Amazing Challenge - New Zealand

My favourite part of this challenge was exploring other web 2.0 things in England, mostly because I was already familiar with the things we explored in the other countries. I also got a new insight into the uses of YouTube in HongKong - I didn't realise there was so much instructional material there.
Although I found some new cool things, I didn't see much that immediately had an application for our library. Perhaps, now the Hunt and Gather has been canned we could put videos of how to search the library catalogue onto YouTube? We don't want the OPACs to be able to link to YouTube though. I wonder if there is a way around it.
I learnt some new stuff and had some fun but didn't get very much inspiration for new ways to use web 2.0 in the library so my goals were mostly met.
I enjoyed the way the challenge was set up and thought that the tutorials you found were great. Well done Ellie!

Social Networking - Italy

I had a look at the Library Beebo but couldn't work out how to add a comment. I wondered if you needed an account before you could do this. I have a Facebook account but not a Beebo one.
I found an article "Stalking the Wild Appeal Factor: Readers' Advisory and Social Networking Sites" in Academic Research Library. It was talking about using sites like LibraryThing, Shelfari and GoodRead to help in Readers' Advisory work. I love LibraryThing but hadn't really thought of it as a social networking site. I guess it is if you get into the discussion boards and 'follow' people with interesting libraries but I don't use it like that. I do check my Facebook page every day. Quite a few of my in-laws are on Facebook and it is a good way to keep up-to-date with their comings and goings. David's sister and her husband have recently moved to the UK and I enjoy reading their updates as they find jobs and places to live. I don't bother with the quizzes (particularly after reading Philip's email) but do play some of the games.

Podcasting - HongKong

Every week I download interesting podcasts from National Radio and listen them while I am gardening or doing housework but I haven't explored YouTube much. With a wedding cake to make in a couple of weeks I thought I would see if there was a podcast on making chocolate roses - there was.

Social Bookmarking - Finland

I have been using Delicious for quite a while (http://delicious.com/RefPenny) so not too much new to learn there. I decided instead to look at Technorati.
I didn't think much of their 'channels' - 'entertainment' didn't include books and 'lifestyle' didn't include cooking, craft or gardening. The blog directory did have a headings for 'food and wine' and 'home and garden' but still nothing on books. I tried searching for blogs on storytelling but didn't have much luck until I searched for blogs with 'storytelling' as a tag rather than blog posts with storytelling as a tag. This type of search wasn't immediately apparent. You need to 'search the blogasphere' first before it gives you search options.
I also 'claimed my blog' - time will tell as to whether the traffic increases.

Web 2.0 applications (England)

I have written some prayers that will be included in a book due to be published next year but would love to have a whole book so I had a good look at Lulu. It looks easy enough to use but it is a bit hard to evaluate without actually publishing a book and I don't have one lying around. This site may be an option if I ever get round to writing a whole book and can't find a publisher. I would certainly recommend it to any of my friends who are thinking of writing a book (not a vast pool of people but there is one!).There were some other interesting sites on the list but probably none that I would use on a regular basis. I found all sorts of interesting things at .Docstoc. I could have done with it a couple of years ago when my son often asked me to set him maths problems! I liked the sound of Mango to learn or brush up a foreign language prior to travelling but discovered you had to pay. Apparently libraries can subscribe so their members can use it. That would be cool but probably unlikely. Boo is another potentially useful site when planning travel. It has hotel and bar details along with photos, weather and general city reviews. The main drawback to this site is that there isn't a section for attractions. I may use this next time we are planning a trip.I loved One Sentence - lots of true (supposedly) stories told in a single sentence - a great time waster.

RSS Feeds

I have been using iGoogle for over a year so was interested to compare it with Google Reader. I think I prefer iGoogle. I like being able to have different types of feed on different pages and the pictures add interest. I think Google Reader may be better for news then iGoogle as you can see all the new headlines whereas iGoogle you set how many items you you want to see from each which is great for blogs but probably not so good for news (unless you set the limit fairly high).
I use iGoogle all the time for keeping up with my favourite blogs but I like the fact that if I don't look at at it for a few days (or weeks) there are only the latest posts there and I don't feel guilty about the ones I missed.
Libraries can use RSS by putting feeds on their website - new books, events etc. Apart from personal professional development I can't think of another way to ue RSS in libraries.

Photo Sharing

I do have a Flickr account but I haven't used it much and couldn't remember my password. I decided to see what images there are of libraries. I already knew of the group that aim to take a picture of their library every day so thought there would be plenty of images to choose from. I came across Erik who has a series of images of 'Beautiful libraries'. I really like this shot because of the odd angles http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikvanhannen/2254208405/in/set-72157603863752660/

The Amazing Challenge - Brazil

My library is running 'The Amazing Challenge' to help staff get up to speed with various Web 2.0 technologies. The first task was to find out more about lifelong learning. In particular we looked at the 7 1/2 Habits of Successful Lifelong Learners . The first habit was to to set goals for your learning. Accordingly, my goals for The Amazing Challenge are:

• Learn more about Web 2.0
• Explore the potential of web 2.0 technologies for improving or adding to existing library services
• Have fun
  
  

Usability testing for libraries - possible research topic?

Moira Fraser Says: June 19, 2009 at 9:03 pm
I like this idea. Another idea that I have advocated to public libraries before is the use of usability testing which is also commonly used for websites. At the core – you create 10 common tasks that people come to the Library for – things like find a book about …; read today’s newspaper from another main centre etc. and then you measure whether they can complete the task satisfactorily. You also observe them undertaking the task and ask some open-ended questions at the end to understand more about their experiences. It’s very useful at uncovering the things that we don’t notice because we are familiar and comfortable in libraries, but which cause library users real difficulties.
from http://diligentroom.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/what-would-rodney%e2%80%99s-mum-think/

Disaster plan

I raised the subject of the Library disaster plan at the staff meeting this morning. Apparently one was drawn up at the time the library was being reorganised (in 2006) but nobody knew quite where it was (apart from the copy that one staff member kept off-site) and it was due for updating. As a result of me raising the issue, a copy was printed off to be kept in the Reference Desk Procedures manual and I was asked to be part of the team to update it.

Small task - disaster plans

The only plans I was able to find were the Library Pandemic Plan (reviewed 29/4/09), Bomb Threat Plan and Emergency Evacuation Plan. I knew about the last 2 because they had been covered during various training sessions but I didn't know about the Pandemic Plan. Obviously, if I didn't know about them, other staff probably don't either. They weren't particularly easy to find - I tracked them down in the document management programme. I'm sure the council has other disaster plans which would also apply to the library but I wasn't sure where to look. The Pandemic Plan specifies that it is in addition to the council pandemic plan. The plan seems both comprehensive and feasible.

