Subject: [NGC4LIB] Transitioning to a career as an emerging technologies librarian

From: Abby Hanks-Danvers <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 14:00:18 -0400

Thanks to all of you who replies to my message about the future of ILS and
cataloging.  I found all of your resources very helpful.  My director of
technology systems has just informed me that he would like me to take on the
role of emerging technologies librarian instead of my traditional role as
cataloger.  I would be interested in this role, but I want to make sure the
transition is a smooth one.  Can anyone offer any advice about emerging
technologies?  I am interested in what types of professional associations
would be most helpful, as well as which journals, magazines, and discussion
lists are relevant to this field of librarianship.

Thank you,

Abby Hanks-Danvers
IT and Technology Librarian
Private Industry
Cincinnati, Ohio

On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 10:41 AM, Abby Hanks-Danvers <
[email-masked]> wrote:

> Good morning all,
>
> This is my first post to the list, so I'm a bit out of my league, but I was
> wondering if any of you can help.  I was just asked to research the future
> of cataloging and integrated library systems by my Director of Technology
> Systems.  Anyone have any suggestions on readings or resources related to
> this topic?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Abby Hanks-Danvers
> IT and Technology Librarian
> Private Industry
> Cincinnati, Ohio
>

**

---

From: "Shea-Clark, Laura" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 13:30:05 -0700

Abby -

I find Twitter and RSS feeds to be the best way to keep up with current
and emerging technologies. I follow and read all kinds of people,
including librarians. This is a good blog to start with:
http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/ She will point you to
other sources. If you're on Twitter search for #followalibrarian to see
who others recommend following.

I still read journals, but the hot off the press information is online.
The best approach is to find out what's out there and play with it,
discovering how you might use it. 

Best wishes.

Laura Shea-Clark, Library Services Manager
Mountain View Public Library
585 Franklin St.
Mountain View, CA 94041
http://laurasheaclark.blogspot.com/ 

-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Abby Hanks-Danvers
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 11:00 AM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: [NGC4LIB] Transitioning to a career as an emerging technologies
librarian

Thanks to all of you who replies to my message about the future of ILS
and
cataloging.  I found all of your resources very helpful.  My director of
technology systems has just informed me that he would like me to take on
the
role of emerging technologies librarian instead of my traditional role
as
cataloger.  I would be interested in this role, but I want to make sure
the
transition is a smooth one.  Can anyone offer any advice about emerging
technologies?  I am interested in what types of professional
associations
would be most helpful, as well as which journals, magazines, and
discussion
lists are relevant to this field of librarianship.

Thank you,

Abby Hanks-Danvers

**

---

From: "Parsons, Jennifer M." <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 08:55:36 -0500

Good morning, Abby.  Congratulations on your new appointment.

Laura's suggestions are good ones-- applications/websites to manage RSS feeds, such as Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com) or Google Reader (http://reader.google.com) can be an excellent way to keep all your professional reading in one place.

In the library world, ALA TechSource (http://www.alatechsource.org/) can be a good place to start.  However, don't just limit yourself to library-related publications-- places like Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com), Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/), or Wired (http://www.wired.com/) can offer good perspectives on the hardware, software, and patron expectations you'll encounter in the profession.

Good luck!

Jennifer Parsons
Library Support Representative
MOBIUS Consortium Office
3212A LeMone Industrial Blvd.
Columbia, MO 65203
[email-masked]
573-884-3328  (direct line) //  877-366-2487 (Toll-Free in Missouri)

-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries [mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Shea-Clark, Laura
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 3:30 PM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Transitioning to a career as an emerging technologies librarian

Abby -

Best wishes.

-----Original Message-----

Thank you,

Abby Hanks-Danvers

**

---

From: Weinheimer Jim <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 16:54:12 +0200

Abby Hanks-Danvers wrote:
<snip>
</snip>

You may also be interested in a tool I made that I find handy, The Latest Library News, which works pretty simply, using a variety of technologies.
http://www.galileo.aur.it/opac-tmpl/npl/en/pages/news/librarynews.html

It has saved me a *lot* of time!

James L. Weinheimer  [email-masked]
Director of Library and Information Services
The American University of Rome
Rome, Italy

---

From: Abby Hanks-Danvers <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 May 2010 14:17:18 -0400

Good afternoon all,

I didn't get many responses to my query below, other than people reporting
they were interested in what I found out.  If anyone has any insight into
the issue below I'd be grateful

Thank you,
Abby Hanks-Danvers

On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 2:00 PM, Abby Hanks-Danvers
<[email-masked]>wrote:

>> This is my first post to the list, so I'm a bit out of my league, but I
>> was wondering if any of you can help.  I was just asked to research the
>> future of cataloging and integrated library systems by my Director of
>> Technology Systems.  Anyone have any suggestions on readings or resources
>> related to this topic?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> Abby Hanks-Danvers

---

From: Jonathan Rochkind <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 May 2010 14:30:38 -0400

I'm honestly not even sure what an "emerging technology" librarian would 
do or does.

To me, we're _all_ "emerging technologies librarians" in 2010!

---

From: Alexander Johannesen <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 7 May 2010 09:22:22 +1000

Hola,

> To me, we're _all_ "emerging technologies librarians" in 2010!

I think she meant emerging technologies of what is coming, not what's gone ...

*rimshot*

Anyway, let me use that bad joke as a stepping stone for what
"emerging technologies" really are ;

Ideas.

