SPL Underground Librarian

Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma

2010-10-08T16:09:00.000-07:00

More images from my birthday weekend.

In the Northeast corner of the Sonoma town square, a pretty park with CityHall right in its middle, lives the Solano Mission, part of the Sonoma State Historical Park. This Mission is the farthest North of all Missions on the El Camino Real. I was able to capture a few images of the Mission, inside and out.

In front of the Mission.

The Clositer

The Chapel

The Alter

The Pulpit

Courtyard and Well

Images from the Weekend

2010-09-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

On the way down to Shell Beach, North of Bodega Bay.

Along the path to the beach.

This is a good example of a rip-tide.

The water looks like its rolling almost in place,

but is powerful and deadly.

Some of the water is going out

while more water is coming in.

When it came in it almost touched my feet.

I was lucky to get this shot.

He poked his head out a couple of times,

then disappeared in the surf.

Peace Close to Danger

2010-09-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

I do not believe our world happened by accident.

My birthday was September 17th. My wife and I went to the coast, north of Bodega Bay, on Friday, and sat on the beach for a couple of hours and talked. We talked on the way there, on the way to the hotel, through dinner, and all the next day. Saturday we visited Armstrong Redwoods and Sonoma. We talked.

Our time at the ocean and the redwoods was marked by cool days and overcast skies. The ocean surf was heavy. Warning signs on the way down to the beach told of careless people, endangering lives, taking lives. Before us stretched an ocean as dangerous to us as the beach was peaceful. We walked and sat, near the moving, treacherous boundary constraining an incredible power.

How close can we come to danger and still peacefully rest? It cannot touch us unless we give it permission.

Enjoy a minute of peace close to danger.

Calaveras Big Trees State Park

2010-08-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

Southern Grove

Haven't posted for awhile. These are images from a recent camping trip. Enjoy.

An Incident in Florin, 1942

2010-05-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

Manzanar Relocation Center
Community Analysis Section
January 26, 1944

FLORIN INCIDENT AND ITS AFTERMATH
(From an Evacuee)
(The JACL at Florin before Evacuation)

A great deal of the trouble in this camp which led to the incident was the feeling that many of the residents had against the J.A.C.L leaders whom they accused of selling them out and of being informers. There were things that happened before evacuation that led to this feeling. I know what happened in the Florin region where we lived. I was not a member of the J.A.C.L. I’m just not much of a joiner. But I knew the K family. This family was prominent in the district and the boys were leaders in the J.A.C.L.

At the time when the first talk of evacuation arose, these fellows came around to take a collection for funds for the J.A.C.L. so they could put up a fight against evacuation. I was not home when they came, but my folks gave them $3.00. They gave the impression they could do something about preventing evacuation. I saw the receipt when I got home. They went around to all the Japanese families in the district.

When an organization comes for a donation, the family head usually gives according to the number of people in the family. There were seven in our family, so it averaged about 50 cents each. When you give like this, you always get a receipt. Then, when the organization has some event, you and your family are admitted free. It’s just like buying tickets. But there was something funny about this receipt. On the back it said something to the effect that the contributor would have no say or responsibility about how the money was spent. Over $1500.00 was collected from the Florin people alone. No one knows what the money was used for. To tell the truth, some thought it was going to be used to bribe some official. A good many say that the money was just pocketed and no attempt was made to save the people from evacuation.

Then it was found out that T, one of the prominent J.A.C.L. leaders came up to Owens Valley with officials and helped them pick out the site for Manzanar. After that most of the people had no use for him. They called him and his friends “dog” and “informer” (inu).

The idea of calling spies or informers “dogs” goes back to Japanese history. At one time /the Emperor was little more than a figurehead. This country was ruled by a shogunate with the real power in the hands of the head of a powerful family. Two important families were rivals for the power. One, the Tokugawa, gained control. But they knew that if the other group, the Hideyoshi won out, they would just about exterminate the Tokugawa. Toward the end of their shogunate the Tokugawa were losing out and getting kind of shaky. They were afraid of their rivals and wanted to hunt the leaders down as conspirators. Their rivals had been driven from the public life and were scattered in various occupations, waiting for their time. The Tokugawa hired spies, who went around doing ordinary work but who also kept an eye out for Hideyoshi, or any of their friends. No one knew whom to trust. They called these informers ‘dogs” because dogs go around sniffing, and these spies were always sniffing around for information.

A Florin Evacuee (From 1942)

2010-05-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

Community Analysis Section
Manzanar Relocation Center
December 15, 1943

A Florin Evacuee

This is a Florin evacuee’s reaction toward evacuation as related to me.

This fellow is married and has four children. He is about thirty-one years old.

This young man was a landowning farmer in the Florin district prior to evacuation.

He has forty acres of vineyard. He had just finished paying for and installing a new water pump on his farm. This investment cost about $1800 dollars in cash. He values his other farm equipment at around $4000.00.

Prior to evacuation he had an oral agreement, as did all other adjoining farmers, with the Florin Fruit Growers Association whereby any farmer doing work on farms other than their own would get $11.00 per acre. On the other hand, if the farmer plowed his own farm, he would get only 55¢ an hour. Five acres can be plowed in a day whereas only 11 or 12 hours can be put in. The Association advanced the money for the labor either on a man’s own farm or on the farm of another. The crops were sold through the Association and these preliminary expenses for labor deducted from the value of the crop.

The Farm Security Administration acted as a non-profit organization in this war emergency but the Florin evacuees who worked under an oral agreement did not receive one cent toward their wages or toward what was due them for the farm labor they had performed.

This fellow estimated that he had about three hundred dollars coming to him for labor performed. He went to the office twice but he was unable to collect. The first time he went he was told that they did not have the money on hand and that he should come back later. The second time they told him that they would send it to him. He has asked the project attorney what procedure can be followed in order to collect the back wages. He has been told that it’s pretty hard, in fact almost impossible, to do anything as it was only an oral agreement.

The evacuation year this fellow received a deficit statement from the Florin Growers Ass’n. After he was evacuated he received a statement telling him that his farm only shipped about 4,000 lugs of grapes, whereas in the year prior to evacuation, he shipped 7,500 lugs. There should not have been this much difference as he estimated at least 6,000 lugs by scanning the vineyard before he left. He suspects he has been cheated. The company made an agreement to pay the taxes on land and equipment if they made a net income of $1,000 from his farm, but since they showed a deficit, the fellow was responsible for paying his own taxes. When he received the statement showing a deficit in farm crop, he got sore as hell but he said, “What can I do about it?”

Another thing that made him pretty bitter toward evacuation was this. He happened to be a guardian of a thirty acre vineyard. There was a mortgage on this land, but it was foreclosed without notice or without giving him a chance to do anything about it. This fellow couldn’t do anything about it but tell the widow and her young sons what happened. The mortgage was somewhere around $4,000, but the land itself was worth three times that and on top of that, a new house was just built on it.

This year he received a contract from the Florin Fruit Growers Ass’n which made him extremely angry. This contract had no provision for payment for equipment and made no guarantee to take care of equipment. He refused to sign it therefore and sent it back. In return he received this letter which practically threatened that his equipment would be damaged if he did not sign. As a result he signed, saying, “Well, I’ll do it for another year.” The letter he received follows:

We are returning the copies of the contract to you hoping that you will change your mind about signing it. We could not change the clause that you object to as there are over 75 of these contracts made out and signed, mostly among former members, but a great many on vineyards that were not handled through our Association before, so therefore, it would not be fair to the others to make an exception in your case.

As you probably know the feeling against all persons of Japanese origin had reached the point where many irresponsible persons were actually stealing and destroying property owned by your people. Practically every evacuated home in the district has been broken into and personal effects left behind stolen or destroyed. You can readily see that it would not be fair to anyone to take the responsibility against these acts of vandalism caused by the war hysteria. You equipment now stored with Mr. Carl Smith is in exactly the same position as Carl could not be responsible against theft or damage to your equipment. In fact, your equipment is much safer in the hands of a renter than being stored and not in use, as there is a very definite move being made to find some legal method whereby the unused equipment of evacuees can be put into use as there is an extreme shortage of farming equipment at the present time, especially for track laying tractors for use in the sandy river bottom lands.

In regard to your responsibility, for any indebtedness that may be incurred by the Lessee, you are already covered throughout the agreement. In this regard please refer to paragraph 8, 11, 12, and 15.

I have contacted the Federal Loan Bank in regard to your request and they are very much disturbed by your return of the lease unsigned on account of the lateness of the season and they left me with the impression that they contemplated taking some action to protect their loan interest if work on the vineyard isn’t started within a short time.

We hope that you will reconsider and return the signed lease copies to this office. If you decide to accept this lease, we request that you notify us by wire as we must have an answer not later than March 12 and if no answer is received by that time, we will turn the matter back to the Federal Loan bank who originally requested our assistance in finding a renter for your property.

Florin Fruit Growers Ass’n

When this Florin evacuee read this letter, after returning the contract he didn’t know what to do. He was mad all right, but finally consented to the lease.

Most of the Florin district farmers were landowners, and have had experiences like this, hence such bitterness towards this evacuation.

Another thing he told me. When the evacuation date was set the white people from around the country came into the fields and began to pick strawberries. They said, “You’re going to leave tomorrow.” They never offered to pay anything for the fruit. Imagine the gall!

Just before evacuation, this family went to Sacramento for a health examination. There, this family was told that the youngest child had measles. The baby had to be left behind. The father was indignant and said “Over my dead body. She goes with us or we stay also.”

The authorities finally decided to let the baby go along.

On the train during the night, the conductor forgot to put the heater on, whether deliberate or not he does not know. This baby who had the measles caught a cold. When they reached Manzanar and when the doctor looked at her, she said it was hopeless. The father was in tears and was boiling mad and said he would “kick hell out of any hakujin who got in his way.” The baby got well miraculously and the family is not so bitter as before. They have changed their answer and /are planning to stay in America. But for a long time, because of this kind of treatment and because of property losses these people were in a mood to answer “no” to anything and very nearly went to Tule Lake.

Effie Yeaw Nature Center

2010-05-12T18:58:00.001-07:00

Effie Yeaw (rhymes with “saw”) (Effie May Cummings), was born on May 5, 1900 in the Chico, California area. The first few years of her life were spent moving from Sonoma County to Barstow. At five her family moved to Lincoln and then to a large house on M Street. In 1922 she received her B.A in Social Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Before she married William H. Yeah she spent her vacations traveling to China, Japan and Korea.

As a teacher in Carmichael, Effie took her kindergarten classes to a small “zoo” and “interpretive center” in Carmichael Park. It is no longer there, having been closed down in the mid-1950s. With a house on Palm Avenue, near the American River and the Carmichael Park, Effie regaled her classes, and all interested, in the lore and experiences of all things in nature. At the end of Palm Avenue in Carmichael lay the Deterding ranch, a favorite place for Effie to take any wanting to learn more about the flora and fauna of the American River.

The Effie Yeaw Nature Center came into existence in 1976, six years after her death, on January 3rd, 1970. Living next to Ancil Hoffman Park, on the old Deterding Ranch she loved, the Effie Yeaw Nature Center has attracted hundreds of thousands of people to its well designed paths and well-labeled sights.

My son and I visited the Nature area last Sunday, for a couple of hours of walking, quietly talking and taking pictures. We were struck by two very noticable things: There were over 20 deer in the grazing area next to Ancil Hoffman Park, and there were some very loud people strolling the nature trails. He and I walked quietly, whispering and pointing out the sights. Several deer ran past, within yards of where we stood.

Behind us a group of people tried vainly to scare the deer by shouting. The deer didn't care about them and continued eating their evening meal.

One of the attractions of the nature Center is the outdoor exhibit of Ninenan living and culture. There are two reed huts, a grinding stone and other artifcats used by the people who lived along the River before it was named the American River.

There were also a couple of fresh water ponds with not so fresh water.

Gerald F. Ward

Florin Farmers Evacuated

2010-05-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

I have been gathering information on the War Relocation Authority from various sources. Recently, I ordered some microfilm from the National Archives from the community Analysis section of the War relocation Authority on the Manzanar Relocation Center. As i was going through the documents I discovered one on Florin.

Manzanar Relocation Center
Community Analysis Section
October 30, 1943

THE FLORIN EVACUATION

This was related to me by an Issei evacuee from the Florin district.

Florin was in a zone that evacuated after a good may others. It was in zone 2. The farmers around the florin district have been farming twenty to thirty years, their chief crops being vine grapes and strawberries. The average size farm was about twenty acres.

These farmers were the stay put kind. They had worked hard on the same land for many years. They didn’t believe in going hither and thither to farm. This type of farmer usually hits a very good year once a decade, and that good year was the very one when they had to evacuate. Just before evacuation the farmers in the Florin section were already thinking in terms of new cars and new tractors as the market prices for fruits were reaching new ceilings.

These farmers had but to pick the crops to realize their fortunes when the notice to evacuate came. The strawberries were ripe and ready to be picked. The grapes were later crops but everything was in readiness for harvesting. The Florin farmers saw their fortune whisked away right under their noses. When they were leaving their farms, they say the rows of strawberries just a mass of red.

The strawberry patch was all in readiness, for the thinning and fertilizing were done. The grape vineyards were also cultivated, thinned and fertilized. The remaining work was simply to irrigate and to tie the vines up when the crops were to be harvested. In other words all the essential work and effort and investment had been previously put in.

After they arrived at Manzanar, some received letters telling them that grapes were bringing eighty dollars per ton. That meant if one acre yielded ten tons, each acre would have brought in eight hundred dollars. The strawberry price was also better than in ordinary times.

The people around Florin district more or less brought up their children in the Japanese way, the niseis from that district are better than average conversationalists in Japanese. Also they read and write Japanese better than the average Nisei.

Raw History

2010-04-24T15:03:00.001-07:00

We cannot change history. Current history can be remembered, written about, described, annotated. Current events can be photographed, audio-taped, videotaped, captured in all of its raw detail, but what has occurred cannot be changed.

One of the problems I am seeing is the revising of the accounts of history. Often, this is done by placing current personal, social and cultural thinking upon past events. There is a difference between interpreting and revising history. Those who interpret history try (maybe unsuccessfully) to understand the events through the filter of the understood cultural norms of the time and place. Based upon the best available evidence, and a thorough examination of the evidence, the reasons for the historical events may take shape and lead to an interpretation. Interpretation is never arbitrary, haphazard or based upon a personal, emotional world-view. Revisionist history passes judgment on historical events using a foundation of current moral/emotional standards and individual thinking.

This is a simplistic explanation for a far-ranging problem. This problem encompasses current events and ancient history. It is social, political, anthropological, religious. I do not approve of someone who does not understand how I think interpreting my actions based upon their view of the world and our culture.

When choosing historical materials for a public library, do we select based upon the perception of a public desire to read anything without taking into consideration the authors personal agenda? Do we take the time to select material which will stand the test of time? Are we buying because the author is an expert or just popular, or maybe a popular expert?

I'm beginning to prefer raw history but I'm afraid it is becoming harder to find such material unaltered by modern insensibilities.

Comments?

Gerald F. Ward

Give Me a Book

2010-04-14T19:48:00.001-07:00

Have you ever tried to explain scenery to a blind person? Have you ever listened to a description or an explanation and just not understood? Remember algebra?

There is a mindset which develops with experience which can be had in no other way. You have to have the senses, the words and the understanding of those words to adequately describe anything. This is one reason I love photography. While I cannot be where the image was captured I can involve many of my senses to recreate and enjoy what I see. This is also one of the reasons I enjoy good writing.

Depending upon training and life experiences everyone has, or does not have, the ability to understand many different things and how they work together. A blind person will have the intellectual understanding of descriptive words but probably not the perception of their meaning. In the same way, a seeing person will never understand the activity of living in darkness. If blind from birth there is no requisite experience upon which to draw experiential meaning to many descriptive words. This does not limit the individual who is blind. It simply removes them from the frame of reference had by a seeing person. Conversely, those who see cannot have the frame of reference had by one born blind. Both individuals may think in a similar fashion about many things but cannot think alike about just as many things. The perception of reality is different, not the reality.

But suppose one is made blind after a life of seeing. Or, suppose one loses that, anything, which they are accustomed to having. This losing throws the person into an experience equally difficult to share or explain to those who have never had such loss, or to those who have had different loses. In some way such has happened to all. We all have differing experiences, training, lifestyles, emotions. At best we can only catch a glimpse of the experiences of others, or remember our own, or imagine them based upon or memories and the descriptions of those who have lived the experience.

Thus, we have libraries, the writings of those who know something, intellectually, intimately, or both, to inspire the imagination of the reader. Every word written, spoken, or heard has an impact upon the reader, the hearer, the viewer. Every idea, whether written well or scrambled, does something to it audience. The words have to mean the same thing to the one writing them and the one reading. The reader does not have the pleasure of reassigning meaning to words or ideas. Even in Scrabble the jumble of letters have to be arranged into legitimate words to be recognized. Nobody gets to make up words for points. Learning happens when anyone who knows something explains that something to anyone else willing and capable of learning. Many people benefit from the experiences of one when written and collected by a library.

I have caught a glimpse of something I do not understand. That glimpse scared me, caused me wonder, piqued my curiosity, repulsed me, or deadened me to its value. Perhaps someone can explain it, describe it, enlighten me. Or maybe just give enough evidence to convince me that something is either not worth pursuing, or as valuable as gold and fine jewels. It never occurred to me such a thing could exist. I don't think that way, but maybe I can learn.

Give me a well-written book and let me discover.

Gerald F. Ward

Reading Comprehension

2010-02-13T16:58:00.001-08:00

Do you remember being taught reading comprehension in school? All of those paragraphs and essays and stories you had to read and then write a paper about, or maybe answer some questions asked by your teacher? Wasn't the idea to teach how to read something, know what it says and be able to think through what its practical implication would be under any circumstance.

For instance, when you pull into a gas station and fill up your vehicle there are directions posted, written for all to read, which are given for everyone's safety. They are not suggestions. No where on the sign does it say "please follow these simple steps." No. These signs say "turn off your vehicle" and "NO SMOKING."

The practical application of these two demands is to keep everyone safe. Gasoline is volatile. Gasoline ignites easily. The fumes from gasoline, when confined to a enclosed space, like a partially empty gasoline tank on your car, will easily blow up. You do not put out a gasoline fire with water. All of these facts, and more, are encapsulated in the presumptive statement "NO SMOKING" posted above the gas pump. The assumption are those using the pump know the dangers inherent in gasoline. Let's not blow up anyone.

We use presumptive statements often, believing those with whom we are speaking understand and accept the underlying assumptions in our questions and comments. I am beginning to believe many people have lost the ability, if they ever had the ability, to listen to or read a statement, and comprehend the implications of that statement. It may be just me, but many of the people with whom I speak on the telephone, calling the library for information, do not understand what I am saying or do not accept what I am saying. Unfortunately, the implication is either I am giving wrong information or they are not comprehending the information I give. I do not believe it is me. I can give the same answer to two different people asking essentially the same question, and one will understand while the other will not.