Small task - outsourcing

1. We have just initiated a 3-month trial to outsource up to 90% of our cataloguing. This would see a supplier of materials to the library undertake some cataloguing duties with no incremental cost to the library. This is expected to reduce costs by 2 FTE. However we have taken IT support back in house due to problems with using the firm providing council IT support.
2. With the necessity for the library to cover more of its budget, one way to help achieve this is to cut costs so outsourcing other operations is a possibility if this can be done at a cost-advantage. I would be very hesitant to outsource book selection as I have read of other libraries having problems with this. It would be difficult to replace the detailed patron knowledge that has been built up over the years by the acquisition staff. Outsourcing of the website maintenance is more palatable but that is unlikely to happen in the near future since we have only just brought it in-house. When considering outsourcing total costs must be compared as there may be a cost of ceasing doing the task in-house e.g. redundancy, and there will be a cost to supervising the contract.

Finance

Bad news from the council meeting last week - the councillors are requiring the library to raise 10% of its total budget in 2010 with this target increasing by 2% each year till it reaches 20%. The library managers already have a plan for implementing this for next year but we don't know what this is yet. Some councillors think we should charge for all fiction books (except children's) rather than just the Top Titles. One thing is for sure - we won't be offering free Internet any time soon - this brings in too much revenue. Whilst reading Librarians and the claiming of new roles: How can we try to make a difference? (Fourie, 2004, p. 67-68 ) some ideas occurred to me. We don't want to increase the charges to the general public, so what about developing some new services for business that we can charge for? Some possibilities mentioned in the article are: offering training in information retrieval, offering an advice service on issues to do with copyright and intellectual property, archiving company websites and offering a current awareness service.

Small Task – Economic Value of Libraries

1. It is hard to measure the economic value of a library because so many of the benefits a library confers on a community are intangible ones and so are impossible to measure. How do you measure the benefit to children and their families from attending Toddler Time, or the benefit of a teenager being able to access the Internet free-of-charge to do their homework or the benefit of a blind person being able to access books on CD or someone being able to learn about vegetable gardening? You may be able to make approximate calculations on the amount of money individual customers save by getting books from the library rather than buying them but that is not the sum total of the benefit derived from libraries.
2. Some people believe that once everyone has access to the Internet they will be able to find online all the information they need so libraries will no longer have any value.
3. I had never considered that libraries might have a value for non-users. It seems that nonusers value the library for its possible future benefits for themselves and its benefits for others whilst library users value the library for the tangible benefits it is providing to them.
4. There are a number of purposes to performance evaluation:
a. Identification of superior and inferior achievers
b. Rewarding good performance
c. Improving employees performance
d. Improving organisational performance
e. Salary allocation
f. Decision making re promotion, disciplinary actions etc.
5. Performance evaluation can cause stress among staff members and may result in a decreased effectiveness and decreased morale. If team members are ranked this can have an adverse effect on the team as a whole. Staff members are unlikely to be honest about any problems they may be having if they think they will be penalised for this,
6. I have had 2 end-of-year performance appraisals and each year there have been several informal meetings to identify any issues and look at how I am going towards meeting my goals. I have found it to be a positive experience. My manager has been very complimentary about my work and I haven’t had any issues with the work or other staff members. Every staff member is treated as an individual – there is no ranking. I think I would feel differently if we were being ranked.

Small task - future roles

1. My job title is Information Librarian and I am reasonably happy with it. Information Specialist might be better but, although there is an argument to be made against naming a profession after the building they work in, the public know what librarians are and they would probably continue to call us librarians regardless of what our name tag said.
2. Are the days of traditional libraries numbered? It depends what you mean by 'traditional'. It seems to me that libraries have never been static but have changed with the times. After all, we no longer chain our books to the desks! Libraries will continue to change and develop but, in Harris, Hannah and Harris' (1998) terms I am a 'reformer'. I believe that, for the foreseeable future, there will be a place for books and digital information and as long as libraries continue to have books they will need to be public places where people can come and browse the collection. Many people have predicted the demise of the book but more books are being published now than ever.
3. My library has:

• an integrated library management system
• a website where people can access the catalogue and other useful information including digitised photos from our collection and a number of electronic databases. They can also submit questions to library staff
• OPACs for patrons to access the catalogue
• email communication with patrons, suppliers and other libraries
• blogs and wikis for staff communication and to provide information to patrons
• online interloan system
• RFID tagging of its books
• a Beebo site

Currently we don't have any ebooks and we don't use IM or Twitter. The majority (about 90%) of our requests for information result in a book being found for a patron.

Small task - professional development

For my on-going professional development I have done the following:
taken Polytech papers
attended courses/seminars
attended staff report-back meetings
read listservs
read blogs
read books
read on-line articles
watched on-line presentations
tried out new ICTs
attended a LIANZA weekend school
talked to colleagues
read the LIANZA journal

Tui Smith's article

I have been interested in the various posting to the NZ Libs listserv about Tui Smith's article. I read the original article and was quite surprised at her findings and wondered about her sample. I come from a science background where everything has to be peer-reviewed and there is a lot of concern about achieving unbiased results but hadn't really considered whether the articles in the LIANZA journal were peer-reviewed or not. As a general rule, I think letters debating issues raised in articles should be published and that, where possible, articles should be peer-reviewed. However, this article was written by a student and should be judged on that basis. When it comes to assignments, one is restricted by the parameters set by the tutors. If a research study is required this is usually fairly limited in scope. Students usually don't have the knowledge, resources and time to set up large, comprehensive studies. As a student myself, I can imagine how I would feel if one of my assignments, that I wrote using the best of my knowledge and ability, was published and then was the subject of letters of criticism.
Obviously this article was published because it won a prize so I am concerned about the awarding of a prize to an article that seems to rely on a flawed methodology for the study. Maybe it was the best article that met the criteria of the prize but the terms of the prize state "The winning paper may be published in an appropriate LIANZA publication" (emphasis added). Perhaps this article shouldn't have been published.

Small task - relationships with IT staff

The IT staff in our library have a good and close working relationship with all the other staff. I think this is important as both groups see something from slightly different angles. Whilst the IT staff know the ICTs we are working with, the frontline staff know how it will be used and what the customers want. This collaboration can be achieved by having open lines of communication, IT staff attending library staff meetings, IT staff giving updates on projects and offering staff training on new ICTs, focus groups and opportunities for feedback.
At our library there are currently a number of ICT projects underway and I think these are being managed very collaboratively. IT staff have kept everyone updated, provided machines so staff can trial the changes, encouraged feedback and provided training on the new features.

