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Monthly Archives: September 2006
More pictures from EAHIL conference in Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania
Filip Kriz from National Library of Medicine in Prague has put up his pictures from Cluj on Flickr. And what can you say: He’s indeed a fantastic photographer, though his free (not pro) Flickr account stops him from putting up more pics at the moment.
Buset and Kvale on increasing information literacy
Information literacy has been a buzzword in the library world for a while now. One thing to increase information literacy has been to produce if I translate it directly from swedish: search guides or search guidelines.
Karen Buset and Sigvor Kvale, from Norweigan University of Science and Technology (NTNU), has produced an e-learning tool similar to search guidelines called VIKO. Maybe a bit broader because it includes also academic writing guidelines. The title of their talk was: “Increasing information literacy at NTNU and St.Olavs hospital – Implementation of an e-learning tool”, presented at the Parallel Session II , Thursday, 14 Sept, 14.00 – 15.30, at the EAHIL conference in Cluj-Napoca 2006.
NTNU in Trondheim is the second largest university in Norway with 20.000 students. In contrary to many other search guidelines NTNU has put a lot of effort in the integration of the guide into the user education at NTNU library. Like distributing promotional material to all branch libraries, demonstration of VIKO to all reference and subject librarians, trying to find key persons at the institutions to get it implemented at variuos programs, help teachers linkt to VIKO from their courses hompages, integrate it at the regulary library training classes and courses at the hospital deparments.
VIKO has improved student papers and the use of VIKO has also increased, said Buset and Kvale. Students and teachers has confirmed that VIKO is useful and meets the users needs and is a product that meets an important demand that can enhance collaboration between library and academic staff.
They have planned an evaluation survey in 2007 and they have also planned an update of VIKO. Will be interesting to see that evaluation. In many swedish research libraries it exists search guides and Else Nygren did an evaluation of them as BIBSAM project 2004: Evaluation of search guidelines [PDF]. The result was depressing. Users preferred trial-and-error instead of help texts. The best search guide in Sweden is the guide produced bu Blekinge Technical University: The big search guide – an interactive course on how to search, assess and treat information.
As a nitpicking librarian I checked that part in VIKO about searching the Internet. As Buset and Kvale said they have tried to write in a manner that won’t make the information out of date that fast. I agree they’ve done it quite good in the Internet search part. Though when calling Scirus a scientific search engine they should compare it with Google Scholar and Window Live Academic. They all have different approaches but call them selves all scientific. But I know search guides must be brief. Though I believe more in interactive search guidelines than text-based, when it comes to search in different interfaces at least.
But why doing all these guidelines at every university? Why don’t cooperate all libraries and make translations and adjustments for local needs instead?
Now I see that all power point presentations has been put up on EAHIL conference web site. Thanks for that!
Guus from Netherlands on the importance of being user-focused
When I saw the title of Guus van den Brekels speech I thought this guy must be on the same line as I. The title was: Into the user enviroment now!: How the users have changed and how the libraries can adjust, presented 9.30 Friday 15 September at Plenary Session III at the Eahil conference in Cluj-Napoca, 2006.
And sure he was. I’ve been around Sweden and Norway talking about the effects of the Googlification and the new user behaviors. I also had a column in swedish mag Internetworld with title (title translated to english): The challenger of Google is there in your municipality. Guus had some solutions on this, so let’s hear.
Guus described the new user as a person who is fascinated by new technolgies, want to be interactive (not isolated), no tolerance of delay, want to stay connected, learning by doing and not by being told, trial-and-error approach, actions more important than knowledge, multitasking as a way of life.
A really good summary of the new user as I see it.
-Students say: Why do I need the OPAC, Google gives me enough, meant Guus.
-We have to know that we’re not the only one for the user. The user demands more today. People like web 2.0 services so we have to keep up with what they’re doing, meant Guus.
So what to do Guus?
On short term he meant we have to use web 2.0 social software, open standards and protocols, evaluate log file statistics, modular web-based library services etc
He suggested LiveTrix instead (if I understood LiveTrix functions right?) of proprietary library portal Metalib to metasearch several sources.
Guus had 10 top technologies for the library to embrace:Weblogs, RSS, Wikis, Instant Messaging, Podcasting, Open source software, SMS, Social software, User-created content, Mashing-up services.
In the end he showed us the QuickSearch Library Toolbar. Search toolbars have been common for a while now and a lot of users know about them as I experienced it. Guus and his library in Groningen, Netherlands, has made their own toolbar that gives the user fast access to a lot of sources from the library. Just install that toolbar into your webbrowser. The QuickSearch toolbar is built upon Conduit toolbar. The toolbar he showed the audience made a lot of them very interested.
