Google U.S. Government Search

Google’s stated goal of organizing the world’s information is taking another step forward. Searching on Google often brings more results than we are looking for. Sorting out the results can be time consuming. Everyone googles today. We expect the answer to any question to pop up when we enter it in Google.

As the quantity of information has expanded, Google has begun to offer various more specialized search engines. If we are looking for specific standards or regulations of a government agency, there is now Google U.S. Government Search. Some government agencies have done a better job than others making their Web sites useable and information searchable. This of course requires that we even know which agency Web site to search. Some information remains inaccessible and Google is working with a number of government agencies to remedy the problem.

Is Google doing this out of the goodness of their heart? Of course not. We will be subjected to additional advertising, but doesn’t the ease of the search outweigh that inconvenience? Who else will take the responsibility to gather so much information or care if we have access? There are many large businesses I love to hate. This is not one of them.

Bookmobiles

My first job as a librarian was with the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library as a bookmobile librarian. I made weekly visits to rural communities, prisons, small private schools without libraries, impoverished neighborhoods and even within the confines of the Lackawanna Steel Mill where workers and their families both lived and worked.

The first bookmobile in the U.S. was developed by Mary Lemist Titcomb for the Washington County, Maryland Free Library in 1905. Her wagon provided books to people lived in remote parts of the county. Almost 900 bookmobiles operate still in the U.S., but many communities have had to abandon their outreach programs. Bringing the library to the elderly, disabled, a day-care center, or the economically disadvantaged can change a life where access would otherwise be denied.

CNN recently selected Yohannes Gebregeorgis as one of its top 10 heroes for 2008 for his outstanding contribution to society. Gebregeorgis established Ethiopia Reads which brings free public libraries and literacy programs to Ethiopian children. Born to an illiterate cattle merchant, the experience at 19 of having a book of his own changed his life. He came to the United States as a political refugee in 1981, ultimately put himself through university, obtaining a graduate degree in library science. In 2002, returned to Ethiopia with 15,000 donated books and opened a library in his home in Addis Ababa. Since then he has expanded his library by adding a Donkey Mobile Library a donkey-pulled trailer-cart that now makes weekly visits to rural villages around Awassa.

Fairfax County’s first bookmobile began operation in 1940. Over the years more bookmobiles were added. In the 1970s, several were retired and replaced by new branch libraries. The last of our bookmobiles ended services in the mid-1980s. Perhaps Fairfax no longer has need of bookmobiles, but the need is still great in much of the world to reach people and open windows to the world. I loved my days as a bookmobile librarian and was moved by Mr. Gebregeorgis’ story.

Barbara
Internet Services

The Dilemma

We are getting the news every which way we turn. The economy is bad and getting worse. We have to tighten our belts. The library is in the same boat. We will have to find ways to make do with less funding as the tax bases shrink and budgets are cut. Unfortunately this is often when our customers need us most.

A quick look at statistics for circulation, visitors to the library or use of databases shows that library usage is increasing. Customers when faced with a long wait for a popular title are no longer saying “I’ll just go to my book store and buy the title.” They wait. They also are less quick to drive to another branch to obtain a book. They wait for us to bring it to their branch. With high gas prices, more people are signing up for free programs as entertainment for their children and checking out more movies.

Our libraries are used in many ways that are important to the lives of customers. People use the computer access to look for jobs, fill out applications, and check e-mail accounts. WiFi has permitted internet access to many without the added cost for coffee. We provide public service information about classes, elections and area services. Jim Rettig, President of ALA said, “During tough economic times, people turn to libraries for their incredible array of free resources. In good times or bad, libraries are a great value!” So when our customers may need us the most, we may be forced to possibly cut hours, purchase fewer books and reduce staff.

How will we meet the challenge of meeting this surge in demand with less?

Goodbye to Floppies

Original floppy disks held only 100KB of data. The first floppy was offered by IBM in 1971 and considered revolutionary. It replaced old punch-cards. The nickname came from the flexibility of the original eight-inch plastic coated disk. In 1976 the disk shrank to 5 ¼ inches. In 1981 Sony shrunk it again to 3 ½ inches and this became the standard which held 1.44 megabytes of data.

Today’s computers are no longer built with disk drives. Most manufacturers stopped including them during 2007. With the current PC replacements arriving at FCPL we for the first time will have no computers available for public internet use with disk drives. The newest storage device is the flash drive, sometimes referred to as a thumb drive. By comparison even the smallest of flash drives holds much more information (64 -128 MB), is easier to carry and more reliable. A 64 MB flash drive holds the equivalent of 64 floppy diskettes. For many the loss of access to saved data will be a significant problem.

