b/ITe Bulletin of the Information Technology Division/SLA Volume 26, Issue 4: Fall 2009 ISSN 1541-7980
In This Issue From the IT Divsion Chair, Catherine Lavallée- From the IT Division chair Welch Alignment and Change Communications & Blogging Sections Merge Learning about the SLA Alignment via Second Catherine Lavallée-Welch Life Event Preservation of Scientific Data Click University Upcoming Free Events Happy Fall! were very close, the Board unanimously Commons, Clouds, and Chaos: 2009 Annual The end of another voted in merging the two in the Conference Session Report year, and of my year Communications and Social Media Section. EDUCAUSE 2009: Report from the Conference Twitter Literacy as Chair of the Please see Section Chair Amy Buckland’s Division, is rounding article on the merge in this issue of b/ITe. up. However, we Finally, you will be soon receiving an have been busy since invitation to a membership survey. We the annual conference. want to serve you better and we want to know what you think! Your input is We have revised our Governing important to us and will help with the Document, updating our Division’s strategic plan. mission statement and scope note; and adding a vision On the Association level, things statement. The proposed are moving as well. These past Document is currently the object few months, a lot of comments of an online vote for the and opinions have been
Division members. If you Chair Catherine Lavallée-Welch exchanged on the proposed new haven’t received an email name for the association, giving you the link to the including on the Division’s ballot, please contact me. You can see the discussion list. Online voting is open until th b/ITe is published four proposed Document at http:// December 9 . If you haven’t voted yet, times per year: March units.sla.org/division/dite/ please do so. One of the IT Division’s 15, May 1, August 15 and December 1. GovDoc_for_vote.pdf. Alignment Ambassadors penned an article
Submission deadlines: on the topic in this issue. February 28, April 15, Another change for the Division is the July 15 and November 15. merger of two of our sections, effective Otherwise, we are gearing up for the January 1st 2010: the Communications Leadership Meeting in St. Louis in January. Publisher: Catherine Lavallée-Welch Section and the Blogging Section. As the You don’t need to be an elected division or Editor: Leslie J. Reynolds work and the purpose of both sections chapter officer to attend the Meeting; you Photo credits: IT Division/SLA Adobe clip art Volume 26, Issue 4 From the IT just have to be interested in learning more Alignment and Change Division Chair about leadership. As a Baseball Caucus by Hope Tillman, [email protected] member, I personally look forward to the continued from page 1 IT Division Alignment Ambassador St. Louis Metro Area Chapter reception at the Busch Stadium’s Champion’s Club In fourth century B.C., Heraclitus wrote, Room! The Cards’ home was on my list of “Nothing is permanent but change.” And things to visit in any case! nothing has changed. This article is being written as the vote for I had the pleasure of attend the the name change is underway and the EDUCAUSE conference this November. decision will have been made by the time One of the keynote speakers was Jim this article is published. It will be too late Collins, author of the Good to Great to give you reasons why to vote for the bestseller. His talk applied his Good to name change, so I am choosing to focus on Great concepts to social sectors and had the next steps for alignment. While the overall excellent insights on leadership. focus this fall has been on name change, it Two things he said stuck with me. He told is just one of the needed steps to align our the audience that leadership is not about association, or to get it to where it needs to personality; it’s about ambition and the be, to best represent all of us and move us forward. form that ambition takes. A great leader’s ambition is not for him or herself, it’s for The world is changing around us and we the organization, the cause. Collins also continue to need to move with it. SLA has told of advice given to him by one of his been a catalyst for me throughout my mentor, management giant Peter F. career. However, there is a major Drucker. Collins was commiserating about difference in the planning process the some things happening at work. Drucker, Association and Board has followed this growing seemingly impatient, grumpily time: they have based their findings on the replied “You’re spending too much time on results of research and not just on the seat your survival, about your success. Put of the pants processes used in the past. more into being useful.” Hopefully, I made They invested the proceeds from the sale myself useful to the Division. I know I’ve of the DC building to fund a rigorous research process to analyze what will make enjoyed my year as Chair and learned this association the one that will be best tremendously about the association and for us moving forward. They partnered myself. with the international consulting organization Fleishman-Hillard, Thank you to the IT Board for their information analytics firm Outsell, and dedication and excellent work during the futures consultancy Social Technologies. year – you’re all capital-L-Leaders in my They tested the research findings – using book. And thank you to you IT members members and non-members, high-level for your continued participation in our executives, HR professionals, marketing wonderful, lively and active Division! professionals. And there has been
