K-State Libraries: Conference Reports

German Librarians' Conference: Use and Abuse of Statistics

P. Büning, Düsseldorf
J. Kreische, Düsseldorf
K. Südekum, Würzburg
S. Mundt, Stuttgart
A. Knapp, Karlsruhe

Rather than writing individual posts on all of the talks on the topic of statistics, it seemed to make sense to put it all into one post.

At the center of this talk was the German library statistical rubric BIX (Bibliotheksindex). It's a voluntary tool used to make comparisons between public and academic libraries. Everyone seems a bit critical of the rankings, since as one speaker put it, they are easy to misinterpret. The stated purpose of BIX is to make library performance and evaluation transparent and accessible to politicians and administrators.

German Librarians' Conference: Open Journal Systems (OJS)

A. Geukes, Berlin
B. Bokan, Berlin

Essentially an intro to OJS, which I know well, but I wanted to see how it's viewed from a German perspective. The speakers are at the Free University in Berlin; at the FU, electronic publishing is led by their central IT organization, not the library. That alone raises my interest ...

German Librarians' Conference: Electronic Publishing Using Generic Tools

M. Klatt-Kafemann, Berlin

He was speaking within the context of DINI (Deutsche Initiative für Netzwerkinformation), roughly the German equivalent of CNI. The main question he addressed was what tools can one use to publish journals and meet the requirements of a DINI repository.

Incidentally, his was the first talk I saw here with an explicit Creative Commons license.

German Librarians' Conference: E-Books in the Max Planck Digital Library

Tina Planck, Munich

The Max Planck Society (MPG) is a massive, private research organization, with 80 institutes and 12,600 employees, of which 4,400 are researchers. There are 72 libraries, but only 230 employees (27 are OPLs--one-person libraries). Libraries are highly autonomous, no central ILS or cataloging. The MP Digital Library has 38 employees and is a central service provider. Two sides: information provision and research/development.

Library Camp Kansas

It would be difficult to write out notes for what transpired today at the first ever library unconference in Kansas (I think it was the first, anyway). There were no papers, panels, or keynotes; rather, there were sessions chosen by the participants that took the form of discussions. The topics ranged broadly. I seemed to end up in two of the "Web 2.0" sessions, one of which I led. My goal in that session was to have a discussion revolving around one of the suggestions made in advance on the conference wiki, namely "How do you measure the success of your libraries social networking endeavors?"

It was a good group, and I appreciate both their participation and ideas, as well as their willingness to let me at least try to steer us back to the main question. Personally, I had what I described as a mini-epiphany, which was that we in libraries actually don't do much in terms of real assessment, despite much ado in this arena. Were we to really assess how we do things, we'd be forced to start making hard decisions about some of our tried and true practices that have likely outlived their usefulness given the radical transformation in the way information is created and disseminated. Some of those practices are incredibly expensive, and should therefore perhaps be subject to far closer scrutiny than low-cost social networking experiments which, after all, are only a few years old, so it should be no surprise that there are some unanswered questions that will take some time to deal with.

Understanding Fair Use

Wes Blakeslee, Johns Hopkins University,
speaking at the KU Copyright Symposium, March 7, 2008

[This was an excellent talk. It was that rare opportunity to listen to someone who has both strong opinions and expert knowledge of fair use and other copyright issues. Moreover, he's on the 'right' side of fair use; most of the strong opinions come from content firms.]

There is no case law evidence that copies of scholarly articles for classroom use have ever impacted journal subscriptions, actually the opposite is generally true.

The worst disaster ever for fair use was the Classroom Guidelines. Why?

The future of the OPAC

The future of the OPAC and the ILS running it behind the scenes were hot topics. Aside from my usual committee meetings, I was able to gather some information on OPAC overlays and ILS options. An OPAC overlay is an interface that sits on top of one's existing ILS providing Library 2.0 interaction and an improved interface.

