Interlibrary Loan Code

On April 21, 2010, at the Forum Building in Harrisburg, a committee was convened to study the 1994 Interlibrary Loan Code of the Commonwealth and make recommendations to update the code. The committee is composed of 3 university librarians, 3 public librarians, 1 special librarian, 1 school librarian, and 1 librarian from the State Library--all of whom are involved with interlibrary loan in their respective libraries. Also meeting with us that day were 9 resource librarians, representing the same categories as the committee members. The Chair of the committee is Tina LaMark of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Prior to the meeting, LaMark read through the ILL Code and noted sections that she thought should be revised or eliminated. She provided us all with a copy of her findings as a discussion starter. Also prior to the meeting it was suggested that we all read The Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States, prepared by the Reference and User Services Association; the explanatory supplement for the same; and A Manifesto for Rethinking Resource Sharing, affirmed by the American Library Association.

I was pleased to note that day that much of the discussion dealt with loosening the restrictions of the original ILL Code. When the Code was originally devised library administrators feared that reliance on interlibrary loan would cause their Boards to reduce funding for new library materials; and larger library systems feared that their collections would be depleted by smaller libraries requesting everything possible. Happily, neither one of these scenarios came true. Studies have shown that library collections overlap only 25%; each library builds a collection specific to it's patrons needs. But each library also has patrons that have needs that can't be satisfied locally.

(I remember years ago a second grader asked me for information on the Russian Revolution--a 2nd grader! "Oh, honey, I don't have any books on the Russian Revolution for your reading level," was all I could answer. Two weeks later the same child asked me for books on the Holocaust. At that point I figured out that his older brother was probably sharing with him stories that he heard in his history class. Fortunately, the child was satisfied with some photocopies on the topics from World Book Encyclopedia. My point is that librarians can't anticipate every question they get from their patrons, and they certainly can't buy every book or database "just in case.")

Our discussion on April 21st was fruitful, but we decided that we don't need to gather together in one room to work on this document. Google Documents will work just fine for what we need to accomplish. So, the Chair has since published the 1994 document on Google Docs in workable sections, and sent it out to all of us to view and comment on and make changes. Later, the Chair will use all of our input to re-write the Code, which she will send out to us via Google Docs. Again, the committee will give input. We'll work like this throughout the summer, hopefully to have a fresh document ready for distribution at the Pennsylvannia Library Conference in the Fall. If this works, we'll only need to meet one more time, tentatively scheduled for Oct. 7th in Harrisburg.

As a closing comment, I am very pleased with the workings of the Committee to date. I'm the only school librarian on the committee (along with the committee's resource school librarian), but my comments were taken in the best spirit, and some of my suggestions were implemented. I was treated as an equal.

Thanks to the DASD Administration for enabling my participation on this Committee. It's quite a professional perk for me!

37th ANNUAL PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL LIBRARIANS CONFERENCE

So, I've just returned from the PSLA annual conference at the Penn Stater Conference Center, April 15-April 17, 2010. This year's theme, "Make Your Mark @ your library" set the tone for some very relevant workshops. Here's what I learned:

Copyright and the 21st Century Learner -- Dr. Celeste Nalwasky and Joyce Mason

After a review of the U.S. copyright law, the presenters discussed topics like the copyright owner's rights, public domain, public performance or display of copyrighted works, plus limitations and exceptions to the copyright law. Four factors to consider in claiming "fair use" of copyrighted material are:

1. the purpose and character of the use
2. the nature of the copyrighted work
3. the amount of the work being used
4. the effect of the use on the market for the work.

For libraries, Section 108 of the copyright law gives limited rights to reproduce and distribute copyrighted works. Under these rights falls interlibrary loan of articles for private study or research, and copying or archiving an entire work which is out of print. Other sections of the law deal with the interlibrary loan of materials, use of digital works in the classroom, and digitization of analog works for classroom teaching. We also discussed copyright infringement and liability--an awful lot to take in during a 2-hour workshop! Fortunately, we were also given bibliographies of sources where we could go for answers to our own copyright questions.

