance education program, we may find the idea of community to be an unfamiliar concept fraught with pitfalls and missteps. Many of us, coming from more traditional school models of face-to-face interactions in classroom settings, get by without the familiarity of friends and social networks. We may not question why this is the order of things. Yet we long to belong to a group, a wider community, a sense that we are not alone even as we sit in front of our computer screens alone. So how do we build that sense of community? How do we reach across the digital chasm?

The answer is quite literally at our fingertips. The SJSU MLIS program has provided its students with many opportunities to connect. There is no need to build a community from scratch, there is already one waiting for those wanting to join. From live Elluminate sessions where you can meet with classmates and instructors, to student organizations and gatherings, colloquia and workshops available both virtually and physically, there is something for everyone interested.

While many of the courses in the MLIS program do not require Elluminate sessions, professors still plan and execute non-mandatory sessions where students can log on and meet with the instructor and fellow students in a real-time interaction. These sessions can be as simple as a white board presentation and chat session, or include web cams and video streaming. It is here that you can find group mates for presentations, a buddy to bounce ideas off of, and future colleagues in your chosen field. Another great way to plug in to the greater community is to join one of the student groups on campus. Among the organizations representing on and off campus are: the American Library Association Student Chapter (ALASC), the Society of American Archivists Student Chapter (SAASC) and the Library and Information Science Students to Encourage Networking (LISSTEN). These organizations offer a way to get more actively involved in networking, publication, governance and leadership while fostering a sense of commitment and belonging. The benefits are tangible; participants discover that they stand out from a crowd of other qualified applicants when it comes time to find jobs and scholarships.

Any exploration of community building endeavors would not be complete without the mention of the many workshops and colloquia podcasts that are held regularly throughout the semester. Offered in both physical and virtual formats, these programs are designed to foster networking while building skills and presenting information and ideas that are leading the way in today’s libraries. Interested students can learn how to build a resume and rehearse interview skills, listen to professionals in the field talk about the past, present and future of their profession, and attend a host of other useful and informative presentations and team-building gatherings. For those looking to socialize and befriend like-minded individuals, there are social gatherings on campus, in cafés and restaurants and in outlying communities or via internet on Second Life, a virtual game world where a user builds an avatar and “travels” to different locations like San Jose State’s own virtual library and meet with other people in a synchronous environment. These venues are a fantastic way to network and build long-lasting professional and inter-personal relationships.

So if you are looking to get out there and mix it up, become part of a community and build strong personal, educational, and professional relationships that will sustain you throughout your school experience and beyond, reach beyond your computer screen, stop simply putting in the school hours and start experiencing them first hand. You will not be disappointed in what you find.

Kim Galloway is in her first semester as co-editor of The Call Number

Letter from the Editors: Spring 2010

2010-06-30T21:46:00.001-07:00

As students, we are in a unique position to view librarianship and its reach into areas not traditionally associated with librarianship or information management. Many of us come from other professional areas, or work in non-library jobs while pursuing our master's degrees. The experience we gain from other areas informs our work in library and information science by giving us broader insights into search habits and can also shape our expertise and information niches.

Several articles in this issue address how experiences outside of library school inform our work as students and continue to enrich our journey as professionals. From Kathy Elliot’s previous career helping her win a scholarship, to finding reference experience in an unlikely place like Marissa Martin, students are finding that information science reaches farther than might be expected.

It has been our pleasure to work with our student contributors over the past few months and we continue to be impressed with our classmates and their accomplishments. From putting together tours to organizing innovative programming for internships, SJSU-SLIS students are active in the field before, during, and after their education. We would like to thank our contributors for allowing a window into their lives through their writing about their experiences.

I (Jane) am looking forward to co-editing again next semester with Kimberly Galloway, our newly elected co-editor. I would like to thank my current co-editor, Tiffany Mair, for a great introductory semester to the Call Number.

As I (Tiffany), pass the baton and editing duties on to Jane and Kimberly to concentrate on my last semester at SJSU-SLIS and my e-portfolio, I would like to encourage students to consider how our holistic experiences contribute to our skills and service in librarianship and information management fields. We are all unique individuals who bring a diversity of experience and perspective to the profession. Upon returning from ALA 2010 in Washington DC, the importance of our energy, enthusiasm, and willingness to get involved and bring our entire selves to librarianship has never been more clear to me. Believe in your contributions, show up, and serve in whatever ways you are called.

Jane Gilvin & Tiffany Mair

Going for the Gold: Making the Most of Scholarship Opportunities

2010-06-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

by Kathy Elliott

I received a delightful surprise the other day – I was awarded the 2010 Medical Library Association (MLA) scholarship! I would like to encourage all of you to consider applying for financial support, and I thought it might be helpful to share the process. It is worth the effort – my scholarship will cover approximately 25% of my tuition for the entire SJSU-SLIS program.

To begin, where do we find scholarship information? A great place to start is at http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/resources/funding.htm. You will see many options available through SJSU and other agencies. A careful perusal of the lists may generate several possibilities that overlap with your background and specific interests.

But, honestly, that is not what I did! You have always heard that networking is the key for finding jobs. For me, that applied to scholarships as well. My sister, Judy Kammerer, is a medical librarian who inspired me to undertake the adventure of a midlife career change.

I had worked as a molecular biologist and genomics researcher for over twenty years, primarily in biotech companies. I was eager to leave the for-profit scene and redirect my scientific knowledge into a service-oriented information career. The SJSU-SLIS program was the ideal choice. Judy forwarded me an e-mail advertising the MLA scholarship for a beginning MLIS student interested in medical librarianship. At first, I thought that chances of winning the award were pretty slim. On second thought, I decided that I had a unique background I could use to market myself. I was energized by the idea of leaving my job and starting a whole new career. I told myself, do not be shy – go for it!

Once you have found a possible match, the next step is to check the eligibility and application requirements and due dates. The MLA scholarship application required a simple form, transcripts, three recommendations, and an essay describing my career objectives. The first two were easy. Do not forget to submit your transcript requests well in advance of the deadline, since they may take several weeks to process. Requesting the recommendations was a little harder. I needed to think about not only who knew me well, but also who would best describe the strengths I could bring to a medical librarian career. If you are like me, the step of actually asking your colleagues for references is challenging. But everyone was very supportive, and they appreciated the fact that I supplied them with descriptions of the SJSU-SLIS program and MLA scholarship and a copy of my essay. The recommendations were the most difficult of the requirements to get in by the deadline. People get busy and forget, so I sent out gentle e-mail reminders the week before the deadline and followed up by phone a few days later. Even so, one of my references ended up having to FedEx her recommendation for next-day delivery.

Some organizations require an essay on a specific topic of interest. For example, the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Environment & Resource Management Division asks scholarship applicants to discuss issues facing information professionals in the environment and natural resources fields. But the majority of scholarship applications require an essay describing your personal background and professional goals and how these can advance the mission of the granting agency.

To write an essay that catches the attention of the reviewers, you will first need to think carefully about who you are (unique skills and experience) and where you are going (career goals and specific areas of interest). You will also need to read about the scholarship organization's history, mission, and challenges. When you find an overlap, you have identified a theme around which you can design your essay.

For myself, I decided that my experiences performing genomics research and genetic testing were a unique strength. I began my essay by speaking about how the rapid growth in genetic information is changing the practice of medicine. Then I described my academic and professional background and presented myself as a person ideally suited to help communicate new developments in genetics and pharmacogenomics research to medical students, professionals, and patients. All I needed was training in library and information sciences to develop the tools that would enable me to act as a bridge between the two worlds. Once I had identified the “hook,” the essay flowed naturally. If you are worried about writer's block, try devoting a set amount of time to research and thinking before you sit down at the computer. You may discover that the essay is easier to write than you had expected.

Many scholarships, awards, and grants are available for library and information science students. If you are a true funding entrepreneur like my sister, you can find financial support to cover your entire education – Judy paid for her first MLIS semester with three local scholarships and got the tuition reimbursed for her remaining semesters through the California State Library's "Public Library Staff Education Program." So be bold, figure out which options match your background and interests, and apply!

Kathy Elliott just completed her first semester in the SJSU-SLIS program and is looking forward to a career in an academic biomedical research or health sciences library.

The Reference Receptionist

2010-06-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

by Marissa Martin

I often feel that my work is a lot like the movie “The Wizard of Oz." This is not just because I spend all day thinking, “There's no place like home,” and wishing I had the power to hand out brains. Sometimes, my job emulates that of one of my favorite characters, the Great and Powerful Oz. Sure, you are probably thinking I might have an ego, but hear me out. Everyday I come in, a new person calls me seeking my disembodied voice because they believe it to be wise and filled with answers. Do you assume I am a reference librarian? But I do not work at a library. I am a receptionist at the Chamber of Commerce.

Like many other library students, I would love to find a job in the field. At this point, I would be happy to know my resume warranted at least some consideration before hitting the round metal filing cabinet on the floor. I live in Michigan, though, where the word “recession” was in common use long before the rest of the country followed suit. People may think the Midwest is not on the “cutting edge,” but we were trendsetters in this. Finding the dream job isn't an easy feat. I was lucky enough to land a good, steady job that could support me through graduate school, even if it did not seem likely to apply to my future field.

Before this job, I never really knew what a Chamber of Commerce did. When forced to guess during my interview, I said it had to do with business, and visitor's information. That is part of the story, but not all of it. To offer a very simple explanation, the Chamber is a member-based organization that provides a multitude of services to the businesses that pay to join. As their receptionist, I am expected to provide various support services to the main staff, answer phones, and greet visitors. It all seemed very simple and straightforward, and I came in on my first day expecting it to be pretty uneventful. “It's a job,” I said. Like all jobs, I hoped to learn something from it; I just assumed that what I learned wouldn't have much to do with library and information science. And then, the phone rang.

The questions I hear every day range from simple to thought-provoking, and occasionally border on alarming. An elderly man once asked me to spell the word “eagle” for him. No particular reason, he just could not remember how to spell it, and he was sure the Chamber could help him. My favorite reference question occurred when I arrived to work one morning to hear a 3-minute voicemail message from a woman who wanted to know a list of any famous and influential people that lived in this part of Michigan in the 15th and 16th centuries, among other things. I was not even sure where to begin in responding to that one, but she forgot to leave her contact information, so it was not an issue. She has not yet called back, but if you have any advice on how to handle it in case she does, your professional collaboration is encouraged.

At first, I was shocked by all the questions. I would never have thought to call the Chamber of Commerce with such questions, but for many people, I was the first person on their list when they did not know where else to look. Once I enrolled in the Reference and Information Services class in the SJSU-SLIS program, I was finally able to describe what I was experiencing, and realize that my seemingly uneventful job was unexpectedly providing me with excellent skills that could translate to my education and career objectives. My fellow receptionist joked that she sometimes felt like a 4-1-1 operator, but I feel more like a reference librarian.

I would say the most common questions I get are “ready reference." People want to know the size of the population in the county, where to get immunizations without health insurance, how to find scholarships for their high school graduate, and similar questions. None of these are services provided by the Chamber, but I was encouraged to try to answer them if I knew the correct answer and had time to do so. This is in order to foster good relationships and serve the community. And so I do, taking to heart the principles I learned in my class.

I follow the American Library Association's Reference Users Services Association guidelines. I attempt to engage the user and not only deliver them an answer, but show them how to use the very sources I employed to answer their question. I tell them the population, but not before telling them how to access census data for the area online. I have instructed quite a few callers on how to effectively use a search engine. At least a handful of Michiganders who had never heard the word “Boolean” before now incorporate it into their everyday work, and spend their time thinking of alternate keywords when their first try doesn't net them their desired results.

When the questions get more complicated, I do my best to point them in the right direction to get started, but then I suggest my favorite place to go with questions: the library. I explain to them how reference librarians are trained to help their patrons locate the answers to their questions, and have many resources at their disposal to help users find information. And then one lovely older woman told me, “You should do that job, sweetie. You would be good at it.” I explained to her that I was already studying for my Master's in Library and Information Science, and I hoped to one day find a job in the field. She laughed and said the school was training me well.

I came to the Chamber expecting to collect a paycheck and maybe learn something about my community, but I also learned an incredibly valuable lesson. Sometimes, we can gain experience in the most unexpected places. I do not have a lot of library-related experience, but I know that I can explain how my time at the Chamber of Commerce helped me become a better librarian to prospective employers. I am hoping to convince my bosses to change my official title to Receptionist and Reference Specialist. Either that or they could call me “The Wizard,” but I do not think that will get the right kind of attention for my resume. And I will always remember the lesson that, just like Dorothy's experience in Oz, you can make the best of situation, even if it is not where you thought you belonged. So until I find that dream job, I will be answering questions at the Chamber while clicking my heels together and saying “If I only had the money to pay back my student loans...”

Marissa lives in Midland, Michigan, and when not complaining about the snow, spends her time frantically looking for ways to increase her library experience. The search has recently paid off, as she has started her first paying job in the LIS world as a part-time analyst for a local research firm.

Reader's Theatre at the Library

2010-06-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

by Margo Tanenbaum

Looking for a fun and easy event suitable for kids in elementary school, as well as for tweens and teens? Try a reader's theatre event at your library. Reader's theatre can improve kids’ reading fluency, comprehension, and social skills - all skills the library is suitable for developing. Parts or roles are read rather than memorized. Small props can also be used, but there are usually no costumes. Some reader's theatre scripts are copyrighted, but free scripts can be found online or through books at your local library. An excellent series of links for reader's theatre are available through Scholastic’s website. For extra fun, write your own scripts!