The most interesting presentation I attended was from LITA and sponsored by the Next Generation Catalog Interest Group. The topic was of great interest as the room was full with more chairs being added as the speakers began. The presentations were from three different institutions who have taken an open source route with a catalog overlay. Slides are to be posted in the future to the LITA Web site. Rather than migrating to a completely different ILS, these institutions have opted to create a new face for the OPAC. All libraries were seeking to add Library 2.0 features to their catalogs. Each overlay includes the ability to search facets. None needed support from one's ILS vendor to implement. Vufind is synchronous, whereas Solrpac is asynchronous with a 2 hour delay.

OPAC overlays

• Vufind  developed by Villanova University with a Voyager catalog as the source of data
• Solrpac by Miami University of Ohio with an Innovative catalog as the source of data and using Drupal
• Project Blacklight portal by University of Virginia with a Sirsi/Dynix catalog as the source of data

All of the above systems are XML-based and open source. The thing I found most intriguing was the fact that these overlays work with your existing ILS. While open source ILS options are gaining traction, an OPAC overlay based on an open source model provides a host of display options. Considering a migration of a large ILS is a matter not to be entered quickly or lightly. An OPAC overlay could be a solid intermediate step.

Other products beyond the above panel presentation (by no means exhaustive, but rather a reflection of the information I gathered at the exhibits)

New ILS
Koha by LibLime (open source)
AGent VERSO

OPAC overlays
WorldCat Local
Encore by Innovative Interfaces

Federated searching
AGent Search
MasterKey (open source)

ALCTS Metadata and Digital Library Development preconference

I attended the ALCTS Metadata and Digital Library Development preconference before the start of ALA Midwinter. The preconference lasted two days and included discussions and exercises on functional requirements for digital libraries, metadata assessment and analysis, metadata conversion (i.e. mapping), and metadata workflows. Those in attendance included electronic resource librarians, catalogers, metadata specialists, and a few folks in library systems. The creation and maintenance of digital libraries is a complex topic. Much depends on the local environment and the goals of the digital library. What purpose does it serve now and in the future? I found the discussions with colleagues in a variety of roles and position within libraries to be more valuable than the formal content. Many libraries are still tentatively stepping out into various digital projects. While K-State has completed numerous grant-funded digital projects with groups outside the libraries, library-wide projects have been more limited. As the libraries take a more active role in the creation and curation of digital content, the opportunities for improved tools and content exposure are vast.

Digital Curation Conference: a general comment

Hopefully I've faithfully documented and commented on the presentations I've heard here at both CNI and DCC. I hope a few souls find this useful and that this might spark a few conversations.

To close down the week, I'd like to offer a general commentary on the intersection of science and social networking as it exists on the Web. Too often, the latter is dismissed as trivial, faddish, or simply a waste of time, while the former need never defend itself or its credibility. I just spent four days hearing over and over again, however, how thousands of scientists in many countries make use of the very same technologies used by your average teenager--namely, blogs, wikis, Facebooky things, etc.--to do essential work and collaborate with their peers. The head of Web publishing ...

Digital Curation Conference: Surveying Bloggers' Perspectives

Laura Sheble, UNC

Full title: Surveying Bloggers' Perspectives on Digital Preservation: Methodological Issues

Presented the results of a survey on the topic named in the title, namely, how bloggers feel about the preservation of their medium. Their survey had 223 respondents, a fairly even male/female split, and had representatives from all age brackets, from less than 20 to over 60. Most were in their 20s and 30s.

She made a quick point about the fact that 24% of their respondents blog strictly under a pseudonym, which has implications for authority and permissions. Most work at least 1-2 hours per week on blogs, but the average was actually five hours. 80% read blogs at least once a day.

This was largely a presentation about their survey, and did not spend much time on analysis around the central point, other than to point out that about 70% of bloggers feel that their own blogs should be preserved, while only 36% feel that all blogs should be preserved.