Have we prepared our public for this transition? Or maybe they are ready and we are just way behind the curve.

Google is 10

Google is celebrating its 10th birthday this month (September 2008). The name actually came from the mathematical term “googol” for the number represented by the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. The term reflects the infinite amount of information they have managed to organize and make available on the web.

Google began as a Ph.D. research project in January 1996 at Stanford University. As a business it began in September of 1998 in a garage in Menlo Park, California. Google didn’t look very different in 1998 from how it appears today.

There seems to be no limit to their imagination. They continue to help organize and make accessible incredible amounts and types of information. Sources that were once only available to a few are now available to almost everyone. They have changed the meaning of search as well as changed our language. Not only are we able to find answers to those random daily questions we have by “googling”, but we can look at patent applications, see how our representatives voted on issues or look at other government documents, get a map to an address across town or across country, take a look in a book not locally available, translate a word or a page and search scholarly literature. It is hard to believe it has been ten short years.

As the internet changes and our devices change I am sure Google will continue to find new ways to deliver information. What new sources of information would you like Google to organize?

Book Stores

Who doesn’t love a book store? Book stores are peaceful and quiet or at least they used to be. They smell like books and paper. The atmosphere in book stores is changing as they compete with online sellers. Will book stores exist in a few years?

Many book stores are closing. Amazon and other online sellers are just a click away and we can shop in the comfort of our own home. Is this convenience or laziness? Amazon doesn’t provide the atmosphere of old. Its reader’s advisory is based on digitized evaluation of similar shoppers or previously purchased items. That is not the same as a good personal recommendation from a local book seller. The pleasure of browsing and discovering a treasure will be lost.

Book stores are changing their offerings to appeal to shoppers. They now sell ebooks, music and movies; present author signings and marketing “events”; provide snacks and coffee. Are these additions making them more exciting? It is definitely not making them the peaceful quiet place of the past. In fact recently someone wrote a letter to the editor of the Washington Post complaining that she wasn’t going back to book stores until they were a yak free zone. Other shoppers had spoiled the peace and quiet and the experience. I will miss book stores if they are lost in these changing times.

Who blogs? And who comments?

Blogs are written for a variety of reasons. Some are personal diaries; others impart information and opinion perhaps on politics, goods or services; others are a reflection on life and still others to elicit a discussion.

eMarketer reports that in 2008 there are now 25.2 million bloggers in the U.S. and 104.7 million readers. This is over 50% of internet users. Reading blogs is something I thought just the younger generations did, but surveys indicate that most readers are older than 30, are educated professionals and have good incomes, but 80% of readers are male. That last piece of information may provide insight into my concern here at FCPL.

Evidence is that many more people read blogs than comment. Some reasons given for not commenting are shyness, the fear that the comment is not worth the effort of posting, that others may have already conveyed the same response or that the response will not be anonymous.

I have hoped to engage the library community in discussion on a variety of issues and products related to our work and our future. It would be great to hear from you.

Summer Reading Programs

According to ALA, summer reading programs began as far back as the 1890s. Children who continue reading through the summer become better readers by increasing reading comprehension and vocabulary and hopefully learn to love reading; those children who do not read during the summer may lose reading skills. In Summer Learning and the Effects of Schooling, Barbara Heyns states that the number of books read during the summer is consistently related to academic gains.

Libraries across the country offer summer reading programs. What those programs seem to have in common is the reading log, which children fill in as they read the required number of books. Some children take the progress of their reading very seriously, others simply fill in the log with books they have recently read in order to collect their “prize.” Engaging the finishers with discussions about their favorite titles or the genre they have chosen is what we try to do, but staff are often too busy to spend quality time with each child.

I would like to see a more progressive program that offers intermediate prizes along the way say after the first 5 books, then at 10 etc., and encourages readers to keep reading throughout the summer for some grander prize. Alternatively it would be great to find ways for readers to share with others the books they have particularly enjoyed, in writing or in an online forum or best of all in small groups. The New York Statewide Summer Reading Program offers readers the opportunity to nominate their favorite book for the 3 Apples Book Award. A ballot of 15 of the most popular titles is chosen and those who have read at least 3 from that list may vote.

In a time of budget constraints this is probably not the best time to make more work, but I do like the idea of engaging children further in thinking and sharing what they liked about the books they read. When our program does a land office business, I suppose there is no need to fix what isn’t broken.

What do you think?