There, that's all there is to it. Think of how the future might solve
all your perceived problems, and look for solutions to them in the
current landscape. The distance between what you want and what you
find should give you an indication of how far off in the future the
real solution might be. Some years ago I whinged a lot about the
librarian world's lack of understanding the onslaught of eBooks and
eReaders that was coming (and is here now), and it was by thinking
"what would I like?" ; a simple tablet in color I can snuggle up in
bed with, with thousands of books, Internet for research, and some
easy means to take notes and make drawings. Ok, how far off right now
(back in 2005) are we? Hmm, prototypes and early eReaders are showing
up at the techno shows, that means it's right around the corner. Easy
peasy.

Working with emerging technology has really very little to do with
actual technology. The tools and gadgets and software and mechanics,
they're all technology that will zoom fast into the future as the
definition of "technology" itself will, as science finds new and
better ways of cramming awesomeness into smaller packages. The *real*
trick is to understand what we're using technology for now, and try to
match it with what technology can do around the corner and with what
problems you've got; find that golden correlation between what you
want and what is available now.

You need to be creative, though. You need to be able to think
creatively about the human condition, try to picture what the next
generation (whatever that means) might want to do; understand their
context, their needs, the way things are going, and so on. As a crazy
but lovely example, let's talk about TomTom, a manufacturer of GPS
navigation devices. They're under tremendous pressure from the fact
that every damn phone out there these days have both GPS and (often)
free navigation software on them, literary killing their market. What
to do? Something pure genius;

   http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/05/video-darth-vader-records-voice-for-tomtom/

That trick alone might be what saves the company from failure. I want
one! I want plenty! And I have a damn phone with a GPS and two free
navigation software on there. No, three. And lots of other interesting
things, like Internet and whatsnot. And now I *lust* a TomTom, and all
they did was make some optional sounds. Genius. Good technology isn't
always new fadangled technology, but using what's already there in
creative ways. Technology without clever use is *not* emerging, that's
just technology. The stuff that you want to capture is what emerge
that has clever stickiness.

Some more concrete tips; read *bucketloads* of blogs. The most bang
for your buck you'll find at places like Engadget where current
prototypes of all sorts of consumer gadgets gets exposed, and you can
extrapolate from there. Whatever excites these guys *will* excite your
users. Is anyone doing an iPhone app for citation and research that
taps into social networks?

Here's the minimum, though; Read blogs, and write a blog, perhaps
twitter. Capture what people get excited about. Find the library
connection. Talk about it in your blog. Involve yourself in the online
dialog. Let it sink in. Then suggest to your library to do something
about it. Look for trends. Avoid hyperbole and marketing.

And lastly, think seriously about knowledge management, not about
books. Think about identity management, not about authority control.

My 0.2$.

Regards,

Alex

Alex
-- 
 Project Wrangler, SOA, Information Alchemist, UX, RESTafarian, Topic Maps
--- http://shelter.nu/blog/ ----------------------------------------------
------------------ http://www.google.com/profiles/alexander.johannesen ---

---

From: Jonathan Rochkind <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 May 2010 19:30:23 -0400

I guess really, thinking about this further, is my advice would be:  
Figure out from the boss what "emerging technologies librarian" is 
expected to do exactly. It is far from obvious to me.

Based on what the expectations are for this position, perhaps listserv 
members might have useful advice. Or perhaps say "That's a completely 
unrealistic position!" heh.

Jonathan

---

From: Todd Puccio <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 7 May 2010 09:40:19 -0400

We had an Emerging Technologies librarian.

She played with Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Wiki's and Second Life all day.

Basically, the emerging technologies librarian is the resident teenager that
learns all the coolest new things and tries to figure how to apply them in
the library environment.

Sounds pretty cool to me.
But, the old curmudgeon in me doesn't see how that gets any of the important
work done.
I have shelves of backlogs to catalog and we pay another librarian to play
with Web 2.0 ?

Someone has to stay on top of the new stuff.  
I thought other librarians would do that on their own, like I do, rather
than having to be hired and designated to do it.

T. Puccio

-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Jonathan Rochkind
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2010 7:30 PM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Transitioning to a career as an emerging technologies
librarian

Jonathan

> to do? Something pure genius;
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/05/video-darth-vader-records-voice-for-t
omtom/

---

From: Marliese Thomas <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 10 May 2010 09:05:16 -0500

In addition to Alex's comments, I would add: 

Marketing. 

It's a great thing to be able to adapt what you already have to improve
the user experience and be able to recognize the new (and hopefully
practical) trends. It's completely another to sell your idea to
administration and other staff who would be affected by your
recommendations and decisions. Marketing to your boss, to your boss's
boss and higher, to your coworkers, to students and faculty (or whatever
audience is relevant for your company). Explain these new technologies
to people who aren't inherently fluent with words like "open source",
"discovery layer" and "integrated search". Explain it in such a way that
they feel enthused and invested in using a product. Communicate
regularly to people inside and outside your institution. Learn to love
usability testing and usage statistics. There's a saying "success breeds
success". Use other people's experiences to support and guide your
decisions and actions. 

I left a job in marketing to be a librarian and swore I would never go
into anything like sales. Ironically, those skills are essential to
making my job work now. 

Best of luck, 

Marliese
(I've never been on Second Life, but I'm thinking about joining
Twitter)

Marliese Thomas
Database Enhancement Librarian
RBD Library
Auburn University
 
231 Mell Street
Auburn, AL 36849
 
334.844.8171
[email-masked]