End of the line

I think I am going to close down this blog. I am moving on to other blog projects and no longer wish to maintain this one. This is just a note not to expect any further posts here for the foreseeable future.

Reporting from London; thinking about library access in comparitive terms

This week, the Accidental Archivist has been visiting the United Kingdom. While here, AA has taken the opportunity to visit such august institutions as the Bodleian Library and (tomorrow!) the British Library. There are striking contrasts to be found everywhere, most notably in architecture.

In thinking and reading about these institutions, I wonder if anybody out there has ever thought of making a library equivalent of a certain business index I had heard of. This business index compares how long (in days/weeks/months/years) and how difficult (measured by number of steps and/or organizations one must interact with) it takes to create a business. There is a general sense that it is easier and faster to establish a business in the United States than in many western European countries, for instance.

A comparable library index might measure how difficult it is for a user to become registered in order to access library services. Such an index may need to be seperated out by sector, or there would be significant distortions (e.g. public libraries are, by virtue of their mission, more open than other libraries as a general rule), but it would stillSome libraries seem to simply make themselves easier to access than others. There may be reasons for that, but it would understanding how access works would become more interesting in comparitive terms.

One final note before I conclude today. On the Tube, there are frequent advertisements for the British Library. However, all of these ads focus on this Library's business centre. It strikes me as very interesting that a) a National Library has a business centre at all and b) that this particular service is the one that is being advertised. I wonder if other National Libraries (or Archives, for that matter) have considered opening a business research/support office. I'm not sure what I think about it as I know very little about it, so I shall suspend judgement for the time being.

Why isn't there DOI for the popular media?

For a course I'm taking, I periodically have trouble accessing journal articles online (e.g. today there was a problem getting a 2004 article from Library Quarterly). However, most of the time everything works smoothly. I can simply click on a link in my course syllabus and automatically be sent to a PDF of the article.

This automatic system works since most academic articles are assigned a unique identifier called a DOI, or Digital Object Identifier. Using a DOI for articles saves the time of the reader, one of Ranganathan's five laws of librarianship.

Well, I'm irritated that this practice isn't used in popular media. I'll illustrate the problem using comedy. Lots of Canadians enjoy The Colbert Report and The Daily Show, and enjoy discussing said programs with each other. However, not all Canadians enjoy these programs by watching broadcasts on TV. Some see clips referred to in blogs... However, woe be to you if you imagine that you can simply play one of these clips. For if you do, you will encounter the following result:



If DOI was used properly, an automatic link to the appropriate content should be found and the user shouldn't have to think about any of these technical questions. The above example comes from a blogpost by author Neil Gaiman.

Databases and archives

I have been fascinated to read about the various open government and Web 2.0 government efforts in the US and UK. The UK has the interesting They Work For You; information on MPs and their actions. Open Secrets is a great American project likewise dedicated to providing information about elected officials.

I can see a future where archives deliver new services through databases, automatically post all Freedom of Information / Access to Information responses online and I look forward to that day. The existing service model is only going to get more and more difficult to explain. Even though archives are generally perceived as being concerned with the past, the only way to thrive in the future is to build out new services like this. Maybe databases of the type suggested here wouldn't work, but let's get some innovation happening!

Two tales of friends and their information needs

I saw two friends trying to find information today, but only one was open to letting me help. The first person was trying to find material for her English courses and I pointed her toward the MLA International Bibliography as a good starting point and showed some of the search functions. She was much surprised at such tools and appeared to be pleased with this lead.

Lesson:
In this case, the advice provided was partly accepted since the conversation took place in the context of academic work and it involved using a library database. Advice from an information professional context is welcome in an educational context using educational research tools.

In the other case, a friend was looking for some recreational information (music, to be precise) she had previously accessed. When I noticed that she was searching Google with no apparent success, I asked what she was up to. I said, "Ah, you're looking for information - that is my speciality, actually..." She then responded, "Well, it's not information; it's ." It was clear that advice was not wanted. She did eventually find what she wanted but only after much searching around and much frustration.

Lesson:
Advising people in research when they are using a familiar tool like a commercial search engine is a much more challenging "sell". People often find what they want through such means, even though such tools are often manipulated through SEO techniques. It might also be important that the second interaction took place in a leisure or recreational context.

