goblin cartoons

Steven Cohen links to this piece by Dave Gibson, “Our Public Libraries Are Being Turned Into Video Game Arcades,” in which Gibson laments the increase of video games and movies in public libraries. He sees it as part of the dumbing down of American youth. “It is little wonder that our nation’s literacy rate continues to decline,” he says.

I’m not going to argue specifically about what Gibson says (Jenny Levine does that better than I could in the comments on Steven’s blog), but I will argue about that sentiment in general.

Is the public library “brand” books? Most people I know seem to think it is, and I would agree it’s so. But libraries in general have never been solely about books, and if public libraries were ever about just books, it was certainly long before I was born.

Even if public libraries have been about books more than other forms of media, so what? I know, I know, librarians are supposed to be the champions of the written word, defenders of literacy. Well, I’m not. I mean, I love books, sure, but I love movies and TV shows and theater and music and games at least as much. And I think the idea of libraries being primarily about books–and books being primarily about education and intelligence–is wrong to the point of being dangerous.

For one thing, we need to talk about what’s in the books. Would it be better for the patrons of public libraries to read any books rather than watch movies or play video games? Would it be better for them to read romance novels? Would it be better for them to read Ann Coulter or Bill O’Reilly? What about comics? Or are libraries only supposed to keep the “classics,” and if so, who decides what the classics are? Is it better for a teen to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, even if the book has no personal relevance to them?

We also have to take into account this: reading text is not inherently better than watching a movie or playing a video game. There’s no conclusive proof that it is. There is evidence that different people learn and are engaged by different methods. Some people are more engaged, more provoked to thought, by visual and/or active media, like watching movies or playing video games.

People who read books less than they watch movies or TV, play games or sports, hike through woods, play music, garden, knit, or bake are not necessarily stupid or illiterate. People who read lots of books are not necessarily smart or wise. Let’s get rid of that notion right now.

Libraries can’t be all things to all people. It’s probably not feasible for a public library to also be a gym, a dance studio, and a carpentry workshop. But if public libraries broaden what they offer their patrons, turning the library into a video arcade…well, I think that’s awfully smart.

I’m quite the fan of Wikipedia. I know, I know, it’s an unreliable source of information because anyone can edit it, filling entries with all kinds of misinformation and outright vandalism. (Except, of course, that while anyone can edit entries, no one can easily skate by Wikipedia’s editors for very long.) Wikipedia isn’t written by accredited, degreed experts, so you can’t use it as a real source like you can the World Book or Encyclopedia Britannica.

Whatever.

I’ve spent many hours wandering through entries in the Britannica and in Wikipedia. Given the choice between Britannica and Wikipedia, I’ll generally go with Wikipedia. Why? Let’s go to chapter two of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

Here’s what the Encyclopedia Galactica has to say about alcohol. It says that alcohol is a colourless volatile liquid formed by the fermentation of sugars and also notes its intoxicating effect on certain carbon-based life forms. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy also mentions alcohol. It says that the best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. It says that the effect of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick. The Guide also tells you on which planets the best Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters are mixed, how much you can expect to pay for one and what voluntary organizations exist to help you rehabilitate afterwards. The Guide even tells you how you can mix one yourself. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy sells rather better than the Encyclopedia Galactica.

Substitute Encyclopedia Britannica for “Encyclopedia Galactica” and Wikipedia for “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and you’ve got my answer. (Wikipedia actually has an entry for “Pan Galactice Gargle Blaster.” Does the Britannica?)

When I was given my library’s teen website as part of my web content responsibilities, I was signed up for the library’s Gaming committee. The Gaming committee has already put on one gaming tournament for teens, and the second one is this coming Friday. It will be my first time working at a gaming event at MPOW. If everything goes according to plan, I’ll be liveblogging the event, posting updates (and maybe even pictures) to our teen site. So, if you have nothing better to do on Friday afternoon (noon-6, Central Time), check out JoCoTeenScene for updates on the great Johnson County, KS Guitar Hero III tournament.

UPDATE: I’ve been told we have 136 people registered for the event, people being put on a waiting list, and have had other patrons ask about just coming to watch the tournament. We’re getting a lot of interest in this event, and I think that’s just swell!

Today is my birthday.

I’ve gotten used to having a birthday the day before Christmas. In fact, I rather enjoy it. But one thing that’s always been something of a drag is how cut-off from my friends I generally feel. I’ve never had a birthday party with friends on my actual birthday. My family has always been good about giving me a good birthday celebration, but because of the holidays, I’ve never gotten to have my friends around me on my birthday. It’s always made me feel a little lonely, no matter how good a time I was having with my family.

