Michael Sauers is currently the Technology Innovation Librarian for the Nebraska Library Commission in Lincoln, Nebraska and has been training librarians in technology for more than 15 years. He has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller in addition to publishing five books through Neal-Schuman that deal with technology and libraries. Here, he talks to us about his forthcoming book, Semantic Web Technologies and Social Searching for Librarians, due to be published this spring and answers more general questions about the nature of technology in libraries.

•   Your upcoming book, Semantic Web Technologies and Social Searching for Librarians written with Robin Fay, is coming out in April 2012 as part of THE TECH SET Volumes 11-20. What is the semantic Web and what is the purpose of your book?

The Semantic Web is the proposed next stage of development of data on the Web. Stage one was a lot of static presentation of content. Stage two, what we’re in the middle of now, is a combination of both static presentation and a massive amount of content creation and interaction. Stage three is the semantic Web, where the content/data is available in a way that is understandable by not just us humans but by the computers themselves.

As a simple example, if you have a Web page right now that contains a staff directory, chances are it’s marked up in HTML as a list with a bunch of different prices of information such as first name, last name, title, department, and phone number. We humans understand what each data item means and the relationship between those data points. A semantic Web staff directory would include code that specifically identified each data point as being some particular thing. With the addition of such code, we could then transfer that data from say, a Web page, to a payroll database, automatically, without having to explain to the payroll database what each data point meant.

Maybe most simply put, the semantic Web is the idea that content online can be more than just text, it can have meaning and with that meaning we can better manipulate it.

•   Could you give us a preview of what’s ahead for searching and why it is important?

I think there are three key concepts that are becoming more important in search in many ways: customization, specificity, and re-intermediation. The trouble is, in some cases these three concepts may actually conflict with each other.

First, with customization, just think of how much Google tracks what you’re searching for and clicking on in their search engine. Then add services like Gmail, Google+, and location based services on Android phones, and it’s easy to realize that the same search performed by two different people can retrieve significantly different results. I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing (although some do), but it does have an impact.

Second, specificity comes into play with services like Wolfram|Alpha. In this case you’re not searching in the more “traditional” way in that you’re looking for a match of keywords in a resulting document, but instead asking for data to be returned about a subject and in some cases also are looking for an interpretation of that data. If you’re not familiar with Wolfram|Alpha, try the search “population of New York and Nebraska” in Google and then again in Wolfram|Alpha and compare the results.

Finally, re-intermediation is something that was recently pointed out to me and I’ve just started thinking about. In this case, consider the Siri service from Apple. In this case you are having someone (a computer) basically do the search on your behalf and return what it believes to be the result to you. This may not necessarily immediately affect us as librarians in a reference situation, but it could be a sign of things to come and something that we should keep an eye on.

•   Technology is consistently cited as the major sea change in the field of librarianship. Both as Technology Innovation Librarian for the Nebraska Library Commission and the author of many books on the subject, your work has brought you to the forefront of that change. What has been the most interesting facet of this change to you, and what do you most eagerly anticipate for the future?

Supposing I was being completely honest I’d have to say job security. Seriously though, what I think has intrigued me the most about the impact technology has had on libraries is, in enough cases to be noticeable and significant, the large number of librarians who just don’t want to accept that technology has changed librarianship in fundamental ways. I can accept that a librarian has made a conscious decision to not have an e-mail address. I may not agree with it but that’s their choice. However, what confuses me is that they then expect that they’ll be able to continue to be a librarian, just as they always have, and that everyone else should accommodate them. I just don’t understand the psychology of that despite having spoken to many people about it. The technology is here and has had, and is having, and impact. We need to adjust or face extinction.

As to what I most eagerly anticipate, that’s a harder one since I try not to make predictions about where technology is taking us. (Who would have predicted the iPad just five years ago?) Though if I had to pick one thing I look forward to the most is the stabilization of all the issues surrounding eBooks. Issues like owning vs. licensing, DRM, format standards, archiving, fair use are all things we’re dealing with right now. I don’t know how it will all fall out, though I have my preferences on most of these issues, but these important issues need to be settled.