The Persistence of Archaic Conventions on the Web

I work as a volunteer editor at a journal based at my university. This position has reminded me just how much a piece of writing can improve when it goes through multiple rounds of editing by different people. And it has reminded me of how much I intensely dislike copy-editing. It just doesn't engage me, but that isn't the point of this post.

The journal is entirely online, with each article available in both plain HTML and in PDF. The publishing platform we use is the Open Journal System. Where things get interesting is the transition (or rather, the painful lack thereof) between pieces of writing created for print and those created for the Web. In most cases, submissions to the journal started their life as assignments for classes. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. I presume that all authors created their articles on computers and then, since academia is backwards, printed a copy to be submitted to their instructor. When the submissions come to us, we take print conventions and apply it to the Web.

I have learned a few things about the differences one should keep in mind when writing for the Web. One important rule should be to actually use hyperlinks, as you can see in the previous paragraph. In this case, you don't have to wonder what the Open Journal System is when I refer to it or waste time searching for it or asking around, you simply click the link and you find out what it is all about. Thus, I am driven a bit mad by the use of traditional footnotes and endnotes in the digital environment. Those particular modes of citation have no place in the digital environment.

I am reminded of very early printed books (c.1450-1500) where printers and others actively sought to re-create the conventions of manuscript books in print since they presumed that this is what people wanted. However by following this, they failed to take advantage of the technology's new advantages and fail to acknowledge the ways in which print was actually different from manuscript.

Association responses to the recession

I belong to a number of professional associations to stay informed of developments in the field, network with others and foster my own sense of professional identity. One interesting development I've noticed lately has been the way in which these associations have reacted to the recession. Only one group - the Special Libraries Association - has taken concrete steps to directly help its members (creating a new low income membership option & providing new free professional development resources).

In contrast, the Canadian Library Association has only responded by asking its members to comment regarding possible federal stimulus spending. Even this appeal was oddly delivered though. Members were encouraged to suggest individual projects to the Department of Finance. I wonder if anything will come of this? In my mind, I found it difficult to suggest such projects as I think expanded light rail transit in my city and higher post-secondary education spending is arguably needed more.

As far as know, no archival association or group has put together any response to the recession. Are archivists in a position to help people in this situation?

Qatar still hiring librarians...

Wow... Qatar is still hiring librarians quite consistently; I've seen listings this week on job boards in Canada and the UK for staff to go there, mainly at post-secondary institutions. I have no particular interest in living there (visiting, perhaps...) but I wonder why they are so keen to have Anglo librarian staff?

Clay Shirky on Information Scarcity

Yesterday, I discovered CBC's new Radio/podcast series called Spark, mainly focused on technology and Internet issues. The first episode I listened to was an interview with Clay Shirky. Shirky is a telecommunications scholar who is seen as something of guru on the effects of the Internet.

During the interview, one particular quote struck me. The fundamental idea of it is not new, but it does frame it in a memorable fashion. When asked about the economic effects of Internet fueled collaboration, he responded, "For any business where scarcity of information was the principle selling point, that business is in trouble." He went on to illustrate that point by arguing that the average price of stock photo has decreased 99% due to free services like flickr (which apparently has 1 billion photos online).

If one changes "business" to organization, then the application to universities (and indeed, much formal education) and archives should be clear. It is certainly true that vast stores of information are locked in archives and other special collections and can only be accessed with difficulty, but I wonder if users will continue to remain motivated to jump through all those hoops. Certain kinds of researchers who have a professional requirement to use that kind of research resource - historians, some graduate students, some lawyers - will likely continue, but what about the occasional, 'amateur' user? One archival argument might be that archives are fundamentally concerned with long term memory and that makes them distinctive compared to social web tools.

The competitive edge may lie in fostering community, the approach taken by many public libraries. Sure, you can get books at Amazon, Chapters/Indigo or Borders, but it isn't the same as being in a public place with others. Architecturally, most archives aren't set up to enable this kind of community easily. Perhaps the answer lies in developing more services to enrich the information in our archives? I'm not sure what that would be, but it is something to think about.