I didn’t feel lonely today. I still didn’t get to have any friends hang out with me, but I got very nice birthday wishes today from people on Twitter, Facebook, Livejournal, and through email. The social web has made me feel as if I was surrounded by friends, old and new, even if they weren’t in the same room with me.

Are our libraries making people feel connected, even when we’re closed? At 3 a.m., on Christmas day, on Easter Sunday, are we connecting people with information and with other people?

Thanks to everyone who sent me good wishes today. You’ve brought a smile to my face and warmth to my heart. And in 2008, let’s see if we can’t bring more smiles and warmth to our patrons and to each other, especially at times when people can be at their loneliest.

A position in my department has opened up, so if you or anyone you know is qualified and interested in working with a group of buttkickingly cool people in a dynamic library system, get those applications in!

In my previous post, I said,

I need face-to-face interaction and conversation. I need spontaneous gatherings. I need occurrences of random escapades and shenanigans. I can get some of that online (the LSW Meebo room is great for that), but nothing really replaces in-person socialization.

Some people may see that as saying I think social software is inferior to face-to-face interaction, so let me expand on my statement: in-person socialization is also no substitute for synchronous and asynchronous interaction through the internet.

There are people in my life that I respect and admire, both personally and professionally. Many of them are spread out across the globe, and it is simply not feasible to have them all in the same geographical space at the same time as often as I need. Being able to interact with them through IM, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web forums, email and other internet-y ways is so very important to me. My life would be much poorer without these means of interacting with these people in my life. The internet brings these people closer to me when it would otherwise be improbable or impossible.

Plus, there are ways of communicating online that you can’t do as well (or at all) in person. This is why we have prose, printed poetry and essays as well as live storytelling, performance poetry and lectures; there are ways of using text that you can’t do with other forms of communication. Heck, for some people, interacting with others at a distance is preferable to meeting in-person, and social software gives them more ways to do this.

Social software is not a fad or a flash in the pan. That’s absurd. Social software didn’t come about because a few programmers thought it would be cool. It came about because humans are social creatures and they will use any technology they can to interact with each other. That’s why humans have written so many letters and postcards, why we’ve made so many phonecalls, why we’ve invented telegraphy and radios and televisions. Social software is no substitute for in-person interaction, but it adds to the potential and the richness of our interaction in ways that other technologies don’t.

That’s why it’s important for libraries to incorporate “Web 2.0″ and other new technologies into their services. Not because it’s “cool,” not because it makes us look “hip” and “modern,” but because people are already using these technologies to connect and communicate with each other. Implementing these technologies offers people more ways to use our services, not less. Isn’t that what we want to offer?

No one method of communication is good for everyone, which is why variety is so goshdarned great. More technology, more social software, more in-person interaction! Bring it all on, says I!

The adventurous Beth Hoffman has a snapping good blog post on her post-Internet Librarian thoughts about conferences. It would be very easy for me to simply say, “Me, too!” Instead, I’m going to throw out my own thoughts, in full knowledge that I’m possibly echoing a lot of what Beth has said.

To be blunt, whether we’re talking about big-scale professional conferences in far-off places like California or smaller, local gatherings, if a presentation is going to be one or more people lecturing, using Powerpoint slides or even videos, with time for a few questions at the end, I just don’t need to be there. I would rather watch the presentation online, with the ability to watch it again and again, than sit through a live lecture.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: I’m a very bad academic. I was an average undergraduate and made it through library school doing the bare minimum of academic reading and writing. Academic writing sends me into a coma, I take terrible notes and I detest sitting through lectures. If you’re a dynamic, enthusiastic presenter, I will enjoy your session–but in all fairness, I could almost certainly get the same information and inspiration if your presentation were available online.

What can’t I get online? What do I need to physically attend conferences for? I need face-to-face interaction and conversation. I need spontaneous gatherings. I need occurrences of random escapades and shenanigans. I can get some of that online (the LSW Meebo room is great for that), but nothing really replaces in-person socialization.

What else do I need at conferences? I need play time. I need to get my hands dirty. I need sessions that are hands-on tutorials. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, hearing about great ways to use technology is no substitute for actually trying out technologies. You wouldn’t buy a car without taking it for a test drive first, would you? Wouldn’t it be easier to sell your library on new techniques and technologies if you’d already tried them out?