Digital Curation Conference: Sustaining Engineering Informatics

Joshua Lubell, NIST (Nat'l Institute of Standards and Technology)

Outlined some of the specific challenges in the curation of engineering data. One example is that often, at design time, future needs or considerations are not present in the designers' minds--e.g.- biodegradability, carbon footprint, etc.--but later become critical, so it's imperative to retain all design data.

Gave an overview of LC's work with defining digital formats, which addresses a number of questions and issues.  He then assessed ISO 10303 (STEP) in terms of the LC criteria, and given that it is an international standard, it does fairly well.

He then outlined the three access scenarios (the three Rs): reference, reuse, and rationale. The first is simply the ability to view and visualize the engineering data. Reuse is what it sounds like (STEP supports this), namely, taking the data and modifying or reengineering it. Rationale is the ability to display information such as construction history, design intent, etc., which go beyond the design itself. He compared this to the chess column in a newspaper, where, in addition to a snapshot of the board at some point in the game, you get a description of the moves required to reach that state. Loosely put, it's the set of 'why' questions that can arise from a design. STEP does not include this rationale piece, which is the point behind his work.

Digital Curation Conference: Moving Archival Practices Upstream

Jillian Wallis, UCLA (Center for Embedded Networked Sensing)

Full title: Moving Archival Practices Upstream: An Exploration of the Life Cycle of Ecological Sensing Data in Collaborative Field Research

CENS wanted to share its environmental sensing data (seismic, aquatic, urban, etc.). There are standards, but they wanted to know how the communities use the data. To get a better sense of that, they conducted interviews with scientists, and went out into the field to work directly with scientists to study their work habits. They also asked what is necessary for data interpretation (experiment design, experiment setup, calibrations, equipment performance, etc.).

They discovered that currently few researchers in their scope share data, which is the problem they seek to address with their life cycle study. Simply put, rather than stepping in at the terminus of research, i.e.- after publication, they want to intercede and participate earlier in the research process to better support the retention and preservation of research data.

They park datasets in Sensorbase, which she describes as a blog-like environment where users can create content.

Digital Curation Conference: Day Two Keynote

Carol Goble, U of Manchester

[n.b.- This talk was the highlight of DCC for me. Rather than highlighting, again, only the challenges without really offering solutions, she showed concrete examples and tools, in pretty good detail.]

Her work revolves around creating tools that handle the workflows involved in taking data, bringing it together, and making useful (put somewhat simply). One tool has been very popular (Taverna), rising to #210 on SourceForge, with a total of 40,000+ downloads. She refers to it as automated curation. The workflows are:

• reading publications
• processing the data
• part of curation pipelines
• valuable scientific assets in their own right
• etc.

Services are steps in the workflow, and a workflow can be deployed as a service.

Digital Curation Conference: Towards Distributed Infrastructures

Michael Day, UKOLN

Full title: Towards Distributed Infrastructures for Digital Preservation: The Roles of Collaboration and Trust

Reviewed basic organizational models for research collaboration (Chompalov, et al.): bureaucratic, leaders, non-specialized, and participatory. Depending on the model in use, data acquisition/sharing varies. One of his points after reviewing this is that research is needed into this issue across all research domains. In short, I think the message is that no one solution will fit all contingencies.

He sees more interest in the socio-economic and cultural processes and issues that affect digital preservation. A wide range of models and networks are arising.

Day spoke about trustworthy repositories, and the standards that are evolving to establish trustworthiness. There are two main methods, external audit and self-assessment. Trust is clearly an important element of networks, and trust arises from close integration with disciplines. It sounds simple when he says it, but is clearly hard to establish.

Digital Curation Conference: Day One Closing Plenary

Rick Luce, Emory

[By this point, my enthusiasm for detailed notes was waning. He said something, however, that piqued my interest (remarkable considering when I had last consumed caffeine) and led me down a train of thought that has little to do with his talk or the conference. What appears below is that brain dump.]

