Category Archives: Essays

In conclusion.

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Hello everyone,

As you can see The Young Librarian Series has slowly come to a halt and it is now time to put this project to rest. We had a truly awesome run and I just wanted to take a few seconds to thank everyone who read and supported the Series. Also a huuuge THANK YOU to those who participated.  Truly this project wouldn’t have worked without the willingness of our community to participate, write and create. You all give me so much hope and happiness for the future of libraries. That is priceless.

Please note that Tame the Web has agreed to keep the site here as an archive, so as always, thank you Michael. So if you have links to content here from your own site, don’t worry! That won’t be changing.

If you are still anxious for some content of mine online, check out the Chicago Deskset, follow me on Twitter or check out my personal blog La de da which gets updated…nearly….monthly :::grin::: If you are looking for more info on the individual contributors, each page has a bio with contact information.

Again, thank you everyone. It truly has been a great ride, and it makes me so excited and hopeful.

I’ll see you in the cloud,

Leah the Librarian

Information Activist

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Anthony Molaro is the 30 year old Head of Tech Services and Automation at the Messenger Public Library in Illinois, co-founder of the Chicago Deskset and a Doctoral student at Dominican University, Graduate School of Information and Library Science. He was interviewed for The Young Librarian Series, just after this article was originally published in the December 2009 issue of American Libraries. You can read his blog or you can follow him on twitter.

On a recent and blistering cold Sunday evening I found myself flipping through the cable channels.  As I surfed the channels, I landed on the USA cable network.  During a commercial break the cable channel ran a brief blip on their Characters Approved Awards.  These awards are given to defining characters that “are changing the face of American Culture,” people who “surprise and inspire us with fresh ideas.”

The focus of this particular message was Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia.  I leave the debate over the merits or lack thereof of Wikipedia to other authors and articles.  However, Wale’s goal of creating a system that gives access to “the sum of human knowledge” is noble and lofty, one that few librarians would dispute.  The philosophical undercurrent that is the foundation of Wikipedia is to make information freely accessible to all.

The cable network described Jimmy Wales as an information activist, a person who is “giving the power of knowledge back to the people…”  The old adage is true, knowledge is power.  Librarians have been doing this for centuries, and few would debate that issue.  However, I was surprised that he is described as an information activist.  Wales stated that access to knowledge is a fundamental human right and that Wikipedia’s goal is to remove the filter of old white men to information.

“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge,” Wales said.  He wants Wikipedia to be a “sledgehammer to break down the barriers of censorship, of ignorance, of apathy about the state of the world.”

Are we librarians information activists?  Just what is an information activist?  The Random House Dictionary defines information as the “knowledge gained through study, communication, research, instruction, etc.”  It defines activist as “an especially active, vigorous advocate of a cause.”  Thus an information activist is a vigorous advocate of knowledge gained through study, communication, research or instruction.

Another cable network recognized the type of information activist just described above, but this time it was a bona fide librarian.  CNN’s Heroes for 2008 included a librarian, Ethiopian native Yohannes Gebregeorgis.  Gebregeorgis was working for an American library, and he was charged with the acquisition of children’s literature in foreign languages.  He found that no books were written in Amharic, and that no books represented people or places of Ethiopia, prompting him to write the first bilingual children’s book, “Silly Mammo”.  The proceeds of the book’s profit were used to fund and create a library in Ethiopia.  At one point, Gebregeorgis left his job and family to bring 15,000 books from the San Francisco’s Children’s Library to Ethiopia.  He also started the Ethiopia Reads program. He even opened a library in an extremely poor area in Ethiopia, which provided children with their first safe place for both reading and fun.  Gebregeorgis is truly an information activist.

While the notion that an information activist as a “fresh idea” is not entirely true, it an inspiring idea.  Librarians and the libraries they work in have always valued the access to information.  We have strived to remove barriers between the users and the information.  But maybe we have let that message, that grand and noble truth, take a back seat.  I don’t know if we are information activists or not, but I believe that we should be.

What would the world, and Libraryland, look like if we pursued vigorous advocacy of knowledge gained through study, communication, research or instruction?  How would the world views us differently if we hold this truth to be self-evident, that all persons are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are the free access to the sum of human knowledge so that we may attain Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness?  What would the world look like if we succeed in giving every single person access to the sum of human knowledge?  How many of the world’s problem would be solved by such a movement?  If that threshold was reached how much would the world’s GDP increase?  How much faster would knowledge grow?  How much would poverty and starvation decrease?  How many new technological and medical breakthroughs would occur?

