Lifelong learning and older adults
I was looking forward to this presentation… It was great to listen to this presentation on how Christchurch City Libraries engage with community of older users of new technologies. The paper is supported by a research by Ryba (1992) and its conclusions are implemented by libraries.
There are few tips on how to make a good learning programme: flexibility, freedom of choice, and a social space for participants. And it all happens in our libraries!
Wow what an awesome bunch of professionals they have there and what great programmes they are running.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Penny Carnaby Keynote Speaker
Penny Carnaby – Lianza Keynote – Day 3
Day three got off to a great start with an engaging talk by Penny Carnaby who spoke of ‘citizen created content powering the knowledge economy’.
Penny laid out the challenge to librarians in attendance to ensure New Zealanders were not part of the ‘delete generation’ and to work proactively to preserve and enhance the digital cultural heritage of the country.
A recap of the governments digital strategy and efforts spanning the APNK and Digital New Zealand was outlined.
The challenge to build on these efforts was then issued to the audience.
A thought provoking talk that had a number of heads nodding and pondering the next 12 months as it wound up.
Fully Speech here http://bit.ly/10I5Sm
Day three got off to a great start with an engaging talk by Penny Carnaby who spoke of ‘citizen created content powering the knowledge economy’.
Penny laid out the challenge to librarians in attendance to ensure New Zealanders were not part of the ‘delete generation’ and to work proactively to preserve and enhance the digital cultural heritage of the country.
A recap of the governments digital strategy and efforts spanning the APNK and Digital New Zealand was outlined.
The challenge to build on these efforts was then issued to the audience.
A thought provoking talk that had a number of heads nodding and pondering the next 12 months as it wound up.
Fully Speech here http://bit.ly/10I5Sm
Copyright - Nat Torkington
Copyright, A Balanced Approach Would Be Nice” which was presented by Nat Torkington and Ursula Cheer. This was a great session which covered an sometimes complicated topic well and that was kept engaging by two great presenters. It was easy to understand and at the same time engaged the audience.While I agree with the broad principles of a free trade agreement, there are several specific aspects of the potential agreement which I profoundly disagree with.
Extending the minimum duration of copyright expiry from 50 to 70 years is an unneeded and decision which does not take into account the emergence of a culture of remix and referential linking across the space of contemporary global media. At a time in New Zealand's development when many look to the past for new artistic inspiration, we will see classic works of art, literature, and music being locked away for an excessive amount of time, preventing the younger members of our society from connecting and corresponding with these significant past achievements. 70 years may be a reasonable approximation of a natural human lifespan, but this timescale has very little relationship to the extant rhythms of cultural change and artistic expression and transmission of ideas across different generations through different methods of technology.
However, a far more insidious and destructive specter that looms large is the mandatory enforcement of digital rights management (DRM). We can look at the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, for a precedent, and New Zealand is likely to be subject to the same demands.
Enshrining DRM technology in legislation is an extremely harmful idea, bordering on the fringes of lunacy and irrational obsequience to runaway and unruly corporate interests. Firstly, the particular DRM technologies in media products of the past few years have been demonstrated to fail to function effectively as planned across the entire spectrum of media where they have been deployed.
DRM leads to a significantly poorer experience for consumers and also adds an additional expense of compliance and complication for media producers.
The proven frustration of consumers towards DRM enabled media is likely to have the opposite consequence from what is intended - when this technology fails and wastes time and money, consumers will feel cheated and are thus more likely to resort to piracy to obtain copies of the media they seek.
The current way this technology is deployed does nothing to counter or address the stated aims of this legislative program, which is to stamp out organized networks producing counterfeit products. Targeting single products and individual consumers is completely at odds with the goal of preventing the spread of organized piracy and counterfeiting.
The aspects of the existing Australia-United States agreement dealing with intellectual property are a harbinger of a whole raft of harmful anti-competitive practices which prevent cross pollination and links between products and expansion and mutual benefit from sharing foundational technologies, which cannot be a positive thing for a small economy such as New Zealand's.
Far from protecting the fragile rights of authors and media creators, these proposed changes to intellectual property law are only beneficial to a small circle of monopolistic corporations, and will provide no positive benefits or stimulus to the New Zealand economy and society.
Copyright, as enshrined in 20th century legislation, is a product of a particular era of technology and artistic expression. Rather than blindly force these older ideas into our current world, we need to evolve and adapt our ideas about copyright and intellectual property so that they are functional and relevant to the new digital and networked information landscape of the present and potential future. New Zealand is already leading the way through various agencies and public services who have embraced the emerging ideas of the copyleft promoted by organizations such as Creative Commons. We should strive to achieve a thriving industry based on art, science, and media, where principles of openness and rich transmission of creative works is encouraged for the betterment of all content creators.