Graphic novels -- transitioning thoughts and feelings

I never read comic books as a child. My children always read the Sunday comics in the Washington Post and considered me comically deprived. So is it any wonder I have been slow to appreciate the genre. I was not sure that “comic books” belonged in the library. Gradually I realized that perhaps as a starting place for the reluctant reader this collection had a place. At least they were reading, but I still thought of these as sort of illustrated condensed versions taking the place of quality literature.

Finally I decided to take the plunge. A co-worker suggested if I was going to read a graphic novel it should be the best example there was. So my first experience was Maus by Art Spiegelman, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1992. I confess that I had to keep reminding myself to look at the pictures. I wanted to just read the words and of course much was lost without the wonderful art that went with this story. So I often had to go back and try again. This story about the author’s father and his survival of the Holocaust is very powerful. What surprised me was that a story presented in a sequential art format could be so effective in telling a story. So I have moved on to Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, but I am not yet ready to fight for a turn in front of the Yu Gi Oh! titles, the highly popular series by Kazuki Takahashi.

Being Connected

Technology is changing how we live our lives. We are finding new and interesting ways to manage the daily business of our lives. Some of us have adapted more quickly than others. There are still dinosaurs. Are we more efficient because we do our bill paying or shopping online? Perhaps, if our computer and our Internet connection are working and the bank or store Web site is not experiencing problems.

This week storms blew through our area interrupting electrical power and Internet connectivity for thousands. Students couldn’t finish homework, parents couldn’t pay bills, and contractors couldn’t e-mail documents. For some this loss of connectivity was impossible to live with. Some folks even moved into hotels for the night just to have Internet access. The dinosaurs probably lit a candle, wrote checks to pay their bills, hand delivered the important documents or maybe used a library for their homework. There is still life without the Internet, at least for a short period…..

Having fun with Google Book Search

The Google Book Search was not new to me when I attended the Google Advanced Tools training recently. Some of the creative ways to use this tool were.

The Google Book Search is a project to digitize the world’s books in partnership with New York Public Library, Harvard, University of Michigan, Oxford and Stanford libraries. These combined collections exceed 15 million volumes. When books are still copyrighted the author or publishers can determine what portion of their material may be viewed, snippet view, sample page view or full book view.

What is really fun is the dynamic search aspect of this tool. You can search not only by titles and authors but by a character’s name, a town mentioned in a story, the name of a math formula, etc. Results even give the page number where the result can be located within the book. Once you have selected the item you need, links are provided to sites where you can purchase the book or better yet a link to World Cat to find libraries that have the item available. Links are also included for reviews, related Web sites, and other works. We have all had customers who cannot remember the title of a book only a place or character in the story. Now we can find even the most obscure references and guide customers to just the book they need and maybe it is even in our own library.

Change

Robert Darnton, Director of the University Library at Harvard, claims in The Library in the New Age in The New York Review of Books, that there have only been four fundamental changes in information technology since humans learned to speak. The first: writing; the second: books with turnable pages; the third: the invention of the printing press and the fourth: electronic communication. Forty-three hundred years passed between the time we learned to write and creation of books, 1150 more years elapsed from books to the printing press and only 524 years from movable type to the internet. He argues that there remains a place for brick and mortar libraries but I fear mostly because of the built in obsolescence of electronic media.

Today the interim technologies change so quickly that we have barely learned to use our toys before they are obsolete. How many of us still have old records or floppy disks around the house? We store information on the latest format only to find that the technology has changed and we can no longer access that information.

Books are still a good storage devise.

Art In The Pages

This public art initiative by the Fairfax Library Foundation celebrates the joys of art and reading. Creative local artists transformed these blank sculptures of an open book into colorful works of art. Area businesses, organizations and individuals have sponsored these efforts.

Only a couple of these sculptures had a singular logical location such as the “Crossroads Elephants” at Woodrow Wilson or the “Jefferson’s Works” at Thomas Jefferson Library, but all of them could have used more explanation. The brochure that arrived this week does answer some of the questions that customers have been asking about the project, about the artists, about the sponsors etc. It does not however explain why the particular genre, book, or location was chosen. What book or experience motivated the artists?

As Fairfax has grown some of the local history and the significance of names has been lost. Many at Woodrow Wilson asked “Why did we get elephants?” Bailey’s Crossroads as a winter home to the circus was new information to many of the crossroads current residents.

Any local insights about the sculpture located at your branch?

Displays

Why do we put up displays? Clearly we want to market our materials, but to what purpose? Are we just in it for the numbers? I hope not. We talk about best practices in customer service but then we measure that mostly in circulation or door count numbers.