There is little doubt that the attainment of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness would be far easier to attain if the sum of human knowledge were within any person’s grasp.  Did the Characters Approved award succeed?  I, for one, am deeply inspired, and I hope that you are too.  I hope that if we ever meet we introduce ourselves as librarians and information activists, and that we live up to that noble truth that access to knowledge is a fundamental right of all people.

Thank you for reading the Young Librarian Series! Do you have an idea for a post? Send an email to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com or check out the Submissions page. See you next week!

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Vise Library Videos

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Amber Woodard is the Library Technical Assistant at the Vise Library at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. As one-half of the “Vise Squad,” Amber is constantly trying to think of clever ways to draw students, faculty, and staff into the library. She’s 26 going on 15 and can be reached at awoodard[at sign]cumberland[dot]edu.

I worked in the public library world for close to two years, so I was used to summer being the busy season. When I began working in an academic library, I experienced a bit of a culture shock. The Monday after graduation was S-L-O-W. We have a fair amount of students who take summer classes, but somehow the appeal of sitting in a study room for the entire day is not as great as taking a laptop outside to the gazebo. In between our “must do” projects, such as weeding the Reference collection and shelf-reading the stacks, I, along with Reference and Instruction Librarian Claire Walker, decided to make a couple of videos about the library.

We wanted our first video to be geared towards the students and would help them learn more about a library service. I absolutely love parodies (imitation, sincerest form of flattery, and so on), so we chose to have our video parody those “4 out of 5 people recommend this product” commercials. In this case, our product was going to be EBSCOHost, and the “4 out of 5 people” would be our professors. Cumberland has five academic schools, so we chose a professor from each school. Next, we had to work on a script for each professor. We wanted to highlight the idea that students could find scholarly full-text articles that professors would accept as research sources. We also wanted to make sure that the “fifth person” did not dismiss library resources but still stay within the theme of 4 out of 5 people agree. Using a borrowed video camera, I began filming. Our professors were great ad-libbers (especially our education professor!) and came up with good material Claire and I did not consider. The filming went very smoothly thanks to having a clear concept and plenty of time to plan. After filming, we embarked upon the monumental task of editing, including adding music and captions and adding an introduction and conclusion from yours truly. The editing process only took about a day-and-a half, and though I may be biased, the final product is fantastic!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h_zjHL4z4g[/youtube]

Our second video was for the faculty in-service at the end of the summer. We wanted to tell them about library services without standing at the front of the room and lecturing to them. We knew which services we wanted to highlight but we did not know how to present the concept. After a couple of days of brainstorming, we came up with the Good Idea/Bad Idea concept. This video would show faculty members a good way to utilize the library and a bad way. The good ideas were easy, but the bad ideas were a little trickier; we wanted them to be humorous and clearly horrible ideas, but we did not want to offend any faculty members who may have actually done some of these things. We finally thought of ideas that were either outlandish or neutral enough not to offend faculty but that could still show our point. Claire and I filmed this video in one day. Thanks to my theater background (and inability to feel more awkward on film than I do on a daily basis!), I did most of the “acting” in this video with cameos from Claire and Justin Bradford, former Alumni Relations and Online Media Coordinator for the university. The faculty enjoyed the video and we saw an increase in the usage of services highlighted.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT2HGBVeKRE[/youtube]

Recently, Claire has begun making video tutorials, which is a nice addition to our quirkier fare. Her first foray was a tutorial on using Ebooks, and she has plans for more over the next few months. I would also like to make another video during the next summer semester. It has proven to be an easy process, and I feel it makes a better impact than telling patrons about our services. We have considered a library rap video, so that may be our next project. Check out our other videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel to see what we come up with next!

Thank you for reading the Young Librarian Series! Do you have an idea for a post? Send an email to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com or check out the Submissions page. See you next week and don’t forget to share!

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A Librarian in a Children’s Library

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Elizabeth Davis a 28 year old children’s outreach librarian at the Lackawana County Children’s Library, in Scranton, PA.   You can follow her on twitter, or on facebook or email her at elizabethhdavis[at sign]gmail[dot]com.