Small Task - IT Skills

I have:
Knowledge of and experience with, current computer technologies
Experience with a wide range of electronic information sources
Experience with multimedia hardware/software applications and automated library systems
Experience with online search services, CD-Rom and interactive technologies
Knowledge of how information is organised within a database
Use of telecommunications software
Ability to provide training to staff on access sing, evaluating and utilising resources via the Internet
Familiarity with web 2.0 applications
An International Computer Drivers License
What else might I need?
At the moment my skills are sufficient for the job I am doing but no doubt there will be new ICTs developed in the coming years which I will need to get up to speed with. There is a requirement for all staff members to have an International Computer Drivers License. I already had one when I started so my boss was at a bit of a loss what to offer/suggest in the way of ongoing IT training. I have done 23Things but am not sure what else is available or useful.

Small task - Knowledge Management

1. The aim of knowledge management is to use all knowledge, both tacit and explicit, to benefit an organisation.
2. Explicit knowledge is knowledge that has been recognised and recorded in some way, tacit knowledge is knowledge held by people that often cannot be easily codified.
3. TCL does well in some of the areas listed but not others. I think there is good communication within the organisation. Each team had a weekly meeting, there are monthly whole staff meetings and also monthly meetings for the larger teams. There are regular report-back sessions from people who have attended training or outside events or simply to update people on new developments. Feedback is sought on new initiatives. Information Technology is used well to share information. As well as email, there is an intranet and a blog. Feedback is always sought from attendees at any special events that are run, requests for book purchases are generally acted on and general feedback is also welcomed. I don't know of any process to capture the knowledge of people leaving the organisation or to distill learning from past experiences although documents are certainly archived. I don't know what is on the strategic list so can't comment whether funding reflects these priorities. Funding is controlled by the council so doesn't always reflect the priorities of the library mangers.
4. According to Broadbent's definition (1998) I am a knowledge worker. I have skill and expertise and my work is not routine. It focuses on the acquisition of knowledge.
5. Knowledge Management involves techniques to acquire, record, disseminate and use organisational knowledge of all types to ensure the success of the organisation.

Google Books Again

The issue of the GoogleBooks settlement has been attracting a lot of postings to the NZ Libs listserv recently. The principle concerns seem to be: the potential loss of material should Google cease to exist, the inadequacy of one free terminal for libraries to access GoogleBooks, the possibility of Google acting as censor and no guarantee that the price for libraries to access the database will remain reasonable. The latest development is that libraries that allow Google to digitise their books will be able to protest if they think the price that Google is charging is too high (Helft, 2009).

More on job titles

Andy W (2009) has been thinking about the issue of job titles and came up with Information Concierge. I quite like it but to me an Information Concierge doesn't sound like a professional, doesn't sound like someone with a degree.

Kindle and Copyright

Jessamyn West (2009) has posted on the issue with Kindle and copyright. Apparently Kindle is under some pressure from authors to deactivate the text-to-speech function (TTS) - "standard publishing contracts with most major trade publishers do not permit publishers to sell e-books bundled with audio rights." (The Authors' Guild, 2009) Although there are some ways around this for the print-disabled, what about those who bought a Kindle and subsequently find some of its functionality has been disabled? It's as if authors were allowed to come into our homes and rip pages out of a book they had written. Meredith Filak (2009) makes the point that listening to TTS is very different from listening to a professionally produced audiobook. Whilst I can understand authors not wanting to lose rights I think they have overreacted here.

Small task for Librarians

In principle I agree with St Clair. Librarians do have an image problem and that may be related to the fact that we don't have a very informative job title. My title is 'Information Librarian'. I think it is OK - certainly better than 'Reference Librarian'. I decided to look at some alternative terms and came across this fascinating page in the Websters On-line dictionary but none of the synonyms were any use. Information needs to stay in the title but perhaps the librarian could be replaced with something else - expert, manager, facilitator, broker - nothing seems quite right. I came across an article by Gillian Davis on this subject and she suggested Information Specialist and Information Architect. I like Information Specialist. But, unfortunately, changing our titles would probably be a fairly pointless exercise - we have always been called librarians (since 1781 anyway (Parker, 2009)) and that is what people will continue to call us no matter what our name badges may say. I can imagine meeting someone - "What do you do?" "I'm an Information Specialist" "Where do you work?" "At the library" "Oh, so you're a librarian".

Online catalogues

Following a link from one of the blogs I read I came across the OCLC report -
Online Catalogs: What Users and Librarians Want (2009). It was very timely. Our IT team are currently seeking feedback on a new online catalogue. I sent them some fairly detailed comments after having a look at it on Tuesday and have now forwarded them the link for this report. It was interesting (but not particularly surprising) to see that users and librarians wanted different things from the catalogue. The most popular addition with users was for online links whereas librarians wanted duplicate records merged.

Other Issues

Information Literacy - I was talking to one of my colleagues today and she mentioned that often when she is dealing with students wanting material for their assignments they can't explain what it is they want. They can tell her what the assignment is on but if she is not familiar with any of the terms - they can't elaborate. They have managed the first step of information literacy - recognising an information need - but don't have much hope of progressing further if they don't fully understand the assignment.

Biculturalism - we are very lucky to have a Maori services librarian who speaks Te Reo. We also have the support of 2 Maori services council staff and access to kaumatua and kuia when we have powhiri and poroporoaki. I am not aware of any bicultural issues.

Misinformation - I am not aware of this being an issue in our library

Freedom of information - this is sometimes an issue in the Children's and Young Persons' section. Occasionally parents will object to a book. This has only happened a couple of times in the last 5 years and in both cases the book was retained in the library although it was placed in the parent resource section rather than being freely available. This is a form of censorship.
A couple of months ago we were alerted by one of our patrons that someone in the learning centre was looking at pretty hardcore porn and taking photos of the screen with his mobile phone. One of the librarians went in and told him he wasn't allowed to access such sites and he left. We have an agreement that patrons have to agree to before accessing the Internet that lists the type of item that should not be accessed - pornography is one of them.