I had extensive story time experience before my internship this semester at the Little Tokyo Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL), but I had never done any reader's theatre. The teen librarian kindly agreed to let me try a reader's theatre project with their after-school teen group. We decided to use the Greek myth of Bellerophon and the Chimera. This was a timely project given the success of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief book series and movie as well as the film Clash of the Titans.

Since I hadn’t looked at these stories in many years, I requested copies of different versions through LAPL’s interlibrary loan and used these to cobble together my own script. I decided to make masks to represent the different characters. I was able to find images through various free clip-art sites; I enlarged, printed, colored, and then mounted the images on cardstock to make them a bit sturdier. Craft sticks were taped to the masks to make them easier to hold. For props, I used a piece of gold braid for a golden bridle for Pegasus, a plastic sword, and a borrowed tin-foil/newspaper helmet, as well as a puppet of a fly on a stick, representing the gadfly who stings Pegasus.

Most of the kids who came to the activity were in elementary school, and some were as young as six. I was glad that some of the parts I had written did not really require any reading but just animal sounds like “roaring” or “neighing” since several of the children didn't read fluently yet.

At the beginning of the program, I first presented some background about Greek mythology. I used a whiteboard to draw a chart of the 12 major gods and goddesses. We reviewed the identities and the role of gods and heroes in Greek myths. Next was a “table read” (rehearsal while sitting at a table) of the script; after, we acted out the play. The kids were laughing at each other's antics and asked if they could do another play at another meeting. Afterwards, they each made a drawing of their favorite part of the story. Using these, we made a display with the Greek mythology books I had requested. The display enabled them to see how various artists had interpreted the story.

I was really delighted with how the program went and would be happy to pass along the script to anyone who is interested. It was a very inexpensive (virtually free) and educational program to organize. Writing my own script enabled me to tailor the length and number of parts. This is a program idea I would definitely do again for either teens or elementary school children. It would also be a great project for teens to present to younger patrons at the library.

Margo Tanenbaum is more than half-way through her library science degree. She looks forward to working as a children's or YA librarian. Her blog reviewing children's books is The Fourth Musketeer. She lives in Claremont, California, with her husband, two teenagers, a miniature poodle, and books in every room.

Seattle Public Library and K&L Gates Law Firm Library Tours

2010-06-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

By Katy DiVittorio

On Friday February 19, 2010 LISSTEN hosted a luncheon and tours of the Seattle Public Library (SPL) and the K&L Gates Law Firm Library. The majority of the students who attended the event were from the Seattle area, but students attended from Portland and one student came from California! The tours and lunch were a great opportunity to meet classmates and learn from professionals in the field.

The students first met for lunch at the restaurant Wild Ginger and discussed their experiences in the program and why they chose to attend SJSU-SLIS. Student Melanie Bottari said “It was great to meet other SJSU-SLIS students face to face. Since the University of Washington (UW) has a MLIS program, I wasn't expecting so many SJSU-SLIS students and it was very gratifying to meet them and hear about their experiences.”

After lunch the group went over to the SPL for the first tour. The tour started with a presentation by Jeff Christensen, Event Services Tour Coordinator, who discussed the history of the library. The 11-floor library was built in 2004 by the architect firm Rem Koolhaas. Building materials from the previous library were recycled and used in the new building. The library has Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification and was designed with growth in mind. LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system. A building designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance in energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts can earn LEED certification.

The library has a capacity for more than 1.45 million books and materials. There are approximately 5-7 thousand visitors a day and 20,000 items are checked out daily. Currently there are 1 million items in the collection and 9,906 shelves devoted to books. All of those books move around the library in a high-tech book-handling system that operates for the most part out of public view.

The tour group went behind the scenes with Tim Morrison, Operations Analysis and Enterprise Manager at SPL, to see the library’s automated materials handling system (AMHS), which uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to sort the books as they are returned to the library. RFID is being used in libraries to replace traditional barcodes on items. The tag contains identifying information, such as a book’s title. RFID saves time for patrons and staff, since multiple items can be checked in/out at once instead of scanning each item's barcode. It also works as a security device. Once the items are checked out the tag is deactivated, so that it will not set the alarm off.

The library has more than 400 computers for public use and wifi access. Just a few of the features the tour covered included: the Mixing Chamber where staff assist patrons; the Seattle Room, which contains the special collection of materials related specifically to Seattle; and the meeting room floor. The importance of clear signage and building design were emphasized by our guide. Mr. Christensen explained that the library was originally designed and built with very little directional signage. The escalators were also designed so that they skip floors. These design factors resulted in many patrons finding the library difficult to navigate. The library has since added more signs, but some patrons are still confused by the escalators skipping floors.

One of the highlights of the tour was talking with Jodee Fenton, Managing Special Collections Librarian of the Seattle Room. The group learned about some of the challenges of managing a special collection, including digitization, cataloging, and the damage call number labels and RFID tags can have on materials. This special collection differs from many other library special collections in that the public is allowed into its stacks.

After visiting the Seattle Room, the group went to the meeting room floor and was pleased by its unique design. Dark red curving walls met the students as they entered the level.

The group then headed across the street to the K&L Gates Law firm library to learn about law librarianship. K&L Gates is a large international law firm; most of the librarians provide legal and business reference services. Librarians who work in a law firm library have a specific clientèle consisting mostly of the firm's lawyers. This atmosphere is different from a public or academic library where reference librarians will often be assisting a wide variety of patrons. The subject areas are also very specialized, mostly in law or business.

LISSTEN tours provide a great opportunity to meet classmates in person, talk to professionals in the field, and get behind the scenes experiences of various libraries. To learn more about upcoming tours and networking opportunities visit LISSTEN.

Katy DiVittorio is the Reader Services Assistant at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, OR. She has completed her second semester in the SJSU-SLIS program. She is a LISSTEN Board Member and hopes to offer opportunities for students to network.

Photos by PJ Bentley.

gau ko vreji fi le samymri (or, Save the Email!)

2010-06-30T19:37:00.000-07:00

by Jennifer Davis

The origins of languages are not usually well-documented. But as the brand-new language, Lojban, is being created in modern times, with details and decisions being hammered out via electronic communication, there is an opportunity to capture the linguistics and history from the very start. I talked to Robin Powell, the web administrator for lojban.org, about archiving and preserving the language's history.

Lojban is described as "a carefully constructed spoken language designed in the hope of removing a large portion of the ambiguity from human communication" on the official Lojban site. The web page states that Lojban began development in 1987, and Robin Powell, web administrator, treasurer, and secretary of the parent organization, says that a related mailing list has been around since 1989. Recently he took it upon himself to collect the group's emails from various venues since that time and consolidate them into a Google group. His experience might serve as a template for other web historians or those who are interested in archiving public electronic records.

Robin is a Linux systems administrator for EngineYard. He's been working with the Lojban organization for years; he has helped publish a book on Lojban and has organized Lojban-related conferences. At the time of this interview, he had spent about 60 hours on the email project.

The following conversation was conducted, appropriately, via AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).

Acquisition

Jennifer: Can you describe how you've been ferreting out the emails? I assume you've had to look in multiple places?

Robin: Well, there was an archive that was on the site when I took it over. Which was woefully incomplete, and covered about 1989 to April 1998. Far from complete coverage in that range, too.

Jennifer: So where did you turn from there?

Robin: I've mostly been breaking it down by months; without a known-complete archive, and without being willing to go through by hand and look for mails that seem to be replying to nothing or not have replies or that sort of forensics, I can't ever know what I'm missing for sure. There are mails from most months in that time period in the old site archive, but not all. Then there's the archive I've kept since I took over handling the mailing list on my computer; that one, I trust implicitly, but it starts in mid-2002. From late 1998 through to that time, it was on ONElist, which got taken over by Yahoo Groups, which still exists. I was able to retrieve their mail. The rest was covered by simply asking members of the community for what they had, which was woefully incomplete, it turns out.

Jennifer: How did you do that, exactly? The Yahoo Groups part?

Robin: I found someone's script for extracting mails from Yahoo Groups (yahoo2mbox) . The Yahoo Groups archives cover about 28K mails, so not something I could do by hand. Then I had to deal with the address munging [a process of disguising email addresses]. For instance with old mails, they would come in as bob@XXXXXXXX.XXXX instead of bob@foobar.com, or whatever. That was semi-manual; hunt through the mails to find the real address, copy & replace throughout.

Jennifer: Where/how did you find the scripts?

Robin: The first script was something I had known about for years, and also friends mentioned it. The second was found through Google.

Jennifer: Were there any permissions issues for grabbing all those emails from Yahoo?

Robin: I can't see how there would be; it's a publicly accessible archive. I didn't ask, though.

Jennifer: Ah, okay...no membership required then?

Robin: I think if you're not logged in, you always get munged emails. If you are, only for the older ones. But I'm pretty sure you can see them without being logged in, other than that.

Format Conversion

Robin: It was trying to de-convert MHonArc emails that I ended up finding another script for. Well, MHonArc was one format. That's a system to archive mails on a website. So it converts them to HTML.

Jennifer: So then people sent you what they had stored up. What formats did they send them? Were they bundled, as in zip files?

Robin: They were all bundled. One of the people who sent me mails sent them already imported into MHonArc, which means they look nothing like UNIX mail files. But it turns out all the information, in particular the Message-ID, which is the most important bit, was in the MHonArc files.

So I started playing with de-converting them, because it covered periods I did not otherwise have coverage for, and discovered other people had already done that. I suspect the search I used to find the script was "mhonarc mbox", but I couldn't swear to it.

Jennifer: So it was good to have the MHonArc format in the end; it preserved more information?

Robin: I would MUCH rather have had a standard UNIX mailbox format. But it was better than nothing, and better than some of the other archives I was sent, which did not have Message-ID headers, which makes them nearly useless. Other than the MHonArc mails, there were mostly in variants of UNIX mailbox format; that is, plain text with some amount of headers.

I got enough that I have just shy of 60K mails (after extensive de-duplication) in the archive folders, and only a very small list of months have less than 30 mails, which is my arbitrary cutoff for "that month is probably missing stuff.'

Jennifer: Wow. So the MHonArc...does that give you a lot more info, or is it just a lot of header cruft?

Robin: A UNIX mail file with full headers is as much information as any mail format, at least for mail that's going out over the general Internet. Everything else is either (1) a strict subset (this is the most common), (2) a re-arrangement of the same data (MHonArc) or (3) contains idiosyncratic information particular to the person who archived the mail.

Jennifer: Did you ask for people's emails in email, IRC, or where?

Robin: I asked both in email and IRC. I did not specify format. Mostly it was zip or .tar.gz. In some cases it was one giant file with lots of mails in it. Which is a standard UNIX thing, actually; pretty much all mail used to be like that.

Jennifer: About what percentage response do you think you got? In terms of people who answered versus people you asked.

Robin: I asked a mailing list with about 800 members; I got perhaps half a dozen helpful responses. But then, only a few people have been around long enough to have decent archives anyways.

Jennifer: You got 6 responses out of 800?

Robin: I have everything from Jan 1999 on, you see. So I was asking for the stuff I didn't have.

Jennifer: Okay, then, 6 responses out of how many ideally? Like, how many major long-term players?

Robin: I actively communicated with every long-term player that I could easily get ahold of. I wasn't about to go rooting around for ancient email addresses or anything. Everyone I explicitly asked, responded. Just turns out that people's archives have been lost/destroyed in various ways. Or never existed. Several people simply didn't archive in the first place; short on disk space.

What Was Lost

Jennifer: Were there any stories of how others lost stuff?

Robin: Quoting: "I searched through the backups I have on my home computer and found complete mailbox copies for (1993-10 - 1996-02), (1996-04 - 1996-08) and (1996-11 - 1997-09) plus the whole of 1992 split into individual postings and converted to HTML. My personal mail archives at work (including the backups) were shredded when I retired so I cannot check whether there might have been any additional saved archives." One member lost his to a drive crash.

Jennifer: And as far as you know, none of the emails that you've saved through the years have been lost--i.e., you haven't had any of those disasters yourself?

Robin: I do not seem to have my own archives of Lojban list mail before about 2004, but then I didn't look carefully because I only joined the list in 2001, and as I said all that time period is covered. Certainly the archives that I caused to be made automatically once I took over the list are fully intact, and with complete headers, and formatted usefully, and so on. I went to some effort to ensure that. It's a thing--a personal goal/pride. The idea that a mailing list I run would not also, as a side effect, generate archivally - useful versions of itself is abhorrent to me.

Jennifer: Do you have more you think you need to collect?

Robin: There is more I would like to collect. I'm almost certain, for example, that we're missing much of March 1998. But I don't see any way to get it.

Archiving

Jennifer: So what else do you intend to do on this project?

Robin: The rest of it has been merging, converting, de-duplicating, and uploading to Google Groups. The actual goal here is two-fold: (1) have an as-pristine-as-possible archive of the list, and (2) move the list to Google Groups so I don't have to manage it anymore. I would feel bad if I moved it without also uploading a decent archive.

Jennifer: Are you doing these things by hand, per email?

Robin: Heh. There are, right now 47,855 emails that my scripts considered "good". Counting all the duplicates and rejects that I've expunged, the grand total is 95,554, it seems. Since if I took 30 seconds per email, that would be about 30 days of 24/7 work.