This is why I believe we must resist the push towards New Zealand adopting a clone of the United States rights management legislation which has already been shown to be unsuccessful and unpopular. We should not encumber ourselves with legal bindings that shackle our economy and have no direct benefit to New Zealand as a whole.
Extending the minimum duration of copyright expiry from 50 to 70 years is an unneeded and decision which does not take into account the emergence of a culture of remix and referential linking across the space of contemporary global media. At a time in New Zealand's development when many look to the past for new artistic inspiration, we will see classic works of art, literature, and music being locked away for an excessive amount of time, preventing the younger members of our society from connecting and corresponding with these significant past achievements. 70 years may be a reasonable approximation of a natural human lifespan, but this timescale has very little relationship to the extant rhythms of cultural change and artistic expression and transmission of ideas across different generations through different methods of technology.
However, a far more insidious and destructive specter that looms large is the mandatory enforcement of digital rights management (DRM). We can look at the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, for a precedent, and New Zealand is likely to be subject to the same demands.
Enshrining DRM technology in legislation is an extremely harmful idea, bordering on the fringes of lunacy and irrational obsequience to runaway and unruly corporate interests. Firstly, the particular DRM technologies in media products of the past few years have been demonstrated to fail to function effectively as planned across the entire spectrum of media where they have been deployed.
DRM leads to a significantly poorer experience for consumers and also adds an additional expense of compliance and complication for media producers.
The proven frustration of consumers towards DRM enabled media is likely to have the opposite consequence from what is intended - when this technology fails and wastes time and money, consumers will feel cheated and are thus more likely to resort to piracy to obtain copies of the media they seek.
The current way this technology is deployed does nothing to counter or address the stated aims of this legislative program, which is to stamp out organized networks producing counterfeit products. Targeting single products and individual consumers is completely at odds with the goal of preventing the spread of organized piracy and counterfeiting.
The aspects of the existing Australia-United States agreement dealing with intellectual property are a harbinger of a whole raft of harmful anti-competitive practices which prevent cross pollination and links between products and expansion and mutual benefit from sharing foundational technologies, which cannot be a positive thing for a small economy such as New Zealand's.
Far from protecting the fragile rights of authors and media creators, these proposed changes to intellectual property law are only beneficial to a small circle of monopolistic corporations, and will provide no positive benefits or stimulus to the New Zealand economy and society.
Copyright, as enshrined in 20th century legislation, is a product of a particular era of technology and artistic expression. Rather than blindly force these older ideas into our current world, we need to evolve and adapt our ideas about copyright and intellectual property so that they are functional and relevant to the new digital and networked information landscape of the present and potential future. New Zealand is already leading the way through various agencies and public services who have embraced the emerging ideas of the copyleft promoted by organizations such as Creative Commons. We should strive to achieve a thriving industry based on art, science, and media, where principles of openness and rich transmission of creative works is encouraged for the betterment of all content creators.
This is why I believe we must resist the push towards New Zealand adopting a clone of the United States rights management legislation which has already been shown to be unsuccessful and unpopular. We should not encumber ourselves with legal bindings that shackle our economy and have no direct benefit to New Zealand as a whole.
Claudia Lux and Libraries on the agenda Key Note Speaker
Claudia Lux
Kris Wehipeihana is covering this better than me. I have a few highlights
http://www.ifla.org/ has a Success Stories section which she asks NZ libraries to add to as it's important for their advocacy functions. Success stories show how libraries develop and support the information society. They help networking and partnering; show the value of libraries; help you measure the impact your work has for a student, teacher, administrator....Transparency - what is a librarian doing all day? Do our users know? Can we explain it? Do we explain it?Libraries aren't visible to city planners. Need to explain what we do, advocate. Start marketing
no complaints - don't go up to the minister saying "My library leaks and no-one's coming and I need more money and more space!" - just puts off the minister. Instead try "I read your speech, it was great, and even though you don't know it, it has a lot to do with libraries, I'd love to talk about how we can support your work." Next time s/he remembers your name and that you're a nice person. :-)
Good news "Great news! We've got so many people coming into the library that there's no room for them all to sit down!"