Copyright Continued

I have continued to follow the NZ-Libs postings on copyright along with the course readings on copyright and have come to the conclusion that it is just too complicated. Ignorance of the law is no defense but sometimes you would need to be a lawyer to be confident that what you were doing was not breaching copyright. Last year I was subscribed to the school library listserv and I remember there was a long discussion on whether displaying copies of book covers infringed copyright. Unfortunately that listserv doesn't appear to have an archive so I can't check back on the conversation bit I am sure that in the end someone (who seemed to be acknowledged as an expert in the area) said that it did breach copyright. Apparently there is separate copyright for the cover than for the book as a whole. Recently at work a staff member was scanning book covers for uploading onto our website. I asked her about the copyright issue and she wasn't aware of any problem and said that most were freely available on LibraryThing. I'm still wondering about this. When I scanned a book cover to put on my LibraryThing page I wondered if I was breaching copyright.
I think the only solution is to throw the whole thing out and start again with international experts drawing up laws that everyone can understand and agree to. Not much chance of that happening I'm afraid!

Small task - Intellectual property

1. Intellectual property means the right of ownership of, and the ability to profit from, one's intellectual work.
2. Copyright issues of concern to information professionals include:
Being held liable for patron's copyright breaches whilst on library premises.
Knowing what constitutes "reasonable use'" when copying items
Knowing who the copyright holder is when dealing with archival items
Being unable to copy from a copy
Making copyright works available on the Internet
Knowing whether information on the Internet is copyrighted
3. The Internet complicates the issues because it makes it so much easier to copy works and there is no loss of quality in the copy. Because the Internet is a global phenomenon and copyright laws vary from country to country it can be hard to know which laws apply in each particular case.

Small task - information overload

1. Information overload is the feeling that you are in a quicksand of information - there is so much that you feel as though you are slowly sinking in it. It is threatening to overwhelm you and sometimes you can't find the piece you want.
2. Mostly I don't suffer from information overload but sometimes when I'm researching for my assignments I have trouble knowing when to stop. I start following citation trails and find more and more information. Then I have trouble getting my word count down to the recommended range because I want to put all the information I found, in my assignment.
3. The Internet has contributed massively to information overload because it has made it so much easier to generate and to find information. Look at all the people who have blogs now. Before the Internet they may have kept diaries (I didn't) but that information wasn't readily available. Think of all the funny stories, urban legends, virus warnings, special offers that land in your email in box on a daily basis. Nobody would have bothered to send a letter just to pass these on.
4. Filters on search engines (especially those searching databases) can help you narrow your search considerably so you don't need to wade through heaps of straw to find the few grains of wheat. Email filters can sort your email for you and direct it into suitable folders - including the 'junk mail' folder. You can set up personalised news filters so you only see the stories you are interested in. I have set up an iGoogle page with tabs for the various areas I am interested in. Each tab has feeds from relevant and interesting blogs or websites. I can look at this when I have time and easily see which feeds are new. If I don't have time to check it for a while some of the new posts will have dropped off without me seeing them but that's OK - if I can't see what I have missed reading then I don't worry about it. I subscribe to a couple of list servs and have signed up for the digest version as I find that more manageable than constantly receiving emails through the day.

User-supplied data

Following a reference trail in preparation for writing my assignment I came across an article by Michael Koenig - Linking library users: A culture change in librarianship. It is about user-supplied data. He believes that encouraging users to add information to the catalogue about titles they have read will cut down on information overload. The reasoning is that the more information people have about a resource the easier it is to tell if the resource will meet their needs. It seems to me that there are a couple of problems with this. Firstly, the added information could just add to the overload and secondly, will patrons add comments and, if so, will they be useful or just along the lines of "I loved this book"?
After reading this article I remembered a recent thread on NZ-Libs about a patron wanting more information on titles, similar to that on Amazon, and that one NZ library has recently linked their catalogue with LibraryThing. I fished out the reference and had a look at Nelson's catalogue. It's great, I love it and I think many people would find it useful. Using LibraryThing means there isn't a lag while you are waiting for patrons to add information and it draws on a much larger population than just a single library's membership. I wonder if there are any plans to add this to our new catalogue? My only minor quibble is that I think the location information should come before the tags and "similar books" so people can more easily ignore this information if they want to.

Website

I re-read reading 3.2 - Addressing the Digital Divide - in preparation for writing my assignment and this time the section about making websites accessible for disabled people jumped out at me. As part of the focus group testing our new library website I will try to ensure that our new website is disabled-enabled.

Library website

Management were impressed with the website I sent them and I am to be part of the focus panel when they test new website designs in about 6 months time.

Plainfield Public Library

A posting on the LIS News blog caught my eye. It was about Plainfield Library offering its users the ability to IM and text librarians with their questions. I followed the link to the newspaper article and then a link to their new website I was very impressed with the website and the services they offered and said as much in an email I sent to our library managers -

I don't know if any changes to our website are planned but I happened across a library website that I think is really great - http://www.plainfield.lib.il.us/index.asp. It has a nice clean look, uncluttered but with lots of information on it and it seems very user-friendly. I am also impressed by the range of services they offer - IM and text reference queries, library blogs, Book-a-Librarian (http://www.plainfield.lib.il.us/library-info/services.htm), book discussion kits . . And this in a town with a population of 23,532 whereas we have 103,632. Food for thought?

Libraries and social networking

There seem to have been lots of posts recently about social networking - especially Twitter. The Shifted Librarian talked about the difficulty of finding tweets later, on librarian. net the subject was library vendors using Twitter whilst the Swiss Army Librarian found a good use for Twitter . I must admit Twitter is not one the web 2.0 technologies I have got into and, like the Swiss Army Librarian, had trouble seeing how it could be used. I'm still not convinced - our library doesn't get closed by snow! I will follow up some of the links in these posts to see if I can find a reason for our library to twitter.

American Idealism

The amazingly global, idealistic thinking demonstrated by the ALA statement on access to information also shows up in the recent Darien Statements on the Librarian and Librarians. It is good to have inspirational statements but this one didn't quite do it for me - it was just too idealistic and grandiose although, judging by the coments, I'm in a minority. There has been some discussion on this on the NZ Libs listserv with links to relevant pages and I particularly like the Annoyed Librarian's take on the whole thing.