•   You also write the popular blog, The Travelin’ Librarian. What can readers expect to find there? Can you recommend other online sources that a curious librarian would enjoy?

My blog has been pretty random from the beginning and continues to be so. Yes, I post about library issues but I’m not afraid to share a Muppet video or two. So, if you’re expecting consistent extended essays about technologies and libraries you might be disappointed. If you’re interested in a peek into my brain, then my blog is the place to hang out.

When it comes to other sources, a question I get asked quite regularly, I think this time I’ll step away from the usual suspects (i.e. other librarian blogs) and give you a list of sites that help me out but aren’t necessarily library related:

• Boing Boing
• Read Write Web
• TWiT.tv
• TED
• Big Think
• Seth’s Blog
• Lifehacker
• Schneier on Security
• Longform
• Fail Blog

Learn more about Michael’s upcoming book Semantic Web Technologies and Social Searching for Librarians on the book’s Web page and be sure to check out his blog  for more of his perspective on technology and the occasional Muppet video.

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Providing equitable access to library technology is not only good for service, it’s the right thing to do. But how can you decide how to select and implement cost-effective computer technology for users who need assistive help?

Implementing Cost-Effective Assistive Computer Technology: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians® by Jane Vincent contains step-by-step guidance supplemented by many forms and checklists to help you make these important decisions. The checklist and worksheet below below will help you get started with the planning process.

Excerpted from: Implementing Cost-Effective Assistive Computer Technology: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians®, pp. 41; 113. ©2011 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learn more about this author and her work.

Remember, there is a practical, new How-To-Do-It Tip from Neal-Schuman’s acclaimed How-To-Do-It Manuals® every two weeks. Make sure you never miss an update by subscribing to our blog feed or signing up for email delivery.

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Congratulations to Marcia Lei Zheng, co-recipient of a National Leadership Grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Dr. Zheng and her co-recipient, Karen Gracy, both faculty members in the School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University, will use the funds amounting to $219,386 to improve digital resources through Linked Open Data (LOD).

Dr. Zheng is the co-author of Metadata. (Click here to learn more.)

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If a local historical society donated an extensive photo collection to your library, and asked that you put the collection online, would you know where to start? Deciding what data to keep, in this case photographs, is often the first step. But how can you evaluate the collection and know which of the photos to digitize?

Today’s How-To-Do-It Tip comes from Digital Curation: A How-To-Do-It Manual , by Ross Harvey, and it can help your library decide which data ought to be digitized.

Appraisal and Selection Policies
Appraisal and selection policies are developed to assist in answering the key questions of appraisal and selection (Do we want to keep the data? Do we need to keep the data? How long do we keep the data?) and to ensure that the right data are kept for valid reasons. Policies are important because they allow informed consistent decisions to be made that can be defended if challenged. An appraisal and selection policy for digital objects or data typically addresses five themes:

1. Future users (the designated community)
2. The feasibility of preservation (both economic and technical feasibility)
3. Legal and intellectual property rights
4. Whether data is mission-critical, vital to the success of a project or organization
5. Associated data (metadata or description and representation information)

The Data Audit Framework, developed in the United Kingdom by HATII at the University of Glasgow and the DCC, articulates these themes in its five principal classification questions (Jones, 2008). These help auditors decide whether data sets can be classed as vital, important, or minor:

• Are these data central to your research?
• Will the data be useful in the future?
• Are you the intellectual owner?
• Are they documented and in a sustainable form?
• Are they already being preserved elsewhere?

