Wrapping it up

This semester I made an attempt to talk about dissemination and how it relates to information science and librarianship. I discussed some traditional approaches to dissemination: information policy, library ethics, and patron privacy. But I discussed some off-the-cuff topics such as: library blogs, library outreach. I even touched on choosing a better web browser (Choose Firefox!), dating in a library and who to call in an emergency (Ask-a-Librarian).

This was only a small look from a beginning student. There is so much more to discuss in the information science and dissemination field that a semester of studies can be dedicated to this.

I hope it has been interesting for you and that you have taken away a little something from this experience. I know I have!

Thank you for visiting!!

Traci

What....I can get a date at the library??

I am a happily married girl, so I don't have to worry about it anymore, but I remember the time it was hard to find a date. A girl could look everywhere: the grocery store, their favorite bar, church, friends, the horrible blind dates. Later, Internet personal sites became popular (admittedly, that is where I met my husband) and the dating world changed. Around that time an invention called Speed Dating became popular. Most of us know the idea, so I won't elaborate, but even libraries are jumping on the wagon with this one.

The local library, where I live, Alachua County, offers this occasionally at their library. In fact, last time I was at my local branch library, I noticed the invitation.

"Romance by the book" is a little different and asks book lovers to come to the library prepared to discuss their favorite book.

I'm not sure if any matches were successful but you can't help but admire the library's attempt at incorporating this interesting twist.

Interesting, a quick Google search of speed dating library returns over 500,000 hits...hmm, maybe they are on to something.

Citations
Library to hold 'Romance By the Book' speed dating event for book lovers. (26 April, 2007). Retrieved July 13, 2008 from website: http://www.aclib.us/index.php?site_area=about_the_library&page=news&item=00111

Who ya gonna call...

I know I'm not the only one that has trouble finding information on something important. Sometimes the Internet just doesn't help you as much as it should. Sometimes virtual sources don't get you to the exact information you are looking for. Sometimes people just don't know where to start. That's where an helpful service comes into play.

Florida has a service called "Ask a Librarian" that is operated through a joint project with the Tampa Bay Library Consortium and the College Center for Library Automation. People anywhere in Florida can find answers to their questions in minutes and can forget about navigating through a bunch of websites that probably wouldn't be helpful anyway (Ask a librarian).

Since this is a blog about dissemation, I am doing my part in "spreading the word". So, when you are really down on your luck and can't the info you need, you can always visit this website:

http://www.askalibrarian.org/aal.asp

Citations
Ask a Librarian. Retrieved July 11, 2008 from website: http://info.askalibrarian.org/index.asp

Mozilla Firefox - A librarians dream tool

A million years ago (really less than two) I was using this ancient tool called Internet Explorer as my web browser. IE and I were pretty good friends. She guided me to the right websites, let me use Google to find my desired information, basically sustained me for many years.

But one day, I awoke to this amazing invention called Mozilla Firefox. What is Mozilla...not a large animal scaling a building towards a cute blonde, but an amazing technological tool that lets you surf the Internet and personalize it to your heart's content.

I knew there would be research on Mozilla, but I didn't realize exactly how much.

Rensberger (2005) talks about his introduction to Firefox after a conversation with his editor. In January 2005, Firefox had over 20 million downloads (Rensberger, 2005). Rensberger (2005) also points out Firefox’s speed and availability in 27 languages – this was in 2005, now Firefox is available in 33 languages (my quick count on their website).

Now don’t get me wrong, Internet Explorer is fine and dandy, but it isn’t nearly as helpful or cool as Firefox.

Alright, Traci – enough gushing about this little invention. Why can this web browser help me. Francoeur (2006) explains this much better than I ever could when referencing the add-on programs available through the free-open source Mozilla Foundation “these add-on programs ...turn an elegant browser into a handy Swiss Army tool right at the reference desk” (p. 166).

Okay, so what does this have to do with dissemination. Well, a lot actually, silly. The faster and easier a library or information science professional can find the information the better for the patron, and with tools incorporated into Firefox information is readily available for the informed and experienced information professional. Now, I know it isn't easy to change, but if you haven't - you are really, really missing out!!

Citations
Francoeur, S. (2006). Firefox at the Reference Desk. Library Journal, 131(20), 166.