Small task - ALA statement

The ALA position, as outlined in their statement, is not feasible or even desirable. There is plenty of information that should not be available to everyone. People's private information should be able to remain private, children should be able to be protected from information that could damage them and we certainly don't want terrorists to have access to information that can assist them.
If there is a legitimate need for information to be available in a different format, e.g. talking books for the blind, then it should be provided, but making different formats available just for the sake of it, is a waste of money and resources. It is also sometimes a futile exercise. Imagine converting an art book to an audio format or a CD of bird calls to a printed format.
It is impossible to deliver all information at all levels of comprehension. Imagine a board book on Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Once again, if there is a genuine need, it should be provided but what toddler needs to know about relativity? If someone from Mongolia want to read Pickwick Papers every effort should be made to ensure she can do that but that doesn't mean that all Dicken's works should be translated into every language in the world.
I am very wary of statements using 'all' as you can usually find at least one exception and this statement from ALA is no exception.

Small task - Information as a Commodity

My direct costs for information are reasonably minimal. I read books from the library at no cost and only really buy books for presents (there is no room left on my bookshelves). We subscribe to the local newspaper and the NZ Listener and but any other magazines I read are from the library. We also pay for a basic Sky subscription and occasionally rent DVDs.
Indirect costs include the cost of my laptop (less than 1 year old) and the cost of the electricity to run it, the cost of the TV, Freeview box, external hard drive, wireless router, phone line, Internet . . . I also pay half the cost of enrolment in Polytechnic papers which gives me access to course material, library books and online databases. According to my rough calculations, this all costs me about $3,500/year. But where do you stop? What about movies, plays, concerts, photos? Do these count as information. What about the portion of my rates that goes towards the cost of the library? What about the cost of the petrol to access some of these information sources?
The cost to access information could increase in the future according to this article in the Los Angeles Times. Kodak is starting to charge for its photo-storage service and there is a possibility that previously free web services may also start to charge having discovered that ad revenue is not enough to keep businesses running. Imagine if you had to pay for on-line banking, your web mail account, your Delicious bookmarks or your Google searches.

Library cards

I emailed one of the library managers about my assessment of our library cards.

Thanks for this site - I found it very interesting. Did you read the section on library cards? http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/impact/f01/Papers/Nemitz/dnpaper.htm After reading this I looked again at our own card and decided it left something to be desired.

• It isn't distinctive - I have had lots of patrons search through all their cards several times truing to find it. I can't even give them some clues to help them as I don't know which particular design they have.
• It doesn't have much information on it. Until I really looked at it, I didn't even realise that the phone number and website were on the back! Before I worked here I used to keep one of the library business cards with my library card so I could check opening times etc. Wouldn't it be better to have this information on the card itself?
• The pictures are lovely but they don't say 'Library"

Just some ideas to consider when it is time for a change.

He is going to bring it up at the Library Managers meeting. Watch this space.

The image of librarians

An email from a collegue alerted me to this website. I found the discussions of the image of librarians very interesting. A sidetrack took me to this page which is a look at library cards and the image they project. Looking at our own library cards after reading this article I have decided that although our cards are attractive (they feature photos of the local area) they aren't very distinctive and they don't say "library".

They also contain very little useful information. The phone number and website address is on the back but in quite small writing - I didn't even realise it was there till I examined my card in detail! Before I worked in the library I always kept one of the library's business cards in with my library card as it had opening times and contact details on it.

The recession

According to articles in The New York Times and the Denver Post the recession has lead to an increase in the number of people using libraries. The general feeling here is that use has increased although we don't have the figures to back this up. The reference team have noticed an apparent increase in the numbers of people looking for books on gardening and chicken keeping. The library is now offering free classes on cv writing and these seem to be popular. We have also started a wiki - WithoutWork - which has information of looking for jobs, budgeting, saving money, budget cooking etc. Some American libraries have been forced to close branches or reduce services just when they are needed most. We are a bit luckier here. The council has been asked to save 3.5 million dollars but services are to remain at the same levels so there is no suggestion of reducing opening hours. However the new library building that is so badly needed at Greerton has been put on hold yet again and all the other proposed new branch libraries that were in the 10 year plan have been pushed further out.

Use of Web 2.0 technologies

I have been interested to follow the postings on NZ Libs re the use of Web 2.0 technologies. I thought Brian Flaherty made some interesting points. It is easy to get carried away with all the possibilities of a particular technology and forget how much time it is going to take. Even in my personal life I find it hard to keep up with reading all my feeds, visiting my favourite forum, updating my blogs and entering the books I read on LibraryThing. At work I have websites to monitor, a blog to write and a wiki to contribute to. So far I have been able to resist Twitter and Second Life. Brian's thought tie in nicely with those in Data Smog. However, I think it is important for libraries to selectively use some of the new technologies in order to connect with the digital native generation. If we continue to only do what we have always done we risk being seen as irrelevant.

The future of the library - small task

My vision of the library of the future is a combination of several of the scenarios. Whilst a large section of the community will still want books. However we also need to cater for patrons who want information in other forms. Libraries will need to collect and synthesize information and then deliver it via the patrons preferred medium.

Reading 2.8 & 2.7

CD ROMs were a given but have now been superseded by online databases and the Internet. Faxes are a given but not used nearly so much now - instead it is easy to scan and/or email documents. With integration of scanners into printers many people have the ability to scan and copy from home however we still have people coming into the library who want to scan documents and put them on their flash drives. Email has become so ubiquitous that when we found that one of the members of a committee I'm on, didn't have email, we wondered how we would manage to keep him in the loop. PABX has been superseded but voice mail is expected. Teleconferencing is available but not widely used whereas 'webinars' are an emerging technology that may be more widely used. Virtual reality is still in the future.
Reading 2.7 was written 5 years after reading 2.8 and most of the trains Barry talks about have arrived. Multimedia, the Internet, WWW and intranets are fairly standard in libraries and thin client technology is usually used for OPACS.

More on community

After my 'aha' moment with Reading 2.6 I serendipitously came across two related articles via one of the blogs I follow - LibraryTechNZ. The posting was about a recent workshop on designing and sustaining creative communities. It sounded very interesting and within the report back on the workshop were links to 2 articles. The first is a piece from one of the founders of Flickr about building online communities. The main thing I learnt from this was the importance of providing friendly input but allowing communities to evolve . The second article about the Brooklyn Museum reinforced the importance of staff members being active participants in the online communities and showcased how cheaply initiatives can be started by using existing free web 2.0 tools.
One of the speakers at the workshop - Derek Powazek - has written a book which I will recommend for our staff reference library.

Small task - fearing technology

With a husband involved in the computer industry we have generally been 'early adopters' of technology and I can honestly say that, on my own behalf, I have never suffered from any of the fears listed except perhaps the last one - health effects. However, I do have some concerns about some of my sons' dependence on information technology and its affects on their health and socialisation

Web resource 2.3

I found the comment, that we don't know what was in the first e-mail ever sent, interesting. Where will future biographers find their information? Letters are often treasured and kept thus providing a primary source for future biographers but who keeps their emails?

