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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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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For the last fourteen years, Jane Vincent has worked for the Center for Accessible Technology providing consultation to libraries on assistive technology acquisition and use throughout California, as well as evaluating Web site accessibility for businesses and organizations and performing assistive technology evaluations for individuals. She recently turned her expertise to writing Implementing Cost-Effective Assistive Computer Technology: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians®, newly published this October. Here, Jane dispels some of the fictions surrounding assistive technology and shares her thoughts on how to implement assistive technology in libraries successfully.

· Assistive technology is usually thought of as equipment specifically for people with disabilities. Do you think this is accurate?

Not at all! I often say that assistive technology exists not because people have disabilities, but because computers are badly designed. Take the standard keyboard—the key markings usually take up about a fourth of the available space, instead of using large print that would make the keys easier to read by elders, children, and others. Inexpensive stick-on labels can greatly improve keyboard legibility. Another example is software that reads text aloud, which is a powerful tool for blind people and people with learning disabilities, but can also be helpful to beginning readers, ESL students, and anyone whose eyes are too tired for proofreading. And so on.

That said, many libraries will likely need to implement policies to ensure that the people who most need assistive technology to use computers will have priority access. Among several checklists and guides in the book is a series of questions to work through in setting policy guidelines relevant to the specific needs of your library. This will give staff a clear way to address issues such as when one patron might legitimately have a priority claim to a specific workstation over another, and when it would be appropriate to allow someone with a disability to reserve a computer for two hours instead of one.

· Libraries have sometimes seen “cost-effective” and “assistive technology” as being mutually incompatible. What’s the most important thing libraries can do to stretch their funds?

The best way — as with any service the library implements — is to find out and respond to the needs and preferences of the community. This can be done by conducting surveys and interviews with community members — patrons, of course, but also members of local organizations who provide services to people with disabilities, and other interested groups; in fact, developing an ongoing  partnership with these organizations can have a great deal of mutual benefit. Once you know what will be most relevant to your patrons, you can acquire and implement technology that will have the largest likelihood of being used regularly, rather than trying to guess what will work and ending up with equipment that just gets dusty.

Note that “cost-effective” doesn’t automatically equal “free.”  For example, there are many good assistive utilities already built into Windows and Macintosh operating systems, but even these have some cost.

At a minimum, they will probably require a discussion with IT staff to ensure that there is a way to provide access to them without compromising the integrity of security systems already on the computers. You’ll also need to check whether the assistive technologies you’re considering will work with your login system, databases, and mainstream applications. The book covers strategies for addressing these and other “hidden” issues.

· Once the technology is in place, how do you let patrons know it’s available?

You’ll want to use your usual channels, such as newsletters and Web sites, to reach not only your target audience, but also their friends, family members, and other supporters who can pass the word along. This is also a good example of why having partner organizations can help; these groups will have proven ways to reach their own memberships with your messages.

Before the patrons start coming, you also want to make sure your staff has had an appropriate level of training. They don’t need to know all the details of using the assistive technology, but they do need an overview of what the library has implemented and what it’s used for, along with an awareness of disability etiquette and how to refer people to patrons to services that the library can’t provide. The book includes several interviews with librarians about how they implemented assistive technology, and I’m particularly pleased with the one from the Ann Arbor District Library, where I had talked to several staff members at random, each of whom had obviously been well-trained in the assistive computer services that the library was newly providing.

· You’re maintaining a blog (at www.janevincent.com/iceact) to accompany the book. What’s the most exciting thing you’ve written about?

I’d have to say the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII), which is working to create an entirely new model of assistive technology provision. Today, assistive technology in libraries is installed on individual computers, or maybe on a network; users often need to wait for specific computers to become available, and may then need to spend precious time reconfiguring settings to their preferences. In the future, with GPII, users will configure their preferences one time, and then by entering a code they can have their assistive technology come up fully configured to their needs. It will work from any Internet-connected device — not just computers, but also mobile devices, kiosks, and so on. I presented on GPII at the ALA conference in New Orleans, and was gratified to see the overwhelmingly positive response from librarians. The project’s website is www.gpii.org.

Feel free to contact Jane with your own questions—her email is jane [at] janevincent.com. Learn more about Implementing Cost-Effective Assistive Computer Technology: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians® on the book’s Web page.

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Laurie Thompson, MLS, AHIP, brought over 30 years of health science library experience to her role as Editor-in-Chief of The Medical Library Association’s Master Guide to Authoritative Information Resources in the Health Sciences. She is the Assistant Vice President for Library Services at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and is active in the Medical Library Association, serving on its Board of Directors from 2006-2010. We asked Laurie to speak to us in the wake of a great review from CHOICE Magazine, which called the volume she edited “an important, useful tool that is both concise and reliable.” Here she explains how a discussion at an MLA Books Panel meeting turned into this comprehensive resource for health science librarians who must differentiate and select from among the  many resources available.