For instance, most people who call believe they are speaking with someone at the Branch they visit most often. When I say "we answer the phones for all the branches" they will quickly respond with "You're not (fill-in the blank) Branch?" This is not a grievous misunderstanding. I understand their confusion. Our telephone system is not explicit enough. After all, when they look up the number in the phone book or on-line it gives one number for all the branches. Which means, of course, that all the branches have the same number and the persons telephone knows instinctively they are dialing a specific branch. When they see the number next to their branch they dial it not aware that it is the same number for the branch above and below their listing. (Of course, the number in the telephone book is wrong but will transfer the person over to the right number.)

The assumption is when they call they get to speak with someone at their Branch. Most people eventually come to accept the reality they cannot dial their branch directly. Some never come to this conclusion, having fixed in their minds they have a right to speak to someone at their branch and the telephone number given must oblige them. Perhaps I need to do a better job explaining the whys and wherefores of the limitations on actually speaking to someone at the branch.

Of course, most of the time the person only wants to know branch hours or if there is a specific title available.

Again, this isn't a grievous complaint. I'm just struck by the number of people who do not comprehend a simple statement. "We answer the phones for all of the branches" is specific, concise and understandable.

Does anyone have better wording? I'm open for suggestions. Am I making a mountain out of a mole-hill?

Gerald F. Ward

Weeding: Part Four, Damage?

2010-01-27T14:38:00.001-08:00

Let's face it, some of the people who borrow books from the Library are not responsible. They treat our books like they treat people -- badly. Notice I said "some people" not "everyone" or "many" or "a lot" of people. There are certain people who were not taught respect for themselves or others, for their own things, or those things which belong to others. The vast majority of people are responsible.

If it can happen to a book, it will. Instead of ‘fessing up to the condition, books compromised by various benign and toxic substances, these irresponsible people will deny they damaged anything and drop the book in the book drop, to land on top of and be buried by other returned materials. For those who have cleared a book drop after a long weekend, finding little surprises can wrinkle the nose and turn the stomach.

On the flip side, many people will come in and give us the book damaged by their undisciplined pets or children, or husband, or whatever. Willingness to pay for, or replace, the material brings a smile to our collective faces. Primarily, because they want to fix a mistake, but mainly because we won't be blind-sided by something we have to wear gloves and a mask to touch.

Some questions?

How bad is the damage? Is it water damage? From a glass or a toilet, or a puddle in the gutter? Coffee, tea, milk, Bourbon or beer? What does it smell like? Did they bring it in a plastic bag?

Did they return most of the book while keeping only that part they have determined nobody else in the whole world needs, only them? Have the considerately highlighted or underlined significant sections to draw attention to that section for everyone? Have the annotated? Adding salient points the author obviously missed?

Did their baby use it as a chew toy? or their dog? Llama? Did it stay in the bathroom too long? or get lost in the barn? Was it subjected to a High School Chemistry class experiment? Perhaps read by a shade-tree mechanic who forgot to wash?

We can go on for a long time. Let's not give anyone further creative ideas.

What do we do with compromised books? Ninety-nine percent of the time we make the book go away, regardless of whether it can be replaced. It cannot go back on the shelf. At SPL we have a professional term which perfectly describes many of the compromised books: "Icky."

For those titles which can be replaced, they should be replaced. Currently, it is difficult to replace a title if it is no longer in print, or available from the publisher. Other factors come into play which will be discussed later, such as IBL and ILL (Inter-branch loan and Interlibrary loan), or how difficult it is to locate the title from another source.

Libraries are designed to be used responsibly. We cannot control the behavior of everyone who uses the Library. We can control whether someone, who has given evidence of irresponsible behavior, has permission to use the Library.

Gerald F. Ward

On the far side of Folsom

2010-01-19T16:12:00.000-08:00

Hidden waterfall on the east side of Folsom Lake.

Minolta SRT-101, 35mm wide-angle lens, Kodachrome, early 80's.

Weeding: Part Three, Obsolete

2010-01-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

So what’s the difference between out-dated (or out-of-date) and obsolete. Both terms mean old. Dated material is old and potentially wrong. Obsolete is old and no longer used.

Being a dad, and having three children (who are no longer children) I remember listening to their Pediatrician tell us how our babies should sleep. When the first was born we were told she should sleep on her side. A year and a half later we were told number two should sleep on his stomach. When number three arrived, several years later (we learned a valuable lesson), she was supposed to sleep on her back. The moral of the story is health information can sometimes change at the whim of prevailing thinking. Then it can change back, again.

Some health practices from long ago are dangerous. We don’t use leeches any more to bleed people when they are sick.

Let’s use another illustration. Telling time. Are analog timepieces rarely used anymore? Most kids’ couldn’t tell time using a clock to save their computer reservations. Most of what we use is digital. Does this mean analog is useless and inaccurate? We have analog clocks throughout the library. The technology is dated but still used. Instead, think sundials.

So, what books become obsolete? How about multiple copies of best sellers no longer best sellers. Do we really need several copies of an old Tom Clancy novels? How about Leon Uris? How about the “Classics”? Romance novels from the 40’s? Technical manuals for twenty year old computers? Dime westerns from the 19th century? Books on how to use a slide-rule? The 3rd edition of “What color is my parachute?”? How about the 3rd edition of Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”?

Somebody somewhere may want something we consider obsolete. But then, we can’t hold onto everything assuming somebody, somewhere is going to want it and knows we have it.

The problem isn’t getting rid of obsolete material. The problem is getting rid of material which isn’t obsolete, just not used very often. What about classics? Or older literature in need of modern editing? Do we weed it just because it’s written in a style of writing that is hard to comprehend for the modern ear?

How do we determine what books are obsolete?

Gerald F. Ward

Who Said It?

2010-01-09T11:08:00.001-08:00

Thomas Jefferson

Who Said It?

2010-01-07T11:15:00.001-08:00

In 1786, farmers and merchants in the new Republic rebelled against the newly instituted government. Beginning in Massachusetts the rebellion spread to many other states. Although the rebels were tried, the results of the rebellion was the election of more popular leaders and the Constitution of the United States. The rebellion was called the "Shay's Rebellion."

Speaking about the Shay's Rebellion, who said the following?

"'God forbid we should even be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all and always well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have thirteen states independent for eleven years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that the people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.' Without commenting on the accuracy of his arithmetic, or the tendency of his principles, it is sufficient to observe that tyranny on the one side, and patriotism on the other, are not necessarily the causes, or the concomitants of rebellion."

Wolcott, Oliver, Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams. Vol. 1, New York : William Van Norden, Printer, 1846.

Gerald F. Ward

Weeding: Part Two, Out-of-Date

2010-01-05T16:29:00.001-08:00

Let’s talk about material which goes out of date. We’ve already talked about health and legal information and the need for awareness when discarding or updating. What other types of material go out of date? Does historical information go out of date? How about fiction? Or art?
There are specific types of information which are dated but do not go out of date. Statistical information may become dated but by its very nature cannot go out of date. Historical information may be dated but it cannot go out of date. Writing styles may be dated, but … you get the picture.

How about information, like directories, which have names and addresses? Here’s where you have to know what your Library is all about. Let’s say you work in a big library with a big genealogy collection, a big government documents section, a big local information section, and a big business section.

Business information, especially directories of businesses, tends to go out of date quickly. Telephone numbers, directors and vice-presidents, and other employees move around too much to remain accurate for long. Naturally, there are some businesses which do not change. In the total universe of business, those which do not change are few and far between. If it’s an international or national directory of businesses, currency is the overriding factor. You better think twice, three and four times, before getting rid of directories of local businesses. Those directories have historical significance. Local information is local history.

Documents are a special problem, especially local documents. I used to work for a moving company (in the 1970’s). We were hired to move a bookcase for the State Department of Water Resources. It took eight of use to move a 40 foot long steel bookcase filed with EIR/EIS’s in the basement of the building. We moved it 4 feet. Eight months later we returned and moved the case back to its original position. My first introduction to documents. At the time the discussion among the guys I was with was “Why the $^&#*! do they need to keep all this ~#$@*& paper?” EIR’s are special. Don’t lump other documents into the same thought or thinking with anything related to an EIR/EIS.

There are two kinds of documents which may be dated but cannot go out of date. They are statistical abstracts and directories of government officials, also known as registers. Historical data does not change. The fact that someone worked somewhere at sometime does not change, either. Don’t just think about a document’s, or any materials, current use. Think about how it might be used in the future.

One final reminder: If you are a branch you are part of a large Library. Just because your branch doesn’t need or want to keep (because of limited space) doesn’t mean the Library doesn’t want it. When in doubt, send it on.

Gerald F. Ward

Weeding: Part One

2009-12-30T13:06:00.001-08:00

I am concerned about weeding the collection at SPL. This has been a concern for some time. I have been vocal in meetings and blogged about this in the past. I must say, my Supervisor, RH, has been open to discussion. One of the things supervisors learn in supervisor school is when one of your charges has an idea let them develop it.

RH has asked me to develop my ideas about weeding our collection.I have put together a list of criteria for weeding and for keeping, giving this list to staff and asking for input. One person has given me input. I’ll not draw any conclusions about this for a bit.

First, I want to develop my ideas. Do you remember taking a class in collection development in school? You had to write a collection development policy for a specific type of library, looking at all of the qualifications and limitations and audiences and staffing levels. Part of that policy was weeding. When do you get rid of a book?

I have no desire to beat a dead horse, to overuse a coined phrase. I do want to make sure everyone is on the same page and that I am thinking about this correctly. I don’t want us to be “blind-sided” because we have not been aware of what’s in our “blind spot."

Every policy should have checks and balances. The “check” in weeding is identifying reasons to weed. The “balance” is identifying reasons to NOT weed. For every reason to get rid of something there has to be a reason to keep it, or an agreement it needs to go.

For instance, a reason to weed is if the information is inaccurate. Health and legal information go out of date quickly. We do not want to have books on the shelf which propose our patrons do something which has been shown unhealthy, or where a law no longer applies. They could get in trouble, get sick, die. Currency is extremely important.

However, we must be aware of how far this goes in the field. The California Uniform Building Code is updated all of the time. But houses built in the 1960’s or 1970’s are not required to meet the standards of 2009. People who own these houses need access to the code under which their house was built. If someone is renovating their home then they may well need to upgrade to the newest code, otherwise they will not pass inspection. At least for the part of the structure they renovated. Since I’m not an attorney I cannot give advice.

The point is we don’t toss old UBC's just because they are old. They do not go out of date. To weed this title is either an act of ignorance or laziness. We’re librarians. We are neither ignorant nor lazy. If I don’t know the answer then I find someone who does. If I don’t want to put in the time then I need to find another job.

Comments?

Gerald F. Ward

Day In The Life

2009-12-29T14:46:00.001-08:00

After six days off, I anticipated being greeted by a stack of stuff and a pile of emails. It was Christmas and nobody wanted to work. There was a little mail in my box, nothing on my desk, and only a few emails, even less needing immediate attention. A pleasant surprise.

Not that I need someone giving me work. I have plenty. Besides, I work in a large public library. There is always too much to do.

I started the day by listening to music. I'm helping with a digital story about a Sacramento band from the early 90's. I helped film the interview last week. The band member had some records, a 33 and three 45's. This is a test. How many of you know what I'm talking about? I used a record player with a CD-ROM burner to make the music digital. While I was doing this I scanned record covers and images.

Yes, I can occasionally multi-task. But, I'm a guy. It's hard. What I have learned to do, mostly in the Library, is to concentrate on one thing at a time with the ability to set it aside at a moments notice to concentrate on another task. This way, when a colleague or patron asks a question, I don't get flustered or upset. Twenty years of experience helps.

Today, I worked on a digital story; printed a half sheet brochure/announcement for an up-coming program; helped find a Federal Document CD-ROM then helped the patron access the CD-ROM on his laptop; transferred music from records to CD-ROM to iTunes; scanned images to drive, backed them up on a PC, then transferred them to iPhoto; worked briefly with several periodicals questions; tried to find out how much gold was imported over the last few years; helped patrons sign up for programs; helped users sign up for Internet; etc., etc.

Officer just walked through wearing a bullet-proof vest. Just finished speaking with a Census 2010 worker looking for places to hire and train others for the Census. Patron just walked though wearing a huge home-made sign saying something about not forcing people to stand in lines.

Whoa! Days only half over.

Gerald F. Ward

Rancho Cordova Food Locker

2009-12-22T16:19:00.000-08:00

My family and I spend several hours on Monday at the Rancho Cordova Food Locker, helping bag groceries and carry them to peoples cars. There were a thousand people in line, some arriving at Midnight, camping out in chairs or just standing. We arrived at 8:00 A.M. and started carrying boxes and bags at 9:00.

Some of the first people through the line were older women from Eastern Europe, with their own baskets on wheels. They, or a family member, had been waiting a long time. The attitudes of the pople in line were all over the board, from strained, to self-absorbed, to grateful. The Food Locker gave away a lot of food. No questions asked. It took two helpers to get the food out to their vehicles. After a few hours my arms were shaking from the strain of carrying boxes full of canned goods.

I met many people. An out of work dad who brought his kids to help those worse off than he. A nine-year-old Webelo, who talked non-stop about everything from summer camp to spiking his hair with glue and hairspray for Halloween. A Marine stationed in Hawaii, home visiting his family.

My daughter, the ten-year-old, and I were struggling to carry groceries to a car. A group of teens were walking by when one of the girls saw the strain on my face and asked if I needed help. I did. So she turned to one of the boys in the group and said "Andy, help him carry that box." Andy, after unwinding himself from her little finger, grabbed the box of cans, said something like "I'm strong" and carried it the rest of the way. I took the box from the women we were helping. My daughter carried two plastic bags.

Merry Christmas

Gerald F. Ward

Blindsided

2009-12-19T14:06:00.001-08:00

"Blind-sided." Someone who is blindsided is attacked or hit from their blind side. They are injured because they have not recognized a blind side or have been distracted.

Someone can be blind sided on purpose or by accident. There is an expectation of safety from the receiver. Either, being aware of what is approaching they do not expect danger, the one approaching wants to avoid any collision, or they do not see the danger because they are unaware or purposefully ignoring it. For the one approaching from the blind spot the expectation is to avoid or to attack.

While driving, the expectations are each and the other will obey the laws of the road and try to not hit one another. In sports, like football, the expectation is to use your opponents weakness to gain superiority and win. In war, or chess, the expectation is even more grave. One side wants to eliminate the other.

One of the problems in every life and every business is purposefully ignoring certain hazards by either viewing them as not hazards or suggesting they do not matter. Usually this happens because there is no certain direction and movement is erratic, like a rudderless ship in a storm.

Step One. Stop until everything is working correctly. If you cannot stop, at least slow down, so when the collisions happen damage is negligible.

Step Two. Establish appropriate velocity. Velocity is speed and direction. In other words, know where you want to go and how fast you need to go to get there. Be safe and responsible.

Step Three. Know why you're going where you're going. Just because isn't good enough. Does your destination, and the trip getting there, fit your established goals? If not, jettison anything which distracts.

Step Four. Check your blind spots often and critically. But don't let looking over your shoulder get you off track.

Step Five. Stay on target, or on task.

Yes, this discussion does have a lot to do with Libraries.

Gerald F. Ward

Blind Spots

2009-12-16T18:49:00.001-08:00

Everybody knows what a "blind spot" is. You learned about "blind spots" when you took driver's education. For some of us, that was a long time ago.

Let me refresh your memory. A "blind spot" is that place next to your car you can't see directly or with your mirrors. Generally, the blind spot is over one of your shoulders. Installing a "fish-eye" mirror, one of those little round disc mirrors attached to a regular mirror, usually helps. The problem comes in training, or re-training, your eyes to see objects in those little round things fixed to a slightly larger rectangular thing. All of this on a vehicle moving pretty darn fast while you juggle the radio, coffee, your hands-free cell phone, while trying to not hit something or get hit by something.

Some of us multi-task better than others. The older you grow, the more experience you gain, you either increase your ability to multi-task or lose what ability you had.

Everybody has blind spots in their lives. Unlike driving a car, we can live in unconcerned ignorance of our blind spots because they don't contain heavy vehicles moving faster than we are. You have to look metaphorically over your shoulder to see what's in you blind spot.

There are at least two major issues with which we need to deal. First, training ourselves to look over our shoulders and actually acknowledge what's there. Second, responding correctly, or reasonably, to what ever it is occupying our blind spot. Of course, once you know you have a blind spot and check it regularly it ceases being one.

So what does this have to do with Libraries, you ask? Or any business, for that matter? We do not work in a vacuum. We need each other. Our best resource for information is the person with whom we work. There is not one person who knows everything, though I do know some who wishfully think they are omniscient. The best Libraries are those where everyone works together, combining their experience and expertise to build a collection, and infuse knowledge of that collection into those who use it.

When one function is separated from another blind spots grow. So do holes in the collection.

I guess I need to talk about being "blind-sided" next.

Gerald F. Ward

Eternal Flame Digital Story

2009-12-10T10:46:00.001-08:00

I think there is a certain personality in every person who works in a library to want to see something they have written be published. After all, we like books. We like to read. We especially like to read something well written. Somewhere inside is the desire to write and influence people to think what we think.

Unless someone is completely beaten down, there is an innate desire of wanting others to value our work. I am no different. There are differences found in personal expectations. Sometimes those expectations are unreasonable. Other times those expectations are so low they will never be met. Healthy expectations never demand from others what cannot be delivered. Without expectations nothing would ever be accomplished.

My personal expectations demand I do the best I can with what I have, learning from all of the examples I have encountered throughout my life. I want to do good work. At the same time, I want to add to the collective knowledge and wisdom of the community.

Having said all this (no arrogance intended) I have just finished work on a Sacramento Digital Story for the Library. This is the first time I've ever done something like this. All comments are encouraged. Ideas for stories are also encouraged.

Gerald F. Ward

See http://www.blip.tv/file/2952673 or

Civilian Exclusion Order 52

2009-11-25T11:36:00.001-08:00

On May 7, 1942, Civilian Exclusion Order No. 52 was posted in Sacramento. This notice demanded all Japanese in the Sacramento area register for evacuation. The Notice was posted on a Thursday, with registration beginning the next day and the actual evacuation of all Japanese to begin Monday, May 11, 1942. All Japanese were to be gone from Sacramento by May 16th.

According to the Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942, there were six Civilian Exclusion Orders covering the Northern Sacramento Valley from Marysville to Stockton, from Sierra foothills throughout the valley. According to the Sacramento Bee 8,600 people were affected by these Orders. However, according to table 47 9,979 people were relocated.

The 4th Army Command in San Francisco today issued a series of orders for the evacuation of 8,600 Japanese from within the entire city boundaries of Sacramento and Stockton, San Joaquin County, and from other parts of Superior California. The Japanese are to begin reporting to the various civil control stations tomorrow for instructions and the evacuation generally will start Monday and be completed by noon Saturday, May 16th.