-My boss doesn’t like when I say problems, he calls it challenges, said Guus.
I had a two minutes chat with him afterwards and asked him if it’s not better with Firefox extensions and their embedded serch toolbar where you can add your self-built search engine?
- You should use all options if the medical students like it, not just toolbars. Younger students like things like this and I think even older users will discover web 2.0 services, said Guus diplomatic.
Nice talk! I read in his e-mail afterwards when sending us the link to the power point that he already got some offerings on doing more talks in different places. Good luck! Spread your thoughts in the library world.
Read also Guus blog Digicmb. Here’s an interview with Guus by Oliver Obst.
IFLA Health and Biosciences Section Satellite Session Durban 2007 open for Call for Papers
The other day I got a call for papers announcement via Eahil mailing list from the IFLA conference in Durban, South Africa, August 19-23 2007. It’s a satellite session held by the Health and biosciences section of IFLA. They are specially interested in talks concerning:
- the information professionals role in responding to natural disasters and new diseases
- case studies in responses to both disasters e.g. Hurricane Katrina and emerging or re-emerging diseases e.g bird flu
- exisiting programs to address these issues
The talks will be 15-20 including a Q&A session. I don’t disagree to short talks but this short including Q:s? Isn’t that a bit to brief even in a time of information overload?
From Windows to Linux Ubuntu
During the EAHIL conference in Cluj I talked to a romanian guy who run that company that fixed the wireless connection during the conference. He had a mac and that’s why I began to talk with him. He said that Mac is just wonderful, it never chrases and he meant never. Same with Linux. I heard these stories from many computer nerds so I’m nearly sick of it, though I believe the most of their successful scenarios with Mac, Linux even Unix.
I told him about that early 90′s I used Mac (Powerbook 100) when I was working as a freelance journalist and studying to librarian. How I switched to PC when getting that job at Umeå university library 1994. How I tried to install Red Hat (Linux) around 2000 but my screen couldn’t show all buttons and since then I never tried. I’m no Linux nerd but I think as a nevereveruser of Linux I know a lot of it by reading computermags. This summer I had to reinstall my Windows XP on my Dell Inspiron laptop after 3 years of hard use it was just a mess. After having some problem with had.dll file I just put my laptop aside and used my work HP laptop during the conference in Cluj.
Back home during a day travel to Stockholm I watched that LInux format special issue with Ubuntu CD:s. Maybe I should give it a try? Not bothering with XP anymore? I’m to tired to download an Ubuntu ISO from the internet and burn it on CD? I bought it and he first installation failed because of the partition function. Second time all went well and after installation and opening Firefox: Eureka! There is internet!! Without having to reconfigure my wireless internet I’m out there. Watch out for another Linux librarian geek ;-)
I still have XP on my job and on my home stationary, so I now got the oppurtunity to compare pro’s and con’s against LInux distro Ubuntu.
To blog or not to blog, that was a question…
During the Gala at Friday in Cluj a woman from Netherlands came and talked to me about my project blog One Entry to Research. She thought it was of big importance to keep on blogging on that subject, but as I said, because I got the question at the panel questioning: “Will you keep on updating the blog?”, I have no funding and actually no time to keep it alive. That blog was also an experiment of communicating a project with a blog. When I think on it, my experiences of that could be 20 minutes talk: “Using blogs for communication projects.”
Well, that blog will have some death throes until the end of this year because I will have some talks on it here in Sweden. Actually, I’m quite reliefed to get som air from that project also though of course I think it’s still an important subject. And because I’m doing another BIBSAM project on Interactive search tutorials. Though I’m not the project manager this time. It’s Lars Våge at Mid Sweden University Library in Sundsvall.
Though I propose, because I want cooperation with whole library world, that EAHIL starts an evaluation board or group of people that have interest, competence and time to evaluate the products our vendors try to sell us. My first suggestion because I’ve thought (in future) on doing a project on evaluating news aggreagator and monitoring services. In Sweden we have for example Agent25 and Magenta news. In this case I don’t refer to RSS readers and that kind of services.
These companies keep calling library bosses and other corporate bosses to sell those products. Most of them are just crap and bosses keep buying them allthough because then they don’t need to do the monitoring themselves and especially they don’t need to use or employ a librarian. Much of this monitoring is not that hard to do yourself either, so somtimes register for a course is more cheap than buying those news aggregator services. So why don’t begin with this evaluatiuons beside of continuing evaluation of Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, Windows Live Academic? So, where to get funding? European Union? UNESCO?