surprise your customer
define successful methods
present your normal work differentlyUse success stories and pictures to convince your politician. One picture, or a short video, says more about your activity than a long report, and sticks in their mind better. (NB politicians love children so lots of pictures of children. Young adults are harder...)What can you do?
shape the picture
collect arguments
know developments in advance
connect to the library association
help analyse possibilities
show best practice
make demands
never stopSuccessful advocacy needs training and is ongoing.Q: Is it time to update the public libraries manifesto?A: yesQ: re what steps we could take to support indigenous / tangata whenua (question was more involved/specific but I lost part of it)A: Claudia promises to bring this to the governing board at IFLA. Applause from the audience.Q: Why be involved in IFLA - how would home community benefit?A: If you don't contribute who will? We're privileged speaking English so easier to have influence. (Three very active NZ chairs already. We're "small and smart".) Bringing many ideas, big and small, back to your library. And shows you and your library how well you're really doing.
no complaints - don't go up to the minister saying "My library leaks and no-one's coming and I need more money and more space!" - just puts off the minister. Instead try "I read your speech, it was great, and even though you don't know it, it has a lot to do with libraries, I'd love to talk about how we can support your work." Next time s/he remembers your name and that you're a nice person. :-)
Good news "Great news! We've got so many people coming into the library that there's no room for them all to sit down!"
surprise your customer
define successful methods
present your normal work differentlyUse success stories and pictures to convince your politician. One picture, or a short video, says more about your activity than a long report, and sticks in their mind better. (NB politicians love children so lots of pictures of children. Young adults are harder...)What can you do?
shape the picture
collect arguments
know developments in advance
connect to the library association
help analyse possibilities
show best practice
make demands
never stopSuccessful advocacy needs training and is ongoing.Q: Is it time to update the public libraries manifesto?A: yesQ: re what steps we could take to support indigenous / tangata whenua (question was more involved/specific but I lost part of it)A: Claudia promises to bring this to the governing board at IFLA. Applause from the audience.Q: Why be involved in IFLA - how would home community benefit?A: If you don't contribute who will? We're privileged speaking English so easier to have influence. (Three very active NZ chairs already. We're "small and smart".) Bringing many ideas, big and small, back to your library. And shows you and your library how well you're really doing.
Ib Summary Claudia has an amazing ability of making her presentation right to the point. She talks and interacts with public by asking simple questions and adding “what do you do for your community?” and she is not afraid to say: “Libraries are not visible for other ministries or departments”, so you librarians, act! No complaints, talk about good news, surprise your customers and politicians, present your normal work in a new way. Claudia Lux sends us a very important message: Activate all librarians now!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Here, there and virtually everywhere
Here, there and virtually everywhere
library services for distance learnersAnne Ferrier-Watsonabstract (pdf)[Argh, network cut out in this room.]History of Virtual Education Reference Desk (VERD)1997 - BTeaching started distance services2000 - need to streamline processes so VERD was created2008(?) - Moodle has taken VERD to a new levelPhilosophy to "give students the fishing line, not the fish"Over 3000 education students are enrolled in online papers1.75 EFTS supporting VERD. Busier at some times than others.Asynchronous service - answering Monday to Friday. Many questions asked have been answered before so they've got an ongoing work in progress of making previous answers easy to find5 sections:
Request items or information (can fill out a webmail form or ask for help on forums - 7500 views in the last 12 months)
Library FAQs (started as answers to easy common queries; now starting to use it for standard answers for more complex questions too)
Help with APA referencing ("our favourite section" - laughter - 2500 views in semester B - a few pdf guides and a link to the forums too)
Catalogue guides (not high use - many just use it for the link to the library catalogue; starting to think of putting in video tutorials)
Guide to finding journal articles (high use - includes videos for using ebsco, proquest, indexNZ; also pdf guides to various databases)Jing screen capture software - easy to use, free-as-in-beer but not open source.Feedback from students includes:"The video instruction is fantastic too as I find it easier to do something if I see it in action.""now if I forget a step I can use [the online tutorials] to find the right path again""you are like the referencing angel"Can look at individual activity reports so when someone asks a question you can see where they've already looked for help.Can look at overall activity reports to give an idea of where most activity is happening and most work is best spent.Q: What's providing the format?A: Working around the Moodle format. Not actually a fan about the format but it's the best they can do.Suggestion: Worked with McGovern to create ManyAnswers.co.nz which can be put on your own website. (Me: ? Not sure whether she meant the whole manyanswers service or the platform to support your own FAQ.)Q: Forums available to all students or just distance?A: Available to those enrolled in those papers.Q: Are guides available on public site or just private forums?A: Some static guides (not interactive) are available on the public website. Looking at redeveloping some of this too.Q: re answering repeat questionsA: Some refer back to previous answers, some move them into FAQs and refer there.