The orders apply to all persons of Japanese ancestry, including those born in this country. [Bee 5-7-42 p1]

The order evacuating the 3500 from Sacramento was the largest yet issued, officials said. The Sacramento evacuation district is second in size only to Los Angeles. [Union, 5-8-42, p2]

Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942. Letterhead (p. vii): Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, Office of the Commanding General. SuDoc. W 2.2:J 27

Ibid., Table 47, pages 363-366

Sacramento Bee, All Japanese Must Get Out of Sacramento, May 7, 1942, p.1
Sacramento Bee, Notice to Evacuate (image), May 7, 1942, p.1

Sacramento Union, All Japanese to Quit City by May 16, May 8, 1942, p.1

Volunteering

2009-11-24T14:44:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, I volunteered at Move America Forward for part of the afternoon. MAF, the brain-child of one person, sends care packages to military personnel stationed in such volatile countries at Afghanistan and Iraq. There were over 50 people working two shifts, with several blue-star Moms, assembling shipping boxes, filling them, then sealing them and stacking them on pallets for delivery by the US Postal Service.

More than half working were kids between 10 and 16 years old, mostly home-educated, whose parents want to raise them to be responsible. It was loud and social and productive. We assembled and filled almost 900 boxes, stopping only because we started running out of stuff.

I worked at the front and back, taping empty boxes together and then sealing them after they were filled. In front of me were several long tables overflowing with snacks and drinks, music CD's and postcards, chap sticks and deodorant, and lots of other stuff anyone in these places might need or could use.

"Trail mix!" someone would yell, again, and one of the teens in the back would bring a case of trail mix, opened and ready to be distributed. Give kids a reason to yell and they will.

"Empty box!" another kid would yell, bringing a flurry of smaller kids to snatch the empty and whisk it away.

"Cookies!" (Better get outta the way.)

"Deodorant!" (Don't say it.)

Outside, several young boys were taking turns stacking the filled boxes on pallets, building forts with walls and battlements until a teen came by to take the heavy pallet away. Dragging another pallet up to replace the filled one, the boys would constantly rush in and grab filled shipping boxes, one or two at a time, and build a new fort.

In back, teens hustled about, laughing and joking, opening boxes for the people at the tables. Cartons filled with snacks and necessities were soon replaced with mailing boxes. From one box into another.

Everyone worked hard, enjoyed themselves and felt like they had accomplished something. I saw kid's who knew how to work, and others who were learning how to see what needed doing, then doing it. Everyone there had a deep appreciation for those serving in the military. No one slacked off. It was an enjoyable time.

Gerald F. Ward

Weeded revisted

2009-11-21T14:56:00.001-08:00

I have written four posts dealing with weeding, in some fashion, in the Library. on 5-20-09 I said weeding was a necessary part of the process of maintaining a collection. On 5-23-09 I said some books need to go away because the person(s) who took them out brought them back in an untouchable condition. However, just because a book has dust on it doesn't mean it should go away. On 6-10-09 I suggested the system should seriously consider keeping every last copy. This doesn't mean we keep every last copy, but we use our critical thinking abilities to decide to keep or not. Finally, on 10-3-09 I wrote about the arbitrary standard used to weed books from the system.

At the Central Library, things have changed. We have stopped heavy weeding. We are taking more care in deciding what needs to stay and what needs to go. I am going to suggest a further critical method to determine what should be weeded: Pay strict attention to what is purchased.

If we buy a title we should be thinking for how long we are going to keep it. Is it entertainment? Will we keep it for only a short time, until it outlives its current popularity? Is it historical? Is the history ever going out of date? Then we should keep it for as long as it is needed. We know subjects which date quickly. Do we not also know subjects which do not date?

When does a book cease to be relevant to a collection? Perhaps we need to look at the authors intent, experience and writing style as selection criteria. One of the issues I had with the former weeding policy was the lack of critical thought demanded in choosing books to weed. One of the issues I have with the current selection process is the lack of coordinated effort and critical thinking used to buy. Two people do not have the necessary expertise needed to buy all non-fiction for a library system the size of SPL. Suggesting two people can buy for every subject area places an unreasonable expectation on them and a devaluing of the experience of other seasoned librarians who are just as capable of selecting but not given the opportunity.

The pros of centralized selection is a streamlined process unencumbered by 50-60 personalities. The cons are intangible, not measurable, resulting in the individual Librarian's loss of connection with a collection and the demand to keep up with current publishing and authors. I think the cons far out way the pros.

So, what are the pros for centralized selection?

Gerald F. Ward

April 22, 1942

2009-11-20T11:49:00.001-08:00

The California State Personnel Board suspended all persons of Japanese descent from working for the State of California on April 21, 1942. At the same time all of the Japanese living within a 400 mile section of the California coast were ordered relocated by 13 Exclusion Orders affecting almost 13,000 people. The deadline for relocation from coastal areas was May 1.

Ironically, all Japanese suspended from State employment had a right to reply to the formal charges (of being Japanese in the United States?) within ten days and then participate in a formal hearing. The reason for these formal hearings were to "obviate all possible Fifth Column activity." Fifth Column activity includes clandestine activity from within a country meant to help an invading military force overthrow the host country.

Losing work was the first step in the exclusion of the Japanese. Next, they would lose their homes, farms, crops, and animals, and businesses. Finally, they were separated from the rest of the community and sent to Relocation Centers. In the Bay area, the relocation of persons was so large five more assembly centers were requisitioned. Places used for assembling before final relocation included fair grounds and race tracks.

Sacramento Union, All Japanese are Leaving State Jobs, April 22, 1942, p.1

Sacramento Union, Japanese Must Quit Bay Area May 1, April 22, 1942, p.1

Sacramento Union, Plans Made to Care for Japanese Animals, April 22, 1942, p.7

Sacramento Bee, Local Japanese Urged to be Prepared, April 22, 1942, p.7

Thinking, a Ramble

2009-11-18T18:19:00.001-08:00

"I think, therefore I am." -- Descartes

I think! I think? Am I thinking? Or just rambling?

Or maybe what I'm doing is a counterfeit of actual thinking. We all think, dream, imagine, manufacture arguments and discussions based upon hormones and blood-sugar levels, recent activities and the anticipation of those to come. Most of the time we feel first then try to engage our brains. Our brains shouldn't control our hearts anymore than our hearts should control our brains. Both need to work together without one being dominate over the other. Sometimes, this may seem impossible. When your emotions take over make sure your brains works, too. Whatever you do, don't let your brains control your emotions. It's not healthy.

So, what has this got to do with Libraries?

Those who work in libraries tend to want to please everyone. This is a blatant generalization augmenting an unreasonable stereotype. How I think and how I feel helps me decide how I am going to act. When I turn off most of my thinking and abdicate my right to valid emotions, so I can help anyone find ANYTHING, without passing judgment. If I train myself to not think or feel, and therefore not judge based upon my thinking and feelings, I'm saying what I think and feel has no value. That goes for you, too.

Remember, I reject post-modern thinking which gives the individual the right to determine truth for themselves.

Thinking involves the collection and evaluation of facts pertaining to a specific circumstance. Generally speaking one circumstance is not divorced from any other circumstance. Everything works together is some way. How stuff works together is a mystery. That stuff works together is not. Distance may lessen impact but does not negate it. How I act impacts the people with whom I deal as much as how they act impacts me.

Feeling involves a chemical reaction to circumstance as measured by an excepted moral code or fixed expectation of how something ought to be, which is determined by an excepted (whether known or unknown) moral code. Everything I do is based upon my understanding of right and wrong and whether I care it is right or wrong. If you think something is right, good, necessary, then you feel anger or fear when the standard of right is messed with.

The Japanese in California were interned in Relocation Camps during World War II. This fact has impacted everyone who lives in California. What a high school student learns in life in a public school in California will impact others, rippling out until all in the vicinity are touched causing their own ripples, touching others, ad infinitum. History impacts now. Now impacts tomorrow.

Some of you may be bored with my amateurish philosophizing. I'm not a professional. I don't make a living delving into the murky waters of modern philosophy, groping for what ever I can find and calling it a treasure. But, I do think. Stuff has to make sense to me. I'm not always consistent in my actions and words. I'm often inconsistent in my emotions. I've learned to recognize when I'm angry or afraid or happy or at ease. I still ask questions.

Didn't anyone think about the consequences of their decision to intern the Japanese?
How can they make blanket assumptions about a people based upon race?
Do our schools really think throwing more money at education is going to make students socially responsible?
Why don't some people want to think?
Why don't others allow themselves to feel?

Libraries are here to help people figure out answers to these and other questions. The only way to do this is to have as many facts as we can unencumbered by the politically correct. Honest questions deserve honest answers. I hate it when people lie to me. I love it when I can help someone find an answer. Hopefully, I'm the same person working as at home.

Sometimes a good ramble clarifies thinking. Sometimes, it doesn't.

Gerald F. Ward

Thinking

2009-11-03T14:49:00.001-08:00

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. -- Solomon

I have been trying to come to a clear understanding of how those who run Libraries think. I'm not looking for a common or comprehensive explanation which covers all Libraries or all Librarians. There isn't one. But there should be an explanation, a philosophy of service, for each Library system. If there isn't such a thing the Library may continue to run on sheer inertia, but there will be no direction. Movement, yes. Energy, yes. Good and bad things happening, yes.

I'm not interested in the nebulous, undefined or lazy maxims which populate the literature, and SPL's vision statement.

Our vision statement says SPL is "the best source of knowledge and information" measured by ... what criteria? Saying we're the "best" doesn't mean we are. Have you ever seen the auditions for "So You Think You Can Dance?" There's a lot of "talent" out there that simply can't "cut the mustard" in the world of professional dance. They are good in their own eyes. If we're good in our own eyes then we're lying to ourselves. We have to be good in the eyes of the rest of the Library world. Problem is, I haven't seen any objective criteria which measures the Library in the Library World. We've stopped using those professional resources that help define an adequate collection.

That "enriches" assumes there is a poverty level from which the Library can elevate the community, pulling or dragging, or maybe simply enticing, them (isn't "community" a group of "them"?) to have more information and knowledge. And "empowers" suggests a lack of energy and strength which may be had only from the Library. Unless there are tangible and measurable standards applied to these two words they mean nothing.

We can "empower" consumers to find trustworthy evaluations they need to help them decide which car to buy. We do not make the car buying decision for them. We cannot force them to use the resources available in the Library. We can promote those resources and make sure the people know about them.

We can "enrich" or patrons by giving them a reasonable cross section of historical, philosophical, theological, or self-help psychology books for direction and a plan to succeed. We can't force anyone to actually apply those reasonable tenants of self-improvement to their lives.

We can "empower" our patrons, many also known as students, whether in school or self-determined, to find information, provided of course, we have the information for them to find. We can't have all information, but we can have the "best" information if the Library would simply use the educated professionals they have to "enrich" the collection.

We can "enrich" or patrons, seekers all, by giving them access to information and knowledge they cannot find any where else. Provided, we spend our money wisely and not waste it on stuff which can be readily found in many places around the community.

We can do this by returning to what a Library is, not what certain non-librarian Librarians think its supposed to be.

So what are the criteria for a good Library? The basic, normal criteria? Once we know this we can move into what makes an "excellent" library that is "the best source of knowledge and information." No matter what, there has to be a standard by which we measure our Library. I guess this is where the "Core Competencies" in the new evaluation process are applied. I still haven't figured out how these will help us evaluate our collection.

Gerald F. Ward

Excellence: (The "E" in TIRE)

2009-10-24T16:21:00.001-07:00

"Excellent!" In unison now, with Bill and Ted. Once again. "Excellent!"

Any word used as an exclamation point by these two dubious scholars probably has no meaning beyond "I like it." Still, we can draw conclusions about the word, or, at least, define an assumption. Something is "excellent" when it rises above, or goes beyond, Bill and Ted's arbitrary expectations. They weren't expecting it and it was good, not bad. When something is bad a completely different word is used. "Bogus." Plus, the words "excellent" and "bogus" sound really cool when you exclaim them in unison, accompanied by wide-eyed wonder. "Party on, dudes."

Their expectations were never great. All they wanted was to have a good time and not flunk high school history.

Let's time hop in the telephone booth (Dr. Who?) over to the OED, the standard by which all other dictionaries are measured.

To "excel" means to be "superior or preeminent in the possession of some quality, or in the performance of some action, usually in a good sense; to surpass others." Whoa, dude. Brain-freeze.

Okay. Let's take this one simple step at a time. In a previous post I've all ready talked about "quality." The problem is figuring out what "superior quality" is. Unfortunately, I can't define "superior" according to my own standard. Unlike historical dictators, the official ruler isn't calculated by the length of my arm, or the attached thumb. There has to be a fixed standard, not compromised by personal expectations, against which I measure work, weight, length, capacity, anything. Oops. That wasn't very simple, was it?

"Superior quality" is a personal, subjective judgment unless a thoughtfully defined and rigidly applied standard followed by everyone is in place, then it's a personal, objective judgment. In order for me to judge something excellent I have to know, intellectually and intimately, the rules. I may not like those rules. I have to know what is normal, according to the rules. I my rant against those rules and what is considered normal. Complain, gripe, moan, groan, violate and throw away, wholly reject those rules. (Yes, I grew up in the 60's.) Certain things are fixed and cannot be changed without doing violence to everything related.

Not only must there be a recognized standard of normal, there must be training in attaining normal. Here's where the quality of work is tested. Does the work meet a subjective, arbitrary standard, or an objective, reasonable standard? Does the standard define normal? Have I been trained to recognize that standard and realize the consequences of violating or rejecting that standard? Am I held to the rules? Just because somebody says something is excellent doesn't mean it is. Especially, if there is no understanding or wholesale rejection of normal.

Add passion and experience, patience and innovation, and a whole bunch of other related qualities and you may get to excellence. Just don't expect excellence when normal hasn't been reached.

In my world, Bill and Ted's "excellent" is stuck at "banal" not even reaching "normal."

Gerald F. Ward

Respect (The "R" in TIRE)

2009-10-22T11:26:00.001-07:00

T-Trust
I-Integrity
R-Respect
E-Excellence

After excersing on Monday, I went into a locker room filled with Army personnel, soldiers, all in camouflage. They were talking and joking and lamenting their upcoming day filled with full packs and long marches and weapons inspections. Then I noticed I had grabbed one of my daughters Barbie towels.

I have tremendous respect for anyone in the military, all who wear the uniform. My dad was a lifer in the Air Force, a First Sergeant for 17 years, all over three continents. I have been trained to respect the uniform and the flag sewn on the shoulder. The person wearing the uniform is a different story. I've met many who disgraced the uniform, having committed crimes, disrespected locals and their customs and the society where they were stationed, not representing positively the people for whom they worked. I didn't know any of these guys so my immediate response was respect.

I wanted them to respect me, too. So I hid, as best I could, the obvious image emblazoned on the towel I was using. No sense inviting ridicule.

Respect does not come in many forms. Only one, actually. It looks at a person and honors their value just because they are a person. But there are two sides to the coin. When two meet the respect of each to the other is immediately obvious. In a group, one can change the dynamic of the whole just by being there.

How we treat others is not dependent upon how they treat us. You do not control me. When you try it's called manipulation, which is an extreme piece of evidence showing disrespect. If I allow you to manipulate me it shows I have no respect for myself. Conversely, if I treat you with respect, regardless of how you treat me, then I recognize the value of both you and me. Respect, or its lack, is more evidence of a personal worldview based on a thoughtful, or thoughtless, moral code.

But respect does not stop at the person. Respect for the person extends to their work, their possessions, their accomplishments. As a Librarian, someone who works with the public in a large public library, I encounter daily the full range of people, from those who treat all with respect to those who treat none, including themselves, with respect. The evidence of their respectful attitudes comes through not only in how they treat people, but their surroundings and the holdings of the library.

Just because a person has value and deserves respect does not mean their actions and attitudes should be ignored or explained away. Those who devalue others, and the work, property and accomplishments of others, need respectful confrontation and specific boundaries. You cannot teach someone how to respect others if they are unwilling to learn, or change their worldview, or have been taught they have no value. It's a shame we have to post "rules of conduct" because of the many people who have not been trained to value themselves, or others, or property which they do not own.

In the end, it is still my own actions and attitudes for which I am responsible.

Gerald F. Ward

Integrity (The "I" in TIRE)

2009-10-17T15:03:00.001-07:00

"Integrity" - "firm adherence to a moral or artistic code" or "an unimpaired condition" or "the quality or state of being complete or undivided" are all definitions from the Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary.

The implication of all these definitions is the person with integrity acts according to a well-thought out moral code or worldview, and their actions and words are consistent whether they are alone or in a group. Consistency of character under various circumstances, from times of peace and tranquility to instances of life-threatening stress, provides the evidence of integrity. Ones character and personality, developed from childhood, builds understanding of a personal worldview. Thoughtful self-discipline will help form your character even after the "formative years" have past. You may not be able to change your personality but you can change your actions. You decide how you will act, and why.

What you do and say, reflects who you are (how you think and feel), which dictates what you will become. If your worldview says people have value then what you do and say will provide the evidence of what you believe and show people you do value them. If what you believe, and how you act, shows you do not value certain people, or value some more than others, then your words and actions will provide all the evidence needed.

The foundation of integrity is one's moral code or worldview. Integrity is judged by others based upon the evidence of the consistency of your life. Integrity cannot be hidden. It depends upon the persons honesty with others, but especially with themselves. Someone who believes a lie, and bases their morality or worldview upon a lie, may still have unshakable integrity, but will be unable to convince many by their life of the truth of their worldview. The effects of believing a lie will become more and more apparent the older the person grows.

I think I need to end my ramble and invite discussion.

Gerald F. Ward

Trust (My Opinion)

2009-10-15T13:47:00.001-07:00

Sacramento Public Library had an All-Staff-Training-Day yesterday. During lunch a Vendor Exhibition occupied the balcony. Health Net was giving away cards with "mood" strips. Blue = calm. Green = normal. Red = tense. Black = stressed. I carried one for the rest of the day pinching the strip to see if I every reached "stressed.

One of the things Rivkah Sass said, during the keynote address was the expectation of TIRE. Trust. Integrity. Respect. Excellence.

I've been thinking about trust, knowing I have little or none in much of what has happened in the Library over the last few years. I think most do not understand how trust happens but do know when trust has been violated.

Trust is not nebulous. Trust is an emotional response to a promise or expectation. Trust is not an emotion. If someone promises something and fulfills that promise then a level of trust is established and everyone is happy. If the promise is not met then there is distrust. Broken promises illicit the emotions of anger and fear. While most people don't actually like feeling anger or fear we don't react violently to frustration or discouragement. By the way, frustration is anger on a smaller scale just like discouragement is fear on a smaller scale. The cumulative affect of someone not fulfilling their promises is the belief they will never do so. Since we can't live in constant fear or anger we become desensitized to the person. We will not believe they will ever fulfill a promise no matter the circumstances. Once trust is broken it may never be fixed. You cannot force anyone to trust. another.