The Recession

I haven't written here about the recession yet, even though it hit the US in December 2007 and Canada sometime later. Thus far, it hasn't affected me or anyone I know professionally in anyway. While I certainly don't expect this blessed isolation from economic forces to last much longer (I will be graduating this year...), that may not continue.

I've recently come across several newspaper articles (e.g. a recent Boston Globe article) and blog postings about the positive role that libraries can play in the current economic climate. For example, a typical bit of thrift advice encourages people to use their public library for entertainment rather than going out to movies or buying books or music. I think libraries have a great role to play at all times, but especially when people are in need of some support.

Can archives make any kind of economic case like this though? I've never seen any argument that pointed to the economic value of archives. I wonder if somebody out there has made that point.

Solving mundane information problems: parking on Boxing Day

Boxing Day is the biggest shopping day of the year in Canada, with many deals to be had. I myself picked up two hardcover books, at a hefty 30% discount. I also went to see a movie today with two relatives and we found ourselves looking for a parking space for nearly thirty minutes.

Spending that kind of time looking for something like a parking space is both frustrating and sad. This is a fairly simple problem that should have been solved quite some time ago. I've seen some places where very simple information systems have been developed for parking garages (e.g. "There are 57 spaces available here") but could we do something better? Maybe order the sections that people park in? Or set up a GIS system that detects whether or not a space is occupied? I'm not an engineer or programmer by education or experience, but I've seen enough systems and tools out there to know that it should be possible.

This idea could be countered by saying that it only delivers value on days of high volume. That said, it could deliver significant time savings and it could play a role in in lowering December stress levels. I would love to do a study in a particularly busy parking area and see if something like this would be worthwhile.

While I'm thinking of mundane information problems, what about shopping in a supermarket? I hate all the irritating wandering I have to do whenever I enter a new shopping market AND the total lack of basic guides (sure, there are labels for each aisle, but what about a guide to the store as a whole?). Ideally, I'd like to be able to use a touch screen (or some other interface) to indicate the types of products I'd like and then simply have a map or route generated for me.

Wandering around discovering things can be fun in a bookstore or a library sometimes, but not in a parking garage or grocery store.

The Physicist and Economist: a parable for the Information Profession?

Another PhD student I know (this one does economics) told me an interesting joke (parable?) about her profession recently on expertise. I may not be relating the story perfectly, but I think I have the main points right. In sum, I wonder why people think they are information experts when they have only a weak understanding of how to use a handful of tools.

A physicist who recently won the Nobel Prize decides to set up a table in Central Park to answer questions and help people learn about physics. Many line up to ask and many walk away amazed and enlightened to know more about the field. After a day of answering such questions, he returns to his university and describes his activities to some other professors.

An economist hears the story and decides to go and answer questions as well. The economist has a long line of people come to discuss economic answers. Almsot everybody walked away disgruntled, muttering about how the economist didn't know what s/he is talking about. Everybody has a view on economic matters and so they don't respect the expertise of experts.

...

Everybody thinks they know how to find information they need through free search engines like Yahoo! or Google. How many people understand how these services work? How listings are managed and arguably manipulated? Is there an understanding of how do different research efforts (e.g. research a candidate's voting record vs. find a shop that sells a given product etc)? How do we build that respect?

There are a few ways of doing this. The classic and possibly best way is to demonstrate our skills and make sure that our results are recognized (i.e. marketing = "Doing good and being recognized for doing it"). I've also heard that librarians have to pass exams to practice in some countries (e.g. the Philippines) - that might be a possibility too.

Process Analysis in Cataloguing: Can't we do this better?

One of the arguments deployed against human editing or cataloguing of the Internet is that would be too expensive and slow. This is also an argument used in many library contexts (generally not archives since those institutions work with mostly unique materials) against original library cataloguing; it is better to simply digitally import catalogue records from a national library or commercial service.

One of the hats I wear at my university involves doing some cataloguing for an academic research project. Out of curiosity, I started to plot how many steps are involved in cataloging a single item into the database. I stopped counting at step 13, but I would say that there are about 20 steps. That's 20 steps PER ITEM; it takes roughly 3-5 minutes per item catalogued. I would say 80-90% of these steps are highly repeatable, perhaps even amenable to automation with a script. One could respond this by saying "Oh we'll just automate everything and fire the cataloging staff." That's not what I'm advocating here. Rather, I am suggesting that one analyze the process and seek to minimize the ineffective or repeatable steps and let staff focus on the more challenging tasks.