continued on page 3 b/ITe Fall 2009 Alignment and Change continued from page 2 transparency in each of the activities undertaken; we have been informed √ For you to determine how your unique through articles, sessions at annual skills mesh with the directions your meetings, the website, and other electronic organization is heading communications over the last several years. √ For you to learn how to talk to your The alignment portal, “Advancing boss so he/she will listen. Knowledge” has been set up to present the √ For you to align your priorities with the research, how it goals of your translates into a organization’s refined vision, leaders mission, and core √ values for the For you to association. A identify the work key document, your organization Positioning needs you to do Information to succeed Professionals for √ For you to the Future, is a communicate great Screen shot of the Alignment Portal your value in presentation of language that the research initiative and can be helpful to connects with your audience. each of us (be aware that this is a large See the articles both on the web and in the document). I have picked a few of the November Information Outlook sharing findings to share in this article. members’ inspirational success stories. To put this all in context, the Association SLA Alignment’s purpose is to develop under the Board’s leadership has charted a focus and cohesion around who we are, course and is following logical steps to get what we stand for, and what we deliver as there. In this climate of job loss, diversity information professionals. Keep in mind of career tracks, and an ever greater need that the reason the name change came up to justify our value to our employers, what in the first place is that the name was is not to like about a path to provide us identified as a barrier to our success. with the tools to give us stronger recognition in the marketplace and among Now that the name change process has our employers. been completed, we can focus on working with the key findings of the research. While the association is doing the There is a lot of learning we can glean, and alignment thing at the association-level, I look forward to greater understanding they have developed this research to give and a clear message to members. you tools for you to use for yourself. It is all about giving you language and skills for you to articulate your value added in the workplace: Volume 26, Issue 4 Communications and Learning about the SLA Blogging Sections Merge Alignment via Second Life by Amy Buckland, by Christy Confetti Higgins, [email protected] [email protected] Member of SLA Virtual Worlds Advisory Council The SLA Annual Meeting in Washington, DC this summer saw lots of good things happen On November 17, 2009, several members of within the IT Division, including the the SLA Public Relations Advisory Council decision to merge the Blogging and participated in a session in Second Life. It . Communication sections into a single unit: was an excellent session covering the Communications & Social Media. amazing work going on around the SLA Alignment project. They provided This section will cover emerging background and purpose of the Alignment technologies, devices and tools for and their own stories and thoughts about the information transmission, delivery, and project. sharing in order to help members share I learned a lot about the Alignment efforts information, experience, and best practices and also was able to directly talk with regarding applications, capabilities, features, speakers - it was great! I am so thankful for and techniques for the effective use of these the work they are doing and the ways in technologies in the provision of information which they are connecting with members to services. participate in this effort. Because of this event, I have now met key SLA members As the incoming Chair of this new section, involved in the effort and also employees at I’m excited at the possibilities this merger Headquarters. This is great - I can now reach offers, and would love to hear your thoughts out to these folks if I have ideas, questions, on how you’d like to see it develop. Please comments, etc. Meeting in Second Life was a don’t hesitate to email me at great way to begin a conversation and a [email protected] or relationship - it was very engaging! @jambina. More information: ClickU Free Webinars on Second Life at http://www.sla.org/content/ learn/members/webinars/secondlife.cfm