Displays show our customers what we have to offer. Displays are often based on monthly holidays and annual themes. Of course we want to make sure that the customer finds what they are looking for, but what about those things they were not looking for. A good display isn’t just those topics that circulate well. Maybe it could be a collection that is usually overlooked or a dreaded school subject that can be presented more playfully. Displays can educate and maybe entice customers to topics they never thought to look for in the library. This may not result in immediate circulation numbers, but perhaps down the road we will be remembered as a good source.

What displays off the beaten path have you tried?

National Library Week

What did you do to celebrate National Library Week? I love the idea that the work we do is recognized, but I think we got lost in the shuffle. The month of April also celebrates Earth Day and Arbor Day, religious holidays and the beginning of spring. I think we need a week when everyone would rather be inside than outside, at a less busy time when we could focus more on what we have to offer and share that with our customers. Wouldn’t it be more fun to celebrate at a time when it is dark and cold outside and warm and inviting in the library and when everyone was less distracted?

In the mid-1950s the National Book Committee a nonprofit citizen’s organization formed by ALA and the American Book Publishers first suggested the week as a way to encourage people to read more. Research at that time had shown that people were spending more on radio, television and music than on books. The first National Library Week was observed in 1958 with the theme "Wake Up and Read!" The original celebration was not intended to celebrate libraries and librarians, but rather encourage reading.

World Book Day

How did I miss this occasion? World Book and Copyright Day was first celebrated in 1995. It was organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright. It is celebrated on April 23rd annually. This date was chosen because it is the birth and death date of William Shakespeare. It is also the death date of Miguel de Cervantes. Both authors were major contributors to world literature.

UNESCO statistics indicate that one in five adults in the world is illiterate, many in the developing world where access to books is more difficult. Literacy is critical. We offer space in our libraries to the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia to teach English to speakers of other languages.

The Literacy Project has joined the forces of UNESCO's Institute for Lifelong Learning, Google and LitCam to provide resources for teachers, literacy organizations and anyone else interested in reading education.

What can we do to improve literacy and celebrate World Book Day?

SPAM

Spam is having a birthday. Hardly something we wish to celebrate! It has actually been 30 years since the first unsolicited commercial email on May 3, 1978. The message went out to 393 recipients. Small by today’s standards, but this was a time when Arpnet was used by only a small community of engineers. Today spam is even more sophisticated and we are spending a fortune to protect ourselves from this menace. Predictions that it would be defeated have proven false. Spammers have just found new and more devious ways to reach us. Spam remains a viable technique because for the spammer there is little cost. It is estimated that 80-95% of email traffic today is now spam. Most of this is commercial advertising. Although we all revile spam it must work or it would not have lasted thirty years. Enough recipients must respond to make it worth the effort.

Are you celebrating or deleting your spam today?

PLoS

Sometimes new things take a while to register. PLoS has slipped into my awareness on various occasions but I didn’t know to what it referred. Stories attributed to PLoS have been covered on NPR, PBS, the Washington Post and other news sources. PLoS, the Public Library of Science, is a nonprofit organization committed to making scientific and medical research freely available. The Public Library of Science began as a publishing company in October of 2003. They began with a peer reviewed print and online scientific journal, called PLoS Biology. They have since launched six more journals which are reviewed by the members of an editorial board of over 400 international experts.

Their goal is to provide open online access to scientific literature. Authors are protected through the use of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and reproduction provided the original author and source are credited. As part of its core principals PLoS tries to make science a public resource with unrestricted access to scientific ideas in a way which also assists non-scientists to understand and enjoy scientific discoveries. From my point of view this is another great resource to help me assist our customers. I am glad to have finally have made the connection.

Managing “My Account”

Wouldn’t it be nice if one could manage their library account just like they manage their Netflix account? A recent decision to standardize the period of time a book is held for customer pick up is great. I am always fond of organization and standardization. Customers will know exactly how long they have to pick up a title and we will also know by looking at their record when that time period expires.

While I love being able to place holds when I read or hear about a good title, it would be nice if they all didn’t arrive at the same time. On Netflix I can prioritize my list. That might be nice for my library holds as well. Currently only library staff can suspend a hold for a temporary period of time. Customers from our web page are able only to place or cancel holds. Most customers probably don’t realize that we can temporarily suspend their hold so never request this assistance. Maybe this option needs to be better advertised, but many customers might take care of it themselves if they had the option.

Going to Computers in Libraries?

If you are, then we'd like you to tell us what you saw and heard. Lots of our colleagues won't be able to make it there this year so this is a great opportunity for you to help them catch up on what they missed.

You may certainly present your piece however you wish, but if you're having trouble getting your thoughts in order, here's an overview of what you could include.

Presentation:

Presenter:

Overview:

Anything special you learned and/or what you think may be of use to FCPL:

To leave your thoughts, please click on "comments" below.