That said, there do not seem to be the right mix of incentives to make this happen. Or perhaps there is just a lack of interest in innovation? I wonder if there is a better way of saying, "A lot of this is boring and highly repeatable; can we work with the IT staff to automate parts of this so that we can all be more effective at work?"

Archivaria Issue 66 has been published; great article on archives in fiction/pop culture

I received an email today informing me that the latest issue of Archivaria (issue 66) has been published online. There are a number of interesting articles and I have only just begun reading through. The article that caught my interest immediately was Karen Buckley article, "The Truth is in the Red Files”: An Overview of Archives in Popular Culture."

In the first episode of the new Doctor Who series, it only takes a few sentences summarizing an exhaustive archival search to encapsulate a general sense of the mystery surrounding the Doctor and his place in time, space, and history: “I tracked [the information] down in the Washington Public Archives … if you dig deep enough … this Doctor keeps cropping up all over the place.”

Fantastic. The mysterious nature of the Doctor is one of the many, many reasons I find him such a captivating character.

Information Asymetries and Incentives

On the weekend, I purchased Freakonomics (it reminds me of another recent work of "pop" economics I read in the summer called The Economic Naturalist) and it has already proved a stimulating read. I have long been interested in social science, of working with real data to try to understand society and then go somewhere with that.

One of the opening themes of the book is a concept the authors call "information symmetry"; the common practice that experts/professionals often hold significantly more information than their audiences or lay people. There is some good research that suggests powerfully negative effects to this. The book examines tens of thousands of house sales in the Chicago area and notes that real estate agents selling their own property typically have that property listed on the market longer and typically sell for much better prices than their clients. The question is one of incentives; if a person selling their property raises the price by $10,000 they get all of that, but if you are working on elaborate commission system, you might earn as little as $150 or $200, so it may not seem worth the effort.

Given the non-profit motives (and indeed, aspirations to empower people with information) of many in the information profession, I wonder how the question of incentives play out. As far as experts go, librarians - on a vague and ideological level, anyhow - are committed to eroding our informational advantage in favor of users. This strikes me as good in many ways, but might that explain some other things? Such as why other professionals who sharply control information or manipulate information (e.g. doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, some scientists)?

What makes people come to us? Is it desperation (i.e. information we have cannot be obtained any other way) or something else (preference for filtering)? I do think there is something to be gained from asking the incentive question in a more systematic fashion. What is the effect on incentives if we make services more difficult to use (or conversely, refuse to provide easy methods of access)?

As usual, I don't have well formed ideas on this but I wanted to share some views to provoke further thought.

Wordle

Accidental Archivist on Wordle

The Nearest Book Meme

Ah, memes. It has been a few years since one of these has come out in the bits of the blogosphere that I keep track of. However, the "Nearest Book Meme" is a fun one. As with some many fun and interesting things, I read it about on Stephen Abram's blog.

"Besides, she told me, she read something once about how aluminum pans cause Alzheimer's - so this would be, medicinally, a wise purchase."
- Michael Beaumier, "Not Included with Display" in The Customer Is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles Edited by Jeff Martin.

Note: I have a stack of three books directly next to me (The Customer is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles; Someone Comes to Town, Some Leaves Town; Dreams From My Father). It is unclear which one is nearest. Given that the first book on that list was on the top of the pile, I guess it should be selected.

Rules:
* Get the book nearest to you. Right now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write this sentence - either here or on your blog.
* Copy these instructions as commentary of your sentence.
* Don't look for your favorite book or your coolest but really the nearest.

An Alternative to Blaming Google

I'm reading Imre Szeman's article “‘Do No Evil’: Google and Evil as a Political Category" (published in TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies). Google comes under a lot of attack here for its way of implementing its book scanning/search service. From the perspective of a pro-open access, open source graduate student, I would certainly say there are problems...