Small task - Reading 2.6

The Internet is like a massive net with all the computers in the world arranged around the edge , connected to one of the strands. Any computer can communicate with any other computer by sending a message along the strands of the net. The World Wide Web is like the collection of sea creatures that have been caught in the net. Each creature is a website - some are useful and some are downright disgusting. Any computer can send a little submersible along the strands of the net to take a picture of one of the sea creatures and send it back for you to look at. There can be lots of submersibles all taking pictures of the same sea creature so lots of people can see the picture on their computers at the same time. You can tell your submersible what sort of sea creature you want to see and it will travel along the strands until it finds a creature like the one you are looking for but some creatures can't be seen with the naked eye so your submersible will need some special equipment to find those creatures.
The Internet has revolutionised communication throughout society and I'm sure libraries are no exception even though I don't have personal experience of the changes.

Reading 2.6

A sentence in this reading really leaped out at me - "At the moment, libraries tend to connect users with information and do little to connect users with other users, either for the purposes of generating community for its own sake or to enable users to assist one another. The Internet provides a significant technological opportunity for for libraries to be more active in creating an organised group of library users who feel them collectively rather than individually associated with the library."
Currently there are a few communities that are library-based - book clubs, storyteller group and toddler time group but none of these use the Internet. We are currently developing a wiki for people in Tauranga that have lost their jobs and this could develop into a community.
Other possibilities that sprang to mind - the website could include forums for people interested in particular topics. A librarian could be assigned to monitor each forum and contribute postings about relevant resources - books, databases, websites.
People could subscribe to a listserv for their favourite author and be sent details of new books added to the collection, invitations to book club sessions discussing the author's works, reviews of new books etc.

Copyright

I had a look at "The Copyright Act 1994 and Amendments: Guidelines for Librarians", posted on the LIANZ website, to see the new sections that have been added. I was a little alarmed by section 21 which seems to say that printing or downloading anything off the Internet could be a breach of copyright and that librarians need to police this. I certainly haven't noticed many sites specifically saying the copying is permitted. However surely the ordinary rules of copyright apply to items on the net i.e. fair dealing for research or private study? This isn't made clear in the body of the document but the summary tables in Appendix 5 list 'electronic works in any format' which would seem to include material on web sites. I think it would be useful to have a copy of this summary table at the reference desk. If we use the new "Notice regarding copying and downloading from the Internet" in Appendix 2, I think we will have a lot more copyright queries from people. The news coverage of the copyright issue already seems to have increased people's awareness. In the last month I have had 2 patrons ask about copyright compared to none in the previous 12 months.

Reading 2.5 - Digital Library

For me, print texts are generally more enjoyable. They have associations, built up over years, of cosyness, relaxation and enjoyment whereas digital texts seem more like work. With a print text I am sitting in a comfortable chair or lying in bed whereas with digital text I am sitting in an office chair. Being environmentally aware, I don't usually print out digital texts. The exception to this is when I am writing an assignment as I find I can pick up mistakes more easily in print then on the screen. I'm not the only one who finds this and I wonder why it is. Perhaps because we have more experience of reading print text? Or fewer distractions? Perhaps we read print text more carefully?
In a social context, print and digital libraries differ in a number of ways. Many people enjoy the physicality of books - their look, smell and feel - and may develop an emotional bond with a particular book. In contrast, digital texts are much more neutral. People wanting information may be equally happy with print or digital text but people wanting to read for pleasure will almost always choose print text.. Print text seems to be much more memorable. People often like to have a print out of any particularly useful information that they find. It is reassuring to know that they have something physical to refer to. Finding the same piece of digital information again can be tricky. In our library, patrons can print out digital information that they find but there is an extra charge for this.
I read something recently ( I can't remember where - it must have been digital) that it was hard for people to remember where they saw a particular piece of digital information because there were so few external triggers. With a book there are lots of external cues that vary from book to book but with digital text you are usually sitting in the same room, on the same chair, looking at the same computer screen and only the text on the screen changes.

Reading 2.4 The future

Some of the ways Tauranga City Libraries is applying aspects of the new model mentioned by Sue Cooper are:
Local storytellers group meet at the library
Book clubs at the library
children's events at the library
active Friends of the Library group
local history collection
development of an 'out-of-work' wiki
interloan scheme
Maori services librarian
displays and events to mark Waitangi Day, Matariki and other significant Maori events
staff tutored in Maori pronunciation
on-going development of website
looking at outsourcing book cataloguing and preparation
provide basic information literacy classes

Digital Strategy

Because I have only been working as a librarian for 13 months I'm not sure which changes have been made as a direct result of the strategy. However I am aware of some relatively recent changes that are linked to the aims of the Digital Strategy.
Connection - About two years ago when the library was being remodelled an Information Centre was added. This contains 12 computers with broadband Internet access that anyone is free to use (although we do charge for their use). There is a Learning Centre tutor who is available to help people on a one-to-one basis and she also runs free courses. The learning Centre also offers free computer/Internet use for student doing homework.
Content - The library's collection of photos are slowly being digitised so they can be searched more easily and made available over the Internet. We are also collecting people's memories to make them available from our website.

Web resource 2.1 - economic landscape

In Austin, Texas, they voted to close a library branch rather than raise taxes. In Tauranga, New Zealand the city councillors have asked their CEO to save 3.5 million dollars this year to keep rates increases to an 'acceptable' level. Not only do they want this substantial saving, they also want to maintain the same level of service. The amount to be saved is spread over all the council's operations, not just the libraries, but every department is expected to do its bit. I suggested that one way of saving money would be to not buy any new reference books for one year but my manager felt that it would be setting a dangerous precedent - 'you managed OK last year without buying any new books, so why do you need to buy books this year?"

web resource 2.1 - seamlessness

On reading the next section -seamlessness - I discovered my nanny analogy cropping up along with a possible solution. Along the lines of 'if you can't beat them, join them' one anwer could be to 'Googlise' everything.
Currently part of my job entails regularly visiting various government websites looking for documents they have produced. I download any that seem important and relevant and arrange to have them printed and bound to add to our collection. This seems like a lot of unecessary work and expense but, if they are added to our physical collection, then people can find them through the catalogue. Our current library management system doesn't let us add links to websites but hopefully the new system we are getting will enable us to make our catalogue more of a 'Google experience'.