Being a children’s librarian is an amazing job that requires a lot of patience, flexibility and is never boring.  For one minute though, pause and gather your mental image of the species known as the children’s librarian.  What do you see? Is it a brightly colored sweater vest with animals, or something seasonally themed? Is it the super-caffeinated or sugary voice that breaks out into song at the drop of a hat? Do they look like your cuddly grandmother? Do they look like they haven’t seen a wardrobe change since the Reagan administration? Is it a craft centered train of thought? Do they knit at conferences?

For these reasons, I tend to say I’m a librarian who works at a children’s library. I realize to some it’s a matter of semantics, but to me it’s a huge difference.  I prefer to work with children because are amazing human beings who have unique and interesting ways of seeing the world.  They are startlingly honest without malice and know what they want.  Oddly, children’s librarians tend to be looked down upon within the profession.  There are so many librarians that I have meet that make snide comments about how they can’t stand children and how they feel bad that I’m stuck in the children’s department.  It’s disheartening to feel like the gum on the bottom of someone’s shoe. It’s really not fair considering the amount of work we actually do on a daily and the importance that is placed on that work.

We have the distinct honor and responsibility to aid families and children through some of the most important times in their development. We help prepare and enlighten them about the world around them.  We stress the importance of early literacy and school readiness skills so that children are prepared when they enter preschool or kindergarten.  We help them find the best books to get them excited about reading and to keep them reading. We plan programs that make the library a place where kids want to be for fun or for when they need help with a school project.  We get them excited about learning new things and introduce them to the world outside their town.

Today for example, I had story time with the neighborhood day care center, then filled collection requests for area teachers and homeschoolers. I worked on our Flat Stanley program that we are doing with an infantry battalion going to Afghanistan. I picked up and dropped off new books we are getting Brailled by our local Association for the Blind.  I answered reference questions from confused moms, curious kids and made snow out of diapers.  This was just one day.

I have a very loose job title that allows me to do things that I don’t think many other children’s librarians do.  I serve on our Emerging Technologies Committee, co-chair of the city wide community reads program, do Ask Here PA Virtual Reference and pretty much anything else that interests me.  I’m really interested in UX and am constantly wondering if the services we are providing are helpful and easy to use.  It’s helpful that upper management is excited when I get excited about something.  They give me and my coworkers the freedom to try new things, whether it be broom hockey or Drupal.

I sometimes think about why I refuse to accept this title of ‘children’s librarian.’  I think it is because I don’t want to be clumped into a stereotype.  I want to be taken seriously even though I to jump around with five year olds and read stories that rhyme aloud.  I want people in our profession to see that while we may have fun at our jobs that doesn’t mean we’re not doing important things.  I want librarians to see that being a children’s librarian isn’t a demotion but rather a promotion.  A promotion to holding the future of the library in our hands because if I don’t do my job, the rest of you won’t have a job.

My mom always says that I am the only person she knows who loves their job.  Can you say honestly that you laugh at your job on a daily basis? Can you say that your job is rewarding just because you found the perfect book for a picky reader? Can you say that you learn something new every day and a new way to see the world because of another person, even if they are 10 years old?  I can and that’s why I’m a librarian.

Thank you for reading the Young Librarian Series! Do you have an idea for a post? Send an email to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com or check out the Submissions page. See you next week!

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On Educating Your Peers, Part 2

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This is part 2 of Jim Peterson’s post On Educating Your Peers. To read Part 1 and learn a little about Jim, please check out On Educating Your Peers, Part 1.

Best Practices for Slides
The information on your first slide can several things: introduce yourself, introduce your topic or both. As you can see, I put only my name and job title on the first slide along with my major talking points. At the end of the show, I have a slide that has my contact information, which I usually leave on the screen at the end so people can send me contact me.

Since this slide makes the first impression on your audience, it is probably your most important slide. It needs to be informative, but not overly so, and aesthetically pleasing. Text on the screen needs to be easily readable, and the background needs to be unobtrusive. In other words, you don’t want a navy blue background with bright yellow accents and screaming orange font colors. For most presentations, a conservative approach is the best. Here’s an example of a bad slide – the web links are difficult to read now, and even worse on an LCD projector!