More specifically, an appraisal and selection policy for digital objects or
data assists data curators to answer questions such as these:

• Does the digital object or data fit into the archive’s selection policy?
• Who will or might use the digital object or data in the future? Is there a defined designated community?
• Is it economically feasible to keep the digital object or data?
• Can acceptable legal and intellectual property rights, to keep and reuse the digital object or data, be negotiated?
• Is there a legal requirement to keep the digital object or data for a certain period of time? Is there a requirement to make them accessible during this period?
• Does the digital object or data constitute the “vital records” of a project or organization and therefore need to be retained indefinitely?
• Is it both technically feasible and worthwhile in cost/benefit terms to preserve the digital object or data?
• Does sufficient documentation and metadata exist to explain the character and enable the discovery of the digital object or data?

Examination of appraisal and selection schemes provides further guidance. One example is the Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (2005) appraisal guidelines. These guidelines provide a consistent framework for appraisal decision-making for social science data.

Eight questions are posed:

1. How significant are the data for research?
2. How significant is the source and context of the data, particularly in regard to scientific progress and society?
3. Is the information unique?
4. How usable are the data?
5. What is the timeframe covered by the information?
6. Are the data related to other data in the archives?
7. What are the cost considerations for long-term maintenance of the data?
8. What is the volume of data?

Although these criteria are intended for data archives, specifically social science archives, they are more widely applicable. Questions 5 (What is the timeframe covered by the information?) and 6 (Are the data related to other data in the archives?) address the relationship that the data set being appraised has with other data, as this may enhance its value: for example, the data set may be a continuation of a longitudinal study and valuable for this reason. Question 8 (What is the volume of data?) relates to the feasibility of preservation, as an archive may not be equipped to store and curate large quantities.

Exerpted from: Digital Curation: A How-To-Do-It Manual, pp. 138-139. ©2011 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Remember, there is a practical, new How-To-Do-It Tip from Neal-Schuman’s acclaimed How-To-Do-It Manuals® every two weeks. Make sure you never miss an update by subscribing to our blog feed or signing up for email delivery.

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Ulla De Stricker, co-author of The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook: Define and Create your Success with Jill Hurst-Wahl, shares some of her views about the book and the information profession with us. Ulla is a Knowledge Management Consultant on projects associated with information acquisition, knowledge worker support, and institutional memory. Kim Dority at Infonista compared reading this book to “hanging out with two really smart, experienced, and wise mentors,” so we’re lucky to get to spend more time with the author.

·  What were some key reasons making you and Jill feel the book had to be written?

Jill and I consider ourselves “natural mentors” in that we have offered support to professional colleagues for our entire careers. It was a natural evolution for us to co-author The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook: Define and Create Your Success. In it, we boil down the advice we have shared though the years with colleagues at any stage of their careers. The profession of librarianship—in all its modern variants—is changing ever faster, and the career opportunities go far beyond the standard ones in academic, corporate/government, and public/school libraries. However, it is obvious that many newly minted holders of the Master’s Degree in Library and Information Studies/Science, as well as mid-career professionals, may not have had opportunities to think carefully through such questions as “What is my best professional role?” and “What type of work environment would enable me to maximize my education and abilities?”. Similarly, matters such as navigating corporate politics, succeeding in a managerial role, and developing a professional brand may not have been covered in any depth during graduate school. The book is intended to raise a number of questions for readers to stimulate their thinking and encourage them to plan – but give chance a chance when it comes to their careers.

·  What have readers’ reactions been?

It delights me to hear how the book is experienced as refreshingly direct and practical. It is gratifying to find out that it is valuable for others to read about “the way it really is.” Indeed, Jill and I made it a point to speak frankly about our own experiences in order to offer our hard-earned insights. A second feature readers appreciate is the fact that the book has relevance throughout a career—some chapters will be very apropos for students and recent graduates while other chapters will resonate more once some experience has been accumulated. We did intend the book as a permanent career companion as well as a perfect graduation gift!

·  How did you like writing this book, and do you have a favorite chapter or section?