I took that little card and held it over a burner for a minute. It stayed blue even though the card almost caught fire. I can't trust it.

Gerald F. Ward

Self Enduced Amnesia

2009-10-03T14:41:00.001-07:00

The older I become (when I figure out how to become younger, I'll be rich) the harder it is on my short term memory. I've been telling people my brain cells are leaking out, turning my hair gray. It's an excuse.

I'm not interested in memory loss.

I'm concerned about isolation and amnesia.

As the library moves through a massive weeding process I've noticed an attempt to isolate those weeding from others so no questions are asked. Staffing levels drop, especially at Central, and the professional selection workload has shifted from on-site Librarians to a few off-site people. We're given a list of titles to weed and the only criteria for exclusion is lack of circulation. We don't get to buy anymore. The collection shrinks and so does our knowledge of it.

I've seen books weeded I think should have stayed. But, I and others are isolated in the over all process of weeding. I take care of my collection. No body else better touch it. Still, I'm weeding areas I have no clue about, so, I ask colleagues. Otherwise, there's no procedure for peer-reviewing materials sent away, or trashed. These are radical changes.

Once gone we're not getting them back, and frankly, they're forgotten. I'm not saying we shouldn't weed, or my colleagues weed too much. I'm saying let's not throw the baby out with the bath (a coined phrase). Err on the side of keeping.

Gerald F. Ward

Dan Lloyd: Former Volunteer

2009-10-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

Dan Lloyd hasn't volunteered for the Library for 5 years. He did volunteer for over ten years, working in the Sacramento Room, and with Federal Documents (which sends most people away, screaming). Being the persistent type, not willing to give up anything, he stayed with documents for thousands of hours. If it were not for Dan the Library would not have recognized many of the valuable items contained it its collection. When he moved to Arizona I pleaded with him to continue volunteering at the Library but he refused to ride his bike over the mountains more than once for the rest of his life. Sigh.

Well, Dan has finally ridden his bike over the mountains. He cycled in ten states this year, including California. For five weeks he would first drive to his destination, then on Tuesdays and Thursdays, cycle an average of 50 miles in each state. Over five weeks he drove 5,525 and bicycled 524.03 miles. He went through Arizona to Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, California, and Nevada.

Amazing.

More than a Library

2009-09-19T14:53:00.001-07:00

Sacramento Public Library is more than a Library, a storage place of books and magazines, where materials may be take out, then brought back so others may use them. Our Library is more than a place where people come to look for work, check their portfolios, or watch movies and play games, surf the Internet or check their email.

Our Library is a place where memories are collected, history is recorded, ideas grow. Within the Library are three places, collections, where people, anyone, may come and search the past, to understand the present and plan for the future.

On the balcony, ringing the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, lives the Sacramento Room. Its purpose is to collect and archive anything about Sacramento. Books, magazines, pamphlets, photographs, ephemera and much more, are found in this exquisite room. It is the place to start, and finish, when looking for local history.

On the third floor, tucked into a corner of the Central Library, is an archive of magazines in print and on microfilm, from current issues to those dating back to the early 1800's. Published mostly in the United States (with some from the United Kingdom) patrons can discover clues to the lifestyles, politics, entertainment and thinking of the people in our growing country.

Finally, hidden away in a closed area, but found on the Online Catalog, are Federal Documents, the essential history, policy and thinking of the United States Government. From the beginning of our nation, the American State Papers of 1776 and the Congressional Globe (now Congressional Record) of 1835, the investigations of the War of the Rebellion to Watergate, these documents give a blow by blow account of United States History.

Sacramento Public Library is more, much more, than a simple Library of best sellers and popular materials. These three collections are integral to the community of Sacramento, the history of California, the growth of the United States, and our place in the world in which we live.

Gerald F. Ward

For Your Viewing Pleasure While I'm in Disney World

2009-09-04T17:15:00.000-07:00

An unidentified creek in Roseville, near Auburn-Folsom Road and Douglas Blvd.

Minolta SRT 101, Kodachrome

About 1979

Civilian Exclusion Order No. 52

2009-09-03T16:29:00.001-07:00

On May 7, 1942, Civilian Exclusion Order Number 52 was issued in Sacramento. All Japanese in Sacramento went to the Memorial Auditorium to register for evacuation from the city and its surrounding areas. 8,600 persons from Sacramento, Stockton, San Joaquin County and other parts of superior California with over 3,500 from Sacramento proper are moved out of the area.

Sacramento Bee, May 7, 1942, Page 1

Prior to the exclusion notice, a large number of people of Japanese ancestry began preparing for the influx of evacuees at the Sacramento Assembly Center, also known as Walerga camp. All Japanese are evacuated from the Sacramento area by noon, May 16th. Nine days.

Walerga, located 14 miles from Sacramento, sitting on 160 acres, has 200 buildings hastily constructed by the Works Project Administration. Each building holds five families. There were five blocks with two community kitchens serving each block of 1,000 people. There were 20 bath houses and 30 lavatories for the entire camp.

Among the more prominent Sacramento Japanese who already have reported to the camp is Dr. George S. Iki. He and his staff of Japanese physicians are busy setting up the 150 bed hospital to care for any cases of illness among the evacuees.

Ruby Kawaski, a secretarial worker, is among those whose readjustment from home life to that found at the camp may be a bit difficult. "The camp is nice," Miss Kawaski declared, "but I've been living with American people for years and I seem to know them better than i do my fellow Japanese. It's a little strange, but I know I'm going to like it." Sacramento Bee, May 8, 1942, page 18.
The children, who have no clear realization of why they are in the camp, probably will fare best of all. They can play to their hearts content among the trees and open fields. Sacramento Bee, May 8, 1942, page 18

Sacramento Bee, May 7, 1942, Pages A1 and A14

Sacramento Bee, May 8, 1942, Page 18

Many Civilian Exclusion Orders were issued for various geographic areas along the West Coast. Before tranfer to their final location each person went through an Assembly Center. The following numbers account for all the people who went through the Sacramento Assembly Center at Welegra before being transferred to the Relocation Centers.

Civilian Exclusion Order Number 52 -- 3,647 to Sacramento from a total of 3,877
Civilian Exclusion Order Number 70 -- 286 to Sacramento from a total of 2,925
Civilian Exclusion Order Number 75 -- 576 to Sacramento from a total of 582
Civilian Exclusion Order Number 93 -- 19 to Sacramento from a total of 921
Civilian Exclusion Order Number 94 -- 2 to Sacramento from a total of 953

W 2.2:J 27 - Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942. Letterhead (p. vii): Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, Office of the Commanding General. Table 47, pages 363-366

250 Words: The Internet Changed Every Thing

2009-09-02T18:06:00.001-07:00

Blame it on the Internet. I mean, with FREE access to everything on-line (almost), a philosophy which demands everything in any form of 0's and 1's is information, available to everyone without restriction, Libraries have changed. People want stuff. We want to give it to them.

We're a library. Every thing's on-line, right? So what if we have no control. We used to have control over materials purchased, carefully selected for our public. Now, many come into the Library and don't even look at the shelves, their full attention upon securing the next available computer. It's the Internet. It's the way it is.

There is a curious statement at the top of every SPL job description:
Customers: enjoy a seamless and successful library experience as defined by their own expectations; choose their own method of interaction – staff assisted, self-directed or virtual.

Anyone who comes into the Library has an expectation about what they will receive once inside. They do not have to communicated their expectation to us. If all they want is computer time then that's why we're here. Notice the word "virtual" at the end of the sentence above. Post-modern thinking takes over. They may have to use a computer in a library, but within that computer, and their own little self-contained universe, there are no boundaries. No boundaries is dangerous.

Our philosophy has changed, but not by because of the Internet. I'm not convinced it's a positive change.

Gerald F. Ward

250 Words: Collection Management

2009-08-29T15:56:00.001-07:00

It is time for staff, hired for their expertise, to be given back the responsibility of selecting for the collection.

As is stands, there are exactly two people selecting all non-fiction for the entire system. They are good, experienced Librarians. The expectation placed upon them, to find books in every subject suitable for a system the size of SPL, is unreasonable. When the system went from most every librarian selecting material to a team of selectors, the expectation placed upon that team was also unreasonable.

Here are some of the results of the selector system, going backwards:

Many books, purchased within the last few years, are being discarded because they have never circulated. (Many are juvenile titles.) Sent to the branches by a contractor, who processes the books for the shelf, no one who works for the library has had a chance to see them before they are delivered. Our selectors buy them, often based only upon an Ingram or publisher recommendation. The only people who every touch the books are in some way affiliated with the library.

They do not circulate because they are of such poor quality, physically and as literature, it is a wonder they were published. Because the library is not using the expertise of their staff the Library is wasting money.

I predicted the redefinition of the scope of the collection. Currently, little care is given in the selection and purchase of books. This needs to change.

Gerald F. Ward

250 Words: Statistical Sources

2009-08-28T10:27:00.001-07:00

Let me describe some of our "users." I hesitate to call them "patrons," because the do not support the Library, nor "customers," because they don't use the collection except within a narrow scope. This does not describe everyone who comes into the Library. I call them "users" because they use the computers and nothing else.

These people are addicted, in a broad sense, to the Internet, movies, games, pornography. They come because they gain free, unencumbered access to their addictive substance of choice. They don't have to pay for it, are not questioned, or held accountable to anyone for their time or their persons. They have learned the system, and when the system does not meet their addictive expectations, they become angry, sullen and antisocial. Their body language shouts they care nothing for anyone around them, especially staff. They will not read a book (except for graphic novels, aka., comic books), or a magazine (except for Mad).

We let them do this because we gain something from their coming through our doors and using our equipment. We get statistics. See how many people use our computers, for how many hours, in our facilities. If it weren't for them our statistics would be dismal, and we might lose money from those who hold the purse-strings.

We "need" them as much as they "need" us. They feed their addiction, and we use them to make us "look good" without the collection actually being used.

Co-dependency is NEVER healthy.

Gerald F. Ward

250 Words: Perplexed Librarian (continued ...)

2009-08-26T19:24:00.001-07:00

How many of you recognized the anger in my recent posts?

I am angry still. Hopefully, I am expressing anger in a socially expectable manner. (If you think my anger appropriate, please tell me.) It seems to me there are a number of people in the country, and Sacramento, who have earned an MLS sometime in the past, call themselves "Librarians," but do not act like librarians. They act like managers more interested in impressing those holding the purse-strings than the public served.

It is difficult to place a value on what a librarian does for the public. The intangible understanding of information, knowledge of sources, and wisdom of experience has to be coupled with thinking like a librarian. Every Librarian is different. Every Librarian offers an intangible value to the Public with whom they work.

People who manage libraries think like managers, not librarians, especially if they are divorced from the public. Making decision based upon good managerial experience is different from making decisions based upon good librarian experience. It is as important Management listen to Librarians as it is the Librarian listen to their Managers.

Dear Management,

Don't patronize us by pretending to listen. If you've already made up your mind, be honest and say so. But, if you haven't worked with the public daily for some time, I suggest you pay attention to what we have to say.

Still Perplexed,

Gerald F. Ward

Perplexed Librarian - Part Five

2009-08-22T14:50:00.001-07:00

Five years ago I wrote a series of short articles submitted to Publib asking a series of questions trying to gain a better understanding of the state and direction of the Library world. Some of the logistical and system information is dated. Some duties have been refined and redefined. My email address has changed. However, my questions are still valid and I'm still seeking answers to these questions.

This is the final article in the series. GFW

August 5, 2004

Hands on experience answering patrons’ questions using the available resources create a valuable public services librarian. Simply having the initials MLS behind your name does not mean you are a qualified librarian. If you do not work with the public trying to answer the questions posed then you have no idea what a reference librarian should look like, let alone do. You will learn more about being a librarian in 6 months at a reference desk than you will in 2 years of class work. It is an understanding of what the available resources provide, and don’t provide, the ability to listen and hear the patrons’ questions, and the ongoing experience of working the desk that will build a valuable librarian.

Traditionally, people in management do not work with the public or the collection and therefore do not have, or have lost, the experiences which make a valuable public services librarian. Yet it is Management making the decisions about how librarians at the large public library in Sacramento, California, will serve the public of Sacramento. These decisions have
turned the valuable librarian into a mere "library worker" like the clerks found in any retail bookstore.

Watch the progression of events I have outlined in the last four perplexed writings:

1. Management has taken away the experience of selecting resources for the collection from the librarian and given the responsibility to a buyer similar to those used in retail stores. Librarians lose a way to gain experience.

2. Collection Development and Technical Services are outsourced (this is happening in many systems). Those librarians who worked in these departments no longer gain, and are unable to communicate, the experiences they have to enhance the collections, breaking down the ability of the public service librarian to grow in value to the public.

3. Librarians are moved away from the collections they formerly cared for, losing the experience needed to enhance and maintain the collection. Para-professional workers are reassigned to work the floors housing these collections. Retail stores have centralized information areas. This has happened were I work.

4. Experienced librarians working the reference telephone system are given the added clerical duties of a receptionist. The job description of the librarian is defined down. The ability to grow in experience is overwhelmed by the important, but routine, job of a receptionist.

If the trend in the pubic library world is toward limiting, removing and overwhelming the experiences needed to make a valuable librarian, then the librarian, as we know it, will disappear. Within a generation, our profession will go away, replaced by simple "workers."

The next logical step is to redefine the mission and limit the scope of the collections found in libraries.

Gerald F. Ward
SPLibrarian@hotmail.com

Perplexed Librarian - Part Four

2009-08-21T16:04:00.001-07:00

Five years ago I wrote a series of short articles submitted to Publib asking a series of questions trying to gain a better understanding of the state and direction of the Library world. Some of the logistical and system information is dated. My email address has changed. TELIS has been moved, and the workload realigned. However, my questions are still valid and I'm still seeking answers to these questions.

This is the fourth article in the series. GFW

August 5, 2004

For those of you who have been reading my perplexing questions, and responding, thank you. I have one more situation to describe, and then I will sum up what I am seeing.

The evidence suggests that our management wish to turn the Library into a system of retail outlets with Library workers instead of Librarians and Library assistants. In part one I described the move toward a centralized buying system similar to that used in a retail store. In part two I suggested that the system was examining moving toward outsourcing the Collection and Technical Services of the Library. Part three examined the removal of Librarians from a multilevel main library to a single floor, and reassigning professional work to para-professionals. In this part I will present the redefinition of the Librarians job description. I will examine one area of work done by every Librarian at the main library.

The large public library serving the community of Sacramento, California, has centralized its telephone reference services. Instead of each of the 26 branches answering the phones a cadre of Librarians take turns responding to telephone inquiries. This service is available seven days a week, mostly during hours when any branch is open, and even after all but the main library is closed. Telephone reference is available to the public 67 hours a week, which is far more hours than any branch or the main library. There are a few times during the day when the lines are not busy. Most of the time there are three Librarians answering between 20 and 60 calls, not questions, per hour. Each patron receives at least five minutes of time. If the question cannot be answered within five minutes then we will call the person back within 24 hours with a more detailed answer. Those patrons needing to speak with a branch are transferred. Every imaginable question is fielded in the telephone reference department. The phone traffic can be very heavy.

It has been suggested that management hire a receptionist to triage telephone inquiries. There are many times when all the patron wants to know is the hours of their local branch. A Receptionist would take calls and send them to the appropriate extension. Instead, Management has decided to experiment with the converse. Librarians answering the phones are now, during certain times, answering and directing callers to the management team. The job done by the Librarian now includes clerical and receptionist duties. We are being redefined as "library workers."

Please note that many of my colleagues have at least one and many have two graduate degrees and lots of library experience. Do I need to change my expectations about the duties of the Librarian in the public library world?

Gerald F. Ward
SPLibrarian@hotmail.com

Perplexed Librarian - Part Three

2009-08-19T19:20:00.001-07:00

Five years ago I wrote a series of short articles submitted to Publib asking a series of questions trying to gain a better understanding of the state and direction of the Library world. Some of the logistical and system information is dated. My email has changed. However, my questions are still valid and I'm still seeking answers to these questions.

This is the third article in the series. GFW

August 4, 2004

In part one of my personal perplexed position I described how the system for which I work has moved to a centralized retail style buying of materials. Part two examined the possible outsourcing of the departments which handled the actual buying and processing of the materials selected by the buyers. We are beginning to look like a retail outlet. In this part the blurring of the lines between the work of the professional and the para-professional perplexes me. It appears that there will no longer be Librarians and Library Assistants but simply "Library workers." Again, let me give some background pertaining to the Library at which I work.

In 1992 the main library opened its doors in a brand-new building. I have been working in this building since right after it opened. There are five floors open to the public. Four of those floors are the responsibility of the Information Librarians (the last being the domain of the Youth Service Librarian). Initially, Librarians would be at the Information desks on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors. Located on the 2nd floor are the Reference materials and part of the circulating collection. On the 3rd floor you will find Federal, State and Local Documents, Fiction and Periodicals with Indexes. Our 4th floor houses the rest of the circulating collection and a Genealogy collection. The 1st floor has new titles, audio and video, and the circulation desk.

Librarians at the main library provide service for walk-in patrons, answer the telephones for all 26 branches, and staff an archive devoted to local information. In 12 years of service the 4th floor has never been staffed. Librarians from the 2nd and 3rd floor regularly go with patrons to the other floors to help find materials and then return to their current desk assignment.

Recently, the main library lost five Librarians, four LA’s, and one Technician to other branches. A Librarian and LA left the system for other jobs, and the Head of the main library was reassigned. It was determined by Management that para-professional library workers only would staff the 3rd floor. Now, those para-professional library workers are asked questions about Federal, State and Local Documents, Readers Advisory, and searching periodical indexes. They must also care for 15 Internet computers and two MS Office computers, in addition to their other previously assigned duties. Librarians must care for four floors from a central location, or try to explain in enough detail how to find material without leaving the floor because we have a line of people in front of the desk.

Are the lines between professional and para-professional duties and expectations dissolving? Are para-professionals now expected to provide reference expertise to the public? Are Libraries offering less hands-on service to their public? Should we refer to ourselves as ‘library workers’ instead of Librarians?

Do I need to change my expectations about how I serve the public?

Gerald F. Ward
SPLibrarian@hotmail.com

Perplexed Librarian - Part Two

2009-08-18T16:09:00.001-07:00

Five years ago I wrote a series of short articles submitted to Publib asking a series of questions trying to gain a better understanding of the state and direction of the Library world. Some of the logistical and system information is dated. My email has changed. However, my questions are still valid and I'm still seeking answers to these questions.