That said, why is the emphasis always on a sort of quasi-whining? Sure, Google is popular and often good at what it does. Is it the end of search and using information? No. Why can't there be more discussion and work on projects like the Open Content Alliance or the Internet Archive? Instead of complaining about why Google is lacking in some way, is it not more productive to build something better? I presume that most critics simply lack the resources or IT skills to create something like that, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be attempted at all.

Librarians for the Intelligence Service

I meant to write a post a few days ago about an information session I attended about the new facility that the Archives of Ontario is moving to at York University. I will write a few notes and then move onto the main theme of this entry. The new building looks quite inviting and I like the prospect of having areas and facilities to deliver programs to the public. I do very much hope the proposal to provide free (?) wireless Internet access to the research areas comes through - that is a fundamental requirement for an archives and one that is fairly cheap to provide. The move and re-opening at the next institution is scheduled for April 2009 and looks set to happen.

Now onto the main reason I'm posting today. For my 100th post (wow, I can't believe I'm there already), I'd like to look at two recent career options I have learned about. Researching job opportunities is something I generally do and find fulfilling. In this case, I was much interested by two particular opportunities. At CSIS (Canadian Security and Intelligence Service), there is a posting for a Librarian to work in the Intelligence Assessment Branch (salary range: $67,660 to $82,340 per year Canadian) and at the GCHQ (British: Government Communications Head Quarters), there is a posting for an Intelligence Specialist (£24,456 - £27,546). Both of these positions strike me as quite interesting, I must say.

Of the two, I have a better chance of obtaining the British position since it appears to be open to new graduates to a greater degree than the Canadian position. I presume that I would be barred from blogging about librarian work in the intelligence field, but I think other people out there should know that there are opportunities in this field.

Reflecting on the Archivist 2.0 Manifesto

I don't think I've previously commented on the Archivist 2.0 manifesto. The manifesto has 17 points and it is partly inspired by the American Libraries article “A Manifesto for Our Times," by Laura B. Cohen which explored similar issues.

From my perspective, I think there are a few points that are particularly interesting.

I will educate myself about the information culture of my users and look for ways to incorporate what I learn into the services my archives provides.

Researching users has been an interest of mine for quite some time. I would love to get paid (or just have it as one of my major job duties) to do user research and stay informed about new trends in the information culture. Arguably, I make the effort to stay informed anyhow though.

# I will take an experimental approach to change and be willing to make mistakes.

The development of professional standards like RAD or AACR2 encourage a culture of perfection, but I'm fine to leave that behind. I would like to see archives embrace a culture of pilot projects - including allowing staff time to think about new approaches.

# I will not wait until something is perfect before I release it, and I’ll modify it based on user feedback.

This has the vital benefit of bending and reshaping services to meet user needs.

# I will be willing to go where users are, both online and in physical spaces, to practice my profession.

Archivists really need to hear this. But let's be thoughtful too. Does it make sense to establish a presence in the World of Warcraft game? I know that a group of scientists recently held a research meeting in that environment (here's the amusing titled Science article: Slaying Monsters for Science). What about social networking websites like Facebook or MySpace?

# I will create open Web sites that allow users to join with archivists to contribute content in order to enhance their learning experience and provide assistance to their peers.

I want this badly but whenever I've mentioned to people, there seems to be quite a bit of resistance. From those conversations, I think there is a technical solution that addresses everybody's concerns. Make user generated content modular (i.e. you can use it or toggle it off); that way, users who want to use the official, "plain" finding aids or database can still have that

# I will lobby for an open catalog that provides personalized, interactive features that users expect in online information environments.

This strikes me as interesting idea but I think it would be difficult to design. Perhaps archives could ask Amazon.com for help?

# I will encourage professional blogging in my archives.

Yes, yes, and yes. Blogging should remain optional, of course (can you imagine mandatory blogging? Ugh!). The key to this point is only partly about the technology. The best blogs have a real persona powering them and that sense of connection is a great deal of the reason that keeps me coming back to blogs. I can't think of any Canadian institutions where professionals directly blog about their institutions, but last week I read about a senior person blogging at the Federal Reserve (aka the US Central Bank, more or less) in the United States. If that kind of organization has/allows professional blogging, then information organizations should at lest be open (if not outright encouraging) of the notion.