Summer+2007+Question+5


 * As a professional, with a degree from an ALA accredited institution, you have acquired and assimilated many different perspectives of seeing and understanding professional practice.

Selecting an area of information work, discuss the views or perspectives that will inform your work, support your decision-making and guide your professional judgment.

-** Jody: Area: **__Digital Libraries__** (outline)

1) **The Information Life Cycle** (reference:[| http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january00/01hodge.html] ) a) selection and appraisal (collection development and identification of valuable materials) b) creation -- needs to be in archivable formats, with preservation metadata meeting current standards c) publishing -- using best practices, current standards, addressing usability needs d) dissemination -- sitemaps to search engines, OAI, RSS/ATOM feeds, persistent identifiers, other e) maintenance -- migrating formats and softwares as needed, repairs, collecting access statistics, md5 checksum checking for file validity, backups, database tracking of materials f) preservation (or disposal) -- migrating formats as necessary, tracking material locations and relationships, checksum checking, backups, multi-site copies, verifying valid preservation metadata, updating as needed

2) **Diversity** Technical delivery impacts usability for anyone beyond the mainstream culture: a) physically handicapped (for example: visual, needing screen readers) b) mentally challenged or youth (may need images rather than text for browsing, and full text indexing for natural language search support) c) other primary language (may need translations of site). Need unicode support for alternative characters beyond lower ASCII d) highly technical (math, physics, chemistry): need special delivery of technical terms to be readable, searchable, usable: mention MathML and unicode e) alternate culture: may need ontology mapping for profile-specific categories of users to enable functional searching, as their search terms may be different f) alternate access: need to be able to format results for readability in hand-held devices or other alternative access methods g) alternative usage: need to be able to support emerging methods of access and delivery for greater usability of materials by patrons (reference OAI/ORE )

3) **Funding** for academic libraries is both increasingly scarce, and shifting to dependence on a demonstration of its functionality and the extent to which the library efforts support the university mission. a) Must align selection and delivery methods to clearly support the university goals b) Must collect valid access statistics, and perform research to support how provision of this digital access to materials is useful c) Must find alternative methods of financial support.

4) **Outreach and education** a) Educating creators about how to create archival quality materials b) Educating students on digital library processes, issues, and problems c) Reaching out to the community to provide support for digitization of rare and valuable materials d) Open access delivery e) Copyright and access rights

Meghan Area of work: Public libraries (my current area)

Views that inform: Ranganathan's five laws, especially library is a growing organism and save the time of the reader – these tell me not everything in a library is set in stone.
 * ex. We don't have to do things the same way we've always done them – look at the way libraries are changing their graphic novel classification to match the more typical browsing selection rather than known-item selection most GN readers use.

ALA code of ethics, particularly equitable access and treatment, privacy and intellectual freedom.
 * ex. Home school children should get an opportunity to see the speaker the library hires to perform at schools; public school children should have the opportunity to attend big programs as well as homeschoolers (have programs after school, for example, or work with the schools to share cost of performers).
 * ex. All patrons can use the computer, whether they're doing homework, playing games or applying for jobs. All intellectual uses are equally valid.
 * ex. Children need access to materials as well as adults. A teen has a right to privacy where her information needs are concerned.

Collection development issues include balancing a community's preferences with intellectual depth and neutrality.
 * ex. Where does the book on intelligent design go – science or religion? Written policies will help with decision making – a standard form for dealing with challenges to materials will keep treatment of both books and patrons equal, regardless of their intellectual views.
 * Diversity is important here – not only should the collection include the community, it should reflect diverse and possibly unfamiliar ideas. ex. Spanish-language collections in libraries are often challenged because many people do not support immigrants' rights, but there is a right to read – Every reader his or her book and equitable access.

Information literacy – not just for universities. There's always a “teaching moment”, whether when looking up a book in the catalog (demonstrate, don't just do), or walking a patron to an item in the library (explain Dewey, point out collections).

Access – equitable access includes a non-physical presence. Digital libraries aren't just for universities and researchers; open access journals can help high school students as well as researchers; online services from ILL requests to renewing or reserving books and online reference take the library into people's homes; providing internet access is crucial – the US is one of the lowest-ranked high-GDP countries in terms of broadband access (somewhere in the 20s).

My favorite advice came from PUBLIB, where one poster said the first two requirements in all her library's job descriptions are 1. Be friendly and 2. Be helpful. This applies to patrons, coworkers, employers and umbrella organizations like city administration. You're never too good or too educated to add paper to the copier, and never too busy to help the person standing in front of you.

This is a hard question! -Meghan