Jennifer: Okay. So how are you accomplishing those 4 fine things? Especially considering that you are dealing with emails in multiple formats--UNIX standard, MHoArc, and I assume others?

Robin: Variants on UNIX standard; missing headers, extra headers, that sort of thing. Many many mails without Message-ID, which is the worst. The one guy whose emails include, in the body above the regular text, a copy of some of the headers, for no apparent reason, blocked out in a special format. *shudder*

Jennifer: No unique identifier?

Robin: Correct.

Jennifer: So how are you doing these things?

Robin: Scripts. Some of which require a small amount of input from me, but mostly automated. Whole pile of scripts. Mostly /bin/sh, but also some Perl.

Jennifer: Have you done any testing on these scripts?

Robin: I suppose it depends how you define "testing." But certainly I test each before I let it loose on the archive as a whole. It's hard to recover from mistakes at this stage of the game.

Jennifer: Do you keep a copy of the originals?

Robin: As much as I can without causing myself too much extra work, yes. I have 3 or 4 copies of the whole archive right now, snapshots taken at various points.

Jennifer: So give me an example of testing.

Robin: Copying a month's worth of data and running the script on the copy. And then deleting and copying again, cuz it didn't work. :)

Jennifer: How can you tell it didn't work? You check a few? You read through the whole thing?

Robin: Depends on the script, and what it's supposed to do. Because of the nature of this process, I'm usually leaving debugging output turned on. So I'll watch that scroll past and eyeball for problems. Which means that every time the script makes a change, it either says what it's going to change, or shows me diffs [a UNIX command that finds all differences between two files] afterwards, or both. My basic testing usually means take a copy, running the script, and then diffing.

Jennifer: Where are you keeping all these copies?

Robin: On my hard drive? No particular organization, if that's what you're asking.

Jennifer: And how do you back that up? Nightly? Offsite?

Robin: Yep. It's all automated; has been for years.

Weeding for Duplicates

Robin: I actually haven't talked about any of the hard bits; I've had to do 3 different types of de-duplication, for example. Crazy stuff.

I have one script that, for any given month, compares all of the email bodies with all of the other email bodies stripped of whitespace, and considers any identicals to be duplicates and tosses one out. (Not permanently; it gets moved aside, that whole 95k vs. 48k thing) Got thousands of hits on that; no idea what information might have been lost (like if one copy says the mail is from Alice but the other copy says it's from Bob; I just toss one at random). But since the bodies are the same, any loss will be minor.

Another that does the same thing, but with the headers, ignoring the body. Because if all the headers are the same, it's the same mail; any differences are encoding, or errors. But again, since one mail might be an error and the other not, I may be losing information there, too. Which is why I don't actually throw them away; if someone comes back years later and says "Hey, where's the rest of this mail?", I want to at least have a chance of being able to answer the question. Got thousands of hits on that one too.

Third one is header-based, but respects Message-ID. It treats any two mails with the same message id as potential duplicates, but this one tries to be smarter; it tries tossing away some headers, and re-arranging others. If it can make the headers look identical by doing that, it calls them duplicates. If it can't, it asks me. Probably only a few hundred hits with that one, but since it's manual and I'm not done uploading, I'm not actually done running it.

I have almost everything automated at this point. The two stopping points are that I refuse to automate everything, because then things could get shredded and I'd never know, and Google Groups doesn't like how fast I'm uploading things. :)

Reuse?

Jennifer: Are those scripts that are so specialized to this process that no one else could use them, or could they be useful to others who might have to do something similar? And if the latter, would you be willing to make them available on your website?

Robin: That's kind of a toss-up; they're pretty idiosyncratic. I probably will make them available, but mostly undocumented. It just seems like way too much work at this point to document them properly, but I don't see any reason not to provide the scripts themselves and one-liner explanations.

Jennifer: Maybe they would be useful as a kind of template, for the types of things someone might need to do. Do you despair about having to archive emails that are "Me too!"--i.e., no useful content?

Robin: Not a bit. Because it's part of our history. Maybe someone flamed a "me too" poster in Lojban; that would be great historical stuff for us. If I worried about tossing useless mails, I'd have to risk losing context. And I don't have a prayer of wading through 50K mails for content anyways. :) Besides, bits are cheap.

Robin went on to comment that the project was far more work than he expected. He said that the community has been grateful for his work, which has helped fuel his ongoing efforts. He feels that these archives will provide insight into why decisions were made about language nuances. They will also document old usage because Lojban, even though it is a new language, has already evolved. This archive project, and others like it, are the new face of historical documentation. People like Robin with patience and training are needed to cull and preserve electronic conversations for archival purposes.

Jennifer is in her third year of a seven-year MLIS at SJSU. She hopes to become a data curator one day. In the meantime, she tests software part-time at a biotech company and savors one class per semester.

SCALL's "New Attorney's Research Skills" Workshop: A Learning & Networking Opportunity for Students Interested in Law Librarianship

2010-06-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

by Sandy Li

Upon entering SJSU's SLIS program, I was in a situation that I think many fellow SJSU-SLIS graduate students can relate to - specifically, I had very little experience in the field of library science. Having worked at many law-related jobs before entering the program, I did not have a long list of library-related jobs that would demonstrate my interest in the field. Making a career change, I knew, would not be easy. Despite these hurdles, I knew that the best way to meet any challenge was head-on.

One of the first steps I took was to gain more information about the area of library and information science that interested me. My particular interest is in law librarianship and I recently joined Southern California Association of Law Libraries (SCALL). The organization is a great way to meet other law librarians, network, and gain valuable insights about the field.

On May 21, 2010, SCALL presented the "New Attorney's Research Skills: What They Have vs. What They Need" Workshop at the USC Gould School of Law. At the workshop law librarians from law firms and law school libraries discussed a variety of relevant topics, such as how to teach law students who are digital natives versus digital immigrants, and how to keep law students engaged in learning about legal research.

Workshops like this are ideal opportunities for SJSU-SLIS students like myself, who want to learn more about a particular library science field. There is certainly no better way to learn what law librarians from both the private and academic sector do than to attend this workshop.

For example, the workshop included a dynamic roundtable discussion, where law firm librarians, law school instructors, legal research instructors from the private sector, and former law school students discussed a range of topics. These topics ranged from what material to teach in legal research classes to the types of research skills expected of new attorneys. The participants of the discussion presented thoughtful opinions and perspectives based on their real-life experiences. Just from listening to the dialogue, I felt that I had learned a great deal about the field.

The workshop is also an excellent way to meet other law librarians and develop contacts. By networking with other library professionals, you can find out if an organization needs interns. You can also find out how these library professionals obtained their present positions. Additionally, by attending events such as these in an area of your interest, you are demonstrating to future employers your passion and commitment to the field.

Hopefully, I'll see some of you at future SCALL events.

Sandy Li just finished her second semester at SJSU-SLIS and is interested in becoming an academic law librarian.

"The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb's Book of Genesis" Tour at the Hammer Museum

2010-06-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

By Alison Leonard

Do you recognize the name Robert Crumb? No? Crumb is famous as a subversive comic strip artist whose work was mostly in the public eye during the late 1960's and early 70's. Crumb is perhaps most famous for his artwork and associated slogan, "Keep on Truckin'!," originally published in underground Zap Comics in 1968.

ALASC Co-Chair Susie Quinn helped organize a tour at the Hammer Museum of the exhibit, "The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb's Book of Genesis." The exhibit featured all 207 original panels from Crumb’s new graphic novel entitled, "The Book of Genesis Illustrated." The exhibit was displayed in a circular room that contained a smaller circle within it. The black and white comic panels covered all the walls. The tour was led by Danica Gomes, UCLA Art History major and Student Educator at the Hammer Museum. After the tour, the group gathered in the museum's courtyard for lunch at the Hammer Cafe.

Crumb stayed true to the story of the Book of Genesis using several sources, including the King James Version of the Bible, but mostly Robert Alter’s recent 2004 translation of "The Five Books of Moses." Crumb concludes his colossal project with an eight-page commentary in which he states, "In setting out to illustrate the Book of Genesis, I quickly learned that I had to read the text very carefully and closely in order to render as accurately as possible the words that were actually written there."

He goes on to say, "If my visual, literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis offends or outrages some readers, which seems inevitable considering that the text is revered by many people, all I can say in my defense is that I approached this as a straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes. That said, I know that you can't please everybody."

Pleasing everyone, or anybody for that matter, was never what Crumb was about. He is frequently criticized for his obsession of overly sexual images of women often portrayed in submissive roles.

This project is not a departure from the raunchy material followers of Crumb are used to seeing. The biblical storyline in the Book of Genesis lends itself to Crumb’s appreciation of sex and violence. In an NPR interview he said he focused on the illustrations because, "...the stories are so strange it doesn’t need satirizing…it stands up on its own as a comic book."

Crumb drew in black and white ink, complete with the use of plenty of White-Out®. The project took four years to complete, and on average, Crumb did one page every three days with about six to eight vignettes per page. His wife, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, remarked that the project required him to go into “monastic isolation” to complete. However, the end result of his efforts was the completion of all 50 chapters of Genesis in just 224 pages, in what may go on to become the most definitive version of the illustrated book of Genesis.

During the project, Crumb pondered his rendition of God. He considered varied images including a woman and the patriarchal Charlton Heston-like version. His decision to settle on the latter came to him in a dream. Crumb is fuzzy when it comes to reasons about why he embarked on the project. He started by drawing a satirical version of Adam and Eve and apparently at some point, the project evolved from there. A neighbor may have pushed him to do more, as he recalls. But before the project was even completed, Crumb said, "I am completely sick of the Bible. I began to hate it when I started working on it. I’ve had my fill. The idea that millions of people have taken it so seriously – is totally nuts. The human race is crazy." That definitely sounds like something Crumb would say.

Hollywood and the art world have tried again and again to embrace Crumb in various ways. But Crumb does not always answer the art world’s call. However, it seems his work has made it to the Hammer Museum one way or another. I also discovered that the founder of the underground comic movement somehow decided that the Internet is good enough for him. You can check out his site and items he has for sale there at http://www.crumbproducts.com/index.html.

Alison has a background in fundraising with Haiti Democracy Project, Meridian International Center-a contractor for the U.S. Department of State and WNVC International Public Television. Alison holds an undergraduate degree in history from Virginia Tech, and a Masters in International Transactions from George Mason, which included study abroad at Oxford in England. She enjoys swimming laps, biking and hiking.

Letter from the Editors: Fall 09 Issue

2010-01-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

Those of us in library school believe that libraries continue to maintain their importance in society. We value them as repositories, museums, monuments, sacred spaces, and gathering centers. If you think about it, the potential of libraries is limitless.

Special libraries offer unpredictability and unique opportunities for library graduates who may not want to serve in public or academic settings. As an intern at a local transportation planning agency in the library and data center, I (Tiffany) have been able to learn more about Sacramento local government, urban planning, land use, and public transportation in northern California. Special libraries, and organizations that contain special libraries and collections, offer alternatives to graduates interested in taking a slightly less traditional library career path.

Of course, not all of us will end up working in libraries. Information science, defined by ODLIS as “…the systematic study and analysis of the sources, development, collection, organization, dissemination, evaluation, use, and management of information in all its forms…”, is a growing specialty. Our skills in these areas give SJSU-SLIS graduates transferable value to a variety of industries. As I (Robyn) take on the job search for professional librarian positions, I am finding that a number of jobs incorporate library science principles into their daily routines. I have interviewed for the following positions because of my LIS background: grant writer, community research specialist, thesaurus editor, and, of course, library substitute. Thinking outside of the box to incorporate the "information science" portion of our skills can only enrich any profession we enter.

For the Fall 2009 semester issue of The Call Number, we invited students to tell us about their experiences with special libraries, information science, and as usual, we bring you information about LISSTEN events and activities. Please submit comments to authors and be a part of the conversation.

Enjoy!
Robyn Gleasner & Tiffany Mair

Thank you, Robyn!

2010-01-18T14:09:00.000-08:00

by Tiffany Mair

Robyn Gleasner graduated in Fall 2009 so this is her last issue as co-newsletter editor. Please join me in congratulating and thanking Robyn for her hard work! We'll miss you, Robyn. Your contributions have been invaluable.

Please keep us updated on your library career. I know it will be a successful one!

Making the Most of Your Internship

2010-01-18T07:03:00.000-08:00

by Audrey Pearson

By now you’ve all heard about how important it is to do an internship while in the SJSU-SLIS program. Traditional advice tells us that internships are a way to gain practical experience, find people who are willing to give references, and possibly get hired down the road. While all of this is true, there are a few other ways to maximize an internship experience, as I found out at my own internship in summer 2008.

After working as a library assistant in special collections departments, I thought I might be interested in becoming a rare book cataloger. However, I did not want to make a commitment to this career path without having some experience to determine whether or not I wanted to devote myself to it. Fortunately, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University advertised several paid summer internships in four areas of special collections technical services: archives, preservation, digital collections, and, to my delight, rare book cataloging and acquisitions. After submitting my application letter, resume, and letters of recommendation, I was invited to interview by telephone, and was later offered the rare book cataloging and acquisitions internship.

At my internship I gained hands-on, practical experience in cataloging and acquisitions. However, my overall internship experience extended much further than strictly learning a set of technical skills. Here are some of the ways that I was able to maximize my summer at Yale, which I recommend for anybody completing an internship.