Rensberger, D. (2005). Firefox: An Alternative Browser to Theirs. Searcher 13(5), 17-20

Side note: I was just thinking about this old New York Times newspaper article I read tonight. I remembered that I saved it to my favorites and went to retrieve it tonight. Funny aside, it was published exactly one year ago today. A hipper crowd of shushers focuses on the new generation of librarians and their love of information. With this new generation coming in (me, one day too, I hope!) to the library and information science field, there are bound to be changes and different technology incorporations. I mentioned in a previous post about libraries and their use of blogs and podcasts, but I've yet to share some of my favorites. Firefox makes it super easy to get your favorite podcasts and RSS feeds through Sage (a Firefox add-on) - another reason why I absolutely love Firefox!

Quick note about the pictures on this blog

Unless stated otherwise and unless taken by me or of me...all the pictures on this blog were taken from Flickr. Flickr encourages photo sharing and when photos are uploaded, users give permission for others to use their photographs. Flickr actually uses "metadata" in their organization and users are asked to help in organizing information and sharing.

Spreading the word to all users

Last semester, I took Web Design for Libraries. I loved this class since it provided an important resource: web design (shocking, huh). All sarcasm, aside, I thought this course was helpful, since it explained CSS, HTML, and WYSIWYG tools. The biggest component of the course, was also designing a website. The instructor let us be very creative and pick different subjects. Some of my peers focused on designing a webpage for their place of employment, others made travel websites or wedding websites, others, like me, chose to focus on an aspect of library science.

Right before that class started, I thought about how easy it was for most of us to get our information. When we want to know something, we just visit a website. Some of us stay in contact with people through MySpace, Facebook, or our own personal blogs. We visit Wikipedia or do a quick Google search when we want to find information. Some people aren’t that lucky. The few weeks before that class started, something else clicked, I came into contact with two individuals that changed the way I thought about library access, so I chose to concentrate on web accessibility for people with disabilities. While they can visit these sites, it isn’t the same traditional way we visit them. So long story, short, I focused my website on web accessibility, as it relates to libraries.

I found out some interesting facts. Most importantly, in relation to dissemination, it is important for libraries to comply with Web Accessibility initiatives under the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) through the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as well as the requirement under Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 which requires “electronic and information technology developed or purchased by federal departments and agencies be accessible to people with disabilities” (Hong, Katerattanakul, & Lee, 2008, p. 27).

Many libraries already do this and many already provide important services to ensure they are reaching all of their patrons. Many libraries provide close captioned videos, sign language interpreters, screen readers at computer terminals, talking books, Braille resources, large print books, assisted listening devices or talking books. All of these tools and resources are important for libraries to provide and should be an essential addition to libraries that haven’t yet incorporated these services.

Citations
Hong, S., Katerattanakul, P., & Lee, D., (2008). Evaluating government website
Accessibility: Software tool vs human experts. Management Research News, 31, 27-40.

Academic libraries and dissemination

Academic libraries exist to perpetuate learning in an academic environment. Academic libraries can be separated by general subjects like medicine, law, social sciences, communication, etc., but can also be combined as one main university library. Academic libraries serve “community colleges, liberal arts colleges, universities” (Gorman, 2000, p. 83) and that specific university community (Gorman, 2000). With this in mind, the academic library doors are also open to members of the community as a whole. “Publicly and privately supported institutions that hold depository collections of federal and state documents are obliged by law to make these collections available to any member of the public” (Gorman, 2000, p. 83). Access to taxpayers and their families cannot be denied (Gorman, 2000). Dissemination of government documents is an essential part of an academic library.

For academic libraries, dissemination can come in the form of library instruction. Academic libraries work hard to ensure their students have access to library instruction. Library instruction helps the users and “empower them to profit from higher education” (Gorman, 2000, p. 84). Gorman (2000) provides detailed explanations for the need of library instruction in higher education: poor high school preparedness, students re-entering school after a long absence, and community college transfers (p. 84). All of these students would benefit from education in library use, especially in an academic setting, since this would be different than any previous environment. Gorman (2000) finds this incredibly useful, especially since “one could not find a better expression of the service ethic than bringing familiarity with the world of recorded knowledge to those who really need it” (Gorman, 2000, p. 84).