I enjoyed every bit of the writing, yet if I were to point out two areas particularly close to my heart they would be knowing who you are and developing your brand. I’m passionate about encouraging colleagues to shed any shyness and get busy promoting their skills to potential employers—and that is not at all straightforward (quite apart from the fact that some members of our profession express a reluctance to toot their horns). At the same time, I’m down to earth about the need for information professionals to project a polished image commensurate with their competencies and to build a reputation through association work and similar profile-raising activity. Here, I always stress the good news that giving to the profession through volunteering returns benefits many times over… it pays to get involved.

·  If you could achieve one small miracle for the information profession today, what would it be?

I would dearly love to see in my lifetime a dramatic lift in the overall societal understanding of what information professionals do. In some professions, practitioners—say, veterinarians and accountants—do not need to explain their work because their value and functions are well understood by most people. Information professionals, however, very much need to explain to potential employers how their qualifications are applicable to a gamut of roles, for example in client relations, marketing, policy analysis, and more. It would be a major career boost for our profession if private sector managers, government officials, and policy makers were clear on the wisdom of investing in the skills of an information professional. The challenges of information overload, knowledge worker silos, loss of intellectual capital through retirement and attrition, and similar phenomena will not go away… and information professionals can do a lot to ameliorate them. We information professionals must address collectively the challenge of raising awareness about our potential contributions.

Learn more about The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook: Define and Create your Success on the book’s Web page, and be sure to keep up with Ulla on her professional blog www.destricker.com, which she updates with recent articles and seminars.

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Finding the best way to organize images for your collection can feel like a challenging task. Today Margot Note talks to with us about her new book, Managing Image Collections: A Practical Guide, and shares her enthusiasm for bringing this sometimes-theoretical subject down to earth. Margot is a Certified Archivist based in New York and is the Director of Archives and Information Management at World Monuments Fund, an international historic preservation organization. She has spent her career working in the cultural heritage sector, including in small liberal arts colleges, public and academic libraries, and archives.

 · How did you become interested in images and their collections?

While I was studying history in grad school, I found that images were often the only primary sources of information about my research subjects. My attraction to images continued as I further educated myself in library and information science and archives and records management. At my current position as Director of Archives and Information Management at World Monuments Fund (WMF), an international historic preservation organization, I manage a visual collection depicting more than 600 conservation projects in 90 countries over the past 45 years. To bring the images to a global audience, I’ve led an initiative to digitize thousands of images and create metadata for ARTstor. Through this opportunity, I’ve learned about the fundamentals of image management quickly! I’ve found that although my interest has always been in the past, preserving history relies on today’s technology.

· Why did you decide to write this book?

When I tried to gain knowledge about managing traditional image collections of slides and photographic prints while also providing access to born-digital and digitized images, I discovered that there wasn’t a detailed guide on best practices for managing hybrid collections. While much has been written on image management theory, practical viewpoints have often been ignored. Balancing theory against practice protects both digital and analog collections and ensures that digitization projects run smoothly and the resulting digital collections are of superb quality.

· Who should read your book?

I wrote the book for archivists, librarians, and curators who manage image collections in heritage institutions, such as museums, galleries, archives, and academic and large public libraries. Administrators, scholars, and students interested in the challenges confronting professionals in this specialized area would also benefit from this book.

· What will readers discover from your book?

I wanted to cover a gamut of topics, including selection strategies, digital image creation, quality control, metadata access, and preservation. The book can be used by collection managers embarking on digitization projects or who are managing an existing projects. I’ve also included a guide of issues to consider while planning a digital project, a glossary of image collection terms, and a section on further reading.

· What has been the response to Managing Image Collections: A Practical Guide?

Overwhelmingly positive! It’s amazing that my work has reached Japan, Botswana, Slovenia, and other countries. Readers have found it informative and easy to read, as I tried to write in an engaging style. Too often, books on this subject are dry. My favorite part of the book is when I summarize the history of photography, which has become a new passion of mine.

Learn more about Managing Image Collections: A Practical Guide on the book’s Web page.

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