Screen shot from Alignment Panel in Second Life.. Volume 26, Issue 4 Preservation of Scientific Data by Juliane Schneider, [email protected]
The journal Nature has a series of articles Record Managers: Record managers have dedicated to the issue of sharing scientific been reaching out to staff and teaching data and the problems in preserving data, them how to protect documents, files and with an editorial titled "Data’s Shameful data for years. Pick their brains! Neglect." (the series is still available open Archivists: The Center for the History of source, here: http://www.nature.com/ Medicine is located in Countway Library, news/specials/datasharing/index.html) so they’re just a walk downstairs from my Issues that block effective sharing of data office. They are actively working on the also impact preservation. problems of preserving Problems concerning born-digital materials, so storage, proprietary "Preserving scientific data is they’re a natural partner software, inadequate in reaching out to an enormous challenge that metadata and supporting establish standards at documentation, will only become more critical the starting gate, rather reluctance of researchers as older datasets begin to than facing thorny to make their data degrade or get lost as labs and problems once the available, and departments move, merge, or collections are given to geographically scattered them to preserve. labs and departments are shut down. " IT Department: They contributing to a future can give you what the crisis in loss of possibly present options are for storage, and will be historic data collections around the world. a critical part of the preservation team As a metadata librarian at Harvard when data is donated and needs to be Medical School, I’m continually thinking stored, monitored and retrieved. Getting about strategies on how to handle the them involved in the beginning, in order problems with already completed datasets, to allow them to predict and plan for and how to locate and collaborate with allotment of time and resources is current researchers in order to prevent paramount in building a stable and such problems in the future. Here are effective preservation program. some of my conclusions for what is Standards: needed; whether I can make them happen will be the challenge! TRAC (Trustworthy Repository Audit and Certification). This is a checklist that Who: covers policy, storage, and search/ Reference librarians: they know who has retrieval/description issues that make up the big projects, and which researchers a ‘trustworthy repository.’ It can be useful might be amenable to a metadata librarian in reviewing where you are and where you collaborating with their research team. need to go in storing and preserving data. Reference librarians are also a great source PREMIS. This is a standard for for finding out what is going on in the preservation. It is an extensive schema organization, especially if you are in a that covers a lot of territory! place like Harvard Med School, which has labs and departments scattered around the METS: A ‘standard for encoding city. descriptive, administrative, and structural
Volume 26, Issue 4 continued on page 6 Preservation of Scientific Data continued from page 5 metadata regarding objects within a digital FREE Events library,’ METS is an xml-based standard www.sla.org/clickulive that allows several types of descriptive standards to be used within its xml 2 December 2009 - Understanding Digital ’wrapper.’ (http://www.loc.gov/standards/ Libraries, Michael Lesk, Professor of mets/) Library and Information Science, Rutgers University There are other standards regarding storage, description and retrieval, as more are being 16 December 2009 - Becoming Green (or developed all the time. Choosing the right Greener) in your Workplace: Moving past ones can involve issues regarding the Simple Steps, Anca Novacovici, scalability, flexibility and the complexity of Founder and President of Eco-Coach, inc. the data you plan to collect. 