Collaboration: What Makes It Work -- Denise Veal, Follett Software representative

This was a discussion of the neat features in Destiny Quest, the quirky twin of our school library's online catalog, known simply as Destiny. Destiny Quest allows students to search for books in our library collection, just like Destiny does. But Destiny Quest incorporates many Web 2.0 tools to keep patrons interested in their library's collection--features that encourage students and staff to add book reviews (written, audio or video!), a Top 10 List, a 5-Star List, etc. The presenter encouraged us to turn on these features so that patrons could have input into their school library's program. Many of those cool internet tools that fascinate kids and adults alike in websites like FaceBook are already incorporated into Destiny Quest. As the librarian, I just need to know how to access those Web 2.0 tools and make them available to our patrons--and that's what this workshop was all about.

Before the Blank Page: Writing as Research -- Robin Wasserman, author

Wasserman writes futuristic books for young adults. (The one I read, Skinned, is about a teen whose body was dead, useless after a car accident. Her parents had her memories, her essence downloaded into a life-like mechanical body. The girl then had to deal with all the trials of being a non-human in a school full of teenaged "organics.")

Wasserman noted that research strategies are learned in school, and hopefully stick with you the rest of your life. In school is the last place anyone teaches you how to research. Wasserman said that when researching to write, an author could research non-stop, which delays the actual writing of the book.

Because Wasserman's topic for her books deals with the future, she mentioned that she looked at articles in (gasp!) Wikipedia. She indicated that much of the thought in Wikipedia articles is valid. The problem with students using Wikipedia is that they take the site as gospel truth. Students tend to believe anything on the web; they don't make the effort to seek out the work of experts. Adults are much the same. She suggested that this type of research will only become more pervasive as years go by, making information published online less and less valid. This has to change in order to strengthen future research.

GENERAL SESSION -- Stephanie Vance, The Advocacy Guru. Government Isn't Broken: How to Work the System and Beat the Odds.

When working with legislators, Vance told us to use the SPIT Rule: S = specific, P = personal, I = informative, T = trustworthy. When talking to legislators, give them good background information that they can use in their own arguments (informative), make your request hit home for the legislator (personal), ask for exactly what you need (specific), and be as honest as possible in what you say (trustworthy). She also indicated that the one thing that always works is persistence. In advocacy, be passionate, but be smart.

BANQUET SPEAKER -- Robin Wasserman, author

Wasserman indicated two problems in our society that have damaged our American educational program.

1. The insane growth of technology. The explosion of technologies that we all use daily has invaded our schools as well. Not just personal computers and cell phones, but iPods, scanners, blogs (like this one!), FaceBook, etc., etc. are all vieing for our time and our space. Students can't live without all the gadgets, and in order to be meaningful to these digital natives we, as educators, need to find ways to incorporate these devices into our instruction.

2. Standardized testing. We say we're not teaching to the test, but how can we not, when the test scores are what drive the monetary backing schools require? It's avicious cycle!

A Few Good Women: Using an Oral History Collection in Grades 6-12 --Karla Schmit, librarian, Penn State University

The speaker, as Associate Director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, discussed the Center's oral history project and free online curriculum. The project, A Few Good Women, includes interviews with key women in our government from the last 60 years, plus a timeline of women in U.S. government, with audio, video and written transcripts. Some of the transcripts have been rewritten into reader's theater format; using them in class would be a great way for students to gain fluency in reading and learn historical content. The Center's website also has a literary and cultural map of Pennsylvania. Access the website at: http://www.afgw.libraries.psu.edu/index.html

Oh, No, Not Another New Technology Workshop: Learning About Social Networking Techniques -- Dr. Pat Kolencik and Jessica Modrzejewski Clarion University

When considering social networking websites, Facebook is the biggest. Twitter is great to use with foreign language classes. Skype is a terrific way to connect with authors, and can also be used in foreign language classes. A suggested class project using Facebook: Students "become" people from history; they post biographies of the historical celebrities, plus pictures, friends, favorite music, etc. Then the class gathers at an online "salon" to share real-time discussions about the historical period and the people of the time. Interesting!