Special Moments

This week I had several moments that remind me why I so love being a librarian. It is easy to forget how much fun it can be when most of my desk duty is spent giving directions to the rest room or helping someone log on to the internet. These tasks are assisting customers but they are not nearly as satisfying as sharing the excitement of learning something new.

While roving I discovered a delightful new series of books on science by National Geographic I had not seen before. Later while assisting a young reader find a couple of science titles I was able to share my discovery with him. He and his mother loved the little book.

Later that evening a gentleman brought me his study guide for becoming a new citizen. He knew that William Rehnquist was no longer the Supreme Court Chief Justice, but didn’t know how to find out who was. He left very pleased with himself, armed with a list of the current justices and short biographies.

Last evening I offered another of my database tutorial evenings. I had been discouraged because my previous tutees had been people who really needed a computer class not an introduction to the wealth of information available through our databases. Eureka! Finally I had a gentleman who had an interest in encyclopedias, practice tests, consumer information, magazine articles and eaudiobooks. He soaked up every detail and was excited to have made this new discovery. I went home feeling very satisfied to be a librarian, knowing that I am in a position to open doors to learning for others.

Google Patent Search

I am forever amazed at the things I find on Google. Today I discovered the Google Patent Search. Did you ever wonder who patented the first pocket protector and when? (Patent number 438674 filed Oct. 26, 1889.)

Often over the years I have laughed with family and friends about some grand idea we’ve had and wondered if there was already a patent on it? The motivation to find out was never that strong. Now Google has now made searching the US patent office's archive of over 7 million patents almost as easy as checking today’s weather. Google seems determined to put all information at our fingertips. The patent applications contain wonderful diagrams and the old abstracts are delightful reading. Definitely a must for those moments when you have nothing else you have to do.

Extinction Timeline

Will libraries really disappear by 2019? That is the date that Richard Watson a futurist predicts in his book The Future Files: A History of the Next 50 Years. Where and how we get information is constantly changing. How libraries provide information for our customers has changed significantly in the last 10 years. More resources are available electronically and we encourage our customers to use and find the answers they need in our databases.

I still like to read a newspaper, but I think I am turning into a dinosaur. My husband sits at the same table over coffee in the morning and reads his newspaper online. People visiting our brick and mortar libraries spend a lot of time using the computers and less time just browsing our periodicals. It is exciting that we can provide such up to the minute information and access. Will there come a day, say in 2019, when all the library means is an electronic source for people to access information?

What do you think?

Carnegie Free Library

Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie offered Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, $250,000 to build a library on condition that it would be municipally supported. That library dedicated in February of 1890 became the model for publicly funded Carnegie libraries across the country. Over 2,500 Carnegie libraries were built. Andrew Carnegie was influenced in his childhood by the generosity of Colonel James Anderson, who opened his private library for public use and so Carnegie resolved to devote his own wealth for that purpose. What a wonderful resolution that was. We have all benefited from his vision.

After a number of renovations and expansions this historic library will be closed. In April of 2006 the clock tower was hit by lightning and suffered over $2 million worth of damage. The Pittsburgh City Council has decided to build a new library to replace what is now called the Allegheny Regional Branch Library since its merger in 1956 with the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. While my son attended Carnegie Mellon I had the opportunity to visit this library. We all know that things change, but it was a special place.

What memories do you have of Carnegie libraries?

Taxes

Because our library makes basic tax forms available to customers, often they expect us to also be able to answer a multitude of tax questions. Last year when the State of Virginia decided not to mail tax forms or make them available free at libraries or other locations, we had a very hard time convincing customers that it was not a decision the library made, but rather a state decision.

This year because of the delay in legislation regarding the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) patch the Internal Revenue Service will not be accepting tax returns until February 11 for anyone using a handful of forms which might effect the AMT calculations. This does not mean that use of the form automatically means someone has to pay AMT. The problem is that the IRS has to reprogram their computers and possibly reprint some forms to reflect the change in legislation. This probably means we will have to explain why we don’t have some forms available for the early birds. Forms which will delay tax filing are:

• Form 8863, Education Credits
• Form 5695, Residential Energy Credits
• Schedule 2 (Form 1040A), Child and Dependent Care Expenses for Form 1040A Filers
• Form 8396, Mortgage Interest Credit
• Form 8859, District of Columbia First-Time Homebuyer Credit

Good information is at our fingertips. Our own Web Sites by Subject:Tax Forms and Information provides many of the answers we need or links us directly to the IRS Web site or State and local offices. http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/internet/taxforms.htm

So we can all look forward to another tax season armed with answers for our customers!