K-State Libraries: Conference Reports

NASIG 2008: Information Shadows

NASIG 2008: Information Shodows
by Gay Youngman - Catser
Information Shadows: Ubiquitous computing serializes everyday things
Presenter: Michael Kuniavsky

This session was probably my favorite all-time presentation. Coming from a background outside the library mindset, the presenter had a fresh and unique perspective that excited the audience with his ability to create pictures in the mind.  Although there is a digital divide in this country, almost everyone experiences computer technology in some way through blenders, shoes, phones, toys, cars, etc. Kuniavsky quoted William Gibson from the Necromancer--The future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed.  Kuniavsky urged the audience to be at the forefront of the shadows--to wrangle information about information, organize, purchase, curate (manage/archive), and corral because we are the Shadow Wranglers.

NASIG 2008: Discover and Delivery

Discover and Delivery: Making it work for users
Presenter: Carol Pitts Diedrichs, Dean of Libraries, University of Kentucky

Pointing out that the library catalog disconnects with millennial students, Diedrichs led the attendees through a maze of new services and features that students find interesting.  Tools such as Harper Collins author tracker and recommendations sites, Amazon book pages and  along with the fact that on Google an answer may be had in 2 minutes rather than the 20 minutes often needed to find something in a library catalog.

Librarians know that there are issues that must be addressed with tracking behind the scenes information, but the user wants the same service they get with Amazon, Google and eBay. Deidrichs stated, "We can claim success when users use the libraries site as readily, easily and often as they use Google."

Sharing sites from libraries across the U.S. Diedrichs showed many innovative ideas that could be added to existing catalogs and new software that change the look of the catalog, making it more familiar and easier for students use.  She closed with the Lorcan Dempsey quote,  “Discovery happens everywhere, but discovery without fulfillment disappoints."  Libraries need to be sure we can fulfill the needs of our users.

NASIG 2008: Information Shadows

Information Shadows: Ubiquitous computing serializes everyday things
Presenter: Mike Kuniavsky, ThingM

Kuniavsky, a user experience researcher and designer, and an author, believes "...the power of information processing of a single magic window [i.e. computer]...technology should not be limited to viewing the whole world through the lens, the power of that technology, the potential of that technology, should be brought into everyday life."  He shared with serial librarians, vendors and publishers, how anything can become a serial.  By adding embedded networked computing to the simplest objects, any everyday object can exhibit new properties, allowing them to circulate just as library objects do.  Use of RFID tags and metadata, create what Kuniavsky calls shadow objects.  The id marks (RFID) let you see the information about the item, to point to it, and then add "handles" to allow you to move the object.  When you do this you may no longer need the physical object.  Consider plane tickets.

He pointed out how a journal is an agreement between a publisher and authors.  That agreement is enclosed in a wrapper or as he described it a box with dotted lines. Subscribers purchase the item with the dotted lines and whatever fills in those dotted lines (new articles each time it is published). Think of a time share where the "form" and "time" are fixed, but the contents (the owner) is variable. Kuniavsky describes it as owning the possibility of the object.

From there he moved to city car shares, bike sharing in Germany that is billed to your phone, and designer purses that circulate in a way very similar to NetFlix. The information shadow can be tracked and managed.  Traceable metadata allows for physical objects to fill in the dotted shadow lines.

The fundamental change is that we now live in the age of access.  The shift of ownership of objects is changing to the access of services.

Pointing out that serials librarians have been working with this for years, he informed the attendees that, "The world of dotted line objects need those of you who can connect the dotted line objects to the information shadows."  We are the shadow wranglers!

NASIG 2008: Next Generation Library Automation: Its impact on the Serials community

Presenter: Marshall Breeding, Vanderbilt University

Breeding challenged the attendees to prepare for the future as more libraries move away from the traditional ILS towards next generation or open source solutions. While these provide a front end designed to capture the interest and needs of the patron, serials and electronic resource librarians struggle to manage all the necessary information needed to make sense of the explosively growing collections, especially electronic journals, packages and databases. With a need to integrate what we already have with 3rd party software products, Breeding states that the serials librarian, "...must be aware of and provide input into, the emerging visions of library automation."

NASIG Board Meeting

The NASIG Board met all day Thursday in Seattle prior to the start of ALA MidWinter We had a great session with topics ranging from membership development, contributions to help support our awards program and student scholarships, update on conference planning for Louisville, a technology RFP, and site options for future conferences.

As VP, the next few weeks will be fairly busy as I contact our current committee chairs to discuss the 2007/2008 committee assignments process, then start identifying individuals who can replace outgoing committee members.  It's a complicated process!