Web resource 2.1 - satisfaction

On reading the section on Satisfaction, I was struck by an image of the 'nanny librarian' "We know what's best for you. That stuff you find with Google will rot your brain. You should ask us to help you find 'proper' information". If people are happy with what they find quickly and easily with Google, there is no motivation for them to try something different. So, why do many people continue to use the nonfiction section of the library? Some possibilities:
They don't have a computer
They are not computer literate
They are used to getting information from books
The information they need isn't on the WWW (or they don't think it is, or can't find it)
They are doing school/tertiary assignments and have been told they have to cite physical resources
They enjoy reading nonfiction
A book is more convenient for their purpose (portable, not electricity dependent etc)
They believe books are more trustworthy
They like the experience of a book

Reading 2.2 - Redefining the library

This article made me think more deeply about the impact of technology on the library. Because I haven't been working in a library for very long I haven't been privy to the behind-scenes adjustments to enable new technologies to be introduced. The changes to the physical environment were obvious but I didn't consider the impact on the staff.
I particularly liked the quote on page 101 - "the individual searches alone without expert help and, not knowing what is undiscovered, is satisfied". I think Google has done the world a dis-service in making searching look easy. People don't realise that they don't know how to search properly. I had a gentleman the other day wanting fairly detailed information on Stephenson's Rocket and we didn't have much in the collection. I suggested that I try looking on the Internet and he said that he had looked already and there wasn't anything! He was wrong of course. We need to teach Internet searching but I suspect that the 'digital generation' won't come to classes on anything as 'easy' as searching. It should be being taught in schools but, from my experience, it isn't yet or at least not consistently and well.

Copyright again

The NZ Listserv is still full of postings on this issue. One of the postings yesterday led me to the site of the Guardian (UK) http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/feb/17/internet-newzealand that has a good article summing up the situation. It remains to be seen what progress is made by the end of the month.

As we may think - small task

Vannevar Bush's ideas about the camera of the future are interesting to compare with modern cameras. Many of his ideas may still be in the future (a walnut-sized camera worn on the forehead) but he was unable to imagine a camera that does not require film. My first camera, as a teenager, was an Instamatic. The film was contained in a cartridge inserted into the back and when it was finished you had to wait about a week to get your photos back. Then in the 1980's we moved to an SLR camera and many places offered overnight processing. In 2005 we bought a digital camera and can now publish pictures on the Internet minutes after taking them.
He also envisages microfilm copies of encyclopedias and other books. Whilst microfilm is used today (we have a number of historical records on microfilm for people interested in genealogy) today's encyclopedias are often on CD-ROM or online. The cost of these is not as low as Bush envisaged with his microfilm copies but they do offer advantages of cross referencing and searching not offered by microfilm.
Bush's device for translating spoken language to written has its modern parallel in the voice recognition software available on many computers. however his picture of future scientists moving about their laboratories, photographing and commenting to produce a record is still not a reality.
Bush seems to envisage lots of different machines for different purposes - machines for mathematical calculation, machines for manipulating premises, machines for charging and inventory control in department stores, however, the reality is that these tasks, and many more, are all done by computers. The personal computer is equivalent to Bush's 'memex'. We have the translucent screens, the incredible storage capacity, the keyboard and the ability to scan items in and to search. On the other hand, a PC is smaller than the 'desk' envisioned by Bush and doesn't use microfilm.
I didn't really encounter computers until I went to university in the late 1970's. Some of my friends were taking computer science papers and programmed the computer (which took up a whole room) by punching holes in cards. In return, they got pages and pages of printout to look though to determine whether or not their programme had worked. We got our first PC when we were in Britain in 1984. We obviously made the wrong choice of brands because our Einstein Personal Computer was a bit of a dead duck with very little programming written for it. By 1990 we had an IBM-compatible PC (no mouse however) and our ducks lived in an obsolete desk-style computer my husband had brought home from work. As the years went by, back-up was onto discs, then floppy discs, then zip discs. Today I have a laptop with an external drive (and still seem to run out of room), DVD reader/writer, colour printer, black and white laser printer, scanner (that also copies and faxes) and a PDA that allows me to carry important information with me when I'm away from my laptop. All of this was unimaginable when I was growing up.

Data Smog

This book is so interesting and readable I decided to post about it on my general blog - http://refpenny.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/data-smog/

First small task

I work as a reference librarian in a large public library. Looking at the 5 definitions provided by Webster, my library is part of the information society because we:

1. use and/or provide information technology (computers, OPACs, scanners, dvds, computer games)
2. are part of the primary information sector of the economy
3. employ people engaged in information work
4. are part of a number of networks (interloan network, online databases, library consortium)
5. provide information which contributes to the 'media-saturated environment'

However I prefer a definition that reflects the quality of knowledge rather than just its quantity i.e. a knowledge society rather than an information society. Our library is part of this by selecting resources according to pre-determined criteria, by providing access to databases of selected material, by providing links to reputable websites and by teaching Internet searching and evaluation skills.

Google and copyright

A different aspect of copyright emerged when I read a posting from NZLibs listserv about Google and copyright. This posting lead me to an article from the New York Review of Books and a comment from Robert Darnton, the head librarian at Harvard. Google has been scanning books in American libraries with the aim of making them available on the Internet. Some of the works scanned were still under copyright and Google was sued by the copyright holders. Now people will have to pay for access to scanned, copyright works although Google says that public libraries will have one terminal for free access and that the cost will not put it out of the reach of schools. One terminal will not be enough for large libraries and there is also concern that, if the management of Google changes, costs to users may increase. Although Darnton believes in the principle of free information. Many comments made the point that his library is not freely available to all and others made the point that there is a cost to the scanning project and that people could always interloan the original book rather than pay Google for online access.
What surprised me was that many of the copyrighted books that were scanned were out-of-print so no-one could buy them even if they wanted to. Libraries pay a fee to the copyright holders of the books in the library. This is to compensate them for lost sales when a patron borrows a book rather than buying it. It doesn't seem quite fair that the copyright holders can receive money for an out-of-print book. I also think that the copyright period is far too long. People producing creative works should receive fair payment but I'm not so sure that their heirs should.

