Librarians at the Gate

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Ray Matthews

I’m feeling chilled, nauseaus, and faint. No, I don’t think it’s the swine flu.

Rather, I just listened to a portion of yesterday’s Democracy Now! interview with Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, Google Faces Antitrust Investigation for Agreement to Digitize Millions of Books Online.

I’ve always thought that we librarians were the heroes. We were the ones out there on the front lines safeguarding the public’s right to free access to information. We were the ones gathering, microfilming, digitizing, cataloging and otherwise preserving papers, documents, and books and making them available online for present and future generations.

In this great crusade, librarians were among the first adopters of computer technologies. We have since embraced every search tool, database delivery system, open standard, digitization scheme, and Internet widget to come our way.

But we’ve let our guard down. In opening wide the gate and in embracing geeks bearing gifts, we’ve discovered an enemy. Our greater surprise is finding that this enemy is ourselves.

We’ve been lulled by the siren song that benevolent, enlightened library technology corporations can do the job better, cheaper, and more efficiently than armies of local librarians could ever have dreamed of doing. Overwhelming evidence has convinced us that monopoly giants can do it better.

As a result, the question, once unthinkable:

AMY GOODMAN: Do you see the end of libraries as we know them?

Elicits a nightmarish possibility:

BREWSTER KAHLE: [Long pause]. Libraries as a physical place to go, I think will continue, but if this trend continues, if we let Google make a monopoly here, then we’ll lose what libraries are in terms of repositories of books, places that buy books, own them, be a guardian of them, will cease to exist. Libraries, going forward, may just be subscribers to a few monopoly corporations’ databases.

I wouldn’t have felt so alarmed listening to this had I not recently read Robert Darnton’s essay in The New York Review of Books “Google & the Future of Books“. Darnton, by the way, is the director of the Harvard University Library and was a trustee of the New York Public Library. Both institutions were among the first five enthusiastic contributors to the Google Book project when it began in 2004. They’re now having second thoughts.

This week has been unsettling all around. I’m still pondering OCLC’s announcement a few days ago of their cloud-based alternative to traditional library Integrated Library Systems and the merits of Tim Spaulding’s penetrating critiques in his LibraryThing blog.

I’ll let history can be the judge whether alarmists like Kahle, Darnton, and Spaulding are prescient or paranoid.

I need to get back to monitoring my swine flu “twittertape.”

Editorial by Ray Matthews
Government Information Coordinator
Utah State Library

- opinions expressed here are his own -

Law Library Celebrates National Library Week

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Ray Matthews

In commemoration of National Library Week, the Utah State Law Library will be offering a number of classes and tours at the Matheson Courthouse (April 13-16, 2009).

Introduction to Resources for Self-Represented Parties

The class introduces the resources available for people representing themselves in court, including how to find an attorney, legal clinics, forms, the Online Court Assistance Program and other resources. The presentation will be followed by a tour of the Utah State Law Library introducing the print and electronic resources available.

Monday, April 13th 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, April 15th 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Westlaw Basics
This class will teach you how to search for case law, statutes, and other information using specialized search techniques. You will also learn about the various options for printing and saving.

Tuesday, April 14th 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Introduction to HeinOnline
HeinOnline provides access to historic and current legal publications, including law reviews and Federal material, and includes content not available on Westlaw or LexisNexis. Learn how to access these documents and view, print, and download them in PDF form.

Thursday, April 16th 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Registration is required for all classes. To reserve your spot:

• Call 801-238-7990
• Email library@email.utcourts.gov
• Or, stop by the State Law Library

Where:
All classses will be held at the Utah State Law Library
Matheson Courthouse, 450 South State Street, Room W-13

For more information please visit the:
Utah State Law Library Blog

Federal Recovery Grant Money for Library Broadband

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Ray Matthews

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Public Law No. 111-5, will be providing $4.7 billion establishing the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. This program will fund eligible entities to develop and expand broadband services to rural and underserved areas and to improve access to broadband by public safety agencies.

At least $200 million of this funding will be available in grants for upgrading broadband at public computing centers including community college libraries and public libraries.

Get the details about these broadband grants at:

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants/

Is an iLibrary in Your Future?

Posted on February 18, 2009 by Ray Matthews

I just received a request from a state agency for audio books. After spending some frustrating minutes with our Overdrive collection I had this idea:

Has anyone ever heard of Apple licensing their iTunes store software? I think that iTunes would be the perfect platform for libraries to use to provide access to their digital music, video, podcasts, courseware, games, and audio books.