1) Go to lunch, often.

This sounds like a no-brainer, but it really made a difference. I typically always bring my lunch to work, but would have missed making many of the connections I did had I not gone out to lunch with members of the Yale library community at least once a week, and often more frequently. Of course, I went to lunch with the other interns as well as my internship supervisors. However, I also went to lunch with librarians and staff I did not work with directly, as well as with librarians from other departments and other campus libraries. Our internship coordinator even arranged for us to go to lunch with University Librarian Alice Prochaska and Associate University Librarian for Human Resources Diane Young Turner. Can’t do lunch? We also frequently went out for an after-work beer at Rudy’s, a bar a few blocks away from the Beinecke. Food and drink makes for great bonding experiences, and really helped to build human relationships outside of the office.

2) Volunteer to participate in an activity outside of your internship.

Every month, or so, Yale archivists from across the library system meet for an informal discussion on a topic of interest to the archival community, usually centering around an article or two. The Intern Brigade (as we came to be known) was invited to participate in one session of the Yale Archival Reading Group (YARG). Following this initial meeting, we were asked if we would like to host a future meeting by selecting an article and leading the discussion. Of course we jumped at the opportunity. Our selected topic was “Diversity in the Archival Profession.” By leading this discussion, we were able to present our own ideas to a large group of respected archivists, and to represent the next generation of leadership in the profession. Focusing on problems of diversity allowed us to explore a current topic that is often uncomfortable, but is hugely relevant to the state of the profession.

3) Stand up and share.

Because it was the first year the Beinecke had this internship program, we were asked to each give a short presentation regarding our individual internship experiences. We were asked to speak about our specific projects, as well as our overall experiences and observations. The presentation was open to anybody in the Yale library community who was interested, and there was a very large turnout. Speaking in front of a group can be intimidating, but this opportunity gave us great practice for future presentations, such as giving papers at conferences or speaking to large audiences at job interviews. The best way to become comfortable speaking in public is to practice, and the room full of librarians is nothing but encouraging. Best of all, we were able to convey our appreciation for the opportunities and guidance we received to the community that made it possible.

By putting myself out there and pushing to stretch my internship for all it was worth, I was able to network and increase my marketability as a librarian candidate. I’ve already been recommended for a position by one of the Beinecke librarians I met during my internship, without my prior knowledge of the recommendation. Librarians are eager to welcome new colleagues and fresh perspectives to the field. Make sure that you’re remembered as more than a student who showed up, did some work, and left. Work to be seen as a future colleague.

Audrey Pearson received her MLIS in May 2009 and has recently been appointed Vail Cataloger at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

An Online Library For Local Needs

2010-01-18T06:59:00.000-08:00

by Annie Murphy

Librarians are amazing. In schools and corporations, in small towns and big cities, and even on ships, they help patrons from school children to senate aides find information they need. Need stock quotes? Drug side-effects? The population of the Czech Republic? These information experts know the quickest and most reliable route to get you the answers.

But how about helping people find a plumber? Dentist? Cuban restaurant? Where do you look? The Yellow Pages? Good idea, but what if you don't have one of those 1,300 page books handy? And what if you want a caterer in Indianapolis but you're in El Paso? Why, of course, head to the Internet! Want to see your choice of hairdresser or handyman before you meet them? Head to YouTube!

People need all kinds of information and a big part of a librarian's job is organization and indexing. That is my duty as a copywriter/SEO Analyst at AT&T Interactive. I am part of a team that watches promotional videos for businesses (mostly local, but some nationwide), writes engaging copy for the ad, and then formulates keyword search terms so that someone wondering, "Where can I get a decent tattoo in Kansas City?" can not only find a vendor to meet their needs, but also watch its promotional video on YouTube, putting a human face on the business. Results can be pulled up via an organic search (i.e., a search using natural language from the search engine of your choice) or also found more directly on YouTube's Yellowpages.com.

I helped develop a database, an online information center, by creating the copy, the keywords and then entering them into an interface. Simply put, I categorize videos according to their content. Now as any indexer (or anyone who has taken LIBR 247) will tell you, conceptual analysis can be tricky. A seemingly straightforward plumber promo can also meet the needs for home improvements and new construction needs. Dentists can whiten and straighten your teeth, but may also treat sleep disorders. Pawn shops pay top cash for jewelry but also offer great buys on guitars and tools. It's important to include terms which will aggregate similar businesses while including keywords for distinction and precision. It's also just as important to know what not to include. For example, an auto dealer with an espresso kiosk is not a coffee house, credit counseling firms are not bankruptcy attorneys, and vocational programs are not universities.

My former supervisor, Asif Ahmed, the creator of the project, gave me expert advice on how to write descriptions and search terms, words which may help anyone else indexing or cataloguing any kind of collection. Descriptions should arouse searcher's interest, but never replace the product (i.e., don't tell every aspect of the video, book, etc.). Keywords should point people toward information they seek and gather helpful sources, in my case videos for businesses that may meet a user's needs. It must be noted, of course, that searchers may get results that aren't helpful; however, they should never feel deliberately misled. The broad term "green cleaning" will retrieve videos for janitorial services, auto detailers and dog groomers who use natural products. You might only want your car washed, but you'll understand why you pulled up the other videos. The same scenario could happen for the public library patron who, looking for traits in chemotherapy patients, pulls up results for astrological books dealing with those born under the sign of Cancer.

On the other hand, it's necessary to include terms that improve precision. Hungry for barbecue? Texas style? Korean barbecue? Need an attorney for a divorce or DUI defense? With online searching, people want something NOW, and for those able to specify their needs, qualifying keywords and terms shorten the search. The same holds for lawyers looking for articles in law libraries and students looking for data for term papers.

What does it take to perform well on this job? Like anyone working in the information field, it helps to keep up on the lingo that people are currently using. "Plumbers" is still a viable term (and the one that I use), but many folks now look for "plumbing contractors," so our videos receive both tags. This is the same for automobile technicians and mechanics, pest control and exterminators, window treatments and blinds. Moreover, as any reputable librarian will tell you, it's wise to keep abreast of your patron's needs. Green, environmentally friendly, and eco-friendly are all hot terms today, and energy efficient is popular with anybody doing home improvement projects.

It also pays to know your retrieval system as well as your collection. I am fortunate to have a smart and savvy coworker, Andrew Kinh, who is a whiz at explaining certain aspects of the database. This knowledge has proven invaluable to me. Working closely together, we make search terms consistent to make our vocabulary more uniform and efficient. We also discuss trends and exchange ideas which helps make copy writing easier. (I genuinely enjoy watching people promote their businesses, but it can be hard to be fresh on the 18th dentist video of the day.)

Basically the point of indexing these videos is to create a searchable, coherent collection and help searchers find answers to their needs quickly. I help the entire online community– home owners, church goers, people with friends in jail – find the services they need – funeral homes, hookah lounges, bail bond agents. Although my workplace is not lined with books (and it's anything but quiet), the first rule of the American Library Association's Bill of Rights states: " . . . library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community. . .". In that way, I am a true librarian.

Annie Murphy will finish her MLIS studies this coming year but is nowhere near finished seeking answers.

Creating a New Classification System for Art

2010-01-17T20:57:00.000-08:00

by Lee-Ann Liles

Imagine this. In front of me is a massive collection of books, nearly 40 shelves filled with 700 art books, and I alone volunteered to tackle the project. It developed into something bigger, more complicated and time-consuming than I could have anticipated. That was me over a year ago.

The Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art had a collection of art books which desperately needed cataloging, but from the request on the Centre on Philanthropy website, I had gathered it would be a small office-sized collection. The books were shelved in the member’s lounge that filled one wall of the room—yet the size of the collection was not my greatest obstacle. In actuality, my biggest problem was that I was not a librarian and I had little experience in the library science field. Luckily, the sobering effect of this knowledge fostered creativity in me and I was able to get started.

In June 2008, I began to meticulously sift through the stacks of books. I immediately found them an interesting study. The artists in the collection ranged from Ansel Adams to James McNeil Whistler. There were also books on the MET and the Sistine Chapel, as well as books covering art from just about every region and on every artistic movement that ever came about. I began to realize that I had made a wise decision taking on the project.

The Masterworks Museum itself was brand new, only opening to the public in 2008 and I was thrilled to come on board. This was a chance of a lifetime; the perfect opportunity to dabble in a field I had always appreciated. Only, I worried over the arrangement. The members’ lounge was designed to offer in-house reference and reading material and because it would function like the small libraries one would find at internet cafés, coffee houses and on cruise ships.

I spent long periods of time mesmerized by the shelves, sorting them in my mind and many nights I created lists in my sleep. I consulted librarians at the Bermuda National Library as well as an appraisal archivist with a library science background, on the best way to arrange a collection which would not be circulated. With their notes and a creative twist, I came up with a plan, a standard which outlined the collection. I call them the three S’s. In order for the arrangement to work, it most importantly needed to be: Specific, Simple and Searchable.

1. Specific. I had to design the arrangement so that it was specific to art books in particular.

I realized that I could not completely use one classification like the Dewey Decimal Classification (DCC) or the Library of Congress systems, because it would complicate the project. After consulting the Technical Librarian at the Bermuda National Library—which uses the DDC System—I realized that the DDC was great, but I only needed some of the subject areas and numerical codes were not necessary for this collection. For instance, I did not use the subject area “Computer science,” but I did use “Biographies” because there were many books on the artists' lives. Essentially, I used the DDC only for the subject order as demonstrated by the Bermuda National Library.

2. Simple. I had to ensure the arrangement was not too complicated for both Masterworks staff and its members to locate what they needed.

Each book was arranged as closely to its subject as possible, though it could be cross-referenced. Books were divided into two categories: Artists and Subjects. They were then labeled with the call number “A” for artist or “S” for subject.
Artist books were arranged first in alphabetical order. Then each title under that artist was arranged in an alphabetical sub-grouping. The first three letters of the artist’s surname were used as an identifier in the code, eg. Books on Vermeer would bear the code: A.VER
Subject categories were arranged in applicable categories: how-to books, museums & private collections, art movements, Bermuda art books, etc. Subject codes would be identified by the first three letters in the category, eg. American Painting by Marchetti would be coded S.REG (region).

3. Searchable. I had to ensure that each book was accounted for and could be found easily using the finding aid.

A handwritten card was used to keep track of each book and a booklist was compiled. Each book was labeled with its designated call number and placed alphabetical order on the shelf. All in all, the library would not be difficult to peruse and it should serve its purpose well.

While working in two hour increments for roughly three days a week, I have put in over 25 hours with volunteer services. By fall 2009, I am finally rounding the corner to finishing the project. Out of this experience, I have gained great hands-on knowledge on designing a classification system. Plus I have experienced what goes on behind the scenes in the life of a Cataloging Librarian. I could probably tell you a thing or two about art as well.

I am now library assistant at the Bermuda College Library and my ultimate goal is to become a Reference Librarian. It is something that I strive for with mild intimidation, but as Joseph Chilton Pearce once said, "To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong," and having overcome this fear before, I am willing to take that chance.

Lee-Ann Liles is currently working at the Bermuda College Library as a library assistant. She has gained background experience at the Bermuda Archives and the Bermuda National Library and will be starting her MLIS in January 2010.

Scott Gruber: Information Architect

2010-01-16T20:53:00.000-08:00

by Juliana Espinosa

I wish I could claim I was motivated by my own sheer genius to write this article, but alas, credit goes to my coworker, Scott Gruber. My current place of employment is UCLA where I serve as the Assistant Director at a research center that specializes in scholarly work conducted on the region of South Asia. Being a Bruin certainly has its benefits, one of which is the opportunity to work with a myriad of talented folks. I will focus on one of these gifted colleagues, Scott Gruber. In one of our meetings, he mentioned his role as an information architect for UCLA that led me to investigate the inner workings of his job.

Scott’s official title of Web Designer and Producer only hints at the wide range of sectors within the Instructional Technology department in which he serves. The Instructional Technology department is comprised of four full time staff members who each head a specific facet, such as database management, technology support, and programming. In turn, they are supported by four part time staff members. Scott’s specialty is web producing and information and content design. Responsible for building websites for 18 various research centers, he also manages and designs how information is arranged and presented.

Scott attended the University of California Santa Barbara from 1985-89 for his undergraduate degree in Chinese language and culture. Upon graduation, he remained in Santa Barbara for two years where he worked as a Community Interdependent Living Skills Instructor for developmentally disabled adults. Enticed to return to Asia, where he studied abroad at Beijing University in 1987-1988, he moved to Taiwan and was the only foreigner in computer technical support at Taiwan Telecommunications Network-Service. This experience provided an introduction to the wonderful world of information technology. When he returned to the United States, he accepted a position as a program assistant for the UCLA Center for Pacific Rim Studies. This opened the doors to his present arrangement.

Our conversation then turned to what I think will be of most help to Library and Information Science students: how one maintains a successful job in information technology. Scott offered the following nuggets of wisdom:

1. Build strong communication skills
Scott talked at length about the asset of good communication skills. Having a degree in a foreign language as well as experience working in a foreign country helped him learn how to communicate on an individual level and as a team member (with and without a language barrier). Scott suggested LIS students have exposure in a working environment that forces one to collaborate and foster partnerships. Scott also stated the necessity of building an openly communicative team with professionals that mesh with your work style.