Academic libraries have been recognized “as a critical factor necessary to support the curriculum and research for students and faculty” (Rubin, 2004, p. 278). Brown, Weingart, Johnson & Dance (2004) examine the freshman orientation library program and the effect of this instruction on their educational success. Brown, et al. (2004) found that first-year orientation programs help “reduce possible barriers to academic achievement” (p. 394). This is especially important due to the many demands placed upon academic librarians. Having administration’s backing for student orientation and training, helps lend support for the necessity of library funding from college administrators. Brown, et al. (2004) explain “in response to ever tightening budgets, there is a new movement within universities to justify individual budgets based on positive and calculable assessment” (p. 394). The fact that librarians are able to justify their success through these programs can only further assist them.

Academic libraries also play a significant role in technological advances. Anyone that walks into an academic library will first be struck by the number of computer terminals and access to immediate technology for its users. Digital libraries and off-campus access are only two major accomplishments of the 21st Century library. Even the idea of the traditional library building has changed. Students need not even enter the campus library to access journal articles, databases, e-books, and course reserve materials. Many of us, in this program, never have to set foot in the university library and can access all our journal articles through our home computer. As Wilson (2004) points out, “the impact of technology on academic library instruction has been immense and nearly incalculable” (p. 341). Young students entering schools now have never lived in a time where the Internet wasn’t readily available to them, where they didn’t have access to PDAs, iPods and Google (Wilson, 2004, p. 341). They have almost always been exposed to “digital collections and mass digitization” (Wilson, 2004, p. 341). This is helpful for the field of technology, but often difficult for the librarian who is trying to compete first hand with remaining ahead of the trends and educating herself in the advances of technology and dissemination.

Citations

Gorman, M. (2000). Our enduring values. Chicago: American Library Association.

Rubin, R.E. (2004). Foundations of library and information science. New York: Neal-Schuman.

Brown, A. G., Weingart, S., Johnson, J. R., & Dance, B. (2004). Librarians don't bite. Reference
Services Review, 32(4), 394-403.

Wilson, L. (2004). What a difference a decade makes: Transformation in academic library
instruction. Reference Services Review, 32(4), 338-346.

The opposite of dissemination: suppression

When thinking about potential dissemination issues, the thought of Sports Illustrated, never entered my mind as being a potential ethical issue. In 2007, Sports Illustrated decided to hold back 21,000 copies of their swimsuit edition to classrooms and libraries, which needless to say made a number of librarians angry, after all, a lot of people like Sports Illustrated (especially the swimsuit edition). Instead of letting libraries opt out of receiving the magazine, they made the decision (on their own) to withhold it. It wasn’t until the national news picked up the story did they offer to correct their mistake and invited the neglected libraries to request their copy (Oder, 2007).

Censorship is a concern in all libraries and even in the traditional classroom. A teacher was recently suspended and faced possible criminal charges after he let a minor student select Child of God, a novel written by Cormac McCarthy (a Pulitzer Prize winning author, by the way), off a suggested reading list, because the novel contained controversial and graphic references (Brown, 2007). Some parents welcomed the teacher’s reinstatement. Others did not, and one even filed a police report against the teacher (Brown, 2007). What do these actions say about our society?

Ferris (2007) details the ALA’s approach to censorship as “the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons….find objectionable or dangerous” (p. 33). Regardless of this, it is the role of the library professional to ensure their beliefs, values, opinions, etc do not intercede the mission of providing access to information. Since librarians do have a responsibility to serve as educators and as an information resource, eliminating a book, newspaper, magazine, video, DVD, etc, that opposes their viewpoint or belief, makes them censors. Regardless, if a librarian has a strong opinion on a topic, they cannot hold back a book that is a proponent of that topic (or vice versa). It is against their mission as an information professional to engage in this behavior.

As a child, I remember reading, Are you there god, it’s me, Margaret? This book answered a lot of questions about growing up and cleared up a lot of confusion. This book is (and has been) banned from many school libraries because of its controversial subjects: religion, sex, divorce, and puberty. The last week of September, libraries hold Banned Books Week, to address this censorship threat. Although, many books are more “challenged…not actually banned” (Long, 2006, p. 73). In 2006, the “American Library Association was notified of 547 challenges, up from 459” (Long, 2006, p. 73) the previous year. As long as people have opinions and beliefs, this will also be a challenge to library professionals in all types of libraries and there will always be suppression problems like these.

Citations

Brown, A. K. (2007, October 22). Teacher put on leave after book complaint. Star-Telegram.

Fallis, D.(2007). Information ethics for twenty-first century library professionals. Library Hi Tech, 25 (1), 23-36

Long. S. (2006) Banned Books Week: a celebration of intellectual freedom. New Library World, 107 (1220/1221), 73-75.