This is the second article in the series. GFW

August 2, 2004

In part one I wondered how decisions are being made in the selection of material for the large public library I work for in Sacramento, California. All of the evidence points toward Management deciding that we are to mimic a chain of retail book stores. Their first step was to shift the responsibility for the selection of materials to professional and para-professional buyers and away from the specific branches and Librarians who work with their public. If you are going to reduce the number of people selecting material to a team of buyers, then the next logical step is to actually buy and process materials like a retail outlet used by customers. Management wants to outsource the work of the Collection development (CDV) and Technical Services (TEC) Departments. They propose hiring a consultant to examine the workload with the vision of down-sizing or eliminating altogether these two departments. If they hold true to form, they have already decided to outsource the work and simply need a document that states the value of doing so. This document will cost thousands of dollars.

Let me briefly describe our CDV and TEC Departments. CDV buys materials selected and TEC processes the materials received for the branches and the main library. CDV also looks for materials the selectors may have missed, compiles lists of special purchases, talks to the selectors and branches about the needs and wants of the Library, evaluates patron recommendations, cares for the serials collection, the electronic resources collection, and
much more. TEC catalogs materials purchased, donated, and found. Then TEC processes, stamps, labels, barcodes, etc. the material for each branch and sees that the material is delivered. Because the people who work in CDV and TEC work for the Library they take special care and look out for the needs of the branches.

Outsourcing CDV and TEC would remove from the hands of library workers the process described above. The intrinsic relationship between CDV and TEC would be severed and the branches would receive only a prepackaged product selected by the buyers. A Contractor, removed from the Library, would purchase, track, receive, reimburse, catalog, process and deliver the product to the outlet. If the product is wrong, unnecessary, unwanted, processed incorrectly, or there is any other problem, the Library has no other recourse than sending it back to the Contractor. There will be no personal interaction between the Contractor and the outlets. Management is already depleting the human resources of the Library and is moving toward outsourcing as soon as possible.

Is outsourcing and eliminating the work done by professionals and para-professionals in CDV and TEC desirable and more efficient? How will outsourcing change the level and types of service libraries already have?
Will service improve? Will patrons expectations of libraries change? Will libraries as we know them cease to exist, replaced by something like an information/entertainment outlet?

Am I asking the wrong questions?

Gerald F. Ward
SPLibrarian@hotmail.com

Perplexed Librarian

2009-08-14T17:31:00.001-07:00

Five years ago I wrote a series of short articles submitted to Publib asking a series of questions trying to gain a better understanding of the state and direction of the Library world. Some of the logistical and system information is dated. My email has changed. However, my questions are still valid and I'm still seeking answers to these questions. The following is the first post as it appeared. GFW

July 29, 2004

I am perplexed and need help understanding what is happening. Are the duties and responsibilities of the Public Librarian changing? Are there systems implementing changes in how professionals and para-professionals do their jobs?

I have worked for over 15 years at a Large Public Library system in Sacramento California. Our Management is implementing a series of changes, without explaining those changes, that have many of my colleagues and me concerned. It appears we are moving away from a not-for-profit, patron-service oriented library to a for-profit, customer-product retail-outlet model. Actually, the evidence suggests the library is becoming a not-for-profit, customer-product based retail outlet, in effect moving away from a patron-service oriented library without gaining anything tangible. In essence, Management wants to turn the public library into a large, chain bookstore.

There has been a progression of events implemented and suggested which lend credence to the above statements. I will give you the first of these implemented changes and follow at a later time with the others. Our collection development policy (how titles are selected for each of the branches and the main library) has been radically changed. Previously, people at each branch selected for their branch and community. The main library assigned selection responsibilities to subject specialists who enhanced and maintained its collection. In this way the collections grew according to the subjective experiences of those who worked with the collection and the people who used the collection. (I regularly spoke with the people who used the collection I was responsible for gaining a serious understanding of what they wanted and needed.)

Earlier this year, the system shifted to a cluster of small selection teams comprising professionals and para-professional library workers. These teams select titles for all the branches and the main library according to loosely defined and vague community profiles. Someone who works at a small branch, in a distant community, is selecting materials for large community sized branches and the main library. Likewise, people at the large main library are selecting materials for the small, outlying branches. People who do not know the Library, the collection of the Library, or the people who use the Library are selecting materials for the Library. We are moving toward centralized buying, exactly like that used in large, retail chain book stores.

Is this movement happening in other Library systems? Is this a good way for Libraries to operate? Do I not understand the dynamic of how Libraries are going to have to operate because of budget constraints and the effects of the Internet? Are there questions I am not considering?

Gerald F. Ward
SPLibrarian@hotmail.com

Meander

2009-08-12T18:59:00.000-07:00

Trail around MacArthur-Burney Falls, Spring 2006, Konica-Minolta Z10

250 Words: Interlibrary Loan

2009-08-11T11:25:00.001-07:00

Another unique Public Library service has been terminated. After mid-August we will no long offer InterLibrary Loan. ILL is no longer "cost effective". Apparently, Link+ offers sufficient resources.

Let me speak gently: Public Libraries, funded with public monies, are NEVER COST EFFECTIVE. There is nothing about a public library critical to the safety and security of the community. We are not police, fire or medical. People will not die without a library. We SPEND public money.

We do not base decisions upon cost effectiveness. We make decisions based upon the responsibility we have to the public we serve. In my mind, part of that responsibility is to provide LIBRARY SERVICES not duplicated by any other public or private institution. Are the services we provide redundant? Are we doing, or trying to do, what other institutions do better? Let those who do it better, do it, period.

An example: there are many retail outlets which sell books and rent videos. We buy books and videos and let people use them for free. Can you find in the Library new titles these retail outlets rent or sell? Yes. Can you find older titles the Library has in these retail outlets? No. Our Library actually takes money out and jobs away from the community. Isn't our responsibility to give back to the community, not take from it?

Do this: go to any retail outlet and ask them if you can borrow microfilm from a New Jersey Library through their store. As you leave, listen for laughter.

Gerald F. Ward

Advertising and Propaganda

2009-08-06T13:46:00.001-07:00

Advertising and propaganda are twins. Both seek to influence the way a person thinks and feels. Both are geared more toward feeling than thinking because most people make decisions based upon emotions and attribute it to thinking. The goal of advertising is to influence people to buy a product whether they need it or not. The goal of propaganda is to change the way people think and feel about a specific philosophy or worldview. Both want people to think in a specific way, and feel specific emotions, and act upon those thoughts and emotions. All of these elements are defined by those creating the advertising or propaganda.

You will do what your head and heart tell you to do. It is important the whole person be involved in making decisions. Those who allow their heads to dominate their actions, ignoring their hearts, are despotic. Those who allow their hearts to dominate their actions, ignoring their heads, are fanatical. Sound decisions are based on knowing (intellectually and intimately) the truth and acting upon that truth. Truth is not relative or individual, but can be interpreted in a relative manner.

"The American Historical Association produced the G.I. Roundtable Series to help win World War II. Or so they were led to believe. In fact the U.S. Army sought the pamphlets as part of a larger effort to prepare for the transition to the postwar world, and represent a novel effort at social control."

[Excerpts from "What is Propaganda" by Ralph D. Casey, July 1944, G I Roundtable Series, W 1.55:2]

Democratic vs. Enemy Propaganda

Hitler and his partners in aggression are not the only experts in propaganda, however. The weapon of propaganda in the modern world must be parried and the blows returned by counter-propaganda. In the struggle for men’s minds that is constantly being waged by propagandists there is, however, a fundamental difference between the propaganda of dictatorship and the propaganda of democracy.

Hitler himself, in Mein Kampf, laid down his rules for dictatorship. He stated the “principle of the whopping lie” and of the gullibility of the masses. If you are going to tell a lie, he said, and nobody doubts that he intended to, don’t tell a little one, because it will be recognized as a lie. Tell the biggest and most unlikely lie you can think of, keep on telling it, and the people will think it must be the truth and believe it. “The greater the lie, the more effective it is as a weapon,” said the master of the alleged “master race.”

Moreover, he went on, don’t be fooled into thinking that you have to sway the influential people—the leaders of opinion—to your side first. “Toward whom must propaganda be directed,” he asked, “toward the scientific intelligentsia or toward the uneducated masses?” His answer was, “It must always and exclusively be directed toward the masses. The teachability of the great masses is very limited, their understanding small, and their memory short.” In a word, he believes that it pays to take advantage of ignorance and that it is therefore best to keep the people ignorant.

Defining Propaganda

While most persons who give the matter a thought make distinctions between an objectively written news report and propaganda, they encounter difficulty when they try to define propaganda. It is one of the most troublesome words in the English language. To define it clearly and precisely, so that whenever it is used it will mean the same thing to everybody, is like trying to get your hands on an eel. You think you’ve got it-then it slips away.

When you say “policeman” or “house,” everybody has a pretty clear idea of what you mean. There’s nothing vague about these terms. But when you try to mark off the exact boundaries of “propaganda,” you wrinkle the brows even of the men who spend their lives studying the origin and history of words. And the problem of defining propaganda is all the more tangled because in the first World War it acquired certain popular meanings that stick to it like burrs to a cocker spaniel.

How to Size Up Propaganda

He should not forget that there are safeguards and checks for sizing up the merits of propaganda and the self-interest that may lie back of it. One authority on propaganda suggests two tests:

l. Is it really propaganda? Is some individual or group consciously trying to influence opinion and action? Who? For what purpose?

2. Is it true? Does a comparison of independent reports show that the facts are accurate? Does such a comparison show that the suggestions made are soundly based?

There are other tests that can be applied by the thinking citizen:

Which fact or set of facts in a piece of promotion are really important and relevant? Which are irrelevant?

If some individual or group is trying to influence opinion and action, is the effort selfish or is it unselfish? Will action resulting from the propaganda benefit the individual or group responsible for it? Or will it benefit those who act upon the suggestion given in the propaganda? Or will it benefit both?

What is likely to be the effect of the action or of the opinion that the propaganda is trying to set in motion?

All these points boil down to some very simple questions: What is the source of the propaganda? What is its authority? What purposes prompted it? Whom will it benefit? What does it really say?

...

To see this pamphlet on the Internet click here. Donald Duck is a Walt Disney character, used with permission by the War Department of the United States Government.

250 Words: Serendipity

2009-08-01T16:35:00.001-07:00

Serendipity: the act of making fortunate, unexpected discoveries.

What a great word. I like saying it. Ser-en-dip-i-ty.

Finding the three articles in the Sacramento Bee was pure serendipity. I was looking for articles on the subject, but to find THE articles mentioned in the WRA document was complete serendipity.

It was not luck.

I was looking for something specific. I knew where to look. I knew what I was looking for. I was looking for any articles on the return of the Japanese to Sacramento. I made an educated guess based upon the time of publication of the document. I spent time looking.

If you don't know what you're looking for you won't know it when you see it (Duh!) One of the values of a Librarian is the experience garnered from working in a Library, from working with the collection, helping people find answers, knowing what is available.

I don't believe in luck. I believe in discipline, in thinking and finding solutions. I believe in tenacity, another good word. I believe looking at experience through the lens of truth. Not my perception of what I think or feel is true, or want to be true, or hope is true. That lens isn't a cataract.

There are times when good and bad things may happen. Calling this luck is akin to superstition. I don't believe in superstitions, either.

A big part of success comes from hard work, tenacity and serendipity. And correct thinking.

Gerald F. Ward

War Relocation Authority: Community Analysis Notes No. 8

2009-07-30T13:49:00.001-07:00

In 1945 the Japanese who had been evacuated from the Sacramento area started to return. They faced hostility and acceptance, violence and benevolence. The following are excerpts from a Federal Document describing the pre- and post-war population, hinting at what actually happened and was to happen. For those of you who wish to slog through this document you may email me and I will email you the PDF.

I was intrigued by a statement toward the end of the report. Regardless of current personal opinions about the local newspaper, the official WRA report suggests the Sacramento Bee was less than cordial and supportive of returning Japanese. The statement made was vague. So I went to the in-house index of the Sacramento area newspapers to see what I could find. The index was compiled by Library staff and is in no way comprehensive. For the dates 1937 to 1973 I could find nothing about the exclusion and evacuation of the Japanese from Sacramento, nor of their return. I will make no judgments nor draw any conclusions concerning the lack of indexing.

Next, I grabbed a roll of film for January, 1945, and started looking at the Bee. After about 30 minutes I found three articles, included after the excerpts.

Gerald F. Ward

______________________________

I 52.11:8

WAR RELOCATION AUTHORITY

Community Analysis Section

March 1, 1945

Community Analysis Notes No. 8

WEST COAST LOCALITIES: SACRAMENTO COUNTY AND CITY

Sacramento County

[Excerpted from page 1]

In a total pre-war population of 105,000 in the City of Sacramento, the Japanese population was just under 2,900. The Japanese population of the County was, in 1940, 6,764.

At evacuation, most Sacramento County people went to Tule Lake Center, where many remained even after segregation. In July, 1944, there were 2,799 at Tule Lake, more than 2,000 having been residents there before segregation. Other Sacramento people had come in from all centers except Heart Mountain and Minidoka. On the same date, there were 382 at Poston, all but 7 individuals residing in Camp II; and 623 at Gila (September 30). (Exact numbers at other centers not known.)

[Excerpted from page 7-8]

Post-Exclusion. At evacuation, workers in State offices were "suspended". Since the lifting of Japanese exclusion, State Personnel Board (Civil Service) has announced that Nisei evacuees will be employed according to their qualifications, applications being accepted from those who never have worked for the State previously, and old employees being re-hired after individual investigation.

The Council of Churches, YMCA, and Council for Civic Unity have made statements and given material to the newspapers in a campaign to gain acceptance of returning evacuees. Rabbi Goldburg addressed the Rotary Club in January, condemning boycotts. Undoubtedly a boycott would not be effective in a city the size of Sacramento.

Attitudes of people who have rented Japanese property apparently are the same as attitudes elsewhere or perhaps a little better.

The Sacramento Bee has continued a campaign against return of the Japanese, although its statements, on the whole, have not been violent and it has quoted favorable statements by civic organizations.

A genuine difficulty arises in the increase of population in the old Japanese district, especially increase of Negro population. An undisciplined element here and around the railroad station presents a real problem to returning evacuees. a man who returned before the lifting of exclusion, Mr. Osada, and his Caucasian wife who had remained in Sacramento have pointed out the possible threat from a undisciplined group having a high proportion of males. The Osadas have assisted others returning on short-term leaves, have cared for evacuee property, and probably will give other assistance in the course of their real estate business.

Mrs. Tono Sakai, from Topaz, was issued in January a Sacramento license to operate the Lincoln Hotel, believed to be the first business permit issued to a foreign-born Japanese in California since December 17, 1944.

...

Police Chief McAllister of Sacramento City has asked for cooperation of the public in avoiding any untoward incidents, stating "acts of violence ... will not be tolerated." Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, following the above mentioned fires, added 3 deputies to the sheriff's staff to give extra protection to Japanese and their property.

___________________________________

Sacramento Bee, January 17, 1945, Page 8

Sacramento Bee, January 18, 1945, Page 6

Sacramento Bee, January 19, 1945, Page 20

Success by the Numbers

2009-07-29T19:13:00.001-07:00

Let's look at some numbers, not at the quality of the items but the number of items and what they may tell us. I'm going to make some assumptions. Not wild guesses, but guesses still, to make sense of the numbers.

How many DVD's are owned by SPL? According to the "Browse our DVDs" link there are 8876 results of DVD's in the system. This does not tell us how many there are, just that there are so many pointers to so many records. According to Millennium there are 2813 separate "call numbers" for these pointers to these 8876 records.

I'm going to assume two thirds of our DVD holdings are movies or television programs in English and other languages. This means there are about 1874 records representing movies or television shows. The rest of the 2813 are educational or instructional DVDs. There are redundant record pointers in the catalog. Let's round down the number to 1800.

How many actual DVDs are represented by these 1800 titles? These titles represent multiple seasons of TV shows, or multiple parts of long movies. Some of the movies may have over 100 copies on hold and circulating in the system while others may have less than 5. I am going to assume the average number of copies per title is 20. This means there are 36 thousand individual DVDs circulating in the system.

Does this sound right? Does anyone know the actual number? I can't find the actual numbers anywhere so I'm making an educated guess.

Let's jump over to the retail world. Most retail outlets rent movies and TV shows for about 3 dollars a week. 36,000 times $3.00 is $108,000.00. Now, let's multiple this number by 52 weeks in a year. $5,616,000.00. Just to be fair, let's round down again and make it an even $5,000,000.00 per year. This is a conservative guess.

SPL is saving our patrons, uh, customers, five million dollars a year in rental fees.

Change the average copies per title to 30 and the number jumps to over eight million dollars.

I guess (assume) these numbers go a long way toward making the Library successful.

Gerald F. Ward

250 Words: Success

2009-07-28T15:32:00.001-07:00

A formula for Success:

(Q¹+Q²)(L¹)=S¹

Quantity plus Quality times Longevity equals Success.

A quantity is a number. One is a number. Zero is not. Quantity is completely objective. Dependent upon the means used to collect the data the numbers will tell a story, a history. The truth of the number may be subverted but the fact of the numbers cannot be changed.

Quality, almost wholly subjective, is not so easily evaluated. One person's shoddy is another's excellence. In order to be valid the standard used must, therefore, be determined by a source standing outside of, or separate from, those subjective evaluators.

Multiply the above equations by Longevity. How long does a thing last. The longer it lasts the more successful it is. The implication is: some things can be more, or less, successful, than other things. We need not limit to things. Ideas, philosophies or theologies, can be deemed successful when they are recognized as universal, supported by a quantity of people and a quality of lifestyle.

A successful thing, idea, philosophy or theology is determined by quantity times how long the quantity lasts, plus quality times how long the quality lasts.

There are books which have been before the public's life for thousands of years. Would we not consider these successful? There are other books which strike with a bright flash and fade just as quickly. I have a hard time calling these successful.

250 Words: Living in Antarctica

2009-07-16T13:53:00.001-07:00

Summers at the bottom of the world are colder than winters at the top. Don't believe me? Ask someone who has summered (wintered) in Antarctica.

Here's the CIA World Factbook map of Antarctica showing the political claims of various countries. The United States lays no claim to any of the continent but has reserved the right to do so in the future. The population of the island is transient, with over 4,000 people living there in the "summer" and about 1,000 in the "winter".

Here's another map. Do you see the red oval? I'm hesitant to say "West" because every place on the continent is actually "North". This mountain range is filled with glaciers. One of the glaciers is named "Henderson Glacier."

In 1964-65 Felix E. Henderson, a Meteorologist for the Weather Bureau, spent 13 months in Antarctica. This means he saw summer and winter (remember, that's our summer) at the "bottom" of the world. Eights Stations, to be exact. He was one of those thousand privileged members of the Antarctica population, an elite member of spent-a-year-in-Antarctica club. The USGS named a glacier after him. Henderson Glacier is "about 7 mi long in the Enterprise Hills, Heritage Range, flowing NE from Schoeck and Hoinkes Peaks to enter Union Glacier just E of Mount Rossman."

Felix works at the Central Library. His great patience, easy going personality, and precision to detail are the traits of a Meteorologist stationed in Antarctica for over a year.