2. Practice in your personal life to improve in your professional life
As a self taught information architect, Scott stresses the need to apply acquired skills and encourages the development of new skills by practicing in your personal life. Since feedback is limited in determining what level one’s content management, design, and programming skills are, the best way to find out is to simply practice and stay current with new technology. For example, find a website’s style that appeals to you and try to incorporate aspects of it into your personal website. Practice will improve the rate of success in your professional life.

3. Know your strengths
What Scott likes most about his job is being able to provide instant service that is relevant and functional to the user. Knowing his strengths in customer service, he minimizes the risks in a project by conducting a reference interview, much like in library reference services. This question and answer session helps both him and the user determine the goal of the project and each person’s responsibility to achieve a satisfactory deliverable. As in reference services, many times the user is unsure of the exact information required. Scott not only handles the practical aspects of maintaining the various websites, but also serves as a reference point in information technology for the research centers.

4. Keeping people at the center of design
Working with Scott has been an enjoyable experience due to his approachability in both his personal demeanor and his professional style. Unlike many other IT personnel I have worked with in the past, Scott has a strong empathy for the users. Rather than just building a website, he stresses the importance of taking the time to think like a first time user to determine the value of added content (or lack thereof), the intuitive navigation of a site, and the architecture as a whole. All of this is done in layman’s terms with a pleasant disposition, which makes it easy to work as part of a successful team.

Prior to LIBR 200, Information and Society, I never heard of the term “information architecture” nor did I know it was a viable career option for Library and Information Science graduates. It was refreshing to discover a new vocation option with an LIS degree and reassuring to hear Scott speak fondly of his position. As my academic career progresses, I hope I can apply some of Scott’s wisdom in my future professional career.

Juliana Espinosa is a wet behind the ears new LIS student with a B.A. in Anthropology and minor in Global Peace and Security from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She currently resides in Santa Monica, CA, and works at UCLA. This is her first article for LISSTEN's The Call Number. Please feel free to contact her at Juliana.espinosa@students.sjsu.edu.

Zoological Society of San Diego Library Tour

2010-01-16T15:48:00.000-08:00

by Holly Langdon and Kate Vigderson

A group of approximately 30 SJSU-SLIS students had the opportunity to tour the Zoological Society of San Diego Library in Escondido, CA, on Monday, November 16, 2009. A notice about the tour was posted on the “SoCal SJSU MLIS” Facebook page and also sent out on the SLISadmin listserv. The response was so overwhelming that Linda Coates, the Director of Library Services, agreed to accommodate more students, so the many students on the waiting list could attend.

On the day of the event, Ms. Coates gave a wonderfully organized and informative tour and presentation of this very unique library. The morning began with a tour of the Zoo’s Beckman Center for Conservation Research, which is located next to the Wild Animal Park. Ms. Coates pointed out many of the components, including the use of recycled materials in the construction, which earned the center a Silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. She explained that everyone who works in the building has a similar philosophy and a common purpose regarding conservation. Another highlight of the center tour included seeing the “Frozen Zoo,” a collection of frozen DNA samples from various endangered species. The "Frozen Zoo" provided the DNA used to map the elephant genome and the rare opportunity to see the California Mountain Yellow Legged Frog, an endangered species the center has been working to save.

Following the building tour, Ms. Coates gave an excellent PowerPoint presentation about what it’s like to be a special librarian. She regaled the group with stories of the unusual requests for information she has received in her time at the library and the extraordinary lengths she goes to fill them. Describing the vets that care for the animals as not particularly “techie," she finds her help is invaluable to them. One example she gave was of a researcher looking for a book about the Goliath frog. She was surprised that there had been almost no information written about this mammoth animal that weighs up to 8 pounds and stretches up to 13 inches long. Animals such as this frog are not classified as charismatic mega organisms like lions and giraffes, so there was a dearth of information. Since there were no articles available in any databases, she called a colleague at a library across the country who was able to track down an article that had been published in a book, scan and send the PDF to her; she was then able to give that information to the researcher who used it in her paper.

As Library Director, Ms. Coates realizes that it’s the strong network of friends and colleagues she has developed that helps her find the information she’s after. One of the topics she touched on was that people in the library community tend to say things like “Everything’s online now anyway, so we’ll be able to find everything we need on the Internet.” This is not the case for her, as much of the information she and the vets at the Zoo and Wild Animal Park refer to is published in hard copy books and newsletters. It would take months, if not years, to convert it to a medium that could be posted online, and in the meantime people need her help finding information immediately, such as the researcher looking for the coloration of the Goliath frog. Ms. Coates also discussed her work in compiling and distributing a digest called "Latest Zoo and Conservation News". Although this task takes up about 50% of her time, she considers it to be well worth it because staff appreciates having the information and the digest helps demonstrate the value of the library. Ms. Coates' presentation illustrated the joys and challenges that come with being a special librarian, a dream to which many of us aspire.

After the presentation, Ms. Coates gave a tour of the library’s collection which is made up of over 11,000 books, and over 400 print journal titles. The group got a chance to browse the shelves and see that in addition to current literature, rare and out-of-print books are what makes this collection so unique.

A short survey was sent out via email after the tour to get participants' thoughts about what they enjoyed about the tour and what they took away from the experience. Of the sixteen responses received, many commented that they appreciated the opportunity to get a “behind the scenes” look at what a special librarian really does and the constant vigilance and effort needed to keep the parent organization aware of the value and relevance of the library. Many also appreciated learning about all of the great resources the library website has to offer as well as the many resources Ms. Coates uses to answer the variety of reference questions she gets. One participant via SurveyMonkey summed it up this way, “Understand your users. Satisfy their information needs even if you have to search the globe.” Some students commented that seeing how much Ms. Coates enjoys her job opened up new career possibilities to them.

There are several internship opportunities available at the Library for Spring and Fall 2010, including both library and archival projects, so consult the SLIS Internship Database and/or contact Linda Coates if you’re interested!

Holly Langdon is currently a student in her third term at SJSU-SLIS; she plans to graduate in Spring, 2011.

Kate Vigderson, a LISSTEN member-at-large, organized the Zoo Library tour. She is currently in her final year of the SJSU-SLIS program and she plans to graduate in May 2010.

Photos taken by Kate Vigderson.

SJSU Students celebrate Banned Books Week

2010-01-16T15:37:00.000-08:00

by Matthew Davis

On Sunday, October 4, 2009, the King Library hosted a Banned Books Week read-a-thon. This was one of four Banned Books Week events jointly sponsored by ALASC and LISSTEN. Other events were held in Fullerton, on Elluminate, and in Second Life.

Banned Books Week is an annual tradition, occurring the last week of September, when we celebrate the freedom to read. Banned Books Week, founded in 1982 by Judith Krug, the long-time director for ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom. LISSTEN Treasurer, Gayle Pellizzer, dedicated a special presentation to Judith Krug's accomplishments and contributions at this year's event in honor of Judith Krug's passing in April 2009.

During the read-a-thon, students read banned or challenged books, including a diverse selection of titles, including Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut to Freakanomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J Dubner. Most students found titles from ALA lists and when possible, students explained why the books were banned or challenged. Some of the books, like James Joyce's Ulysses, were tried for obscenity (United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, 1933) and are somewhat tame or humorous by today’s standards.

Also during the read-a-thon, a raffle was held for audience members. Some of the door prizes awarded were Banned Books Week pins, tote bag, $10 Amazon gift card, and a copy of the Kite Runner. There were also opportunities to make Banned Books Week bookmarks using crafts donated by a member of ALASC. Refreshments were served.

Please join us in the fun next year at one of our Banned Books Week celebrations. Check out the LISSTEN website for information about future events.

Matthew T. Davis is the LISSTEN President. He will graduate in May of 2010 and hopes to work in the archival field.

Need the perfect decal to brighten an office or car window? Check out the new SJSU-SLIS decal!

2010-01-16T15:29:00.000-08:00

by Gayle Pellizzer

LISSTEN is excited to announce the arrival of our very own San Jose State University SLIS window decal. Each decal is approximately three by five inches, oval shaped, clear, and easily removable. Great for SJSU-SLIS students, faculty, and alumni!

Each decal can be shipped directly to your home or office for only $3.00 per decal. We also have SLIS lanyards available for $4.00 each. Or, for an even better deal, you can purchase a decal and a lanyard for just $5.00! All prices include postage and shipping.

Click here to place your order or fill out the order form, and mail it to:

LISSTEN
c/o Gayle Pellizzer
2374 North Rock Creek Drive
Los Banos, CA 93635

Although LISSTEN cannot accept online payments at this time, mailed checks or money orders are always welcome.

All funds raised from merchandise sales help support LISSTEN’s numerous professional networking events, including resume and interview workshops and library tours. Show your school pride and love for libraries by purchasing a SJSU-SLIS decal today!

Gayle Pellizzer is LISSTEN’s Co-Treasurer and will receive her MLIS in May 2010. Feel free to email her directly at gpellizz@gmail.com with any questions regarding LISSTEN fundraisers or donations.

Welcome to the Spring 2009 issue of The Call Number!

2009-06-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

As the newsletter is transitioning to blog format this season, we thought it would only be appropriate to focus this issue on change and transition. As we move through the SJSU-SLIS program, graduate and begin our information careers, change will be a constant element in our lives.

We hope that you will enjoy reading some of the many perspectives on change and transistions related to graduate school and professional work.

We invite you to comment on the following stories and engage conversations with authors and the editors. How will you approach the changes and transitions you will undoubtedly experience as a part of your educational and professional experiences?

Sincerely,
Robyn Gleasner and Tiffany Mair, Co-Newsletter Editors

Constantly Transitioning into Change

2009-06-11T01:22:00.000-07:00

by Robyn Gleasner

Change. It is the constant in our equation for life. Now I’m sure you’re wondering, “How exactly can change be constant?” Change and transitions have been around since the beginning of time. Without change, without evolution, languages can die, cultures can be forgotten, and ideas can be lost. Without these vital components, human life would not be as we know it. Thus, change is inevitable for success and for survival.

And yet, since the beginning of recorded time in those early Lascaux caves, people have feared change. It challenges our very core, our epigenetic beliefs and innate taxonomies, our moral compasses of right and wrong – where and how we classify things; good or bad/heaven or hell, T (Library of Congress classification for technology) or N (Library of Congress classification for visual art). For example, the printing press revolutionized life in the 1400’s, making it possible for Martin Luther to spread his ideas in the 1500’s to lead the Reformation. Martin Luther did not believe there should be an intermediary between an individual and God. This meant that people should be able to read and interpret the Bible for themselves without a priest. With Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press this was a possibility.

The technology forced people to change – common people could embrace this technology and in their minds come closer to God. Because common people now had access to information that previously had belonged only to the Church, the government and the Church's way of thinking and way of life was also challenged. The saying “knowledge is power” has been ingrained in society for a very long time. For example, between 1751 and 1772 Diderot printed his Encyclopedia or Dictionary of the Sciences, the Arts, and the Professions. While we may consider these huge volumes of information of encyclopedic knowledge outdated today, in the 1700’s they were quite revolutionary, especially with the Church. These books had information to teach people how to dye their own cloth as well as a number of other things that only the Church had access to previously. Diderot and his encyclopedia provided an opportunity for people to step onto equal ground with the authorities. It is no wonder that the Church was afraid of such a transition.

Just as in the 1500’s and the 1700’s, technology again has forced us to change today. The Internet and hypertext have opened us to a wide new realm of possibilities for the dissemination of information. Similar to Diderot’s encyclopedia, Wikipedia has been criticized and praised for its groundbreaking attempts to supply the public with the largest range of information subjects written by common people. And once again we have to grapple with our epigenetic need for authority control and our conventional and safe scholarly citations. Wikipedia is providing an opportunity for all people to exist on the same information plane, both scholars and high school students alike. Change is certainly a scary thing.

Once again technology has forced us to change and to evolve, not only as professionals and human beings, but our entire institutions – libraries, museums, and archives – as well. We must embrace change in order to exist. Are we afraid? Of course. We are predisposed to fear the unknown. But as Darwin showed us in 1864 with his theory of natural selection, only the fittest survive, only those best able to adapt to a rapidly changing environment survive and prevail. I don’t know about you, but my fear of non-existence overrides my fear of change.

And so change really is the constant in our equation for life. As a country, we have a new president with new ideas and we have many transitions to make in this coming year. We all deal with transitions and changes in our daily lives. As library students, we are constantly learning new technologies and new platforms. Some of us are transitioning from school to career, some from career to school, while others are transitioning to new cultures and new places. The Call Number is not exempt from change either. We are embarking upon the exciting realm of the blog. We encourage you to embrace this change: please have an opinion, share what you think, and contribute to the vast knowledge of our ever expanding profession.

Robyn Gleasner is co-editor of The Call Number. She will receive her MLIS in December 2009 and is currently the library assistant at Laguna College of Art Design.

Photo taken by Jason Lister.

Librarians as Change Agents

2009-06-11T01:20:00.001-07:00

by Tiffany Mair

“If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”
–Giuseppe di Lampedusa

We are never in the same place twice. There will always be some factor that makes a moment or situation we experience unique. Yet, we often resist change with fervor that though unable to return us to a past moment, does have the potential to propel us forward in our lives and careers if we choose to live in the present. When we embrace changes and transitions in our lives, as di Lampedusa implies we should, we engage our capacity to create moments and experiences. By living as creators, we may possess a more positive outlook and accept unforeseen changes in our lives with greater grace.