Summary of EAHIL in Cluj and farewell
Well, it’s not an easy task to summarize such a splendid conference without missing someone or something and though not boring you with an Oscar Award-speech of thanks.
I must thank you everyone who I talked to less or more or who rather came to talk with me. I hope even you who didn’t agree with my opinions in my talks or how I present them would talk to me because I think different opinions and discussion among different librarians are healthy in our field.
My main aim in this profession has always been to lift up the importance of our professional role and to extend the cooperation and exchange in the library world and specially among medical libraries. Of course in the end I hope it will promote our health care worlwide. That’s why I think it was something extra to come to Romania.
One example, as I said when I got a question, is that some people who never knew me before (a greek professor of surgery at my hospital once did) asks me if I’m a computer engineer or something like that? I don’t get irritated of that, but I think it says something of the view of the librarian profession. That’s why I really try to establish: No, I’m a librarian and it’s possible to be very computer literate and male if you’re librarian.
Well, the Gala Dinner was tremendous and as some of you may recognized I even liked to dance as many of you did. I even met more colleagues at the Gala. Some of you who planned this conference, Sally and Iona, I hadn’t so much time or occasions to talk with but I thank you for the great work you’ve done.
Even though the WLAN didn’t work properly all the time I think it didn’t disturb me that much as a laptopblogger. Though I had a cable connection at my hotel which worked splendid all the time. Thanks hotel Agape!
My only real complaint is the one of putting up power point slides on the conference website. It’s a nightmare for a blogging conference visitor if you don’t get the slides fast. Instead you must take time to ask the speaker to put them up or send them to you and if you want to blog the talk during the conference and not when you get back at work or even later it’s not satisfying. I rather do my documentation when the talk is still fresh in my head and not three weeks later. I often here from colleagues if the slides isn’t published within a day or to they don’t get back looking. Much of our findings presented on our conferences are “freshware”, that’s why it’s important to put it up in time also.
Now I read on Guus (conference speaker from Netherlands, nice meeting you) blog he suggests EAHIL to start a blog and Open Access repository for all publications, presentations, posters etc. I’m the first to sign his petition.
Well, I don’t think this will be my last time at the EAHIL conferences and of course it depends on my employer’s willingness to send me. Thanks, Umeå University Library for lettting me go there! And thanks my boss Ingrid for your care in that little aeroplane from Buda to Cluj. You know I’m afraid of flying, though I’m nearly cured nowadays.
At last to the audience at my talk on interfaces. It wasn’t my first time travelling outside nordic countries, but talking ;-) outside nordic countries. And I will try not to twist that laser eye to much at next talk.
And at really last: I hope to meet you all sometime in future at future conferences: Filip, Herve, Christina, Ingela, Katja, Artemis, Patrice, Ann, Tiina, Oliver, Guus, David, Michael, Henrik, Birgitta, Marie, Eva, Thomas, Donna, Tuulevi, you Moldavians, Arne, Benoit, retired lady from Manchester, Cambridge librarian who helped the Moldavians come to the conference etc.
Clever thoughts of Mary Ellen Bates
”Our clients are far less willing to ask us for help in finding information; they want to be able to find answers electronically, without any assistance or guidance from us info pros. Our mission is to seed the information clouds so that the critical content makes it all the way to the clients who need it”.
Mary Ellen Bates
Econtent September 2006 vol. 29 iss. 7
On career development for librarians
Tuulevi Ovaska, library course director chief medical librarian of medical library at Kuopio University Library, talked about Possibilities of horizontal career development and changing roles of librarians afternoon 15 September at EAHIL conference in Cluj.
Are really librarians in control of the changes with in their profession?, she asked. She mentioned three types of career developments(CD): task rotation, job exchange and international mobility to improve horizontal CD. Instead of getting vertical career from staff to supervisor or head of library you should be able to develop horizontal on the staff level.
Examples are to rotate in the library or change tasks or change to other libraries, maybe also go abroad. CD requires creativity and interest, but some people just like daily routine work. Kuopio made a survey to find out the attitudes of staff members and the management of Kuopio University Library. General attitude to task rotation showed 68% were interested in it.
But all CD changes needs leadership management and support, says Tuulevi, and organization culture is not easy to change. There was a potential in Kuopio for internal task rotation in the libraries from 3 to 6 months and internal exchange for short periods less than 3 month. Though, the libraries and their management must stay in charge of the changes in our profession.
A question from the audience claiming this was a survey but have Kuopio implemented this CD possibilities in Kuopio library?
- Just in small scale some implementation in our library has been done, says Tuulevi. It’s up to the supervisors to take the opportunity, its starting but it’s going slow. Three librarians has changed job in the library.