Quiet Moment

2009-07-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

A quiet moment on the Consumnes River near Plymouth.

Minolta SRT 101, 35mm lens, Kodachrome, 1 second @ f8.

20 years

2009-07-10T15:52:00.001-07:00

Today is a milestone.

20 years ago, one month after graduating from San Jose State University, I began working as an on-call Librarian at the Carmichael Library. Back then I worked for Sacramento County.

We had computer catalogs running off CD-ROMs. How many of you remember CLSI? A command based computer system to check out books, search holdings and send messages for priorities. There was no scrolling backward if the message went off the screen.

I had to dig deep to remember CLSI. (Actually, I didn't remember the name of the system. I had to ask someone who was here at that time.) We've come a long way since those days.

We used 386's. Dial-up modems were 28k. Dialog was expensive. My hair was brown.

Gerald F. Ward

27 Things: Lifelong Learning: Thing Seven and a Half - Play

2009-07-09T13:51:00.001-07:00

If there is one thing this exercise has been it's play.

We are supposed to play with electronic tools and play with our blog and play with our thinking. Learning by rote, like memorizing a language, may help you with its mechanical use but is too easily forgotton with the passage of time. Playing with something, though, and having fun while playing with it, impresses the brain and the heart with joyfull memories.

I had fun doing this - I think I'll do it again.

You know what I can do? I can do that with this!

Let me show you how.

This is how I did it.

What you did was great!

Some just aren't as excited about using specific electronic tools as others. Honestly, some of what I played with just didn't click. That's okay. I love Flickr. (I also have a Picasa account.) Thingfo did nothing for me. (Just couldn't make it work.) I may never use Twitter, but I know how. (Who is this person and why do they want to follow me? Block!)

I have discovered blogging. This is one of the best ways I have found to capture and express my thinking. By limiting most of my posts to 250 words I force myself to think and write concisely. My posts are not exhaustive descriptions but personal and professional questions with short answers, or creative thoughts requiring no answers.

I'm still learning, and will, as I'm inspired, continue writing.

Gerald F. Ward

Routier Station Benchmark JS0837

2009-07-08T17:54:00.001-07:00

Built either in 1860, 1866, or 1870, Routier Station was a Railroad Station and Post Office on the Sacramento & Placerville Railroad. The Honorable Joseph Routier, owning 120 acres of Orchards and Vineyards, established the station to help export his wine and fruit. Routier had worked for Captain Joseph Folsom, then was a State Assemblyman, Senator, a Justice of the Peace, and a Fish Commissioner. The building, located at 9978 Folsom Blvd, has most recently been the office for Realty Companies, including Pfingst Reality. As of July 2009, it was listed for sale. See: Rootsweb.

I have been driving by this building for over 30 years and have, at times, been intriqued by it, it's placement between a busy Folsom Blvd and a busy Railroad, and that anyone could run a business out of it. It just looked odd, out of place. Who would put a building, a business, right next to a railroad track?

Once I discovered it had served as a Railroad station it all made sense. But, why is it still there? That's when I discovered it is one of the oldest buildings in Sacramento County. However, it is not listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Since discovering USGS and Geodetic Survey marks I have started looking for them around town. Using geocaching.com's zip-code search I found one near my house. Trying to figure out where by the description, I realized it was in the old Routier Station. Here's the description:

0.8 Mile Southwest along U.S. Highway 50 from the Junction of Mather Field Road at Mills, set vertically in the Northwest face of the concrete porch of a building occupied by Rancho Realty, 44 feet Southwest of the center line of the highway, 25 feet Southeast of the corner of the building, about 1 foot higher than the highway, and 0.9 foot above the ground.

So I went and looked.

Here's Routier Station from across Folsom Blvd.

The porch of the Station facing West.

The porch of the station facing East.

A closer view of the porch with the benchmark in the lower right.

A closeup of the benchmark.

250 Words: Librarians as Teachers

2009-07-07T16:21:00.001-07:00

Libraries are strange, mysterious places. The older a library is the greater the possibility of hidden treasures, materials sequestered away, available while remaining unavailable. Not hidden in corners or cabinets or closets, but in books and magazines and databases.

It is essential Librarians be teachers as well as explorers. Knowing a collection means knowing how the collection is arranged and what it contains. Librarians do not want to hide what is in the collection but show people how to find what is there. To do this the Librarian must have an understanding of the tools needed to find what is there and a creative approach to using those tools. Sometimes, we need to make those tools from scratch because the ones available are inadequate.

Generally, we teach one-on-one, as those seeking ask for direction. Some of our instruction becomes rote, saying the same thing over and over; click here, type there, press Enter, look for this, do that. How mundane for us. But for the person we're teaching it's an adventure. Watch your attitudes, folks.

However, it is becoming necessary to teach larger groups, especially the how-to's of using electronic databases and the Internet. Two things are needed for this kind of teaching: an intimate understanding of what is available and how it changes - sometimes daily, and a teaching style bordering on entertaining. Capture their attention and make them do something they will remember.

Most Librarians don't have these traits. Some do, but don't want to teach groups.

Gerald F. Ward

250 Words: Benchmarks

2009-07-03T15:33:00.001-07:00

A benchmark is a standard of measurement, like a ruler, so work done conforms to the determined norm. A benchmark is an official guide for measuring anything.

Across the street from the Central Library is a Federal Building, the Post Office, constructed in 1932. 801 I Street is on the National Register of Historic Places. There are two USGS benchmarks, showing exact elevation, directly outside the building. I posted pictures of one on 6-26-09. Then I discovered there is another at the opposite end of the building. These benchmarks are located on the Southwest and Southeast corners, facing the numbered streets, 8th and 9th, at the top of the granite stairs just to the side of the actual entrance to the building.

Go to the entrance facing 9th street and walk up the stairs. Look to the right of the entrance and you will see the brass benchmark.

Here is an image of that benchmark.

Notice the elevation and then go to the previous post and see what the elevation is on the Southwest corner facing 8th street.

My questions are: what are the benchmarks used to determine the success of a library? I know we use statistics, like circulation or patronage, to measure the level of use. These are tangible benchmarks. What are the intangible benchmarks? Is it possible to measure the intangible? Yes, we can use patron satisfaction surveys. But, what about using staff satisfaction surveys to measure the quality of the collection?

Then listening.

Gerald F. Ward

Sacramento Digital Stories: Mather Field Vernal Pools

2009-07-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

The fields adjacent the Mather AFB housing area, now Mather Field, in Sacramento County, have not been grazed or cultivated for over 70 years. There is a variety of wildlife in this protected habitat, including the flora and fauna of the Mather Field vernal pools.

This is one of the Digital Stories created by sacramento Public Libary. All of these stories may be viewed at Sacramentolibrary.blip.tv.

Click to play Written and Narrated by Gerald F. WardPhotography by Gerald F. WardSome Images provided by the following

U.S. Government Agencies:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service http://images.fws.gov/
Ground Squirrels by Gary R. Zahm
Tiger Salamander by Michael Van Hatten
Western Toad & Western Spadefoot by James Bettsao
National Biological Information Infrastructure http://images.nbii.gov/
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation http://www.usbr.gov/
Fermilab Ecology Images http://www.fnal.gov/ecology/wildlife/pics/
Red Tail Hawks by Tim Koeth
National Park Service Sounds and Images http://www.nature.nps.gov/soundsimages/index.cfm
U.S. Geological Survey Soundwaves Images http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/
Bullfrog by Chris Brown
U.S. Geological Survey Western Ecological Center http://www.werc.usgs.gov/
California King Snake by Chris Brown

250 Words: Programming

2009-07-01T15:55:00.001-07:00

Library programs promote use of the Library. Book clubs, story-times, show-and-tell, exhibits, and more, encourage people to come to the Library to find relevant information. Provided, of course, the program actually promotes using the Library. Programs which attract people without encouraging them to use the collection may enhance numbers but do little to persuade them to come back.

Programming is part of the Position Description for Librarian. ("7. Designs and presents programs and presentations and accompanying materials.") Classifications which may do programming include: Librarian (51), Library Associate (2.5), Library Program Specialist (3), Library Services Specialist (1), Literacy and Homework Center Supervisor (1), and Trainer (1). This means every Librarian in the system may do programs. But then, every Librarian in the system may do cataloging, too.

Does it matter if the staff person is trained to do programming? All Librarians are trained Librarians. Not all are trained for, or have the personality to do, programming. Generally speaking, a person does not become a Librarian to do programming.

Programs are not classes. They may instruct, but are meant to excite more than teach. The purpose of a Library program is to draw people into using the Library. The benchmark of a successful Library program is whether the participants come back to use the Library regularly.

One of the statistics kept, whcih impresses the Board, is the number of programs done during a period of time. The types of programs are not are not revealed to the Board.

Does quantity trump quality?

Gerald F. Ward

27 Things: 140 Characters: Twitter

2009-06-30T11:00:00.001-07:00

Joined Twitter Found twollowers Some on FB IMHO FTF IRL better tweeting 2 Tweeters in tweetosphere No tweetsult intended Twitterrhea and fab twitticisms abound BFN

27 Things: Technorati and Claiming My Blog

2009-06-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

I have just claimed this blog using Technorati.

yrukivqh3p

250 Words: Collecting

2009-06-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

On January 1, 2004 there were 66 FTE Librarian positions (not LIII or Supervisors) in SPL. There were 27 libraries operating a total of 950 hours per week.

On July 1, 2009 there will be 51 FTE Librarian positions (not Library Supervisors) in SPL. There are 27 libraries operating a total of 1003 hours per week.

I am deliberately NOT including the Sacramento Room or TELIS.

There are 15 less Librarians working 53 hours more in the same number of locations.

Before 2004, the vast majority of Librarians in the system helped select titles for the non-fiction collection, specifically for the Branch in which they worked. This began to change as the collection development responsibilities were consolidated as a centralized team of Librarians began selecting non-fiction titles for all Libraries, including those remotely located from their duty station.

In July 2009 there are exactly two Librarians choosing non-fiction for the entire system.

Each Branch does have a limited amount of discretionary money with which they may purchase titles already cataloged and in the system. In other words, the Branch cannot use their money to buy titles unless several copies are bought at the same time. Never again will a Branch buy the only copy of a book.

A provocative question: Why is the expertise and profound knowledge of the individual Librarian ignored in developing the collection?

A possible answer: The job of the Librarian is changing to emphasize programming, teaching classes and outreach.

Have I missed something?

Gerald F. Ward

250 Words: Baseline Mark JS 1013

2009-06-26T11:52:00.001-07:00

Curiosity is not one of my driving forces. However, when my curiosity is piqued I tend to explore until satisfied. I am not curious about everything. I have become curious about the Geodetic Survey mark I found near Lake Tahoe. There are over a million of them. Where are they?

I joined geocaching.com to find out. You have to join to search for these marks, unless you want to try understanding what the Feds publish. Too well do I know how they work. Geocaching.com has a database of marks and other things hidden by geocaching zealots. On the left, after you sign it, you will see a link for "Find a Benchmark". This will take you to a page with a zip code search. There are probably 20 marks in this zip code.

Clicking on "View Original Datasheet" will give you the Official record for this mark, which includes:

AT SACRAMENTO, AT THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF THE INTERSECTION OF 8 STREET AND I STREET, AT THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF THE FEDERAL OFFICE BUILDING, AT THE WEST ENTRANCE TO THE BUILDING, 28.9 FEET NORTH OF THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF THE BUILDING, SET ON TOP OF THE TOP GRANITE STEP 4.2 FEET SOUTH OF THE CENTER LINE OF THE WEST ENTRANCE, 0.4 FEET WEST OF THE WEST WALL AND ABOUT 4 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND.

This is the Post Office across the street from Central Library.

Walk South on 8th Street. See the entrance to the Post Office?

Turn and walk up the steps but don't go into the Post Office.

The bench mark was place in 1933, to the right of the West doors.

Look to the right, on the cement near the building.

See the round mark?

27 Things: Thingfo

2009-06-25T12:30:00.001-07:00

I have lost track of how many Internet sites I've sign up for. I've been using the same login and password for all these sites. Thingfo demanded I change my password slightly. Naturally, I went for the Free version, which means I needed to do all the stuff myself.

I didn't start asking myself questions until after I had started designing a widget. One of my passions is photography. Thingfo lets me search Flickr. A Thingfo Flickr widget sounded appropriate. Sometimes I jump into a technological project without doing much study before hand. If it's fairly easy and intuitive I can usually fly through. The easier it is the happier I am the more I will use it.

Sorry, Thingfo. You failed the ease of use and intuitive tests.

Every time I changed my widget Thingfo kicked me out. I had to go back through multiple steps to get to my widget. A couple of times doing this and I didn't want to play any more. I think I'll use Rollyo, instead.

I did look at some of the feature of Thingfo. I don't think its strength is finding images but words, text, audio, video. It's a "social" site, not a "searching" site.

I'm happy for those who like Thingfo. Maybe some day.

250 Words: Precision

2009-06-24T18:17:00.001-07:00

Libraries demand precision, consistency, accuracy. Take a book, pull it from its designated place, stick it where it doesn't belong (we've all seen patron's do this) and it's lost. We assign numbers to books so they will go in a precise location. Each number represents a specific subject, author, creator, date of publication, and may be completely inappropriate for the subject of the book. This does not matter. What matters is the placement of the book according to the number. If the book says it's in a specific place, and it's not, it's lost.

RFID (radio frequency identification) tags may change this.

While camping at Emerald Bay I came upon something I had never before seen. I "found" a U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey mark. It was anchored firmly in a rock overlooking Lake Tahoe.

Over the last 202 years the Geodetic Survey planted over 1,200,000 marks throughout the U. S. and it's possessions. Now they use bronze and brass disks. They had used jars and bottles, church steeples and water towers. Now they set disks in rocks, concrete pillars and other "monuments."

These marks are used to determine precise geographical locations: latitude, longitude, elevation. While most of us could not articulate why surveys are needed we can exclaim the usefulness of a GPS (global positioning system). For those directionally challenged a GPS saves embarrassment. A GPS would not be possible without the precise work of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey over the last 202 years.

Gerald F. Ward

250 Words: Look For Shapes

2009-06-23T12:42:00.001-07:00

Look for shapes. Don't look for colors. Animals in the wild, even the urban wild, are camouflaged. They don't want to be seen. Nor do they move, unless you drop almost on top of them. Wild animals you can see are called "food." The best way to spot these animals is to walk quietly and look for shapes.

I did this yesterday with my son. We were at Riverbend Nature Area, also known as Goethe Park, stalking these urban wild animals with a camera. Jack-rabbits were every where, frozen, then scared, running this way and that. We weren't looking for jack-rabbits.

Out in the wild, hundreds of yards from civilization, we turned a corner, around a stand of old oak trees, and there they were. Can you see them? Click on the picture for a larger image. Use the Back key to come back to the blog.

If you want to photograph nature you have to train yourself to see. It's too easy to walk through a place making so much noise you scare everything away. An hour after we took the above image we were walking home. To our right was the bike trail and a road. Bicyclists whizzed past, heads down, concentrating on getting somewhere -- fast. On the road, tired pick-nickers and noisy partiers drove out of the park, some hanging out of car windows, obviously drunk. To our left was this:

Some are so self-absorbed they refuse to see what is around them.

Gerald F. Ward

250 Words: Above Emerald Bay

2009-06-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

The first thing I learned in photography is the need for a fine lens is to capture sharp images. You can be highly trained, have an excellent eye, know darkroom techniques (now Photshop and other software tools) but if there is a lot of stuff between what you see and the actual camera you will probably get a mediocre image. The best lenses are short and normal. The longer the lens, the more actual pieces of glass in the lens, the more compromised the image. You can have high mega-pixels, a tripod, no wind or movement, and capture a great image -- that cannot be enlarged without showing the flaws. For most, this isn't an issue.

Look at the image below. I used a Konica-Minolta Z-10, wide open at 25 seconds. Not a great lens but an okay camera. Now click on the image and look at it full screen. Use the BACK button to return.

The human eye is incredible, the simplest of machines, capable of seeing more detail than even the best camera with the finest normal lens. Sometimes the brain has to be trained to see. Sometimes people just need to look. Distractions are learned, also. While camping I noticed many people staring into a campfire, a pleasant distraction, but never bothered to look up.

Librarians, like Photographers, are trained to see, to look, to not allow the distractions of the pleasant to inhibit the grandeur of the whole.

Gerald F. Ward

250 Words: Integrity vs Mediocrity

2009-06-13T10:56:00.001-07:00

Integrity demands consistency of thought and action.

Consistency does not mean lack of action, is not limited to the immediate, nor is intransient. While adjustments caused by change are necessary it is the philosophy behind, or under, which validates the integrity, or gives evidence of mediocrity. This is true with a person or institution, with those who work the Library and the organization called Library. Basic philosophy, which is a combination of love for the pursuit of knowledge, understanding and wisdom though discipline, and a value or belief system, leaves it's mark at every encounter. Such philosophy is not static but dynamic. The dynamic philosophy drives the Library to do what it does.

The fundamental element of any philosophy is how people are viewed. How they are treated is the ethic of the philosophy. If the philosophy believes every person has equal value then the ethic will state all will be treated equally. The Library is viewed as a place where sundry information is gathered for its users. The expectation of it's users are met when they find the information they seek. I suggest the consistent Library adheres to a philosophy which transcends time: the past is just as relevant as the future without being traumatized by the now.

A philosophy of mediocrity cannot hide behind exciting adjectives. Disdain for the past, ignorance of the present, and a lack of imagination for the future are the warning signs of mediocrity. Integrity demands all three elements work together.

Gerald F. Ward

Collection Integrity

2009-06-12T10:11:00.001-07:00

Familiarity with the collection makes for a better Librarian, and allows for wiser decisions.

Sixteen years ago I began caring for the Depository collection. One of the first treasures I found was in the Department of the Interior. I found a sheaf of brittle bond paper from 1943 to 1945. The words on the paper were typewritten. Letters were fragmented, missing, super or sub-scripted randomly. It would have been easy to throw them away.

I found primary source documents from the War Relocation Authority, describing camp life during World War II, first-hand quotations from those evacuated. Hundreds of books and videos have been created about the Relocation camps. Many of them have first-hand accounts, intellectual and emotional descriptions of what people thought and felt about forced segregation.

In my opinion, if a Library has these documents, they should protect them, carefully copy them, and make them available for the public. Public Libraries should not rely upon Regional Depositories or University Libraries to save these materials. Their content is far too important to the on-going discussion facing our society about the value of people to simply discard because of condition. To this end, Libraries have a responsibility to maintain continuity between the past and the future. Librarians have a responsibility to work toward not breaking that continuity.

The following excerpts from a WRA document show the intense logic and emotion behind the making of a decision to maintaining continuity with the past, and a responsibility toward those who bridge the past to the future. The young Japanese man quoted is anonymous. In my mind, his loyalty and integrity are impeccable.

____________________________________________

[Tom Kobayashi, Landscape, Manzanar Relocation Center, California / Photograph by Ansel Adams.]