In my opinion, this mindset and view of life is particularly important for librarians. There are many transitions that we as library students will experience as we move toward our degrees and later, when we build our careers as information professionals. These times will have unique challenges. By keeping our eyes and hearts focused on the reasons driving our work and the passionate principles, such as intellectual freedom and equal access to information, we can stay oriented on a professional journey that is actively evolving and changing. We do not need to feel lost if we center ourselves in these ethical and professional ideals. In a world where the only constant is change, it is important for us to arm ourselves with skills and techniques that will assist us in dealing with any transition. The toughest transitions are not necessarily the unexpected, but surprises can certainly shock the system and dampen our spirits if we assign them that power.

The way we respond to transitions can make all the difference in our perspectives and careers. We can spin out of control and experience the highs and lows of our dramatic lives and bemoan or resist the latest software or policy change, or we can reflect, refocus, and reconnect in order to cope with changes (positive and possibly negative) to move forward into the lives and careers we design for ourselves.

Reflect

We can experience transitions as positive or negative experiences, but it is important to give ourselves time for reflection in order to acknowledge our present and let go of our past. For example, if things do not happen as we have planned or we feel we have missed the mark, reflection can help us take account of our pasts and allow us time to reassess our skills and talents. Reflection can also aide in accepting unexpected changes in our personal and professional lives.

Refocus

A part of making peace with the past and living in the present moment is allowing ourselves time and space to transition from reflection to refocusing or recalibrating our mental and emotional focus on new goals. By focusing on how we can act as change agents in our own lives helps reinforce the fact that change is always with us, so we might as well embrace it.

Reconnect

Finally, reconnecting to our passions and working to create our dreams (as students, librarians, or individuals) allows us to accept and move with transitions. When we give up resistance, or at least investigate its source, we can be more effective in our roles – and make a difference in our own lives and in the lives of others. Considering that librarianship is a service-driven profession, I believe that taking the time to reflect, refocus, and reconnect can give us greater freedom in expressing our professional intentions and encourage creative approaches to the many transitions in our lives and careers. Reconnecting is also about building collaborative relationships with other librarians and supporting each other professionally so that we can collectively design the future of libraries and information work. It is also important that we reconnect with the library users we serve so that we can provide the services that are what users want and need.

Change may be challenging and can require significant energy to accept. Working through these processes is well worth it so that we can benefit from the attitudes and accomplishments of librarians who embrace and make change. Together, we can create opportunities from change and become powerful librarians, acting as change agents in our lives and in our profession.

Tiffany Mair is co-editor of The Call Number and plans to graduate Spring 2010. Tiffany serves as an intern at Sacramento Area Council of Governments where she works in the State Regional Data Center and is in the process of reorganizing a small transportation-focused library. She also works part-time as a Graduate Assistant for a SJSU-SLIS Professor.

Sharks, Vets, and Junie B.: From One Thing to the Next in the Children’s Department

2009-06-11T01:19:00.000-07:00

by Rebecca Donnelly

“Can someone tell me the title of their favorite book?”

I’m standing in front of a group of 25 second graders, trying to set up a concrete introduction to finding books in the library. Based on past experience, two of the most likely answers to this question are “Junie B. Jones!” and “Sharks!” Well, that’s a good start. I can work with it.

“Does anyone know who writes the Junie B. Jones books?” If someone comes up with “Barbara Park,” I can ask what letter Park starts with and we’ll be off to the fiction shelves.

“Octopuses!” The really eager kid in the back row is still thinking of favorite books.

“Tell you what—we’ll look for sharks and octopuses in just a minute. Does anyone know who writes Junie B.?”

“Dinosaurs!”

Ask any preschool or elementary school teacher, and they can tell you that the concept of transition is not just a procedure for moving the kids smoothly from one activity to the next. It’s a form of mental discipline on the adult’s part too and it applies to all sorts of work with children. Working in the children’s department of a public library is a daily series of ups, downs, crossovers, and stealth maneuvers. You have programs to plan, meetings to attend, a collection to weed, and at some point you’ll deal with the toilet paper tubes that keep appearing on your desk because months ago you said you needed boxes for something and the staff seems to associate “youth services” with “collections of random garbage.”

School tours, as a type of command performance, require particularly quick thinking. Last Halloween, knowing that we had six classes coming in back to back, a coworker and I dressed like veterinarians, grabbed our stuffed animals, and marshaled the kids in front of the library.

“Welcome to the animal hospital!”

“This is the library, silly,” said the kids. At least the adults laughed. On to the next bit.

“Do you think it’s okay to eat in the library?”

Pious expressions all around. “Oh, no.”

Gotcha! “Guess what? This isn’t your mama’s library. You can eat in here. We even have vending machines.”

This has the kids running to find the vending machines—“Hold on, guys, we’re headed this way.”

Now for the serious part. “We have a lot of books in the library, right? So we have to organize them all very carefully. How do you think we organize our books?”

“You could do it by size!”

“By color!”

“Put all the ones you like on one shelf and the ones you don’t like on a different shelf!”

I like that idea. But this is the library, after all. “Let me tell you how we do it here. Can anyone tell me the difference between fiction and nonfiction?”

Several hands go up. “Nonfiction is true, and fiction isn’t true.”

The inevitable truth discussion. I know what the kids mean by true—a fact, an encyclopedia entry, something they can measure, not something made up. I can’t get sidetracked by trying to define true—“Are you telling me that what Ramona Quimby feels when Beezus makes fun of her isn’t true? You’re breaking my heart, guys.” So I choose a different definition.

“Let’s say that nonfiction is mostly facts, and fiction is mostly made up stories.”

And then I go over the Dewey Decimal Classification, telling a story about an alien coming to earth and trying to find out what this place is all about, or about a guy in a cave trying to figure out the same thing. We do a simple search, maybe for Junie B., or sharks, or octopuses, and all the while my mind is running back and forth wondering if I really answered this or that question as well as I could have, or if I’m doing justice to the library in these kids’ eyes. Am I showing it in all its glory, or am I standing around dressed like a vet for nothing? I'm never sure. The kid who comes back the next week with his dad reminds me of his school visit by saying, “Hey, where’s your stuffed cat? I wanted to play with it.”

My favorite part of the tour is when we pass the children’s reference desk and I point out whoever happens to be sitting there. “You can look for stuff on the shelves,” I say, “or you can use the catalog to try to find stuff. But if you’re really having a problem and you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can always ask the person sitting at this desk. Even if they look like they’re busy doing something else, just come and ask—our number one job is to answer your questions. That’s why we’re here.”

And it’s true, by any definition of the word. No matter how many other things we might be trying to accomplish, no matter how hard it might be to stop doing one thing and start something else, it really is why we’re here. For me, the library is a place of transitioning from one task to the next, and frequently from one level to the next as I go from doing an infant program to talking up a teen book. But those transitions aren’t hard. Just when I’m running out of enthusiasm for editing our online book news, a child might come up and ask me hesitantly for a story about a "dusty row." Once I figure out that it’s really The Tale of Despereaux, we’re off—and I tell them to keep the questions coming.

Rebecca Donnelly is a first year student at SJSU-SLIS. She has been volunteering and working in libraries since 2004. Her writing has been published in Public Libraries, Info Career Trends and on LISCareer.com, and she reviews children’s books for School Library Journal.

I Heard it On the Radio

2009-06-11T01:14:00.000-07:00

by Jane Gilvin

Twice a week, I walk up 4 escalators and 1 set of stairs in the San Jose King Library to the 5th floor. I started my first library job at the San Jose King Library’s Special collections at the beginning of the year. I decided a few years ago that I wanted my career path to be in the library world, but I had never worked in one. My two favorite things are music and books. The library is one of the best places to get both free. The radio is another great place to get the former for free. Before working at SJSU, you could find me at KUSP-FM, a public radio station in Santa Cruz. So, how did I go from an office where I could blast and sing along to Nirvana to a reading room where only pencils are allowed?

Radio stations are one of the most overlooked information centers. They can compete with the internet for immediacy of access, and with the exception of satellite radio, listening is free once you have a receiver. In my experience, radio stations are loud, chaotic, crazy, and fun places to work. A somewhat surprising aspect of my former job at KUSP-FM was handling what the library field calls reference questions. I often fielded phone calls from listeners who had questions about what they had heard on air. Usually, it was a matter of looking up a show that had been on-air earlier in the day. For example, last year, a caller wanted to know what piece of classical music she had heard in 1981 on a locally produced music show. She thought it had an oboe solo, maybe with a quartet, and was written in the 20th century. She also thought the quartet was written about the Holocaust. I correctly identified the piece as French composer Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor Pour la Fin du Temps (Quartet for the End of Time), written while he was a German prisoner of war during World War II. Almost immediately, I thought this was the correct piece, but I doubled checked Wikipedia’s description of the piece and the spelling of the composer’s name. The piece has unusual instrumentation, featuring clarinet, piano, cello and violin, and has beautiful, haunting melodies. So I understood why the caller decided to find out what it was after 25 years.

Regardless of what type of radio station - small or large, public, commercial or college, talk radio or music – there are many people coming and going. Musicians, politicians, and community activists show up, along with people simply interested in radio. The mix of people who walked through the front door of KUSP-FM was always one of my favorite things about working there. I knew when I handed in my notice to KUSP-FM, it would be one of the things I missed most.

However, every day an incredible mix of people walk through the front door of the San Jose King Library, too. I was recently at the library cafe on a sunny Sunday afternoon before the library opened. I was not only impressed with the number of people waiting outside, but the diverse age range of the patrons. Not all of them make their way up to the 5th floor to the Special Collections Reading Room, but enough do to keep it interesting. People might come by to do research for a paper on the history of San Jose State University, or to look at some of the rare art books in the collection. So far, none of the researchers are carrying guitars, but it could happen.

On the days we don’t have many visitors, we work on processing archival collections or other projects like transcribing recordings of oral history. This medium for recording historical events and biographical information fascinates me. Public radio stations are no strangers to oral history. Studs Terkel, the people’s oral historian, began his work in collecting oral histories at a public radio station in Chicago. The non-profit StoryCorps travels the country recording oral histories from everyday people, archiving them at the Library of Congress and broadcasting selections on National Public Radio weekly. Terkel and StoryCorps were my introductions to the power and grace of oral histories.

My work at the radio station concerned classification and organization, much like my work at Special Collections. In fact, processing the archival collections of the University Archives exposes me to some of the same types of files I was responsible for organizing and keeping up to date at KUSP-FM. The two institutions are very different, but keep similar records for personnel, procedures and policies. Having kept neat and organized files at KUSP-FM makes the transition to good archival practices easier.

It turns out that a noisy radio station and a quiet reading room aren’t all that different. I won’t hear any live rock and roll bands playing in the reading room any time soon, but the Beethoven Center is next door and they have a harpsichord and a fortepiano. I’m glad to be at the reading room, but I know I’ll visit KUSP-FM occasionally to get my radio station fix. And I hope people will stop by the San Jose King Library to come to the 5th floor and say hello!

Jane Gilvin is a first year SJSU-SLIS student living in Santa Cruz, CA. She’s a student assistant at SJSU Special Collections in the King library. You can also occasionally hear her on air at KUSP-FM.

Photo taken by Steve Laufer.

Angel in Use at SJSU-SLIS

2009-06-11T01:11:00.000-07:00

by Jennifer Davis

Have you logged into Angel today? If you're an SJSU-SLIS student, you probably have, because Angel is our new Learning Management System (LMS). How did you feel about the experience? An informal poll, discussed in this article, attempted to measure our first encounters with this application. The transition from Blackboard and other applications started in the Spring 2009 semester after the school conducted an evaluation of the best solution for our online program.

The decision to use Angel as our LMS was a carefully considered one, taking into account both the availability of as many features as possible and accessibility that meets CSU disability guidelines. Debbie Faires, Assistant Director for Distance Learning, explained that Moodle and Blackboard were also considered; Blackboard didn't have the desired features, and Moodle would have required that SJSU hire programmers to customize it.

As a result, students and faculty have found themselves immersed in learning Angel while using it for their classes. A brief poll was conducted to get a feel for how students were reacting to Angel so far. An invitation for the web-based poll was posted on the school's "quickslis" mailing list; students and faculty who were subscribed to the mailing list and were interested visited the site anonymously. IP addresses were not collected, nor were names or email addresses. The poll was set up on surveymonkey.com as a free poll, which cut off respondents after 100 people took the poll. (Student Services Coordinator Scharlee Phillips says that there are 2,700 students enrolled this semester at SJSU-SLIS, making the sample size relatively small.) The poll questions were written casually. There were multiple choice questions about Angel features and about the respondents' backgrounds, as well as open-ended questions that invited respondents to write freely about their opinions about Angel. Two faculty members responded before the poll was cut off; the other 98 respondents identified themselves as students.

Who answered?

Most respondents rated themselves as having moderate computer skills, defined as: "I Know What I'm Doing (I blog, I read newspapers online)", at 78%; 20% rated themselves as experts, defined as: "Expert (I can create a directory listing in an operating system, I know how to set my own cookies, I've written wiki pages with native wiki formatting)". Of these respondents, 78% had used Blackboard and were indeed making a transition to Angel (as opposed to learning an LMS for the first time).

What did they think?