Could it be that we are well enough funded to be too comfortable with our traditional roles? Rick Luce asked this question near the end of his first day closing keynote. Otherwise, his talk was a fairly standard review of what's going on and what needs to be done to solve some of the pressing issues, but this question struck me as unique. He's right, I think. Our funding is sufficient to continue operating much as we have for a long time; sure, making incremental changes, but never really taking the great leap forward to stop doing most of what we do now and really take on some major new challenges.

Digital Curation Conference: Sustainable Access to the Records of Science

Case studies presented by:

Simon Coles, U. of Southampton
Tim Hubbard, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Robert Hanisch, Space Telescope Science Institute
Myron Gutmann, ICPSR
Sally Rumsey, Oxford U Library
Richard Moore, San Diego Supercomputer Center

Coles noted that chemists are odd and don't typically enjoy sharing data. He pointed to a discussion in the Royal Society for Chemistry about open access and data sharing as an example of this.

Digital Curation Conference: National Perspectives

Astrid Wissenburg, Economic and Social Research Council, UK
Chris Greer and Lucy Nowell, Office of Cyberinfrastructure, NSF, US
Mario Campolargo, European Commission, Europe
Rhys Francis, Australian eResearch Infrastructure Council, Australia

Wissenburg, UK

She spoke from a UK research funder's perspective. I did not record her overview of the funding system, since it is largely irrelevant from our point of view. The UK does have seven different research councils, ranging across the spectrum of research, i.e.- from the arts and humanities to medicine, and so forth. All receive a portion of the overall budget, with the engineering and physical sciences RC receiving 25%, while the A&H receives 4%. This is familiar turf.

CNI in DC: Closing Plenary on the Future of Scholarly Communication

Timo Hannay, Nature Publishing Group

Focused on five main areas:

• audio & video
• databases
• open data
• peer review & blogs
• online collaboration

CNI in DC: Recommender Systems, BibTip

Andreas Geyer-Schulz, Uni Karlsruhe

In a rather German introduction, he noted that one of the main goals of having a recommender system is to save both the time of the user and the staff member. To that end, they've developed BibTip, which provides title recommendations. The development of this tool was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the German analog for the NSF.

CNI in DC: LibraryThing and the Library Catalog

John Wenzler, San Francisco State University

Materials and slides

[Watching this talk, I briefly had the sensation of being at Internet Librarian, where this kind of topic is the bread and butter. I was very happy, however, to see a topic like this presented to a good-sized audience with a lot of library administrators in it, as well as to see their enthusiasm for it.]

Reviewed the service and why people might use it for personal and social reasons. He then moved into a description of the public benefits, i.e.- those that benefit all users:

• book suggestions
• book unsuggestions (people who own x don't own z; more for fun that useful)
• tag-based folksonomy

To get these benefits, you need not join LibraryThing, and those who join aren't necessarily cognizant of their role in the creation of these public benefits. They are simply derived from the massive data set that results from a service such as this.

CNI in DC: Integrated Digital Library on the Fedora Platform

David Kennedy, U of Maryland
Susan Schreibman, U of Maryland

Do not use Fedora for their IR (which uses DSpace), but for their digital collections. Previously they used DigiTool, which they opted to drop (for one, it doesn't handle TEI well, nor EAD particularly well, per one speaker's comments).

CNI in DC: Electronic Publishing Systems

Mark Cyzyk, Johns Hopkins

In the scope of his study, Cyzyk did not interview the developers. His methodology began with an environmental scan, seeking any possible product and system. He showed a rather long list, many of which I've never heard of in the US context. From the many candidates, he chose seven: DPubS, GNU EPrints, Hyperjournal, OJS, Connextions/Rhaptos, DiVA, and Topaz. The first four are those that he installed and evaluated; for the latter three, he gathered data, but did not use the product.

CNI in DC: Opening Plenary

Tim Berners-Lee, Internet Überlord
Clifford Lynch

Berners-Lee was at CNI to present the 2007 MATC (Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration) prizes. Nominations for the MATC are open, and the next cycle begins within a few days of this conference (12/12). Rather than record the winners here, it probably makes more sense to consult the Website.