Reading 1.2

I found this reading very interesting and thought-provoking. Webster starts by looking at 5 ways to define 'information society' which lead to 5 different ways to measure whether or not a society is an 'information society' The 1st is technological and looks at the amount of ICT technology in a society. The 2nd is economic which measures the amount of GDP produced by both 'information industries' and "information sectors' within other industries. The 3rd way of defining the 'information society' is occupational which measures the number of jobs where people deal with information rather than material things. The 4th way is spatial which looks at information networks and the 5th is cultural which looks at the impact of information on culture - this, however, is very hard to measure.
The main problem with all these ways of defining an 'information society' is that all information is considered equal - the quantity is measured rather than the quality. What is really important about a piece of information is whether it is meaningful and valuable but this is not easily quantified. We can count the amount of information but that is not sufficient to convince us that society has radically changed.
Webster mentions another possibility for defining an 'information society' - one in which theoretical knowledge is more pre-eminent then formerly. This is hard to quantify but certainly theoretical knowledge is more important now. In the past, many advances were achieved by experimentation rather than application of theory.
I like Webster's reasoning - it does seem silly to count information without paying attention to its value. I'm still not sure that I believe the the 'information society' is something new and fundamentally different from previous societies but I guess that if you are in the middle of a transition to a new type of society it can be difficult to see. Distance gives perspective. Looking back we can see that both the agricultural and industrial revolutions made enormous differences in societies but maybe the people at the time didn't see that.

Copyright again

I discussed the copyright issue with one of the library managers yesterday. He had been talking to IT and discovered that currently there is no way to identify on which computer a breach of copyright occurred. This will change later in the year when we have our own server but, for the present, there is no point taking people's names. I also checked the wording of the Internet use agreement that patrons have to accept before accessing the Internet. Although breach of copyright was mentioned it came well down the list of unwanted behaviours, almost as an afterthought. The current wording is

Public Internet
Conditions of Use
The library does not allow inappropriate use of its Internet PCs, that is, uploading, downloading, viewing or printing offensive or illegal material. This includes material promoting:

• Racial hatred
• Obscenities
• Intimidation of or violence against others
• Under-age sex or pornography
• Illegal activities, including manufacture or use of illegal drugs, theft of copyright material.

Staff make random checks to ensure PCs are being used appropriately.

If parents require supervision of their children;s Internet use this remains the parents responsibility.

The good news last night was that implementation of the changes has been delayed till March 27.

At the staff meeting this morning the proposed new text of the Internet agreement was read out. It is:

Public Internet
Conditions of Use
The library does not allow inappropriate use of its Internet PCs, that is, uploading, downloading, viewing or printing offensive or illegal material. This includes material comprising or promoting:

• Racial hatred
• Obscenities
• Intimidation of or violence against others
• Under-age sex or pornography
• Illegal activities, including manufacture or use of illegal drugs, theft of copyright material.

Staff make random checks to ensure PCs are being used appropriately. The Libraries will withdraw Internet access from a user if staff consider these conditions are being breached.
With specific reference to Section 92A of the Copyright Act, 1994 (as amended by s.53 of 2008 no. 27) the libraries will withdraw Internet access if it has received a proper notice of infringement from a copyright holder, or their agent, that a user has been repeatedly infringing their copyright in a work.
If parents require supervision of their children's Internet use this remains the parents responsibility.

I made the suggestion that theft of copyright material be made a separate bullet point rather than being tagged onto the manufacture or use of illegal drugs. My point was that people probably didn't read these conditions carefully but would just scan down the list, thus missing the reference to copyright.

The nature of information

The first reading (Dearnley, J., & Feather, J. (2001). Theorizing the information society. In The wired world: An introductionto the theory and practice of the information society (pp. 1 - 24). London, England: Library Association.) talks about what 'information' is and its relationship to knowledge. I remember this issue came up in the first Open Polytech paper I did - The Information Industry. After reading and thinking about the issue I decided that information was something that was external (documents, objects) whereas knowledge was internal (in your brain) and arose from processing information. These are the mind maps I drew to try and clarify my thinking.


According to Dearnley and Feather, I was on the right track. They say "information is the basis of knowledge".

The article then goes on to mention that whilst some people see the information society as something new and different, others see it as the continuation of a process of change. I think I subscribe to the latter view. I'm sure that the advent of printed books (to name just one example) must have seemed as radical in its time as the various new information technologies that are being developed today. What is different is that the speed of change seems to have entered an exponential phase.

Let's start at the very beginning . . .

This post should really have come before the one I have already done - but here goes anyway. Last week my course material for Information Issues arrived and I discovered that I need to keep a journal starting on day 1 of my course. Yesterday I went to the online campus and listened to what is required from a learning journal. The course doesn't officially start till next week but I thought I might as well start now.
I have only been working in the library for a little over a year having started my studies prior to getting a job. I guess I am still "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed", I am certainly eager to learn as much about this job and this industry as I can. I have enjoyed all my papers so far and I expect this one will be no different although, as it is my first at the 300 level I am a little apprehensive about what will be expected.
As part of the course we are expected to subscribe to "at least 1 international and 1 NZ electronic mailing list, weblog or similar discussion group". This won't be a problem. I have been subscribed to the NZ-Libs listserv for at least 18 months and visit a number of blogs on a regular basis. I checked out the suggestions on the Online Campus page and was pleased to see that most of my favourites were listed. I added The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog and signed up for the aliaNEWGRAD listserv. All the blogs I am following are on the blogroll on the right.

Copyright Issues

Yesterday I followed a link from the NZ-Libs listserv to some information from Tony Millet on the new section 92A of the Copyright Act. Some of the provisions of this Act have caused some concern in library circles, especially those that would seem to define libraries as ISPs (Internet Service Providers). It initially seemed as though breach of the provisions of the Copyright act could let to suspension of Internet services to the entire library, and perhaps the parent organisation. However, Clause 4.9 of the draft "Internet Service Provider Copyright Code of Practice" states that "Downstream ISPs (i.e.libraries) should not have their Internet access terminated" by telecommunications ISPs. The bad news is that, if a copyright breach by a library user is noted, the library must terminate the user's Internet access. This will pose some problems for most libraries as most don't keep records of who was using the computer at a particular time. At Tauranga City Library we have a suite of 13 computers in a learning centre and the learning centre tutor is present most of the time to log people off and on. A spreadsheet is maintained that details the number of the computer, the deposit paid and the time log-on occurred. When someone finishes the log-off time is recorded along with the number of pages printed and the total cost. At the end of each day the spreadsheet is printed off and filed. I guess that another column could be added to record the customer's name and then, if breach of copyright was reported, the relevant name could be added to a blacklist. I wonder if it is possible to identify which computer the breach ocurred on. If not, it would be impossible to identify the culprit as sometimes all 13 computers are being used at the same time. And how long do you ban someone for? Does one breach of copyright mean they can never again use the library's computers?