Alaska Bush Library Service

Wow,

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving has now come and gone. I have so much that I am thankful for this year that I didn’t realize I would be at this time of my life. My family is doing great. I was really worried that I would miss being a mom when my kids were out of the house. Instead I take great joy in their steps toward productive adult life. This is not to say I am a little bit taken aback with Michael’s move to Oregon today, but I am thrilled he has the skills and the self knowledge to set out on this road.

Robert had to go to Fairbanks this afternoon on an emergency fix it trip due to a renter that seems bent to bother the other renters by turning off the water. I can be very thankful that I work full time and he has to deal with the renters. I would want to drop kick this guy who has cost us two hundred dollars in repairs from shutting down the heat over the weekend. Mike got it up and going this morning and then this afternoon we get a call that it is messed up again.

I love being a librarian. I think librarians have the best jobs in the world. We hook people up with the information they need so that they can make their decisions. If we do it correctly, we teach them to find the information so that they will always be able to get the knowledge they desire. If you ever need to get a shot in the arm about how important the job of a librarian is, go to visit The Library of Congress. The ability of the public to have access to quality information is a cornerstone to our democracy.

I am happy that I have had this time in town to work on Koha. We are still updating the records, but that is a lot easier to do here in town where I can deliver the information to Dan than where I have to upload over the Internet.

I am thankful for the district that I work in. The growth we are making in open source programming is great to watch. I like the feeling that we are helping our money go further. If we can provide the programs that our teachers and students need for a fraction of the money, we can pursue new academic programming for students to get even more excited about learning.

The problem was a directory that hadn’t been installed. I posted my problem to the listserv for Koha today and found that information. Tonight Dan looked at the file and uploaded the necessary file and we are uploading MARC records.

SirsiDynix put on a great webcast this morning entitled 25 technologies in 50 minutes. This was very well done. I am happy that 90% of the technologies I have used. Now I just need to learn the other 10%. One of the best ideas I got from the class was to just spend 15 minutes a day learning the new technologies. With that we should be able to keep up.

As I have now been at work for 13 hours, I think it is time to go home. I can guarantee that I will be back here at 7 am tomorrow for the fun of uploading the records to Koha. It feels so good to have made progress.

I read the article Disconnects Between Library Culture and Millennial Generation Values  in the new issue of Educause.  A checklist is mentioned that would be good for libraries at all levels to ask themselves:

What is your library doing to:

• Support the user’s affinity for self-paced, independent, trial-and-error methods of learning? - Are we putting up online tutorials for students to look at when they need to?  I have seen some libraries that have iPod guides for library tours. Currently, I have built some online tutorials for using the Alaska Statewide Databases.
• Create opportunities to make library information look and behave like information that exists in online entertainment venues?  This may be the best place and time to install Worldcat buttons and the new search features of Google for each of our libraries.  Websites that interact with the students rather than sit there and wait for student to search and the OPAC to distribute information.  Why haven’t we added the ability for students to leave their book reviews in our OPACs?  I think a lot of this has to do with the software we have at our disposal.  I am hoping that this is something that will be able to the added to Koha down the road.
• Explore alternative options for delivering information literacy skills to users in online environments and alternate spaces?  I return to the online tutorials for students to gain information.  In my position, I am usually not at the student’s side when they need the information.  I am connected through three different IM programs for students to get a hold of me when they need to.  The problem I am finding is how do I advertise this so it is there when students need it.
• Apply the typical user’s desire for instant gratification to the ways that libraries could be using technology for streamlined services? I am not sure how we can meet these needs.  I do know what I do which is offer inter library loan so that users know that their needs are met, even if it will take a week to get the book.  I have added downloads to my district’s wiki of sites that give students the information they need to meet different standards.
• Redefine administrative, security, and policy restrictions to permit online users an online library experience that rivals that of a library site visit? I think we need more audiobooks that are downloadable and a better way to provide this service.  Copyright stipulations need to be met, but I would love to figure a way that students have access to the electronic resources, electronically rather than having to visit the library.
• Preserve born-digital information?  This is a matter of who is willing to stand up and pay for the storage medium.  It is easy to be in charge of the digital medium as long as you are willing to ensure that the materials are always accessible through current technology.  I think we have seen enough errors in this by now that we know how to keep abreast of changing technologies that we can revisit our ability to preserve materials on a yearly basis. — or am I the only one who lost all my MARC records by using an antiquated back up method?

I hope this gets us thinking to how we can provide the millennials the best library experience they can get.  We have moved a long way with technology.

My high school librarian was so afraid that the computer would make her unnecessary to the research process that she actually removed subjects, ISBNs, authors, and other parts of the MARC records so that students would have to come to her for the information.  I only know this because I became a library aide there before getting my own school library.  I spent the year adding full records and deleting a LOT of books that wouldn’t ever be used.

We need to embrace the technologies that our students are embracing and make sure that our libraries will always be the place that our students can gain more access to information.

Okay,

I am back to work on Koha.  Setting up parameters is still thwarting me.  I need to look at what I have gained.  I know where my itemtype is listed in the MARC record (field 001).  I found this number by downloading one record and using textedit to look at the information.  It was a hidden field in my current library program.

The good news is that I am moving forward.  We have decided to have our Koha hosted on a computer that is not in the district.  The cost will be $350.00 a year for the hosting.  The best part of this is Dan Foote, who is the gentleman that will be hosting it, speaks English rather than technologese.  He will take care of the upgrades.  I will take care of the library records.

Off to work on this now.  My hope is that by the end of the weekend I will be able to post the site for other people to look at.

I am getting tired of asking myself how I can get staff to use the Alaska Database better. The database is a collection of Ebsco and Fact on File databases with full text articles for EVERYONE. I was so happy five years ago when I learned that we were getting them. I LOVE the databases.

• I give classes every year at inservice for teachers.
• I teach students when I visit their schools.
• I have built online tutorials for other people to use when doing research with students.
• I am getting ready to work with Camtasia to build some webcasts to help people use these tools more effectively.

Still if feels that no one is using them… I am taking a new approach. We all have journals or magazines that we like to read. I am asking individuals which journal would the love to get, but choose not to due to the cost. I then set up a ‘journal alert’ for them. This will let them know each month when their favorite journals are posted.

This isn’t how I wanted to do it. It doesn’t feel right to me somehow. I always believe you teach patrons how to find their information so that they are free to search again without your assistance. Maybe the mistake was that no one knew what the databases could provide and this will get them to know them better.

I finished some of the set up for Koha and was ready to map items from the MARC records to the database.  I found as I looked at my item types that we haven’t been consistent throughout our different schools.  So today, I will work on the MARC records of three different schools aligning the item types.  Then I will be able to upload those three schools and see what needs to be done next.  I have warned coworkers that if they see me pulling my hair out, they may want to back slowly out of the library.