Your second slide is also pretty important, especially if you are a newcomer to the presentation circuit or a relatively new employee in the industry. On this slide you can give a brief bio of yourself, which helps to establish credibility. Also give hints of your presentation style here: formal, with questions after your talk, no questions at all, or informal, where attendees can ask questions at will. Personally, I prefer the last option of taking questions at will, but if you choose to do this it is important to remember what point you were making and get the presentation back on track should the questions stray too far.


After your second slide, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination. You can make them as simple as black text on white background, or as elaborate as a custom-designed background with pictures and animations.

Pictures and Web links are important in a presentation as well. Pictures help illustrate a point visually and can sometimes do far more than just telling the point. Web links give you the flexibility of being able to go to a site for information on the fly. This can also lighten your presentation by not having to store that information on your slides and as an added benefit all but guarantees the freshest information. One caveat, though. You will be limited to the available bandwith provided. At LinuxCon in Portland, the Wi-Fi was clogged by attendees downloading and surfing, and presenters who had external links had to improvise or do without sometimes because of that.

In the following picture I was making the point that smart phones are becoming integrated into library catalogs through applications and that even the bookmobile librarians may be asked how to access the catalog from a mobile device. Not only is there a picture of the iPhone models available, but also a link to the App Store to see the applications. Once on that site, I did a quick search for e-book readers and showed how there are apps for specific public library systems. It really is something all librarians have to think about!

The final slide comes after your summary slide, where you have recapped for the audience your main points and supporting arguments.

Putting together a presentation is fairly easy but it does take time, especially if you are adding photographs. For this I suggest a photo-editing suite like PhotoShop Elements by Adobe, which is a paid program with a free trial; the GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program – it’s what I use), which is open-source and free to use; or Google’s Picasa, also free. At the very least, your editor should allow you to remove “red eye” and crop the photos.

Stage Presence
The best advice I can give you for getting up there in front of those people and giving the presentation is to believe in yourself. You know your stuff! Don’t be afraid to move away from the podium, especially if you are not tied to a corded microphone. Movement makes you interesting, especially if you can demonstrate a point by changing perspectives. For instance, in the bookmobile presentation, I got down on my knees to demonstrate line of sight for a short antenna, vs. standing up on a table to demonstrate how much better it is for a tall one. In the same presentation, I had everyone imagine that a fire alarm in the ceiling was a satellite, while I roamed around the room demonstrating what a satellite-tracking system does while on a bookmobile. You might even want to read this article about presenting like Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple. Certainly he knows how to wow a crowd!

Make it interesting. Move around. Raise your voice. Ask questions and get the audience involved!

So How Did You Do?
The only way to know if you got your point across is to ask. A question and answer session, while not necessary, is helpful in evaluation of your presentation. This can be tricky, as the evaluations may not be allowed at some conferences. Some conferences handle the evaluations for you and send you the results, while at others you must handle the evaluation yourself by passing out the eval forms and collecting them at the end.

But it is very important to get feedback; otherwise, how are you going to improve? I admit that I talked way over some heads at the bookmobile conference – sometimes it is very difficult to talk technology on a level that EVERYONE can understand – and that is a very important thing to remember! Not everyone will like you. Not everyone will like your voice, what you’re wearing, or what you have to say even! They just may not be able to comprehend what you are saying because it is a difficult concept or issue to which they have never been exposed. But you have to know where you are falling short in your presentations in order to make them better.

In Conclusion
You are a presenter, or want to be, because you are passionate about your job. You have information that can help another person achieve the same goal you had. You are not afraid of speaking in public, or maybe you are, but what you have to say is important enough that you have to get up there and just do it. Whatever the reason, take your time and do it right! Make sure you cite your sources and provide links if they are from the Internet. Use pictures, animations, bells, whistles or whatever it takes to make your point. Don’t be afraid to move around the stage. Mingle in the audience if you can. And finally, get feedback from the crowd. You need to know if your point was clear and if the audience understood you.

As librarians we have the insatiable need to collect information and store it somewhere in our noggins, often forgetting that others may need to know that also. Even if it’s a regional library training session, you can help others in your state by passing on that which you have learned. And, you might just learn a little something yourself.

Thank you for reading the Young Librarian Series! Do you have an idea for a post? Send an email to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com or check out the Submissions page. See you next week!

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