40% of respondents found email the easiest feature to use (out of chat, discussion boards, email, IM, and wiki); 52% found the discussion boards to be the hardest to use. Respondents answered in a rough bell curve on the question "On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the EASIEST and 5 being the HARDEST, how easy would you say Angel is to use, overall?" with 42% choosing the middle ground, a rating of "3." 84% of respondents said they had worked through some or all of the SJSU-SLIS Angel tutorial; 16% had not worked through it at all.

What does it all mean?

One disappointing result is the evaluation of discussion boards being the hardest to use; I know that in the class I am taking, the discussion boards are the core of the classroom activity. Having only 2% of respondents define themselves as computer novices indicates that most of us should be in a reasonable position to learn a new system; however, the fact that 16% of respondents hadn't worked through the tutorial indicates that we could do more to educate ourselves about how to use Angel.

Respondents were allowed to add comments if they wanted; 68% took advantage of this. People were frustrated that the discussion board, and Angel overall, loads slowly compared to other tools. There were multiple complaints about the small size of the discussion board display and about the bottom line of the discussion board being cut off. (The SJSU-SLIS Angel FAQ has suggestions for mitigating both of those problems.) Also, students talked about the confusion caused when two professors set up their classes with different designs in Angel; if navigation between two classes is different, the student has to learn two different configurations of Angel. Several people suggested that there might be benefits from the faculty agreeing on a general design standard for classes to make it easier for students to navigate.

Most respondents had pretty strong opinions about Angel. Some people had definitely made up their minds against Angel after five (5) weeks of use: "To date, this is the worst software that I have experienced since I began using computers in 1983." Other respondents were more positive: "I haven't used many of the functions available because I'm only working on my e-portfolio this semester but I've found the Angel interface easy to use...I like that everything is one place (wiki, discussion boards, and e-portfolio) and think this is a really neat system for student's [sic] starting the program."

How will we feel about Angel after using it for a semester? By Fall 2009, we'll know better how much dislike for Angel is based on our learning curve--on not knowing how to use a tool very well when we're under pressure with classes--and how much is based on genuine problems with the tool. At the end of Spring 2009, SJSU-SLIS is collecting tips and tricks for using Angel that will help us adjust. In the meantime, Angel will continue to be part of our lives at SJSU-SLIS. Maybe we can remember that however much we are struggling with Angel, we can use these experiences to empathize with the library users we will meet in our future who may struggle with computer applications in general.

Jennifer Davis is in her second semester at SJSU-SLIS and is looking forward to changing her career from software testing to something in the information science realm.

Transitions

2009-06-11T01:09:00.000-07:00

by Cynthia McCarthy

Don’t look back: Something may be gaining on you.

LeRoy “Satchel” Paige, an African-American baseball player famous for his fastball, followed Jackie Robinson in breaking the sport’s race barrier. Nicknamed “baseball’s Methuselah” when he became a major league rookie in his forties, his age was barrier-breaking as well. Everyone understands it’s a feat to get a major-league performance out of an over-40 body. How about a new education into a 50-year-old mind used to a physical classroom?

In my second semester at SLIS, I might adapt Paige’s maxim as “Don’t blink: Something’s definitely gaining on you” and apply it to technology.

A few years ago, during a series of power and computer glitches in the newsroom where I worked, I told a young coworker how I wrote stories for my high school newspaper on a typewriter.

“How did editors know how many inches your stories were?” the young copyeditor asked me.

“We set the margins at 10 and 72,” I explained. “Every three and half lines were one column inch.”

In his mind, I think this scene was conjured in sepia, picturing us in trenchcoats and fedoras, smoking Lucky Strikes and drinking whiskey with off-duty cops.

By the time I started college in the fall of 1976, in a brand new $6 million facility at the University of Texas, the much-vaunted journalism school was training students to write news stories on computers. This was a brave new world.

In 1991, as a reporter for a rural zoned edition of The Sacramento Bee, I sent my stories to editors 50 miles away over a modem. I saw my co-workers about once a month. When I returned in 1996 after a five-year maternity leave, my young co-workers introduced me to something called “the Internet” and showed me how to use something called “email.”

Whoa! I’d be afraid to turn my back on technology for five years ever again in my lifetime! I’d have to be H.G. Wells to imagine what technology might be if I do live to be as old as Methuselah.

Last fall, more than a quarter-century after my last college degree, I started our online program. Mercifully, I had just completed a library science program at my local junior college that used the same online course management system, but I did it in their fairly-close-to-state-of-the-art computer lab. This way I dodged the expense and trauma of untangling what computer, programs, and Internet access I would need at home in the sticks. Before that, I had taken a few computer classes through our local adult education program, not so much to master new spheres, but to get a sense of what spheres exist.

To prepare for the first semester in this program, I printed out the home computing requirements from the SJSU-SLIS web site and took them to my local Apple store, 45 miles away. I did that because I didn’t really understand the rows of numbers and needed a translator. I might have wondered how I would fare in classes where my classmates probably didn’t need an intermediary to figure out whether their computer was up to the task, but it doesn’t do to think about that or you just back off from trying to catch up.

An adequate computer was in the house, but the Apple salesman explained that the speed of the required Internet access was far beyond the dial-up we had. DSL is not available here and cable would cost $10,000 or more to install. I got through my first semester using a laptop at local libraries. Since many libraries have cut their evening hours, classmates joining me in Elluminate meetings sometimes heard my comments over the hiss of an espresso machine at Starbuck’s. Thankfully, a satellite dish was installed before the start of my second semester. We were up and running within 90 minutes. Now the only equipment lacking a fast enough connection is between my ears.

Last semester, my four instructors were spread out from southern California to Washington state and I never saw a single classmate. In February, I finally met one of my instructors during a weekend on campus for a hybrid class. When I was an undergraduate, anything called a “hybrid” class would have been offered in the botany department.
Possibly encouraged by a solid performance in the four core classes I decided to tackle my bête noir and sign up for four classes, three of them about the Web and the Internet. What I learned before I dropped one of those classes - at 4:59 p.m. on the last day to drop - is that such classes tend to attract former software engineers and people who have been current with computer technology all along and spent time on computers for fun.

It doesn’t take long to fall behind the technological curve, and I can’t forecast how long it might before I feel caught up, but I do know that something’s gaining on you every minute. I now view keeping up with technology as gardening; something I dare not leave untended for more than a season. Any time a classmate suggests a new application or feature, I check it out and do my best to employ it right away. With technology, I don't feel I can wait for complete understanding and don't worry about looking like an idiot. I probably won't hit it out of the park, but I can at least take a swing.

Cynthia McCarthy, a former newspaper reporter, has written for The Sacramento Bee zoned editions, The Sacramento Business Journal, Sierra Heritage magazine and The Union newspaper in Grass Valley, Calif. She lives in the Sierra Nevada hamlet of Alta in Placer County with her husband, 17-year-old son and dog, Missy.

Stepping Out of the Online Shell

2009-06-11T01:04:00.000-07:00

by AnnMarie Hurtado

As I sit down to write this, I am sharing a cup of coffee with my husband and thinking about the day ahead. I plan to spend time this morning researching the popularity of manga among teens. I will surf the internet for articles about anime conventions and merchandise, and I will put together a list of important websites. After lunch I’m off to the library where I’ll help the teen librarian load projectors and decorations into her car, and then we’ll drive to the Nixon Library for Yorba Linda’s Teen Film Festival. I’ll spend the rest of the evening immersed in the worlds created by the talented teens of our community—and I’ll be getting paid to do it.

I don’t have to look very far back to wonder if this is really my life. Only six months ago I was working full time in a sales office and chipping away at my core classes for SJSU-SLIS. I was tired, stressed, and though enjoying everything I learned, I sometimes felt discouraged about my future. Perhaps getting my hopes up about library work was just another expensive romp through Dreamland—like majoring in Literature had been. I strained myself to read my textbooks in my few remaining hours of the day. Finding six units per semester to be too much for me, I lowered my course load to three. My degree was not getting any closer, and I often wondered: wouldn’t it be easier to resign myself to a life of paper pushing?

In a way, the very thing that had made SJSU-SLIS’s online program so attractive to me—taking classes while keeping my full time job—was really starting to burn me out. The tendency to make my library studies into a private goal that I pursued in my time off was only making me more afraid to take risks and embrace change.

I needed to talk to somebody, and decided it was time I called up a former elementary schoolmate who I heard got her master’s from SJSU and became a public librarian. I felt a lot better after talking to her. She encouraged me to stick with the program and to start browsing library job listings.

There weren’t many jobs available in my area at the time. I eventually found a library assistant position thirty miles away from me, and tested for it, telling my boss I was “sick” and feeling awful about the deception. When I showed up and found hundreds of other applicants competing for the same job, I felt even worse about my prospects.

But it forced me to realize something: there was no fairy godmother who was going to turn me into a librarian overnight. It didn’t matter to the library world what grades I had. I was going to have to do more to show I had something to offer.

Amazingly, once I recognized that I’d have to do more than just school, SJSU was there with open arms, providing numerous opportunities for connecting with librarians!

It started out small: I made it a point to introduce myself to the librarians I met when hunting books for class projects. I told them I was an SJSU student, and most librarians I met were alumni, willing to help me with anything I needed. I began reaching out to my classmates for more than academics; we helped each other search for jobs in our different locations.

Paying more attention to the listserv emails that had flooded my inbox for so long, I heard about the “Banned Books Read-Out” for LISSTEN and volunteered to present Huckleberry Finn. I felt instantly at home there; everybody presented the books with enthusiasm. After I read from Huck Finn we had a lively debate about its controversial language. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was networking, making friends with people who shared my interests. I was connecting with people who could help me translate those passions into possibilities.

Two of the LISSTEN officers I met invited me to volunteer in their library’s children’s department. I started going there on Saturdays to help them collect books for various displays. They were so kind to me, giving me experience doing bibliographies and other creative things. They also offered to be references for me when I applied for jobs.

I heard about an opening for a library assistant in Yorba Linda, close to where I live, and applied for it. Having these references and experiences behind me, I interviewed with newfound confidence. Although the job went to someone with years of experience, the manager asked me to substitute during the evenings whenever another librarian called in sick. Several librarians there had started out as subs, and many later got their degrees from SJSU. Knowing that made me feel I was right where I needed to be.

I came in several nights a week for training, making some of my eight-hour days into twelve-hour days. My coworkers at the office noticed I was dressing differently—more “professionally.” The library didn’t require this change. I just felt excited about life again, and wanted to show my appreciation for what I was doing.

I may actually owe my fairy godmother an apology: my transition to permanent library work was appallingly brief. I was training less than a month before another part-time position opened up and was offered to me.

It’s been four months since I said goodbye to office work, and SJSU was the catalyst that pushed me toward this change. My library schedule gives me the time and practice I need for getting the most out of school. And my school, in turn, continues to open doors for me. This summer, I’m enrolled in 294 for an internship with OCPL, and I’m very excited.
Had I not heard about SJSU’s online program, I might never have aspired to anything but secretarial work. But if I hadn’t discovered the value of participating in groups like LISSTEN, I might have stayed a secretary anyway! This program showed me a path for my life, but it was the people I met who got me there.

AnnMarie Hurtado is a second-year MLIS student emphasizing in public library services for youth. She works as a library assistant at Yorba Linda Public Library, and lives in nearby Brea with her husband.

Photo taken by John Hurtado.

Denmark, here I come! My Experience with Continuing SLIS from Abroad

2009-06-11T01:02:00.000-07:00

by Claudia Peters

In the beginning of 2008, my husband was offered a postdoctoral position at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. I am originally from Germany and was expecting my first child at the time, so I was very excited about the chance to move back to Europe to live closer to my family and friends again. As a SJSU-SLIS student, I was thrilled that I could continue with my studies from abroad. I thought I would switch to special session, keep taking online classes, and nothing much would change. Sure, special session is more expensive, but I thought we would start making Euros and life would be great. As it turns out, Denmark hasn't introduced the Euro yet, but is still holding on to its beloved Danish Krone (It is still higher than the U.S. dollar though!). But this was not the only surprise waiting for me in the new country. Little by little, I learned that there were quite a few things that made continuing the program from abroad more challenging than I had initially expected.

For instance, participating in Elluminate sessions can be difficult due to the nine hour time difference between Denmark and California. Most sessions are at around 3:00-4:00 in the morning my time—not exactly my favorite time of the day to listen to presentations or give a presentation myself. Because of this problem, I am now trying to avoid taking classes with mandatory Elluminate sessions. This is unfortunate because it not only reduces my choice of courses, but also gives me less of an opportunity to become comfortable with distance learning software applications.

Ordering course books has turned out to be more difficult as well. Naive as I was, I thought I would order everything from the Danish Amazon Web site. However, there is no Danish Amazon! Luckily, I found an easy solution to this problem. I now order my course books from the German Amazon Web site and have them shipped to my home address in Copenhagen or to my parent's place near Cologne, Germany, where I pick them up when I visit. (Many LIS titles are not available through Amazon directly, but only through "Amazon Sellers" who often don't offer international shipping).

Another problem that I have encountered is that I don’t have access to many print resources that are useful when taking certain courses. Last semester, for example, I had a hard time with my Reference & Information Services course because some standard American reference materials (e.g., Emily Post’s Etiquette) were not available electronically through SJSU King Library and I wasn't able to find print copies of them in any Danish library. I had to be more creative and spend additional time locating alternative resources in order to answer some of the practice reference questions the instructor gave us. Since I don’t speak Danish, assignments that require getting in touch with librarians or observing reference interviews have become more challenging for me as well. I am limited to a few libraries where most interactions between librarians and patrons take place in either English (e.g., Copenhagen Business School Library) or German (e.g., Goethe Institute Library). Language problems, of course, also make it more difficult for me to find an internship or part-time work in a library.