library services for distance learnersAnne Ferrier-Watsonabstract (pdf)[Argh, network cut out in this room.]History of Virtual Education Reference Desk (VERD)1997 - BTeaching started distance services2000 - need to streamline processes so VERD was created2008(?) - Moodle has taken VERD to a new levelPhilosophy to "give students the fishing line, not the fish"Over 3000 education students are enrolled in online papers1.75 EFTS supporting VERD. Busier at some times than others.Asynchronous service - answering Monday to Friday. Many questions asked have been answered before so they've got an ongoing work in progress of making previous answers easy to find5 sections:
Request items or information (can fill out a webmail form or ask for help on forums - 7500 views in the last 12 months)
Library FAQs (started as answers to easy common queries; now starting to use it for standard answers for more complex questions too)
Help with APA referencing ("our favourite section" - laughter - 2500 views in semester B - a few pdf guides and a link to the forums too)
Catalogue guides (not high use - many just use it for the link to the library catalogue; starting to think of putting in video tutorials)
Guide to finding journal articles (high use - includes videos for using ebsco, proquest, indexNZ; also pdf guides to various databases)Jing screen capture software - easy to use, free-as-in-beer but not open source.Feedback from students includes:"The video instruction is fantastic too as I find it easier to do something if I see it in action.""now if I forget a step I can use [the online tutorials] to find the right path again""you are like the referencing angel"Can look at individual activity reports so when someone asks a question you can see where they've already looked for help.Can look at overall activity reports to give an idea of where most activity is happening and most work is best spent.Q: What's providing the format?A: Working around the Moodle format. Not actually a fan about the format but it's the best they can do.Suggestion: Worked with McGovern to create ManyAnswers.co.nz which can be put on your own website. (Me: ? Not sure whether she meant the whole manyanswers service or the platform to support your own FAQ.)Q: Forums available to all students or just distance?A: Available to those enrolled in those papers.Q: Are guides available on public site or just private forums?A: Some static guides (not interactive) are available on the public website. Looking at redeveloping some of this too.Q: re answering repeat questionsA: Some refer back to previous answers, some move them into FAQs and refer there.
Message From Minister Responsible for Libraries
Starting with a message from Nicky Wagner MP, speaking on behalf of the Minister responsible for National Library and Archives NZ, Nathan Guy. (He's in a budget meeting today.) Library has signficant contribution to make socially, economically, etc, to country's wellbeing. Driving goal of this govt is to grow the economy. Recognise difficult financial times.Rollout of ultra-fast broadband network throughout NZ. Improving schools and frontline services to public. Need to lift educational standards. Focus on literacy and numeracy.Another key driver is innovation including research.Services we provide are important to society; the public expects more and more. Glad that our profession is addressing questions of services vs technology. National Library is a leading centre in preserving documentary heritage of New Zealand. Minister is keen to see more people engaging with collections housed there.So much depends on easy access to information. Libraries make quality NZ information accessible. National Library has done groundbreaking work. Demonstrates value of cross-govt, cross-sector collaboration. Collaboration within library profession makes a lot of sense in these difficult times. APNK and EPIC are great examples.[Pronounces LIANZA as L.I.A.N.Z.A.]Believes librarians are very much at the front line of research, engendering a love of reading, developing new innovation.Need more integration so NZ data is available to those who need it. Need more collaboration for efficiency and to be active at national level. Need to think carefully how sector as a whole can grow from here.---Warm up comedy act by "Pedro Haust" and "Pia Haust" collectively making up "The Hausts" (pronounced "The Hosts") with fake Spanish accents. Um. Well, Everyone Knows(TM) that foreign accents are inherently funny, right, because they're spoken by foreigners; but I'd at least have left out the jokes about Tourette's Syndrome and bulimics. -- And I would like to hope that the final joke aimed at Barbara Garriock was done with her foreknowledge and consent.
LIANZA AWARDS - Heather Lamond receiving her Associateship
Congratulations to Heather Lamond who received her LIANZA Associates at LIANZA 2009 Conference. Heather is customer driven, an effiective communicator, able to demonstrate strong leadership She is strongly committed to LIANZA being active on both the local committee and on National Council This is a well deserved award, and we are greatly honoured to have you as our Ikaroa Councillor.
Other Awards
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