(The following account, by the Community Analyst at Manzanar, reveals the life experience and viewpoints which lie behind one young man's "No" answer to Question 28 of the Army registration form. This question was one of those submitted to all male evacuee citizens in February, 1943. It was as follows: "Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power, or organization?")

[The following are excerpts from the Notes]

(Hearing Board Member) HBM: Are you a duel citizen?

Nisei: No, I am an American citizen only.

HBM: Did you understand the question?

Nisei: I guess I did understand the question.

HBM: And do you want to change the answer or do you want the "No" to stand?

Nisei: I'll keep it "No."

__________________

Nisei: If I would say "Yes," I'd be expected to say that I'd give up my life for this country. I don't think I could say that because this country has not treated me as a citizen. I could go three-quarters of the way but not all the way after what happened.

[Choir, two singers, Manzanar Relocation Center, California / Photograph by Ansel Adams.]

Later I contacted this young man and asked him for a fuller explanation of his views. The following is what he told me:

[Excerpt]

"My dad is 58 years old now. He has been here 30 years at least. He came to this country with nothing but a bed roll. He worked on the railroads and he worked in the sugar beet fields. If I told you the hardships he had you wouldn't believe me. I owe a lot to my father. Everything I am I owe to him. All through his life he was working for me. During these last years he was happy because he thought he was coming to a place where his son would have a good life. I am the only son. I have to carry on the family name. You white people have some feeling like this but with us it is greatly exaggerated.

"I tell you this because it has something to do with my answer about the draft question. We are taught that if you go out to war you should go out with the idea that you are never coming back. That's the Japanese way of looking at it. Of course many in the Japanese armies come back after the war, just like in all armies, but the men go out prepared to die. If they live through it, that's their good luck. I listen to white American boys talk. They look at it differently. They all take the stand that they are coming back, no matter who dies. It's a different mental attitude.

[Manzanar from Guard Tower, view west (Sierra Nevada in background), Manzanar Relocation Center, California / Photograph by Ansel Adams.]

"In order to go out prepared and willing to die, expecting to die, you have to believe in what you are fighting for. If I am going to end the family line, if my father is going to lose his only son, it should be for some cause we respect. I believe in democracy as I was taught in school. I would have been willing to go out forever before evacuation. It's not that I'm a coward or afraid to die. My father would have been willing to see me go out at one time. But my father can't feel the same after this evacuation and I can't either.

"I suppose you know that if there is one thing the Japanese respects, it is integrity. I have to tell the truth. If these questions were just man-to-man, it might be alright to say "yes." But if it is put down as a record, I want it to be just what I feel. If I feel one per cent different I don't want to say "yes." That's how hard it is for us to answer that question.

From: Community Analysis Notes No. 1, January 15, 1944. From a Nisei Who Said "No", I 52.11:1.

Photographs from the Library of Congress American Memory Collection.

250 Words: Reading and Writing

2009-06-11T11:38:00.001-07:00

Reading and Writing

People are reading and writing more now than 30 years ago. Technology fostered a boon in electronic communication. Concurrently, print, especially periodicals are slowly disappearing. With electronic communication come shorter attention spans.

Think about this:

Before writing knowledge was given orally. You had to remember.

With writing came privilege. The Annals of the Kings of ... could tell history as they wanted. Those who read controlled those who didn't. Writing controlled thinking.

With the printing press came knowledge. People began reading, thinking, for themselves. Publishers made money, looking for saleable authors. Writers were good at their craft.

With computers came an explosion of writing which otherwise would not have been published. Anyone can publish. Watch for desperate attempts to control the Internet.

With so much information to glean, competing images, sounds, typefaces, devices, programs, all demand attention they cannot all have. People are not reading books, magazines or newspapers as much as blogs, tweets, bits and pieces of news, emails, text-messages and other quick read’s, most written poorly. But, who cares.

Writing is a way of thinking, of determining a course of action, of discovering what has happened, or might happen. Reading is an activity which demands concentration and comprehension. With bad writing comes bad thinking. With the confusion of thinking comes poor concentration. With bad thinking and poor concentration come unwise decisions, resulting in a breakdown in the cohesiveness of society.

Is it the position of the Library to cater to such?

250 Words: Last Copy

2009-06-10T17:55:00.001-07:00

Last Copy

Should the Central Library keep the "Last Copy" of a book?

Weeding should not be automatic, based upon broad predefined values. Simply because a title hasn't circulated lately, if ever, doesn't mean it should go into a Friends box. Nor should a title automatically disappear just because it looks worn. Questions must be answered before a title is removed from the collection.

Ask intelligent questions to determine the value of a title found within the its subject universe. The decision to weed should be made by someone with experience and expertise in to ask those questions. It takes keen discernment to know a title, no matter how old, needs keeping because it continues to add to the discussion. Look for those qualities which are not so obvious.

Just because it's a book doesn't mean it's worth keeping. Just because its old doesn't mean it needs tossing.

We have, throughout the collection, volumes of the "Great Books", a collection compiled by Hutchins and Adler, published by Britannica. The translations of these works are old and the format does not make for easy reading. We need these writings, not just a link to them on the Internet, but the actually, physical copy, which can be picked up and read.

Deciding to eliminate the "last copy" of a work needs deliberate, experienced, consideration. Automation discards according to a predefined set of physical values. We are not robots.

Gerald F. Ward

27 Things: Mango

2009-06-09T16:13:00.001-07:00

27 Things wants us to learn another language using Mango.

Therein we find a story.

I was born in Brazil. So was my older brother. When we were young we had a Nanny who spoke Portuguese. My parents spoke English. My brother grew up bi-lingual. We left Brazil when I was 6 months old. I had no vocabulary but I had heard a lot of English and Portuguese. My brother, on the other hand, was speaking English and Portuguese. He has grown up a linguist, fluent in French and Welsh, with great knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, Latin, Gaelic, Hot'n-tot (used to drive me nuts clicking and clacking around the house), and some of many other languages, including Klingon. He's a Librarian, too.

After we left Brazil, where I was surrounded by English and Portuguese, we landed in New Orleans, and then moved to Dallas. In Texas. At six months old I think the many English dialects confused me. I knew it wasn't Portuguese I was hearing. It didn't sound like English, either. Southern accents are thick. Apparently, I was a pretty thick baby, too.

We lived in Europe for six years. While there I took three years of German -- One. I also took three years of French -- One. Back in California, I took two years of Spanish -- One. From experience, I know my limitations with other languages.

So I tried Spanish using Mango. Easy to get to the lessons. The audio is great. I've also been going through Spanish using Rosetta Stone at home. I am not comfortable with other languages so this is a stretch.

250 Words: Collection Choices of the Past

2009-06-05T16:16:00.001-07:00

It seems the Nationwide trend is to make collections more entertainment oriented in Public Libraries. Collections have more popular works, movies, music, which move faster. There are more computers to make the Internet available. It also seems older collections are being removed to make room for newer material. One of the attitudes I have seen is "if a nearby library has the it, we don't need it."

I have said there are legitimate reasons to remove books from a collection. Lack of use is one reason. Let me make a short case for keeping books which may not be used.

SPL has been a Depository Library for almost 130 years. We have long runs of unbroken annuals. Two examples are the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac from 1912 and the Statistical Abstract of the US from 1907. We are still receiving physical copies of both through FDLP. Neither are used extensively. The California State Library has complete sets.

If CSL has them do we need them? No, we don't.

Should we keep them? Yes, we should.

Before current staff were in place, the Library was collecting these titles. We don't know what future staff will do with the collection. I think there should be a continuity of thinking throughout the life of the Library about certain elements of the collection. Do we owe staff of the past the obligation to continue their collection choices? Does future staff owe us a similar obligation?

Gerald F. Ward

27 Things: 250 Words and Podcasts, or Free Information

2009-06-04T12:22:00.001-07:00

It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information! The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons.

-- [Cosmo (Ben Kingsley) Sneakers (1992)]

If a place gives away information without expecting it back, is it a Library? "Stores" sell information.

I've been experimenting with Podcasts. There are many places which give away podcasts but also sell them. These places will post free audio/video for some, at their discretion, but sell the bulk of their offerings to subscribers. You can search for specific topics but there is no guarantee the podcast is free. There are many free podcasts. There are many free blogs, also. Question the quality.

Without describing the various types of libraries, all have information available to those able to use the library. Membership requirements may limit the ability of people to have the information. Usually, there are restrictions on use of the information, e.g. take-out limits, Reference Use, fines for unreturned materials. With the privilege of use comes the responsibility of use.

As I understand Libraries, they give people a controlled source of information which may not otherwise be available. A possible limitation on Library user getting the information they need may be slight costs, e.g., ILL or printing, or prohibitive costs. e.g., subscriptions to Academic or Business sources (The Wall Street Transcript, $5,000 annually).

Change is in the electronic wind. SPL buys electronic information, then essentially gives it away free. This information is not purchased from a library but from a store. Once the information is given away, it does not go away, but remains available for others. All information, whether electronic or print, has a cost. Cost restricts availability.

Gerald F. Ward

(238 words without the quote)

250 Words: By Any Other Name

2009-06-03T19:01:00.001-07:00

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title.
-- Romeo and Juliet

A Library is not defined by the type of material, or information, contained, but the fact it contains material and information. Is it filled with books? Movies? Electronic information found no where in print? Is it a physical place with physical items gathering physical dust or an electronic place with electronic items composed of computer dust?

An empty building does not make a Library, even though "Library" is posted in huge letters on the outside. A Library has to have something, a collection of somethings, available for use, taken and brought back, used in-house and not taken, used by many or by one.

Those who manage the Library in some way determine the value of it's contents. Those who use the Library in some way determine the value of those items used. Just because something is not contained in the Library does not mean it has no value. Allowing the valuable to hide within the worthless devalues the collection. Tossing out the valuable simply because its value is not recognized or understood lessens the collection.

I am trying to identify what "Library" means. The only way we can determine our scope and function is to understand the basic premise. What are we?

Gerald F. Ward

27 Things: A Momentary Diversion

2009-06-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

McArthur-Burney Falls

Fall 2006. Konica-Minolta z-10

Uisng a Museum style border from BigHugeLabs.com.

250 Words: Evolution of Libraries

2009-06-02T15:16:00.001-07:00

Evolution of Words?

Libraries do not evolve. To "evolve" means to change from one thing to another, something completely different, though related. Keeping the term "library" while changing the essence and function of the word makes for something other than a library. Don't call it a library if it's not.

Truth does not evolve. Nor does science or mathematics or history. Our preceptions of history, science, mathematics and truth may change but the thing itself does not, and can not.

What would happen if truth changed? Or if mathematics was not absolute? Suppose the laws of science were arbitrary, changed at the whim of an unknown, uncontrollable force? Nothing can change what has already happened. History is fixed. That which is true cannot suddenly become not true.

The meanings of words will change from the social and cultural stresses placed on them over time. But the thing described will not change even though the noun used, or the verb applied, does.

A Library is a Library. A bank of computers accessing the Intenet may be in the Library but do not make a Library. They are not mutually exclusive but work together collaberatively. Hopefully, they are not symbiotic, one not dependent upon the other. When the computers go down (or move so slowly they are almost useless) the Library does not cease to function. If anything, the ability to validate and verify information relies upon a well-developed Library which has not mutated into something unrecognizable.

Gerald F. Ward

27 Things: Zoho, Shared Work, and 250 Words

2009-05-28T12:53:00.001-07:00

Shared Work

No one can do all things, especially in a large Library system. Working in one the size of ours (SPL) demands structure and deliniation of duties for efficient operation. Not everyone should do all things. Especially with the public.

To the Public if you work in a Library you are a Librarian. Shelvers, Assistants, Custodians and Security are all viewed as Librarians. Without demeaning the Public, their perception is generally wrong. Every job in the Library is important in the efficient function of the Library. But there are distinct differences between these jobs.

Should everyone who works in a Library do everything demanded by the Library? For some reason this is a delicate subject, especially with those in charge blurring the destinction between academically trained staff and all others. However, an MLIS does not a Librarian make.

The following is my opinion and does not reflect those in charge.

Custodians, Security, Shelvers, and Assistants are not Librarians. They are perfectly capable of doing the work of a Librarian but that is not their job. Librarians are not Custodians, Security, nor Shelvers. They may do the work but it is not their job.

Assistants and Librarians both work with the public but do different things. They answer different questions. Librarians help patrons find what's inside the collection while Assistants help them take what they find out. Librarians know intimately the complexity of the collection while Assistants manage the physical structure.

Libraries need all these people.

Gerald F. Ward

-- Let's discuss this. Try to make your point in 250 words or less, each time.

27 Things: Lifelong Learning and Teaching

2009-05-27T15:55:00.001-07:00

Teachable Moments

It's hard to hide fear. When someone is afraid, shaken, even the toughest exterior shows stress. Courage acts in spite of fear.

One of the first people I helped as a Librarian was an older man, a young 60, who looked like he hadn't been in a library since grade school. With his short white shirt-sleeves rolled up, arms tanned from working outdoors, hands thick with callouses, he looked like nothing could shake him. He was visibly shaken, having just been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy. His doctor didn't tell him enough. So, he came to the Library.

We had just installed InfoTrac Health Reference Center. I had played enough to know we could find usable information. He sat down at the computer and started working as best he could. This was before computers used a mouse or the Internet invaded Libraries. Everything was done with function keys. It did not take much explanation before he was comfortable with the system. Necessity demanded his attention. When he left he thanked us for showing him how to find the information.

Librarians have to be teachers. We have to know what were are about so we can teach. The more experience we have with the collection the better we will know its limitations and our responsibilities (we are neither medical advisors or lawyers). We teach each other, because no one can know everything. We teach everyday.

Gerald F. Ward

27 Things: Video from Sacramento Digital Stories

2009-05-26T13:32:00.001-07:00

California of the Past is a California State Library grant program designed to encourage Libraries to capture stories about people who live in the areas they serve. In 2007/2008 Sacramento Public Library received a grant to record digital stories about the Sacramento area. These stories may be found at Sacramento blip.tv. I haven't found these videos on YouTube.

In 1973 I photographed a community of abandoned migrant farm worker's shacks near my home. After becoming a Librarian I searched the Library of Congress American Memory Collection and discovered a series of Dorothea Lange photographs, taken in 1936, of the American River Camp, one of the places where migrant farm workers lived while in Sacramento County. These photographs have been combined with quotations and narrative from the Library of Congress and a California Document entitled Migratory Labor in California.

My photographs taken with an Argus C3 using Kodak Tri-X film.

The American River Camp

Click To Play

27 Things: Zoho, Weeding and 249 Words

2009-05-23T14:54:00.001-07:00

Weeding the Obvious

Let's squash a misconception about Librarians.

We want people to take out books.

We just want them back. In good shape. When they're due.

Some books wear out. Accidents happen. The shelf life of a book is shortened for any number of reasons. When this happens we "discard" (gasp!) the book. Let's dispel another unfounded stereotype. Librarians have to get rid of materials for myriad reasons. To think we keep everything forever mistakes us for an Archivist or Museum Curator. If we were one of those nothing would leave our collection.

So what forces us to get rid of a book? Anyone who has worked any length of time in a Public Library has seen some pretty despicable examples of abused books. If you cannot touch it without washing make it go away. Or, it looks like a science experience gone awry. Use tongs. Sometimes people don't want the whole book, just part of it. Of course, no one else in the community, including the Library, needs that part, so out it comes.

I had a guy borrow a ruler one time, then take it and a newspaper to the back of the room. He wondered how I knew what he was going to do. I don't lend out rulers anymore.

Most of the time blowing dust off the top and discovering it hasn't moved for 20 years makes it a candidate for a Friends Box. Just a candidate. Some we keep.

Gerald F. Ward

27 Things: Zoho, Collection Development, and 249 Words

2009-05-22T10:23:00.001-07:00

Collection Development

You're a Librarian? You read a lot of books.
Actually, I read a lot of book reviews. (Or, used to.)

Selecting books to include in the Library is one of the best parts of the job. Concentrating on an area of the collection, to ensure it has current titles, gives tremendous value to the work of the Librarian. We are, after all, Librarians because we love books, love the written word, especially the well-written word.

Choosing what to include, with the help of fellow Librarians, has distinct advantages to the mission of the Library and the professionalism of the Librarian. An experienced Librarian will know the public served and select appropriate materials. But, selection also increases the Librarian's intimacy with the collection. We know what the collection contains because we have chosen the titles for it. We watch each title from book review, to selection, to addition and even shelving of the title. These several elements, functions, duties, are done to reinforce the memory of the Librarian for what is collectedv and shelved.

Here is the first critical function of the Librarian: choosing titles. Are you in charge of a diverse, multi-format collection. The need to review, select, add, does not diminish or disappear depending upon the format of the title. In fact, it may be more critical to maintain this level of control for the Librarian to develop the knowledge and experience necessary to know the collection with which they work.

Gerald F. Ward

27 Things: Zoho, Librarians and 242 Words

2009-05-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

Librarian's Know Their Collection
Stating the obvious: a Librarian is someone who works in a Library. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a Library is a "large organized collection of books for reading or reference, for use by the public or by a specific group." This definition includes the building in which the materials are housed. Working in a library means taking care of, adding to or weeding from, and maintaining the organization of the collection.

Librarian's know their collection, whether in a physical or electronic format.

Is it not the task of the new Librarian to discover the collection when they first begin to work at a Library?

Is not part of a Librarians work to continually study the collection so they grow in knowing it?

The only way to learn a collection is to handle it, look up information in the directories, encyclopedia's and dictionary's to find out how those materials work, to browse the titles on the shelf, to look at the indexes and tables of contents, to discover the arrangement of the material so they can get back to it when needed. This may not be practical for every title in the collection but does not preclude the responsibility to continually work with and study the collection.

Even though the Librarian may not own the collection they will take ownership of it, taking pride in their work and knowledge of the Library.

Gerald F. Ward

See my previous post and join in the conversation.

27 Things: Zoho Writer

2009-05-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

I would like to open a conversation, in the interests of Professional Development, about what a Professional Librarian looks like. I'm not interested in the stereotypical stuffed shirt with no sense of humor. Nor the hair-up-in-a-bun-with-finger-raised-to-lips-shushing Librarian. I'm interested in short descriptions of what a Librarian does, how they do it, why they do it. The where and when part is self-explanatory, unless you really want to write about it.

To do this I am going to open a shared document in Zoho Writer (one of the 27 Things, you know) and figure out how to share it with those who want to participate. This will involve e-mailing me at the address posted in the margin of this blog. Look left, everyone. This way I can add you to the shared documents list.

I have one restriction. 250 words. When you add to the document you must limit your thoughts to 250 words or less. Add or respond to one point at a time and do so in 250 words or less. You can add as many times as you want, but I want you to limit your thoughts on each subject or idea to 250 words or less.

This is going to be hard for some.

[Please note, passage of time.]