•  Why did you feel the need to create such a resource?

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ALA created an opportunity to recognize people who have contributed to the field of librarianship and information science in a remarkable way, and one of those people was Neal-Schuman author Dr. Lesley S. J. Farmer, recipient of the 2011 ALA Beta Phi Mu Award for distinguished service to education in librarianship at the annual ALA convention in New Orleans. In a recent interview, I had a chance to ask this veteran of the profession about her experiences, her forthcoming book on instructional design, and her views on the challenges facing teacher-librarians and school librarianship.

A professor at California State University Long Beach, Lesley S. J. Farmer coordinates CSU’s Librarianship program. Dr. Farmer has worked as a teacher-librarian in K-12 school settings as well as in public, special, and academic libraries. She is the co-author of the The Neal-Schuman Technology Management Handbook for School Library Media Centers and the author of the forthcoming Instructional Design for Librarians and Information Professionals. 

•  First of all, congratulations on winning ALA’s 2011 Beta Phi Mu Award for distinguished service to education in librarianship this past May. Could you describe some experiences that might help others that were pivotal in your becoming an award-winning teacher of teachers?

One of my first pivotal experiences was teaching library science in Peace Corps (Tunisia), which lighted my teaching fire. That realization led me to pursue a doctorate in Adult Education so I would have the knowledge and skills to instruct adult pre-service librarians. I think my own librarian experiences informed my teaching, and gave me “street cred.” My writing has also informed my teaching as I have researched a variety of topics, and I have also co-authored with my students. Certainly, coordinating a library science program has enabled me to see the big picture: from developing and expanding a cohesive library program to assessing its effectiveness. Hiring and working with program lecturers has also sharpened my expertise. Teaching online, both with self-grown Web pages and course management systems, provided another dimension for instructional design and delivery. And, of course, I learn from my students every day.

•  Your newest book Instructional Design for Librarians and Information Professionals is on press as we speak. What is its focus, and why did you decide to write this book?

Increasingly, librarians are asked to instruct beyond just-in-time reference help. Even school librarians, who typically have a teaching credential, receive little formal training on designing and implementing library instruction (i.e., information and digital literacies), particularly in a systematic way or in light of virtual education. This book provides such a focus. Because I have worked in all types of libraries, I have experienced a wide range of informational needs, and know what kinds of instruction are appropriate for different clientele and situations.

•  What is technology-transformed instruction and how do librarians implement it?

Technology has the potential to change instruction significantly, not just play an additive role. Of course, teaching with technology involves knowing ABOUT technology, and requires that libraries match technology tools and strategies to the content and learning objective, as well as the learner. The transformative part of technology can apply to both the teaching and learning experience as the roles of the parties involve change from a hierarchical one to a collegial and joint exploratory one. In addition, technology facilitates generative knowledge — that is knowledge production; the learner is no longer just a consumer of information but also a producer of it. Lastly, technology facilitates the dissemination of this new knowledge so that others can be informed by it.

•  As you have focused on teacher librarians and library media curriculum over the years, what have you found to be the new or perennial challenges of the profession?

Obviously, technology continues to change and grow, which impacts both the nature of information itself as well as its “carrier” or “container.” That, in turn, impacts how librarians locate, evaluate, select, and organize recorded information. Librarianship or library service has become more participatory, which I laud. Especially with the Internet, collection development has a whole new meaning as access sometimes outweighs ownership. The library is no longer a closed universe controlled by the librarian; it is a portal to information, guided by the librarian/information professional.  Librarians now share their expertise more, such as teaching users how to evaluate information more than ever; their instructional role has increased. Likewise, with the advent of Web 2.0, even in the cataloging arena, librarians are sharing that intellectual space with users – who can complement subject headings with personal tags and contribute to the collection with their own products more easily. Other issues deal with diversity and globalization: the increasing variety of users and their needs, and their interaction; the world really is getting smaller. More than ever before, librarians need to address the information needs of people with physical and mental differences as well as linguistically different people. I think that librarians also have to assume a greater leadership and advocacy role than ever before; having the fireman attitude of just being ready when the user wants help is no longer enough – librarians have to seek opportunities to reach out to their communities (both physical and virtual) and pro-actively provide information and services that respond to those communities’ needs and wants. Libraries and librarians can no longer to be taken for granted, particularly in light of the many options for gaining information and engaging in leisure activities. More than ever before, librarians have to show their value, including conducting research and analyzing data to evaluate and improve their programs. Nevertheless, libraries continue their core roles of collection development and physical/intellectual access in light of the community, and being socially responsible in the process.

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