Now, I don’t really have much hope that library tech conferences will change just because I want them to. But for my own part, I’m going to stop writing proposals for lecture sessions and start writing proposals for conversation and hands-on sessions. We’ll see where that gets me.

Time for me to fess up: Meredith Farkas told the truth when she said she isn’t the Annoyed Librarian. She’s not. I am.

I know, I know, everyone assumes the Annoyed Librarian is a woman. What better way to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes than to blog as if I were female? Better than slapping on a pair of glasses and claiming I’m not Superman.

And sure, I’ve slagged off the Annoyed Librarian in public, claiming “she” is nothing more than an attention hound, cultivating a loyal following while also maintaining an identity of “rebel” and “victim of the mainstream biblioblogosphere.” I’ve also said I don’t think “she” is funny. Again, how better to throw everyone off the scent than to disparage my alter ego in public?

People have been claiming lately they know the true identity of the pseudonymous (not anonymous!) blogger called “the Annoyed Librarian,” but they keep naming the wrong people. My misdirection has worked too well. But I refuse to let other people get the credit for my work, and so I’m outing myself.

I am the Annoyed Librarian!

Utterly despicable.

New federal legislation says universities must agree to provide not just deterrents but also “alternatives” to peer-to-peer piracy, such as paying monthly subscription fees to the music industry for their students, on penalty of losing all financial aid for their students…

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) applauded the proposal, which is embedded in a 747-page spending and financial aid bill. “We very much support the language in the bill, which requires universities to provide evidence that they have a plan for implementing a technology to address illegal file sharing,” said Angela Martinez, a spokeswoman for the MPAA.

According to the bill, if universities did not agree to test “technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity,” all of their students–even ones who don’t own a computer–would lose federal financial aid.

Because nothing, not even the education of the next generations, is as important as the entertainment industry’s profits.

If you live in the districts of Rep. George Miller (D) of California or Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D) of Texas, please call and remind them it is not the responsibility of schools to protect the entertainment industry’s interests and denying a college education to lower-income students to make the entertainment industry happy is reprehensible.

I thought I was done talking about this year’s Internet Librarian, but then Meredith Farkas (who I didn’t get to hang out with nearly as much as I would’ve liked to) blogged about it, and I feel the need to comment on some things she’s said.

I really do enjoy Internet Librarian, but so much of the material covered in the conference is a review for me. While I always get some insights and inspiration from the sessions, I find that I get the most value from the conversations that take place before and after the sessions.

I feel the same way. I learned about some new software apps at IL this year, but I didn’t leave feeling we’re on the cusp on much newness. It felt more like people were hammering away on the Library 2.0 basics. Which is fine, but I think I’m ready for the more advanced courses now. But between sessions, I spent a lot of time talking with my coworkers and with other conference attendees, and those conversations really felt like something special to me. (Much like when I was an undergrad, when what I talked about with my fellow students outside the classroom was generally far more inspiring and educational than what was covered in the classroom.) (Come to think of it, grad school was mostly like that, too.)

I come back to work with a recognition that I’m not alone in this, that there is a huge network of other librarians struggling to create better subject guides, better information literacy tutorials, better communication tools. The reality though is that we shouldn’t need a conference to share that information.

Yes! And this is something I’m hoping to present on at some point. Conferences are expensive to go to, and not all librarians can take the time to attend them. The internet gives us the ability to network and engage in professional development 24/7. Does this make professional conferences obsolete, at least in some ways? I don’t know, but I believe it bears further thought.

It stands to reason that if the discussions are the best part of the conference for some people, then perhaps more of the conference should be dedicated to those informal conversations. Interested in subject guides? Get a group together to discuss that. Interested in Facebook and MySpace? Form a group to talk about that. People can submit what they would like to discuss and other people can sign up if they’re interested in talking about that. The person who proposed it isn’t the speaker or even the facilitator; it’s just a free and open discussion. Everyone is simultaneously the teacher and the learner.

This is one of the niftiest things I’ve read in a while. I’m all for looser, more free flowing conferences and gatherings.

I also would love to see conferences designed for those of us for whom Internet Librarian is a review and Code4Lib is way over our heads.

Oh boy, yes! Like I said, I’m reading for the more advanced courses. I’ve had enough theory for now. I don’t want to study blueprints, I want to start building gadgets and gizmos.

I have more to say about this, about conferences in general, but not tonight. Let me sleep on it, and I’ll get back to you later.