Oder, N. Swimsuit Issue Denied to Libraries. Library Journal (1976) v. 132 no. 6 (April 1 2007) p. 14-15

The power of Creative Commons

There is a fantastic tool for librarians and information science professionals. But first for a ilttle background. According to their website, Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that helps people protect their work, while sharing it. Essentially, it is

On this site, I have taken the pictures or used pictures through a creative commons source like Flickr (rather than Google images, which takes pictures from websites, which might have copyrighted or restricted images and aren't free to use). However, pictures from Flickr are free to use.

Only one more post on information policies, I promise

According to ALA Intellectual Freedom Manual, intellectual freedom can only exist through the following:

“Intellectual freedom can exist only where two essential conditions are met: first, that all
individuals have the right to hold any belief on any subject and to convey their ideas in any form they deem appropriate; and second, that society makes an equal commitment to the right of unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication
medium used, the content of the work, and the viewpoints of both the author and receiver of information. Freedom to express oneself through a chosen mode of communication, including the Internet, becomes virtually meaningless if access to that information is not protected. Intellectual freedom implies a circle, and that circle is broken if either freedom of expression or access to ideas is stifled.”

This means several things for libraries, since they exist to help people achieve intellectual freedom. We are living in a technological age, where immediate information is readily available to people who know how to find it. Unfortunately, not everyone has the financial ability (or desire) to partake in this. D’Elia, Jörgensen, Woelfel and Rodger (2002) studied internet use in public libraries and the effect on library utilization. While this article is dated, is does provide an interesting viewpoint. D’Elia et al (2002) surveyed library utilization and why people make decisions to not have the Internet. In 2002, a significant percentage claimed the expense and privacy concerns with not wanting to engage in Internet searches. This behavior and belief has, of course, changed, but many people still seek out personal computers and the Internet at their local library.

Currently, there is a concentrated focus on the establishment of Internet policies that govern how libraries provide Internet service to its patrons. Federal mandates and legislation, “have made some type of filtering mandatory” (Rubin, 2004, p. 194) in cases where libraries receive federal monies. Filters block content or block certain websites. However, this could lead to some legitimate websites also being blocked from a search. A student searching for information on “breast cancer” as a classmate recently explained, could possibly result in significant blocking due to the sexual term “breast”. The American Library Association has taken a stand against filters and has passed resolutions and policies regarding filtering. This is important to the ALA since “filters in fact deprive both young people and adults of constitutionally protected speech and that libraries have a special obligation to protect such access” (Rubin, 2004, p. 200).

Does this change the way information is disseminated by library and information science professionals?

Citations

D’Elia, G., Jörgensen, C., Woelfel, J., Rodger, E. (2002). The impact of the Internet on public
library use: An analysis of the current consumer market for library and Internet services. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 53(10), 802-820.

Rubin, R.E. (2004). Foundations of library and information science. New York: Neal-Schuman.

Library ethics, patron privacy…is this related to dissemination?

The term “ethics” is a difficult one to easily define. A simplistic way to look at it, is analyzing the difference between right and wrong. Of course, everyone will have varied ways to approach a situation and a difficult ethical issue for one person, would be a simple decision for another. When consulting the American Library Association’s Code of Ethics, it explains “The principles of this Code are expressed in broad statements to guide ethical decision making. These statements provide a framework; they cannot and do not dictate conduct to cover particular situations” (American Library Association website). A Code of Ethics can only provide a basic “framework” and cannot tell someone how to behave or exactly what decisions to make. Therefore, it is essential for professionals to be aware of the potential ethical issues they may face in their chosen career path.

Core to the ALA’s Code of Ethics is the following statement “We protect each library user's right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted” (www.ala.org). Library patrons should never be in fear that their information will be given to any third party. In our recent culture, unfortunately, and somewhat understandably, we are in a time and place, where this can become a very heated, political and ethical argument. This has become such an important issue, the American Libraries journal included an insert detailing a model policy on how to respond to demands for library records, “Responding to Demands for Library Records”. With the passage of the Patriot Act, and discussion on the FBI’s use and misuse of this policy to gain records, this will continue to be an issue that is difficult for people to agree.

Why is this important to the field of dissemination? Since libraries and information science professionals are actively engaged ensuring their information is shared with others, people should also have an expectation of privacy when taking advantage of these resources and services.