So, I've tried to get Zoho to work and am stymied by the slowness of our system. Meanwhile, if Zoho doesn't want to work, I'll try Google documents. Either way, I want this discussion to start.

27 Things: Wiki

2009-05-16T12:49:00.001-07:00

At first I thought building wikis was like reinventing the wheel. Every place out there, mostly Libraries, are doing the same thing in the same way for their community. Depending upon how much effort went into the wiki the user would have a smooth or rough ride. Some wiki's are so rough they aren't worth the ride. The information contain within the wiki begs for our trust. Will it take us where we want or does it wobble us, bounce us around, or just plain stop us, because of a square side?

I've changed my mind. Let me continue with a different analogy.

A wiki is like a piece of furniture. A bench is perfectly functional, though it may be uncomfortable over the long run and you may wind up with splinters. Some benches will collapse under unreasonable weight. You cannot trust them. Other benches are so strong they will carry, or hold up, just about anything. A wiki may start off as a weak bench but it doesn't have to stay that way.

A craftsman will make, not a simple bench, but a piece of fine furniture, not only functional, but beautiful and comfortable. Furniture which does what it is supposed to do, and is comfortable and beautiful, begs people to come back and use it. They like sitting in it, and will do so for a long time because of its comfort. It does what it is supposed to do, and it does it well.

We don't want one piece of furniture. We want a whole dining room set, then fill up the living room, the family room, the bed rooms, and any other room we can think of. Let's have specialty rooms filled with fine furniture. We want a place that is more than functional. We want comfort and beauty. We want to fill our wiki room, our wiki house, our wiki library, with interesting and fascinating things. We want to draw people in, inspire their curiosity, encourage their creativity, give them the means to grow.

In the hands of a team of professionals who consistently deliver high quality, I think a wiki can do this. I am not interested in the mediocre.

27 Things: Another Motivational Moment

2009-05-15T12:04:00.000-07:00

Clear Lake, CA, early Autumn 2007. Konica-Minolta Z-10.

27 Things: Sacramento and the War Relocation Authority

2009-05-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

Sacramento history during World War II.

Japanese in Sacramento County were sent to many different places, dependent upon where they lived. Some were sent first to Walerga Assembly Center then to Tule Lake. Some were sent directly to Manzanar. Some were sent to Fresno then to Rower in Arkansas. Some were sent to Pinedale Assembly Center then to Poston, Arizona. [From: Maeda, Wayne. Changing Dreams and Treasured Memories: The Story of Japanese Americans in the Sacramento Region. Sacramento, CA : Sacramento Japanese American Citizens League, c2000. p.188. The Elk Grove Citizen, March 11, 1983, p.2]

A soldier and his mother in a strawberry field. The soldier, age 23, volunteered July 10, 1941, and is stationed at Camp Leonard Wood, Missouri. He was furloughed to help his mother and family prepare for their evacuation. He is the youngest of six years children, two of them volunteers in United States Army. The mother, age 53, came from Japan 37 years ago. Her husband died 21 years ago, leaving her to raise six children. She worked in a strawberry basket factory until last year when her children leased three acres of strawberries "so she wouldn't have to work for somebody else". The family is Buddhist. This is her youngest son. Her second son is in the army stationed at Fort Bliss. 453 families are to be evacuated from this area. [Photograph by Dorothea Lange. From the National Archives.]

Businesses are being sold by owners of Japanese ancestry. Evacuation of all residents of Japanese descent from this area is due in two days.[Photograph by Dorothea Lange. From the National Archives.]

Sacramento Assembly Center, California: Constructed at a migrant workers camp 15 miles northeast of downtown Sacramento, this assembly center was also known as Walerga. It was occupied for 52 days, from May 6 to June 26, and held a total of 4,770 persons, with at maximum at one time of 4,739. Evacuees were from Sacramento and San Joaquin counties. Aerial photographs indicate there were 11 blocks with over 225 buildings (Figures 16.37 and 16.38); one block was likely devoted to the military police and administration.

[Figure 16.37. Oblique aerial view of the Sacramento Assembly Center. (from DeWitt 1943)]

[Figure 16.38. Sacramento Assembly Center. (National Archives photograph)]

[From: Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites.]

27 Things: The SPL-Learning Sandbox

2009-05-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

When I was child I played in the sand. It wasn't until I was an adult, with children, that I realized what that meant.

"Sand costs How much?"
"Shake your cloths out before coming in side!"
"Leave the sand IN THE SANDBOX!"
"If you don't remember to cover that box every cat in the neighborhood will find it."
Cats? Cool!
"No! Not cool! They'll use it as a bathroom!"

So, I went to play in the SPL-Learning Sandbox. I'm not very creative today so I just added some text and a couple of links. (Ho Hum.) I've also added the SPL Underground Librarian Blog to the Staff Blogs page.

If you look hard, kind of like looking for Waldo, you will find Sacramento Public Library listed in the Sacramento Wiki Room under the Wireless Hotspots. SPL also made it to one of the Mystery Picture spots on the Frontpage. We were a Previous ... Mystery Picture as of 5-13-2009. I get extra credit for this. At least half extra credit. I still have to add a library page and blog it. I'm working on it.

My thoughts about SPL using a Wiki, and actually accomplishing something, will come at some undetermined time in the future.

[Horse tie down on I Street outside the Sacramento Public Library central branch - Photo by RogerClark]

27 Things: Welcome to the Wiki Room

2009-05-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome ...
Welcome to the Wiki Room, Ha Ha Ha Ha!

This is a magical room,
it comes alive,
where every tag flower sings
and every link bird dances.

Where the exotic mingles with the plain,
and all are beautiful. Ha Ha Ha Ha!

When you come bring something with you,
plant a tag in our garden,
let a link live in our room,
to entertain and inform all who visit. Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Wait. it's almost time.
Sit still, hold your breath,
watch the tag flowers and link birds,
Ha Ha Ha Ha!

In the wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki room
In the wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki room
All the books sing words
And the magazines croon
In the wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki room.

Welcome to our library hideaway
You lucky people, you
If we weren't in the stacks starting right away
We'd be on the computers too

The tag Paradise is an elegant word
It loves to be seen and it loves to be heard
Most little tags will fly away
But the wiki room tags are here everyday

In the wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki room
In the wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki room
All the i-pods sing words
And the cell-phones croon
In the wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki room.

Da da da da da da da
We're keying in the wiki room
Da da da da da da da
Posting in the wiki room

The wiki-site is delightful
We hope you'll agree
We hope that it fills you with pleasure and glee
Because if we don't make you feel like more
We gonna wind up on electronic floor

In the wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki room
In the wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki room
All the web-sites sing words
And the podcasts croon
In the wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki room

The Internet brings us all together, Ha Ha Ha Ha!
It's a smaaall world, after all!

27 Things Lifelong Learning: Using Technology

2009-05-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

"Darth Vader's Lunchbox." This is the description given my first computer. In 1982 I spent almost $1500.00 for a 26 pound hunk of steal and circuits with a 9 inch green screen and two single-sided double-density 195k 5.25 floppy (truly "floppy") disk drives. You ran the program off one disk and saved your work to the second disk. The Operating Language was CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers) running at a blazing 2.5 MHz (yes, that's two point five!). It was designed to run programs. I used it as a word processor. I learned Wordstar and dBase 3 on this computer. It was portable. Sewing machines are portable.

Even back then I hated dot-matrix printers. They were cheap but the type was unacceptable for school work. Most of my Prof's hadn't entered, and wouldn't enter, the computer age for a long time. So I bought an Olivetti Electronic Typewriter with several daisy-wheels fonts for quality text. I had to build an RS-232 cable so my Kaypro could talk to my Typewriter. Every page took about two minutes to print. Once, a Prof after correcting a long paper, asked me to retype and submit it again. I was pleased he gave me the opportunity to do this. But, I could tell by his facial expressions he thought I was going to have to "re-type" the paper. I tried to explain editing a Wordstar file and sending it to my printer but I don't think he caught the concept, until much later. My neighbor accused me of typing at 2 o'clock in the morning once. She was irate. Then I heard a mocking bird who had learned Olivetti, along with frog and cricket.

For more information on vintage Kaypro II's click here.

My interest in using technology grew from there to here. I used to think I would only need 40 meg of space. Ha! I used to have my own Dialog account back in the 90's. I also had a 28k modem.

Ah, nostalgia.

27 Things: Motivation to Discover

2009-05-08T10:24:00.001-07:00

Image take in the late 1970's at Incline Village, Nevada. Minolta SRT-101, Ektachrome. Poster developed using BigHugeLabs.com Motivator application.

27 Things: Web 2.0 and To Forum or Not To Forum?

2009-05-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

I hate to burst any one's bubble but Libraries are not open forums. They are not a place where anyone can come and freely expound their ideas. Nor are they a place where anyone can deposit their ideas for prosperity. While open to the public, where ideas are kept and accessed, there is no, nor has there ever been, a Library which fulfilled these functions. Even school Libraries do not fill this function. Forums are where conversations and the expression of ideas are encouraged. Other institutions fill this purpose, like schools or examples of the true Greek marketplace.

Dr. Wendy Schultz, writing in the article To a Temporary Place in Time... suggests Libraries are more than they are or need to be. "What are libraries? Libraries are not just collections of documents and books, they are conversations, they are convocations of people, ideas, and artifacts in dynamic exchange." Libraries are a collection of documents and books, of conversations and ideas of people, of artifacts. Certainly the Internet allows these things to facilitate a dynamic exchange of conversations and ideas. but, the word "Library" and the concept "Library", while dynamic in its own right, has to maintain a level of tradition otherwise it ceases to exist.

I agree with Dr. Schultz on everything else. She's dreaming about the future, imagining a Utopian Library which encompasses every possibility of information storage and retrieval. We have to dream this dream, then turn these dreams into a reality. But, in order for the Library to maintain it's integrity it must remain separate from the political conversations, discussions, even arguments which seek to rearrange a society.

'Tis a hard thing to do, to remain a part of a society, yet separate enough to guarantee the authenticity of the information contained therein.

27 Things: "Icebergs" and the Ramble Continues

2009-05-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

Everybody thinks. They may not know how to think critically, the logic of thinking, but they do know how to think. Everyone knows how to feel. Men are accused of turning off their emotions. It's not true, of course. Men just don't like to admit they are controlled by their emotions. Everyone knows how to act. Some are more forceful while others are timid, but this is still action. Everyone has questions.

Rick Anderson, in the article Away from the “icebergs” suggests Libraries have to eliminate barriers which exist "between patrons and the information they need, so they can spend as little time as possible wrestling with lousy search interfaces and as much time as possible actually reading and learning." Let me be clear: Libraries are not known for being user friendly. We do not make it easy to find information. But I do not think this is the fault of the Library. I think it is more the nature of information, and how that information is organized. Before the Internet, within the last hundred plus years, books were de rigueur. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, indexes compiled and organized specific information. Catalogs, card catalogs (do you remember those) were time and staff intensive but also organized information, where to find the books. Books are arranged by a classification system, like DDC (Dewey Decimal Classification system -- but you'all know that) which are not and will never be perfect. People learned how to use the resource available to find what they were looking for. Librarians helped.

Every method used to organized information is a human invention which takes thought and discipline, which must adhere to a specific logic. The human element is extended because many different people have to apply this developed system to the local collection. And then people have to use it. People have to think. There is nothing intuitive about information or the way it is organized.

Skipping down the Yellow Brick Road came a group called the Internet. A cowardly lion, a heartless tin-man and a brainless straw man all trying to lead someone home who doesn't know how to get home. The person who is going somewhere has to know where they want to go. This is where a trained Librarian can help the patron define their question. But it takes intelligence, and in a lot of cases, disciplined intelligence. They may think, but they have to know how to think specifically, not randomly. They have to know how to test the information to ensure it is valid and authentic and useable. Post modern thinking does not work. They also have to feel, to know when they are going in a direction they want, or don't want. Sometimes, it's impossible to say what is right or wrong, spot on or completely missing the mark. But it also takes decisiveness, also known as will-power or the ability to move in a direction without being side-tracked or road-blocked. Using the Library of the future is going to take the whole person, mind, emotions, and will. Librarians of the future are going to have to be able to think, to feel and to respond appropriately to those they serve.

People who put together the resources used in any Library had to think about what they were doing. People who use these resources have to think about how they can be used. So, who put together the Internet. Al Gore? Who is trying to organize the Internet? Everyone? What ever organizational tools used will have a tremendous amount of thought expended before they are usable. Which means you are going to have to think to use these tools. There will never be a usable tool for getting to the information in the mishmash of user created content that will be simple and intuitive. People will have to learn to think.

Is thinking a barrier to the Library for our patrons?

To Be Continued ...

27 Things: Web 2.0 and the OCLC Next Space Newsletter

2009-05-05T15:32:00.000-07:00

Postmodern thinking is dead, or at least dying a slow death. Hopefully, this is not simply wishful thinking. I am making an assumption: truth does not change. I do not believe truth is different for different people. Mathematical truth remains constant no matter who the mathematician is. Physical, biological and chemical sciences demand truth be constant otherwise the theories and laws turn into mush and nothing is predictable. Can you image living in a world where the laws of nature do not apply? Truth is essential in a court of law, otherwise the courts cannot be trusted. People must adhere to the laws of the road or people die. Why should truth be suspended when it comes to adding content to the Internet? Yes, the Internet is changing the way people think. But, remember, the Internet has really only been around for the last dozen years. It's in its infancy. As I, and many others, have already noted, the Internet is changing the way we communicate. It should not change the way we think.

Rick Anderson, in his article "Away from the 'icebergs'", suggests three traditional Librarian attitudes which need to change in order for Libraries to progress and continue existing. His first "iceberg" is the "just-in-case collection" where Libraries must release the idea of collecting in the traditional sense, with books and magazines and other print sources and embrace "digital collections." The assumption is patron's are going to "expect access to everything." "You think they can't have everything? Think again."

There is a difference between "needs" and "wants" or "desires." There is a difference between "fairness" and "justice." There is a difference between "absolute" and "relative." Don't mix up the meanings of these words. Don't replace one for the other. If you replace the definition of "justice" with that of "fairness" you will be sorely disappointed in much of life. People may want access to everything but they are physically, emotionally and intellectually incapable of assimilating that much information. It would just confuse them. Do they need information to help them make a decision? Do they need data to verify their hypothesis and conclusions, or to challenge others hypothesis and conclusions? The Library cannot be all things to all people. We must define our existence, and what we can offer, in a way to reasonably help people achieve their reasonable goals. If they have turned truth upside down, they are expecting to find something which does not exist, then there is no way a library can help them.

A combination of post-modern thinking and the ability to add unregulated content to a world-wide mishmash of data does not build trust. Don't trust something which is untrustworthy. You will be hurt. In the 1800's the Federal Government started the Depository program sending physical materials to areas so people could have access to trustworthy materials. The in-print materials, verified, reviewed, guaranteed the authenticity of the words recorded. Try taking a computer printout of the Federal Laws into a Court of Law and using it as a legitimate legal authority. The Judge will laugh you out of the Court Room. It's too easy to change words in, or counterfeit, a document rendering the copy of that document worthless. Libraries must become a means of authenticating the mishmash of ideas, reasonable and far-fetched found on the Internet. Here is the direction libraries must go to maintain their relevancy.

To Be Continued...

27 Things: Survey Says ...

2009-05-01T16:44:00.000-07:00

An extensive survey of Librarian bloggers was conducted with the intent of establishing a broad-based protocol, whose foundation was a narrowly defined user-base, within the context of a single library system. The hypothesis is that blogging is a means of adding content to the Internet at large, to the discussion of specific Internet-based tools to manage added content, and to deliberately identify the quirky personalities of those adding content. The following statistical results have an acceptable margin of error of between 1% and 25%.

The initial statement, followed by five carefully worded responses, was "I think Blogging is:"

"A great way to organize my thoughts." 62% of respondents used this reply to complete the initial statement.

"A good way to communicate what I think the world needs to know." 12% of respondents used this reply to complete the initial statement.

"A great way for someone who knows nothing to say nothing." 50% of respondents used this reply to complete the initial statement.

"Being forced upon me by work." 12% of respondents used this reply to complete the initial statement.

"For the proverbial birds." No one chose this reply to complete the initial statement.

Taking these responses in reverse order the following conclusions are drawn:

Everyone finds significance to adding content through blogging.

Those being forced to blog do so because it is a training experience, adding expertise to their ability to adequately perform work functions.

Half of the respondents determined the other half were simply creating electronic hot-air.

A handful of individuals considered some of the remote individuals adding to the global electronic discussion absolutely necessary for all, required reading for all, and consider those individuals experts on all. This conclusion is intimately linked to the previous conclusion.

The majority of respondents view blogging as a means of developing their personal understanding of the content they wish to add.

These conclusions are based upon a critical analysis of the eight people who responded. It is apparent a flaw in the gathering of the statistical data was overlook by the research team. Some respondents checked more than one reply. This anomaly, however, does not statisctically skew the results or the conclusions drawn. The standards of informal logic, using inductive reasoning, apply.

These findings are under peer-review. All peer-reviewed comments are attached.

27 Things: Tags, Blogs and Words

2009-05-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

Think about the word "word." You had to use words to think about this word. For thousands of years people have been writing words to record their thoughts, accomplishments, imaginations, philosophies and theologies, and what to buy at the market. People used stone and animal skins, papyrus, parchments, paper, and now electronic code. Isn't writing a code, though, a code known by those taught the code, or disciplined and trained to break codes. Words, writing, talking, communicating complex thoughts are evidence of intelligence and reason, and the ability to make decisions based upon some kind of logic and morality. The fact we can know logic, mathematics, music, have grammer and a syntax, and and that we have books, is utterly astounding.

In 2008, according to Technorati 133 Million blog records indexed by them, 76,000 blogs with them. This is not all the blogs out there. Most blogs are created and have a single post, then abandoned. Many people create more than one blog with the intention of writing, but don't. For those who do post to their blog, the best word to describe them is "proliforate." They write a lot.

It was barely hundreds of years ago only the educated elite could read or write. Books were hand-written and copies by hand. Expensive. The printing press changed life. Books and magazines proliferated. And they were not expensive but affordable. Many people could read and write. The Internet changed life again. The way we write is changing. The way we communicate is not changing. We still use words, or groups of letters and symbols which mean something people understand. Or, maybe they don't understand some of the stuff we send to each other, post on a blog, tweet, chat, text.

We have books, blogs, music, essays, posts, fiction, poetry, non-fiction, history, current events, magazines, newspapers, clouds, e-zines, mashups, video games, images, pictures, tunes, tags, subjects, audio, literature, pod-casts, rss, Intranet, web, haiku, ring-tones, articles, listserves, hack, net-working, links, software, history, script, intranet, e-cards, e-books, avitar, e-mail, photoshopped, gaming, print-on-demand, encryption, subscribe, anime, browser, code, cyberspace, cybersquatting, second life, gadgets, emoticons, luddites , mouse, FAQs