Libraries have been stricken by massive inside-the-box thinking. The library model has always been that (1) access needs to be provided through an online catalog; (2) that materials should be provided for free; and (3) that library customers should borrow and return items.

What if, instead of the typical esoteric catalog interface, libraries could offer multimedia content through a city or county library branded version of the iTunes store? It’s SO easy to find and download content through Apple’s iTunes store compared to trying to get any multimedia online from any library site.

Instead of only supporting borrowing and returning, what if libraries were to offer content through micro-purchases like Apple does?

My wife and I love our local Salt Lake County library branch. At the same time we are extremely frustrated that it either lacks what we’re looking for (that’s me) or if they do have it, it’s checked out (that’s my wife). She’s been put on waiting lists that often last for weeks. I can only imagine the pain and frustration felt by customers of rural libraries. Libraries, IMHO, are locked into a dumb business model that ignores lofty customer expectations (‘I want everything and I want it immediately’). To quote my favorite character in Groundhog Day, “Am I right, or am I right?”

iTunes is intuitive for users. Customers would have immediate access to everything in the library. Customers would have access to content as long as they wanted. Vendors could provide content either with Apple’s FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) or without it (as Apple itself will be doing starting this April). Fees could be adjusted to cover library costs and still remain competitive in the market place. Libraries could provide a fuller range of historical and research materials and government documents than are typically found in online stores. Librarians could spend more time selecting content and building collections and less time processing. iTunes also might provide a perfect medium for offering access to materials for the blind such as podcasts, streaming radio programming, and talking books. It would save libraries oodles of processing and support costs (fewer ILS systems administrators, web mavens recreating online wheels, and shelvers restocking materials).

I think there is a whole range of possible cost-saving and service benefits.

Apple, Inc. are you listening? Let’s deal.

Using Maps to Access Library Resources

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Ray Matthews

The public has a great interest in being able to access information by typing in an address, entering a zip code, selecting a location on a map, or automatically receiving content via GPS detection in their mobile devices. Google Maps mashups are almost expected on every site.

Who represents me in the Utah Capitol?

http://www.scottriding.com/utahlegislators/ Utah legislature interactive map
This extremely useful mashup by Scott Riding shows what is possible in combining Google Maps with geographic data from the Automated Geographic Reference Center and legislative directory information from Legislative Research and General Counsel. Just type in your address or select your community from a list to see who is representing you (thank you Phil Windley for the alert).

Mappify

http://lib.byu.edu/cdmmaps
Mappify is another truly wonderful mashup that Scott Eldredge at the BYU Harold B. Lee created and demonstrated to the UALC Digitization Committee on January 12. It uses the user-friendly geo-spatial browsing tool, Mappified to pull some test Savage collection photographs from their CONTENTdm repository. BYU intends on adding the Overlands Trail Collection in the future. Here are some things to try out:

Drill down by Collection browse, by Geography browse, and by Chronology (date) browse. Then try the search feature for the word “canyon”.
Then click “View Timeline” to view images in a Timeline.
“Map Overlay” is one of the coolest features. Click “Go to Map Overlays”, then zoom in and click “High Res”. Use the Opacity slider to compare 1930s maps of the border between Denmark and Germany with the current map in Google satellite view. I can imagine that this application will be of tremendous interest to genealogists interested in comparing old maps with the modern landscape.

Continue reading →

Full-text of Inaugural Available Through FDsys

Posted on January 22, 2009 by Ray Matthews

The Government Printing Office (GPO) released FDsys to the public last Thursday at the same time that Mike Wash, GPO’s chief technical officer, announced it in his Washboard blog.

FDsys: http://fdsys.gpo.gov/

One spankin’ new government publication it includes is the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents from The Office of the Federal Register (OFR). This publication appeared on January 20, 2009 to coincide with the incoming President’s term of office. The online Daily Compilation will replace the printed Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. The OFR has partnered with the Government Printing Office to make the Daily Compilation the first publication specifically engineered for the new FDsys platform. More new web services will be added throughout 2009 allowing FDsys to gradually replace GPO Access. For more information see the FDsys project website.

FDsys has the full-text of the presidential inaugural ceremony as printed in the Senate pages of the January 20, 2009 Congressional Record, pages S667 through S670 (PDF). Enjoy!

Utah Libraries

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