20 January 2010 - Copyright Management: Preserving scientific data is an enormous Priciples and Issues Certificate Program challenge that will only become more Open House, Lesley Ellen Haris critical as older datasets begin to degrade or Replays from 2009 courses are available. get lost as labs and departments move, They are all 90 minute seminars and, since merge, or shut down. Librarians, record they were recorded during the event, you managers and IT departments need to work get almost the complete experience. For a together to create a stable system of list of available replays go to: http:// preservation so that researchers of the www.sla.org/content/learn/members/ future can access historic datasets and build webinars/webreplays/2009replays.cfm. upon them for future exciting discoveries. Commons, Clouds, and Chaos: Annual Conference Update by Catherine Lavallée-Welch, [email protected] Presenters of the Commons, Chaos and Clouds session were Stacey Greenwell, Head of the Information Commons at the University of Kentucky (UK), in Lexington, KY and Doyle Friskney, Association Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at UK. Greenwell provided a short portrait of current freshmen: they are born into the Internet-era, are more connected, and typically bring with them to the university more technology than the university can provide them. She then explained the relationship that has been built between the library and the IT department at UK, centered on a new Information Commons. The Commons physical space ties in with the cloud computing concept; the space creates an environment that fits Millenials’ needs, expectations and lifestyle. It will also influence how support is provided and how computing clouds are built. Friskney suggested that in 2020, IT departments will have a different purpose than currently. The staff will not be guardians of technology anymore but will instead regulate compliance, be involved in identity management and information management. He maintained that librarians have now a brighter future than IT professionals because of the ongoing training structure and their experience at renewing themselves and their role. Cloud computing will decrease the dependence on institutionally-delivered technology by outsourcing processes. It has the potential of having libraries offer more services, content and tools to the users, and different services, content and tools, with lesser expenses. Volume 26, Issue 4 Educause 2009: Report from the Conference by Catherine Lavallée-Welch, [email protected] This year’s EDUCAUSE Annual Conference constructed (and yes, that’s separate from took place in Denver, CO, from November the library space proper.) All academic 3rd to the 6th. EDUCAUSE is a professional support units will have a presence in it. association for those interested in A presentation on the annual ECAR information technology in higher education. survey on undergraduate student use of Attendees, by the thousands, are IT technology reported: 51.2% of students specialists, instructional technology own an Internet capable device. 49.5% specialists, educators and librarians, among use their handheld device weekly to others. To note, it was possible this year to access the Internet.94.6% of students say register to attend several sessions online in they use the library weekly but only 15% real-time. would use an institution-made library Social media was an important theme; there mobile service if available (compared to were several sessions on Twitter and its uses 63% for email). including a point/counterpoint debate (is Keynote presentations included Jim Twitter a distraction or a means for better Collins, who shared how his “Good to connections?) The popular debate format Great” concepts apply in higher education was also used to discuss the issues facing and offered leadership advice (see my st 21 century libraries (All-digital? Need for column at the beginning of this issue mortar and brick? Is the library dead? What bITe); as well as, Lawrence Lessig who is the library?). The Library Lightning Round spoke about copyright. An expert and session was missing several presenters but collaborator on projects like Creative those that remained had interesting ideas Commons and the Electronic Frontier about information literacy. Roseann Foundation, he explained how modern Bowerman of Lehigh University explained business practices changed the how faculty was surveyed to better focus IL. interpretation of the US copyright law Megan Fitzgibbons of McGill University although the text of the law hasn’t showed how she uses concept mapping to changed. He urged the audience to be build her IL classes. The Library discussion skeptical, and militant, about uses of the lunch discussed the relationships between law and its influence on science, academia library and IT units. and the arts. His presentation, by the way, Librarians at the University of Connecticut was a master-level class in PowerPoint showed their mashup application using their slideshow. historical maps and Google Maps. They Takeaways from the conference: charged undergraduate students to develop a investigate social media. Libraries need mobile application for transit system also to get in the mobile computing information on their campus. They have a application business; tap the creativity and collaborative workspace called the skills of the people around you to create GeoCommons. Personnel at Xavier applications with value (undergraduate University shared maps of their new 87,000 students or interns included). sq. ft. Learning Commons being currently b/ITe Fall 2009 Twitter Literacy by Virginia M.Smith, [email