Week 4

The Company of readers.

As I was reading the Article I kept getting hung up on the "Fiction Problem" section of the reading. "Don't appologize for your reading tastes" is a very powerful statement that shouldn't need to be said. No matter what material is being read there is value in any set of words printed even if the value is in how another person crafts sentences together. Genre fiction is always under attach for its formulas and recognizable patterns, but those same blocks are why people read them and use them as escapes or as pallet cleansers between weightier volumes or subjects or even chaotic life events.

Who are we to judge someone Else's life by our own reading standards, maybe the patron checking out chick-lit is dealing with a dieing parent or child perhaps they are using those moments of lightness and fluff to get through kemo. Or maybe they just want something to do while waiting for their child to get done with soccer practice.

Fiction isn't the problem its people who believe that they know what is best for the next person. Voltaire said let "think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too" which would solve all kinds of problems not just the fiction problem.

Wyoming Libraries

It is interesting to look at the libraries in a state that holds no library school such as Wyoming. The libraries in Wyoming are running into the same type of problems as most Wisconsin libraries have faced or are currently facing the rest of this post focuses on the issues of collection development, what to do with internet computers and how to get patrons to make better use of library resources.

The first article I found was on the The Laramie County Library System (LCLS) and the statistics they had to report for 2010. LCLS has noticed a severe down turn in the number of patrons coming into the library and checking out books. The article attempts to identify possible reasons for the lack of patrons but settles on e-books as the culprit. The author then goes on to talk about the possibility of starting an e-book collection in order to bring patrons back to their member libraries under the philosophy of if you give them what they want they will visit and of course the majority of patrons what electronic content.

The article was short and really about changing the collection around to respond to the lowering circulation statistics supporting the idea that collection developments decisions are often based upon political expediency rather then nobler ideals.

http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_c91602ec-6011-5b40-bc55-a1b2acf0fe11.html

The second article is about the University of Wyoming and how they are trying to get their patrons to make better use of library resources. The University of Wyoming is the only four year university in Wyoming so they serve a very large and diverse population with different skill levels when it comes to searching for the articles and materials that they need to be successful. After a long drawn out research process the university decided that Google’s search strategies were worth adopting. The University switched their database searching over to federated searching mainly because they felt that their students were already using Google over their research databases because of the ease of use. The article proceeds to detail the process of deciding which databases to switch over and how federated searching is integrated into the resources already available.

I found it interesting that switching to federated searching was done in the manor that was detailed in the article. I had assumed before reading the whole article that it would be a service that the university would be subscribing to as a package. Then the vender would decide which databases were federated and which were not and make all the behind the scenes decisions. Instead the university’s team of reference librarians made all of the decisions.

Nelson, M. , Harlow, M. , & Kvenild, C. (2009). Implementing federated search at the university of wyoming. Online, 33(2), 26-31

The third article is about a small public library that just built a new library at the time of the article was printed. The decision was made to use internet filtering to guard the internet computers rather than staff time. Staff time is a precious and limited resources that is always being reallocated to different areas. According to the article this library decided that it would be best to allow internet filters to monitor the patron computers rather than to take staff time to monitor the internet activity of different patrons while they visit the library. The decision was also made to allow the filters to be set at different levels according to the cards that are issued. The article states that the patrons like the new filters and understand the need for them which is the biggest hurtle in implementing a filtering system in any public access situation.

The article was very sort and written for the general public I would love to see the professional version of the article and how the patrons responded and what the decision making process was actually.

http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2007/11/05/local_news_updates/20local_11-05-07.txt

After reading these three articles it was reassuring to note that libraries are libraries no matter where they are, they provide services to the patrons that visit them and try and be good stewards of information.

Libraries By C. Pawley

From the article it seems that OCLC started out as this idealized possibility of connecting all library catalogs together so that library users could truly be patrons of "THE LIBRARY" rather then patrons of a library but it got corrupted along the way by practicality and reality. The expense of getting all of the libraries to buy into a system required funding that was gained when they sold MARC records to libraries causing some libraries to not be able to join because they couldn't afford the membership fees.

An interesting point in the article was that Andrew Carnegie was the driving force behind the creation of Doctoral Studies in Library Science not just building wonderful libraries.

Traces: Document, record, archive, archives By Sue McKemmish

The whole article focused on the case study of the 'children thrown overboard' and how the picture was taken out of context and used nefariously, making the argument that archivists have the responsibility to keep saved records in such a manor that they are contextualized from the beginning to avoid these situations.

However, I find the statement "Records are 'always in a process of becoming'."
to be the more valid point. Once something is saved it is the responsibility of the viewer to question that which is presented and the duty of the archivist to preserve information in formats and ways that allow the public to find the true facts as its very rare for a librarian of any discipline to have the authority or political power to stop reporters and politicians from misusing the information that comes into their hands.

The picture of the children being rescued can still be found online with incorrect information and corrected information attached to it which illustrates the true tragedy of unintentional digital archiving.