Cliff Lynch offered his review of the year and the major issues that have arisen since the last CNI meeting in April. As usual, recording his musings can be somewhat fraught, since he offers them largely via stream of consciousness. Additionally, while it is interesting to hear about the major issues facing Internet2, we, as K-State Libraries, are at least several layers removed from the implications of those issues. Perhaps at some point in the future we will be closer to such things, but, for now, we have different fish to fry.

IL2007 Closing Keynote

Internet Librarian 2007

Closing Keynote
From Physical to Virtual and Back Again - Blurring the Boundaries.
Liz Lawley

IL2007: Tech Tools for Library Outreach

Internet Librarian 2007

Tech Tools for Library Outreach
Chad Boeninger, Ohio University
Paul R. Pival, University of Calgary

IL2007: Content Management Systems

Internet Librarian 2007

From Static to Dynamic: Choosing and Implementing a CMS
Ruth Kneale, National Solar Observatory

and

CMS Experiences at CSP and UST: Same Application, Different Libraries
Amy Radermacher, Concordia University
May Chang, UMBC Library

IL2007: Trends in Mobile Tools and Applications for Libraries

Internet Librarian 2007

Trends in Mobile Tools and Applications for Libraries
Megan Fox, Simmons College

IL2007: How to Lose Your New Tech Librarian

Internet Librarian 2007

How to Lose Your New Tech Librarian
Jenny Benevento, Associated Press

and

Building Your Techie Team: Tips for Training Staff
Sarah Houghton-Jan and Michael Stephens

IL2007: Screencasting and eLearning on a Shoestring

Internet Librarian 2007

Screencasting and eLearning on a Shoestring
Michelle Boule and Karen Coombs, University of Houston

IL2007: Promoting Play Through Online Discovery: Lego Building

Internet Librarian 2007

Promoting Play Through Online Discovery: Lego Building
Meredith Farkas, Norwich University
Helene Blowers, Public Library of Charlotte Mecklenburg (PLCMC)

IL2007: Have You Got a Game Plan?

Internet Librarian 2007

Have You Got a Game Plan? Adapting Library Services to the Needs of Gamers
Chad Boeninger, Ohio University
Randy Christensen, Southern Utah University Library

NISO: Electronic Resource Usage Data

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

Electronic Resource Usage Data: Defining a complex problem
Caryn Anderson
Doctoral Studies Program Manager
GSLIS, Simmons College

NISO: Building Frameworks of Organizational Intelligence

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

"I'm sorry, we didn't know we wanted to know that!" Building frameworks of organizational intelligence
Joe Zucca
Director for Planning and Communication
University of Pennsylvania Libraries

NISO: From Shoeboxes to Mashups

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

From Shoeboxes to Mashups: ERMs and Decision Support
Tim Jewell
Director, Information Resources and Scholarly Communication
University of Washington Libraries

Also sits on the SUSHI development committee

NISO: Searching for Value

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

Searching for Value in a Changing Research Environment: What data do you have and how can you use it?
Patricia Brennan
Product Development Manager
Thompson Scientific

NISO: Real World Data

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

Real World Data: Using Usage to Shape Libraries
Virginia Steel
University Librarian
University of California, Santa Cruz

IL2007: Reference 2.0

Internet Librarian 2007

Opening Keynote, 10/30/2007
Reference 2.0
Joe Janes, iSchool at University of Washington

IL2007: User-Generated Content

Internet Librarian 2007

User-Generated Content
Meredith Farkas and Josh Petrusa, Norwich University

IL2007: Cool Tools for Library Webmasters

Internet Librarian 2007

Cool Tools for Library Webmasters
Frank Cervone, Northwestern University
Darlene Fichter, University of Saskatchewan

My notes were tragically lost, but please see this post, which sums things up nicely. This was another great session, and many of the tools are pretty cool even if you're not an official "webmaster."