Because social networking is so pervasive in our society, especially with the digital natives who are our students, maybe we should review our Acceptable Use Policies to include the use of social networks in class assignments. Is it time to update? Are we in the 21st century?

Luncheon speaker -- Laura Amy Schlitz, author. "At Least Two Miracles"

As a full-time librarian, storyteller and author, Schlitz is full of delightful stories. But even she was surprised when her book of medieval monologues for middle school students to recite won the coveted Newbery Award. To Schlitz, the world is still brimming with miracles, and she rejoices that some of those miracles are happening in her life.

Internet Explorer Glitch

So, I haven't had anything to say for a long time. But today I encountered something very frustrating. As you recall, I maintain my local historical society's webpage. That's been tough enough to do over the years, considering that I had to learn various types of web publishing software, much of it by trial and error. But now I've run into a new snag. When I try to make updates to older pages, Internet Explorer won't recognize the updates! The updates are visible in Firefox and in Safari, but not Internet Explorer. And it's because my server/host has loaded recent updates to Microsoft.

I have a bad feeling that I'm going to have to redesign all my individual pages for the society's webpage, using one web publisher (DreamWeaver appears to do the trick). But that's over a hundred individual files! This is very, very annoying! And it will become seriously time consuming. GGRRRR.....

Final Summary of PA Online Web 2.0

This course was thoroughly entertaining , enlightening and challenging! Going through the various steps reminded me of those very early days of the internet when I had one dial-in internet computer in the library at school, text only, but I went home every day just bubbling with excitement over the newest thing I discovered as I "practiced" using the internet. Not everything I found in this Web 2.0 course was thrilling, but each step got my creative juices flowing. Some of my discoveries I shared with other teachers, some with my husband, some with our local historical society members, some with friends. Some I tucked away for possible use when the need arose later.

I hated setting up this blog. What's a blog good for anyway? But little by little, as I ruminated on the various steps, I came to see that a blog might be for sharing with others, but a blog is first for me, a place to sort out my thoughts, a place to try out ideas. Yep, this blog was a good idea. And now I'm ready to pass along the idea; just yesterday I recommended to my superintendent that mentor teachers and inductees could use a blog or a wiki to build a rapport, to share plans, to invite thoughts on all aspects of the teaching profession.

LibraryThing, as I've mentioned before, has the greatest value for me. Even before this course I entered most of our Historical Society's library collection into LibraryThing to give the Society's library an online catalog. That activity was worth every hour we put into it! LibraryThing gives us a slick, professional-looking online catalog that our members can search from home, and visitors can search long before they enter our doors. Patrons at the local public libraries doing genealogical or local history research can check the historical society's online catalog from the public library--thus saving research time and steps.

Some of the things I want to take away from this course:
Using a wiki as an electronic handout for our students. When I find good websites for a particular assignment in the library, I type up the URLs, copy them in large print to half-sheets of paper, and leave the half-sheets between the computers in our library. But then students have to retype those URLs, often making mistakes, getting weird results. Good plan, but not great. By using a wiki, I can easily copy and paste the URLs into a library wiki under specific assignment headings, save the wiki, then point the students to the wiki site where they can just copy and paste the chosen URLs into their browsers. Slick! Far less frustrating for students and for me!
A second take away: Using a wiki as a way to gather local history information for our historical society, letting all the locals who are computer-savvy contribute their memories to the wiki. It would probably be good if I did a program on how to contribute to the wiki--either live and in person, or in a podcast on the historical society's website.
Now that summer break is here, I need to take the time to set up these two wikis. The small effort involved could have huge payoffs later on.