protected] This article originally appeared as "Internet Reviews: Twitter Literacy," Kentucky Libraries 73 (Summer, 2009): 26-28 and been reprinted with permission. It wasn’t until I attended the recent Special mentioned that hospitals are using Twitter Libraries Association’s annual conference to update family members in waiting rooms in Washington, DC that I realized the value and that Hallmark uses it to solicit ideas of Twitter, a free social messaging tool from their customers for greeting cards. In that allows users to broadcast messages up her presentation, “The Role of Social to 140 characters in length. Prior to that, I Networking Sites in Research”, Meg Smith had successfully resisted pressure to set up of The Washington Post mentioned that another social networking account until newspapers are using Twitter to create the Louisville Bar Association informed buzz and direct users to their websites. me they’d created one @LouBarAssoc. Both The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Because of my communications role at the Herald-Leader have Twitter accounts. law school, I felt it was necessary to open Meg Smith shared a story about James an account to stay abreast of relevant Buck, a photojournalist covering an anti- news and events and hence @CyberV was government protest in Egypt, who born. managed to send a tweet prior to being Social networking was one of the hottest arrested to his friends who in turn alerted conference topics. There were at least a the U.S. Embassy. During her talk, the Iran dozen sessions and continuing education election was among Twitter’s top trending courses specifically related to it and other topics, a list of the ten most popular items Web 2.0 technologies. Twitter was so that are displayed on your homepage. On pervasive, that during their presentations, that same day, Twitter was scheduled to be several speakers including Nicole Engard taken offline for several hours for who asked the audience at her session on scheduled maintenance and upgrades. Mashups, “How many of you are Perhaps not so coincidentally, journalists twittering at this moment?” Even Colin had just been banned from covering the Powell in his keynote address, lamented protests in Tehran. Since most of the news that his grandchildren don’t answer email coverage in Iran was being broadcast via and only respond to text messages and Twitter, the U.S. State Department Twitter. intervened and persuaded them to reduce the service outage. While there, I observed that many attendees had left behind their heavy laptops in exchange for lighter netbooks TWITTER @ YOUR LIBRARY and PDAs and were mostly using them to communicate in real-time with others at or In his article, “14 Types of Tweets”, Joel about the conference. Comm identifies categories of Twitter Several of the presenters used anecdotes users: the Mundane, the Communicator, to demonstrate the value of Twitter to the Inquisitor, the Answerman, the Sage, libraries and other organizations. In his the Reporter, the Linker, the Kudo, the presentation, “Social Networking: The Critic, the Giver, the Advocate, the Essence of Innovation”, Jay Liebowitz Benefactor, the Marketer, and the Spammer. At the conference, I observed
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Twitter being used mostly for promotion organization and divisions used it to solicit and information exchange. feedback about the conference and to encourage further discussion about the To facilitate conversation, conference alignment project, a research-based organizers set up a hash tag for the initiative that addresses the organization’s centennial event (#sla2009). Hash tags are perception and the possibility of changing preceded by the # symbol and are used to its name. group tweets on a common topic so that they can be easily located. For example, Libraries and librarians around the globe users seeking information about Michael are using Twitter to promote their Jackson’s death might search #MJ. Several programs, recruit employees, and to groups, including the Information network with their colleagues. An article at Technology, Knowledge Management, and The Bookseller estimates that over 40 Physics/Astronomy/Math divisions individual libraries and library services in followed suit and set up their own hash the UK are partaking in the micro-blogging tags (#slait, #slakm, #slapam phenomenon (Page). respectively). The Denver Public Library’s bio states that The Dialog-Proquest booth at the vendor it is “Tweeting Denver Public Library exposition center displayed a TweetDeck news, services, events, exhibitions and on a large flat screen TV that broadcast opportunities” and boasts 1,080 followers. tweets about the conference. Tweets are On June 25, @denverlibrarypr tweeted: messages posted on Twitter and TweetDeck “DPL News: Have an iPod, MP3, iPhone is an Adobe application that allows you to or Blackberry? Click for details http:// customize