“Privacy has become a particularly important information policy issue for libraries because of governmental attempts to obtain borrowing information on individuals though their circulation records” (Rubin, 2004, p. 126). Many states have enacted state statutes that protect against “third-party access to borrowers’ records, while still providing limited access by governmental agencies for specific reasons” (Rubin, 2004, p. 126).

This is an issue that all libraries can face and one that can have detrimental effects from both sides. Failure of a library to comply with a court order to release information could result in libraries losing state or federal funding. Compliance could result in losing faith and confidence from library patrons. Either way, libraries should clearly share with their patrons their policies and procedures, in a public place and on their website.

Citations
Rubin, R.E. (2004). Foundations of library and information science. New York: Neal-Schuman.

Information policy, library blogs and dissemination

Information policies help dictate and guide what kind of information can be disseminated and accessed (Lester and Koehler, 2007). This is mostly in relation to information produced by the government, "access to information in the private sector and government access to personal information" (Lester and Koehler, 2007, p. 308).

Current policies favor wide access to information, especially as it relates to government information. Information should be easily obtained and without restriction to anyone wanting it (Lester and Koehler, 2007). However, there are restrictions on this, to an extent.

False or misleading information, slanderous or libelous, obscene and personal information all have restriction on dissemination. Information that may "imperil or threaten national security" (Lester and Koehler, 2007, p. 308) also faces strict restrictions. When looked at with a common sense and logical approach, all of these make sense. Information that is false, misleading, personal or obscene should not be disseminated by information professionals, unless they are itching for a lawsuit.

Bloggers are also facing challenges to this. A recent Associated Press article discussed the challenges facing bloggers and lawsuits faced by some bloggers because of their dissemination of information. According to the article, "more than 100 judgments valued at $17 million have been handed down against bloggers over the last three years" (Rousseau, 2008).

So while blogging is an important outreach tools for librarians and information science professionals, careful attention to information policies and the proper dissemination of information is paramount.

Citations
Rousseau (2008, June 13). Training held bloggers hone professionalism. Associated Press. Retrieved: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jDcycDsY5menjjbjiq_hZf60NqqwD919LS800

Academic libraries and outreach: A look at Virgina Tech

In 2004,Virgina Tech took a proactive approach to organizing and structuring their marketing and library services and hired an Outreach Librarian (Vielle, 2006). The individual assigned to this position would be responsible for developing and implementing programs, special and events and representing the library and various external and internal events and programs (Vielle, 2006). The Outreach Librarian would also be responsible for providing tours of the library and conducting and developing surveys and holding focus groups to help determine the library patron needs (Vielle, 2006).

This proactive approach is important as it relates to information science dissemination, since dissemination is essentially a public relations and community outreach tool. How libraries approach can potentially help increase patrons use and understanding of the library’s services and role they play, especially when thinking about an academic library.

Vielle, L. (2006). The Best Is Yet to Come: Laying a Foundation for Marketing. Technical Services Quarterly. 24(2), 9-26.

Outreach and dissemination

In my previous life, before moving to Gainesville, I worked in the Community Awareness Division at the St. Petersburg Police Department. Here we were responsible for the dissemination of all information to the media, citizens of St. Petersburg, and the employees of the police department. We did this in several ways, through press releases, newsletters, brochures, press conferences, presentation, and even through general conversations.

One of the first thoughts, when I think of dissemination tactics in information science and libraries is the potential focus on community outreach and public relations. Many libraries now have weblogs that help them spread information. Many libraries, including the local library here in Alachua County have an employee (or more than one) devoted to Community Outreach and a section on their website that concentrates on news releases. Some libraries also have podcasts, which help them reach their patrons easily obtain information about their library and potential special services.

Can libraries use these types of activities to disseminate information? I think so!

Information Science in Librarianship

It is my humble opinion, that we are embarking on exciting and challenging careers in the information science and librarianship fields. Whether we choose to work in an academic, public or school library. Or even in the technology field, we will all be sharing and disseminating information.

Every day we all share information. We read websites, talk with co-workers, family and friends, watch the news. Information changes hands so quickly and rather efficiently, that if we need an answer to a question, we can easily find it. (This can also lead to more problems, but I'll go into that more later.)

This blog will serve as a cursory look at how information is disseminated. I think this is an exciting and ever changing topic, that deserves a lot of attention. I know this blog will only serve as a very basic starting point, but I'm excited and look forward to sharing my insight with you.