As for the course itself, I liked the Web 2.0 course plan. I got a kick out of exploring the sites, I liked the freedom to work on the course whenever I could, I liked journaling in a blog (that's a surprise to me!). My only suggestions for the course are that someone should keep it updated, and that a Web 2.0.1 should be devised wherein we discover newer sites. Now that we've started, we must keep up-to-date. Everyday someone publishes new free software; we must explore what they've provided!

I would very definitely sign on to another discovery program like this one. Thanks bunches for giving me the opportunity to take this course!

Audio ebooks

Well, I've clicked around the various recommended sites for free audio ebooks, and wasn't too impressed. It's not that I don't like audiobooks; my husband and I have dozens at home--on tape. He drives 40 miles one way to work each day. Often he has a student riding with him. But when he doesn't, he can only listen to so much Rush Limbaugh. Even ESPN radio isn't always satisfying. So, over the years, he's gotten used to listening to audio books, and we've taken audio books with us on vacation. A good audio book shortens those long drives across the prairie or through endless corn fields (orange groves, cane fields, tundra....whatever).

But our new cars have CD players, so all of our wonderful books on tape are packed away. And we just haven't purchased the portable equipment yet to download audio ebooks. When I walk, I want to talk to my husband, or listen to the birds. I have used audio books during the summer when I'm home alone washing walls and ironing drapes. Maybe I'll download an ebook to our laptop this summer, and listen to it while I work. Just for the experience. Maybe I'll get an ipod for Christmas.....who knows?

Ebooks

I am absolutely THRILLED with ebooks! I love netLibrary; what a blessing that we have it as part of Access PA POWER Library. Because of my delight with netLibrary, I've started purchasing ebooks for our school library's collection. I've been pleased with the ebooks from Follett and Salem Press, but I'm most impressed with the Gale Virtual Reference Library. Their federated search engine is awesome (and I rarely find the need to use that word). Furthermore, I've learned that when I purchase these ebooks for our high school library, they can be used throughout our school district--a sort of electronic interlibrary loan. Talk about spreading the wealth!

Just now I've explored some of the "Best Places to Get Free Books" sites. What a treat for a book lover! My niece showed me BookCrossing last year. Cool idea; kind of a hidden treasure search for curious book lovers. I shared WOWIO with my comic book-loving husband. WellToldTales appears to have some interesting stories; I need to go back there.

And then there's the British Library Online Gallery....oooo, rich! Every library has fragile but valuable books, pamphlets and other resources that should be shared with the world. But letting so many sweaty hands turn those crumbling pages over the years is dangerous to aging print. The BL has found a way to let the rest of us handle original print books safely. Once, long ago, I saw a facsimile of the original Alice's Adventures, and I promised myself I'd go back and read it some day. But before I could, the book was lost. (I suspect tossed out by someone who just wanted to clean out the space--I've never forgiven that person!) Today I saw the original of that book in the BL Online Gallery--oh, yes, I must go back and read it!

Podcasts

It's been a while since I added to this blog--Springtime is nuts! Way too much to do! Anyway, I finally got around to checking out podcasting. I actually took a little podcasting course through my school district, which was a nice introduction. But I still didn't get the point of podcasting. Today, however, I lightbulb flicked on. I read Forever Geek's Beginner's Guide to Podcasting and Creating Podcasts, also Jason Van Orden's How to Podcast. Finally, it made sense! Before today I didn't understand the difference between just listening to a file on YouTube and using RSS. Now I see that when I ask for an RSS feed, I expect to get regular or semi-regular broadcasts from the same person or group on a topic similiar to what first attracted me to the initial podcast I heard. This is a place I can return to regularly to get my fix of a favored kind of music, or an intriguing talk personality. So, if I enjoy listening to movie reviews, I can subscribe to a movie reviewing podcast. If I like hearing someone offer instruction on music improvisation, I subscribe to that podcast. Podcasts, then, are briefer, less elaborate versions of the pirate radio web broadcasts that I used to hear about back in the 90's, right? And mostly they're produced by far less radical people, like me.