As a SJSU-SLIS student, it was particularly interesting for me to get to know the local library system after I moved to Denmark. Danish libraries don’t use Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress classification, which made it more difficult for me to find my way around in the beginning. But I also encountered some strange things about the Danish library system that really baffled me. For example, when I first went to my neighborhood branch of the Copenhagen Public Library to borrow some novels to read, I noticed that the blurb pages of all hardcover books were missing. For some reason not obvious to me, the library’s technical services had removed those pages when processing the materials for circulation. Now you wonder, how are you supposed to know what a book is about? Well, you don’t. You start reading a few pages and borrow it in hope that it might be interesting. It’s like a lottery, really. Let me assure you, though, that the Danish library system also has its advantages. For instance, Denmark has a very well developed interlibrary loan system. Patrons can order a book from any public library in the country online and have it delivered to the branch nearest to them. Free of charge!

All practical problems aside, the most significant change for me when moving abroad was more of a social and psychological one. I soon started feeling less connected to the school as well as the American library community. Before moving, I lived in Davis, California which is about 100 miles north of San José. I was able to visit the SJSU campus, including King Library, occasionally and meet personally with other SLIS students in my area to work on course projects or chat about the program. Now that I live abroad, that’s not possible anymore. Sure, there are many ways for social networking on the Web (e.g., SLISLife), but, for me, this will never really substitute face-to-face interaction. Living abroad and not knowing if I will ever return to the States, I’ve started to become less interested in what is going on in the American library community. I read American library science newsletters and blogs regularly, but feel that many things don’t concern me as much anymore (e.g., the impact of the current financial crisis on American public libraries). I suppose other SJSU-SLIS students who live outside the U.S. may feel the same way.
While moving to Denmark has been the right decision for me in my personal life, as a student it has been a difficult transition. Yes, we do live in a globalized, networked environment which provides many of us with new and exciting opportunities to live, work, and study anywhere in the world. But moving abroad can have its challenges as well and it is not always as glamorous as it may seem.

Claudia Peters holds an M.A. in History from Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany. She is specializing in Academic Libraries in the SJSU-SLIS program and hopes to graduate in Fall 2010. She currently lives with her husband and eight month old son in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Strategies for Getting Your MLIS Degree for Free

2009-06-11T00:44:00.000-07:00

by Teresa Mares

When I first began my quest for a master’s degree, my main concern was financing the costs involved. My future looked bleak as a single mother supporting two children, with a low-paying job. I knew I had to set high goals to gain financial independence in order to stop the cycle of poverty and need for state aid. At that time I did not realize that with minimal effort on my part, I would be able to get my education paid for and be debt free. Regardless of what many students may think, a debt-free education can be a reality for students who are willing to devote time and effort to secure scholarships and grants.

How is this possible?

At this point, you may be asking how this is possible. The answer is by using available resources like scholarships and grants that do not have to be repaid. There is an abundance of free money available to graduate students of all types. A common misconception for many students is that the majority of scholarships out there are based solely on need or merit. When trying to convince fellow students to apply for scholarships, I have been told, “It takes too long” or “I am not a minority.”

Do a little research to get cash

My first step was to conduct research and that involved borrowing books from the library. One of my favorites is How to Go to College Almost for Free by Ben Kaplan. Kaplan graduated from Harvard and won more than $90,000 in scholarships. He explains in simple language where to look for scholarships, and how to win them. Kaplan’s advice netted me more than $27,000 for educational expenses. One chapter in particular covers interview techniques, which I reviewed before participating in a tele-conference interview. I won the scholarship and attribute my success to Kaplan’s advice.

The Internet = Money

Kaplan recommends using Internet scholarship databases in order to locate the widest variety of scholarships. Some examples are: scholarships for re-entry students, students of Italian decent or law librarians. Internet databases can return numerous selections. Locating specific scholarships with limited applicants increases the odds of winning.
The Internet scholarship site I found to be the most valuable is FastWeb, which matches students with prospective scholarships and sends notices when deadlines are approaching. I was fortunate to be awarded a $2,500 scholarship as a
direct result of a FastWeb notice.

SJSU Resources

Lisa Valdez, the grant coordinator for SJSU-SLIS reports, “SLIS currently awards five scholarships each year to SLIS students, as well as six awards to graduating students. In addition, SLIS students are able to apply for a range of scholarships offered by the university.” These awards are specifically for LIS students.

Winning an SJSU scholarship identifies you as an up-and-coming information professional to school administrators, faculty and staff. It is also a source of pride to obtain a scholarship from your school of attendance.

Another easy way of applying for a multitude of scholarships at once is by completing a SJSU Spartan Scholarship online application. These scholarships are in addition to departmental scholarships. Students need to complete only one online application to be considered for over 900 general and departmental scholarships.

Additional funding sources

Additional sources like travel grants and funding to pursue research are also available. Travel grants help new information professionals with the cost of conference attendance and also foster networking opportunities.

I looked into the ALA scholarship website and was rewarded with the prestigious ALA Spectrum Scholarship. Spectrum has a financial award of $5,000, a three-day leadership conference and continuing opportunities to network with library and information professionals. This award convinced me of the power that can be derived from winning a scholarship. This scholarship forced me to define my goals, narrow my focus, create my curriculum vitae, and it thrust me into a bevy of leaders who would end up influencing the rest of my LIS education. I found a new sense of responsibility to the profession and to creating diversity within the profession. I am now a member of two diversity committees.

Another source is the Inland Empire Individual Development Account through the Community Action Partnership (CAP). I participated in the program and received $8,000 in funds. I used the money towards course fees, books, and supplies. The program requires individuals to save $2,000.00 and they match the funds 2:1. Participants attend twelve workshops that focus on financial knowledge, life skills, and educational goals. Programs like these may be available through other counties as well.

Sally Gomez, a SJSU-SLIS student, is a recipient of almost $15,000 in scholarships and travel stipends. Gomez advises looking at organizations within the community. Gomez says that these scholarships “...won't have nearly as much competition as a national scholarship.” An example of one in her area is the Fresno Friends of the Library group. They award $2,500 each year to a local student attending library school.

Some employers have tuition reimbursement programs. SJSU-SLIS student, Cathleen Baxter, receives funds from the San Diego Public Library Staff Education Grant and applies yearly. Baxter says, “With the high prices of classes, I could not manage on my own. I work two jobs to support myself and my two children and I pay for their education. The grant makes it possible for me to attend college and earn my MLIS.”

The big payoff

Over time I noticed that the more scholarships I applied for, the easier it became. Students who complain about time factors may be interested to know that with each essay, the process becomes quicker and their writing skills improve.

With a little effort, research and time, it is possible to win scholarships. The programs I have mentioned not only provide financial assistance, but help to develop guidance in the profession, networking opportunities and ease the burden of expenses. The result for students who win scholarships can be a means to finance their education and reduce the financial burden many face.

Teresa Mares is an MLIS candidate and works as a school librarian in Southern California. She hopes to graduate debt free in December 2009!

The Los Angeles Public Library “Reference Institute” : Wonderful Reference Training & Experience

2009-06-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

by Evan Carlson

You may have received an SLIS forwarded email announcement about Los Angeles Public Library’s “Reference Institute.” These Institutes, which occur several times a year, are funded by a three-year Institute of Museum and Library Services grant. I completed one of these Institutes, and wanted to promote the opportunity to our community because it truly is a great opportunity, for those who can commit four consecutive Fridays, and travel to LAPL Central Library in downtown Los Angeles.

Why did I feel this is of value? First, participants attend a series of excellent presentations, with mixed programs of various subject department staff presenting on diverse topics such as: maximizing the reference interview, leveraging US Census data for demographic and genealogy application, resources for small businesses, homework help and college prep resources for teens, advanced strategies for searching the internet for artwork and images. We received training in deep level use of the LAPL online catalog, its available databases and lesser known indexes. We heard from a panel of Children’s Librarians, drawn from different LAPL branches, on their individual experiences making the transition from library school to their current position, and their work at their respective branches as well as within the LAPL system.

The other component of the Reference Institute is that you will participate in two-hour shifts in rotating subject departments at Central Library, receiving hands-on experience at these reference desks, as well as spending valuable time with LAPL staff and touring their departments.

The Reference Institute is also an excellent opportunity to meet and network with your fellow SJSU-SLIS peers, as well as colleagues from other programs such as UCLA, Clarion and Drexel Universities. For any students considering a career in public libraries, generally, and LAPL specifically, this opportunity is too good to miss. The Reference Institute will be an asset on your resume, allow you to talk about your experiences, and if you are looking for work at LAPL will certainly stand out. In addition, not only is the Reference Institute free of charge, but as what they call a stipend student, you will receive $200 for attending the institute. If all of the valuable information that you will learn isn’t enough to draw you to the Institute, the LAPL staff made home-baked brownies and cookies for us! Contact: Linda Moussa, lmoussa@lapl.org or 213-228-7401.

Evan Carlson is in his second year in the SJSU-SLIS program.

LISSTEN/ALUMNI Resume and Interview Workshop

2009-06-07T16:02:00.000-07:00

by Melanie Quinn and Christy Nini

On Sunday, May 3, 2009 LISSTEN and the SJSU-SLIS Alumni Association hosted its annual Resume and Interview Workshop on the CSU Fullerton Campus from 1-4 pm. The afternoon began with Jeanette Contreas, Library Director of Placentia Library District, giving successful interview tips. She was followed by Jayne Sinegal from Irvine Valley College,speaking about successful resumes. One-on-one resume critiques and mock interviews followed the speakers. Many participating librarians represented a broad spectrum of librarianship, providing valuable feedback on student resumes and tips on interviewing skills. The workshop ended with a panel of three SJSU-SLIS alumni sharing their experiences in getting their first jobs. There were over 60 people in attendance, including students, alumni, and librarians. From the comments received, many students found the workshop very useful to know what to expect from the interview process. The Resume and Interview Workshop committee is highly praised for all its hard work in planning the workshop.

Please keep an eye on the SLIS Admin List for future workshops from LISSTEN.

Christy Nini is excited to have had the opportunity to work with wonderful students and professional librarians for LISSTEN activities. Graduating in December 2010, she looks forward to the days ahead as she conquers an exciting career path in music or public librarianship.

Melanie Quinn is an active member of LISSTEN and is grateful for the networking opportunities it provides. She hopes to work as a Children's or Youth Services Librarian after she graduates in December 2009.

Photo taken by Coleen Wakai.

CSULB University Library Tour

2009-06-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

by Marisa Reyes

On Friday, May 22, 2009, twenty SJSU-SLIS students participated in the California State University, Long Beach University Library (CSULB) tour which took place from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The engineering librarian, Hema Ramachandran, did an excellent job at organizing the tour. The presentation began with a welcome by Dean Roman Kochan. Following, Hema gave an informative presentation about the CSULB Library’s statistics, collection, organizational structure, and library program committees.

Following the presentation, students were provided a complimentary drink from Dean Kochan at the new library Starbucks. Vicky Munda, Access Services Coordinator, then led half of the group onto the ORCA tour. ORCA, the robotic storage system, is an innovative system that stores a large portion of the collection that could be accessed by submitting an online request. ORCA is primarily used for less frequently circulated materials, such as monographs and bound journals. After the second group completed their ORCA tour, Catherine Lewis Ida, Director of Outreach for the Children's Collection, led the group through the Children’s collection. Students had the opportunity to learn about the functions of the children’s collection in an academic library setting.

The tour continued into the Special Collections Department. Archivist Kristie French gave a wonderful explanation of the mission of the Special Collection and its users. Visit CSULB's Special Collection to view a full descriptive listing of the materials held. The collection included pieces by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Daumier, Virginia Woolf, and several more. One of the highlights of the tour was the rare fore-edge book. Kristie brought out a fore-edge book which had an incredible painting on the edge of the book which could only be seen when the pages are fanned. When turned around and fanned the opposite way, another painting could be seen. For a demonstration of what a fore-edge book looks like, click here.

The tour was concluded with lunch at the Nugget Grill and Pub on the CSULB campus. Participants had the opportunity to socialize and discuss classes, experiences, and future goals. Hema answered questions and provided students with helpful tips and advice. The tour was a great success and provided participants the opportunity to become familiar with the academic library system. A special thanks goes out to Hema Ramachandran for organizing the tour and to Dean Roman Kochan who provided complimentary Starbucks and lunch to all of the participants. Visit CSULB University Library for more information.

Organizing a LISSTEN library tour was an awesome opportunity to build connections with librarians and students. Anyone who is interested in planning a library tour can contact LISSTEN co-President Matthew T. Davis. If interested in attending the next library tour, keep an eye out on the SLIS ADMIN emails. Tours fill up quicky so respond ASAP.

Marisa Reyes, LISSTEN co-treasurer for the L.A. hub, worked with Hema Ramachandran to organize the CSULB tour. Currently, she is a children’s librarian at South Pasadena Public Library and a college assistant at Pasadena City College Library. She plans to graduate from the SJSU-SLIS program in December of 2009.

Pictures were taken by Susie Quinn, one of the participants on the tour.