IL2007: Inspiration for Your Library Redesign

Internet Librarian 2007

Inspiration for Your Library Redesign
Bennett Ponsford and Christina Hoffman Gola, Texas A&M University
and
Erica Reynolds, Johnson County Public Library

IL2007: The New Rules of Web Design

Internet Librarian 2007

The New Rules of Web Design
Jeff Wisniewski, University of Pittsburg

Internet Librarian 2007

I'm back from Internet Librarian 2007 and am going to start posting my notes shortly. Various technologies all teamed up to conspire against me, so I have to type up a few sets of notes, but I'll start with what I've got! A colleague from Baylor who attended with me also blogged notes about sessions that I was unable to attend. You can find these at Instructional Design Resources.

NISO: Usage Statistics & Information Behaviors

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

Usage Statistics & Information Behaviors
John McDonald
Assistant Director, User Services & Technology Innovation
The Libraries of the Claremont Colleges

NISO: Why Collect Data?

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

Why Collect Data?
Colleen Cook
Dean of the Texas A&M University Libraries
Sterling C. Evans Chair in Librarianship

Also co-creator of LibQUAL

NISO: ScholarlyStats

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

ScholarlyStats: How it utilizes COUNTER and SUSHI standards, questions regarding effective use, and future strategic plans for the service
Tina Feck
Vice President, Customer Relations
Swets Information Services

NISO: Usage Data: an aggregator perspective

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

Usage Data: An Aggregator Perspective
John Law
Director, Strategic Alliances and Platform Management
ProQuest CSA

(The conference wireless died in the middle of this post so I lost all my thoughtful analysis (ahem). This is the nutshell version posted later in the afternoon.)

NISO: SUSHI & COUNTER

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

SUSHI & COUNTER
Oliver Pesch
Chief Strategist, E-Resources
EBSCO Information Services

(Oliver was moving fast through his slides so there are lots of items I missed)

NISO: Usage Data: seeing the full perspective

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

Usage Data: Seeing the Full Perspective
Kevin Cohn
Product Director, Atypon

(The conference wireless was down while Kevin was speaking. These are my notes captured off-line and posted later in the afternoon.)

NISO: The MESUR Project

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

The MESUR Project: An Update from the Trenches
Johan Bollen
Staff Researcher
Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library

NISO: From What to Why

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

From What to Why: Electronic Resource Usage Data in Collection Development and User Behavior
Karen Coombs
Head of Web Services
University of Houston Libraries
and
Library Web Chic

NISO: Aggregation & Analysis of Usage Data

NISO Forum: Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data

Aggregation & Analysis of Usage Data: A Structural, Quantitative Perspective
Johan Bollen
Staff Researcher
Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library

(Johan says he is afraid of yelling into the microphone, but it's quite difficult to hear him)

NISO at the sign of the Red Pegasus

Understanding the Data Around Us: Gathering and Analyzing Usage Data
November 1-2, 2007
Dallas, Texas

Initial Impressions:
Under the Magnolia Oil Company's red pegasus, I'm meeting with a big group of library hangers-on to discuss the pressing issues of the day. It starts to sound like a political meeting, but the topic is usage data in all its use/ful/less forms. Todd Carpenter from NISO is telling us this is the largest-attended forum this year, and the room is packed. We're meeting in a fabulous old Art Deco ballroom and it's impossible to divorce the architecture of our surroundings from the topic at hand. If we can depart with the same clear sense of structure and purpose regarding our data that the architects of these buildings possessed in their design schemes, we'll be doing very well indeed.

Thunder Talks : Access 2007

There were 6 in all. 

1. Open Journal Systems (OJS) by Kevin Stranack , Simon Fraser University.

OJS is an open access publishing platform with journal management functions built-in. It supports the journal publishing life cycle starting from creation, to assigning reviewers, to content editing and finally publishing. Its a product of the Public Knowledge Project that has released other products including Open Conference System (OCS). The speaker described how OJS was having a local impact (libraries can do this, they are the local publishers on their campus), national impact (different universities are hosting open access journals using OJS) and global impact (250+ journals online, internationally?). Its based on php/mysql and they are looking for php ninjas.