Library Intersections

Welcome to a brand-new discussion thread on Intersections! The book is The New Inquisition by James LaRue, and the topic is intellectual freedom and challenges to library materials. To start the discussion,  a capsule review:

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7-people attended yesterday’s informal OPAL discussion about Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous. Thank you to those who were there! This was the first synchronous discussion for the Intersections project and was really an experiment to see how the OPAL format would work for book discussions.

“…the solution to the overabundance of information is more information” (p. 13)

We talked about tagging. Do we do it? Some said yes. We discussed tagging book entries (in LibraryThing, etc) vs tagging photos (in Flickr, etc). Some expressed lack of enthusiasm for the tags people create.

Brad Allen from TSCPL talked about the neighborhoods TSCPL is using to organize their collections. Neighborhoods are subject collections that group items from across the Dewey Decimal system together. We discussed Weinberger’s discussion of the inadequacies of the Dewey Decimal system.

Speaking of TSCPL, David King recently saw David Weinberger present and blogged about it. Here’s another blog post about Weinberger’s presentation, including some interesting links (to Weinberger on NPR, etc)

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Let’s Discuss the Book

What? Informal discussion of the book “Everything is Miscellaneous” by David Weinberger

When? Thursday, May 22nd, at 2 PM

Where? Online in the State Library of Kansas OPAL room

Who? Anyone who has read, is reading, or is thinking about reading the book and wants to discuss the relevance for libraries

The NEFLIN blog highlighted a new library book discussion group today. The three titles they are choosing between include:

• Rethinking Information Work by G. Kim Dority
• Libraries and Google by William Miller and Rita M. Pellen
• The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin

I can’t tell if the discussion will be open to the anyone, but I’ll check and will let you know!

(I know there are many of you reading Everything is Miscellaneous and I’m hoping the reviews will start popping up here soon!)

Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll to select the second book. The title receiving the most votes was David Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous. Read the book and then let us know what you think! What are the implications for libraries?

Local librarian and blogger David King read the book a while back and posted his thoughts: Part 1 and Part 2. Read his blog to get a feel for what the book is about. A resource page has been started here on the Intersections site, too (see Everything is Miscellaneous tab above).

Thank you to guest blogger Scott Vieira, Instructional Design Librarian at the Johnson County Library (and Wikipedia aficionado), for the following post!

Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail” could be summarized by the subtitle of his
book “why the future of business is selling less of more.” Anderson
goes on detailing how companies such as Amazon, Rhapsody, and Netflix
have made the most of this economic strategy. But he doesn’t stop
there; user contributed content such as YouTube also illustrates the
democratizing power of variety. And then there is Wikipedia? Like the
others, Anderson describes Wikipedia as an example of the “long tail”.
Such an association is interesting since Wikipedia is not a business,
and appears to illustrate that the “long tail” phenomenon goes beyond
retail success. Continue Reading »

NSLS (in Illinois) does many cool things. Today I noticed that they are hosting an online book discussion. The format is different than our Intersections format, in which we read a book every few months and feature posts by a variety of guest bloggers. The NSLS group is having the participants read the books, chapter by chapter over a time period, with book discussion leaders. I’m excited to see what titles they read and how the conversation develops.

Oh, and please don’t forget to vote in our what-to-read-next poll! It’s over in the lower right-hand corner of this screen. (UPDATE: The poll is over and Everything is Miscellaneous won!)

I know there is at least one more Long Tail post in the works, but it’s also time to start thinking about what we will read next. Thank you for all of the great ideas and discussion on the Suggest a Title page. You should now see a poll in the lower right-hand corner of this site. Please help us choose the next title by selecting one or two titles from the eight potential choices. Which titles will inspire interesting discussion? Which intrigue you? In addition to voting in the poll, please feel free to share your thoughts on why a particular title would be especially good (either by commenting on this post or by commenting on the Suggest a Title page).

Individually, libraries are the total opposite of the long tail. The limitations of physical shelf space require libraries to constantly remove titles that have not been used recently. Libraries may not be quite as best seller dominated as bookstores are, but they cannot afford to store unused materials that some day one reader in the community may want. Library systems that emphasize ownership of local collections and impose barriers and costs for access to materials in other libraries are the antithesis of the long tail.

Yet we have only to look at Amazon.com to see how distributed sources of new and used copies, user reviews and rapid delivery can be combined to provide efficient and profitable access to items that have only occasional demand as well as best seller “hits.” Together our combined library collections have a similarly rich variety of resources. Shared library systems that provide easy location, requesting and delivery of those materials can provide the key to libraries providing resources through the entire long tail of demand.

Sharing resources through interlibrary loan is expensive and time consuming because libraries procedures have been designed that way. Those restrictions do not provide value to library users, and we need to move beyond them. We are in an exciting time now with:

• The building of shared regional integrated library automation systems;
• Agreements on common circulation policies;
• Universal web based public access;
• The replacement of laborious interlibrary loan procedures with simple circulation holds;
• Planning for a statewide interlibrary courier service.

Those are the tools that will enable libraries to move beyond service restricted largely to the limits of physical shelf space. Long tail library service requires shared library systems, and we are just beginning to provide that.

Brenda Hough, NEKLS, interviews David Hanson, Specialty Reference Services Coordinator for the Johnson County Library.

B: Dave, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts about The Long Tail. Let’s jump right in. How do you see the long tail concept being played out in reference services?

D: There are two big places of impact on us: providing reference services in niche markets and providing reference services to the individuals, the entrepreneurs, the organizations that are developing to meet niche needs.

B: Let’s start with the first.

D: Larger library systems often have the ability to provide a different level of service in niche markets.  For instance, business service at JCL is at a different level than anywhere in the metro and probably the region. We may get a reference question about market size or dynamics of a certain sector, say patio furniture.  If you look at regular resources like Market Share Reporter for instance, you won’t find it.  One of our librarians will actually go through traditional and nontraditional routes to figure this out and deliver a package back to the customer of what he or she needs.  Their expertise makes a difference and adds value for the patron.  The most intense stuff we do is probably helping small business owners find numbers to help them value their businesses as they go into negotiation to sell.

B: Anderson talks about urban areas being hotbeds for niches.  Your job title, “Specialty Reference Services Coordinator” indicates that you are very much focused on specialized, or niche, needs. Does your library system view those niches as being in addition to general reference needs or are the niches really the focus in reference in this day and age?

D: We are definitely part of general reference (which is actually increasing at JCL), and each specialist spends roughly half her time doing general reference work.  The other half is focused on our niches - and they are growing.  We’ve just completed a year long look at time spent by our professionals in their niches.  The initial results suggest the there is a market for patron access to niche services.  Through consultation and programs the specialists served just over 3470 patrons in 2007.  This roughly breaks down to 10 patrons served each day in very specific niche markets for the total days the library was open (342 days in 2007).  The trend appears to be growing.  We added a Consumer Health Specialist in 2007 and will be adding a Social Sciences specialist in 2008, which both promise to be areas of high interest.  We look at the areas of service - particularly consultative one on one service - as growth areas.  Our goal for the next 3 to 5 years is a 10% growth in these transactions each year.  We’ll let you know how 2008 goes.

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