your Twitter experience. tinyurl.com/m2jvzu check out what else you can do for free!” to promote its Digital Throughout the conference, vendors and Bookmobile. attendees used Twitter to promote various products and presentations. I found it New Zealand’s Otago Library recently particularly useful one morning while at a tweeted: “OtagoLibrary: The location of session that was interesting, but not each of the Otago libraries in Dunedin are particularly relevant to my needs. I opened now on Google Maps…” and “Law my laptop, logged into Twitter and Library closed on Thurs 25 June, to begin searched #sla2009. I noticed several the refurbishment of 8th floor #LAW- people were commenting on “The Role of OL.” Social Networking Sites in Research”, so I Tweet My Jobs has used it to announce job packed my bags and headed to the other openings at Kentucky’s libraries: wing. By the time I arrived, it was apparent “tmj_usa_library: Library Advancement that others had followed the tweets Associate - Eastern Kentucky University - because there was standing room only and Richmond, KY...” and tmj_usa_library: very little of that. Library Assistant II - Music Library - Following the conference, some posted Eastern Kentucky University - Lexington, messages with links to their blogs, reviews, KY...” and photo collections. Others used it to network with people they’d met. The SAMPLE TWEETS
continued on page 10 Volume 26, Issue 4 Twitter Literacy continued from page 9 Discussion
Education & Information Dissemination
continued on page 11 b/ITe Fall 2009 Twitter Literacy continued from page 10 Networking
Promotion
Recruitment
Solicitation
TWITTER BASICS
Setting up a Twitter account is simple and requires only a username and password. You may add a bio and geographic location. Customization features include the ability to alter your avatar, design theme, and background image. Many tools are available for those that are either new to the twitterverse or just want to enhance their terminology or improve their twitter literacy, such as the Newbies Corner at Twitter Fan Wiki (http:// twitter.pbworks.com) and Twictionary: the Dictionary for Twitter! (http:// twictionary.pbworks.com). The latter is a wiki that allows users to add their own terms and definitions. While composing this article, I added twitterliterate. I also recommend “Getting Started on Twitter” (http://www.techforluddites.com/2009/01/getting-started-on- twitter.html) and Twitter Support’s Help Resources (http://help.twitter.com/portal).
continued on page 12 Volume 26, Issue 4 Twitter Literacy continued from page 11 Tweets are limited to 140 characters because they were designed to be sent via SMS, which stands for short message service and is similar to paging (Webopedia). Since SMS is limited to 160 characters, Twitter set aside up to 20 characters for your username, which is included in each of your tweets. Your updates are posted on your profile page and can be sent directly from Twitter.com, your mobile phone, e-mail, or through other websites and applications like Facebook, Ping.fm, Twitterrific, TweetDeck, and FriendFeed.
Followers are Twitter users that have chosen to follow your tweets and receive a list of your updates on their homepage. Likewise, when you choose to follow someone, their tweets will appear on your homepage. Users can enable the block feature to prevent another Twitter user from following you. As with any other social networking site, the amount of spam is proportionate to the site’s popularity.
Be advised that all tweets are publicly accessible. Direct Messages are akin to e-mail and are used for private exchanges between Twitter users. Meg Smith referred to this as “The Golden Age of Twitter” which she joked has a life span of about 30 minutes because she suspects that users will eventually demand more privacy.
Works Cited Comm, Joel. “Fourteen Types of Tweets.” Joel Comm.com. 25 June 2009. InfoMedia, Inc. 26 June 2009
Engard, Nicole. “Mashups: Future of Changing Content.” Special Libraries Association Conference. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC. 17 June 2009. Address.
Leibowitz, Jay. “Social Networking: The Essence of Innovation.” Special Libraries Association Conference. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC. 15 June 2009. Address.
Page, Benedicte. “Libraries populate the Twitterverse.” The Bookseller.com. 18 June 2009. 20 June 2009
Powell, Colin. “Opening General Session and Awards Presentation.” Special Libraries Association Conference. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC. 14 June 2009. Keynote.
Smith, Meg S. “The Role of Social Networking Sites in Research.” Special Libraries Association Conference. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC. 16 June 2009. Address. Catherine Lavallée-Welch IT Division Chair “SMS.” Webopedia. Internet.com 22 June 2009 (863) 677-7737 [email protected]
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