I know a lot of folks (staff and members included) have been screaming from the rooftops for this, waiting impatiently. But today it finally happened. We’re trying to turn the cruise ship - come join me on the ledo deck!

Senior Usability Officer

“Responsibilities: The American Library Association (ALA), a large, information-based professional organization seeks a Senior Usability Officer (SUO). This position in its key role will support 65,000 members and non-member in the organizations’ initiative to recast its growing Website with user-centered web design principles. The potential candidate will have extensive first hand experience designing and running usability tests, accessibility reviews/audits, and determining website trends. In addition, must have experience with other methodologies such as expert walkthroughs, defining stakeholder requirements, task analysis, wireframing, prototyping and card sorting. Excellent communication and people skills with the ability to communicate with non-technical individuals are a must in this highly visible position. The SUO must be flexible and able to incorporate user-centered design principles to online interfaces while remaining responsive and open to the diverse and shifting needs of a complex organization. The ability to work in a team environment and between two universes of Information Technology and Librarianship is essential in order to maintain an outcome-oriented, global vision.

Requirements: Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) or a related field with a minimum of five years experience in designing and conducting usability tests and making recommendations to effect changes. Must have knowledge of web site design, web-based usability standards, web-based accessibility standards and industry-acknowledged best practices. This individual must be able to work in a fast-paced environment and manage multiple projects simultaneously. Salary is negotiable from $75,000. ALA has an excellent medical/dental package, vacation and retirement annuity. Closing Date: Review of applications will begin December 1, 2007 and continue until the position is filled. For consideration send a letter of application and resume to the American Library Association, Human Resources Department, SUO/IT, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611; fax: 312.280-5270, email: cvivian@ala.org.

Salary Range: Negotiable from $75,000
Exempt/Non-Exempt: Exempt”

From Scott Nicholson:

“I’m a professor at Syracuse University, and we just got 5 IMLS grants for librarians interested in becoming LIS faculty members. Why is this relevant in LibGaming? Because if you come to Syracuse, you’d be welcome to work with me on research about gaming in libraries! Of course, you could also work with many other folks, as we’ve got a lot of interesting things going on.”

There’s much more in the full press release - iSchool Secures Grant to Fund Five Future Library Professors.

In 1996, I took a job as the “technology coordinator” at the Grande Prairie Public Library in Hazel Crest, Illinois (one of Chicago’s south suburbs). It was my first real technology-related position, and Susan was the director who hired me. Although I was there for less than a year (moving on to the Suburban Library System), we accomplished a lot in that short time. GPPL became the first public library in Chicago’s south suburbs to have a web page, offer [dial-up] internet access for the public, and teach patrons about email (using free PrairieNet accounts). I even started a group to teach patrons about the web, and we started showing users how to find jobs online.

I had a vision for bringing internet access and web-based information to the community, and Susan made it happen. She was committed to the values of equity of access for everyone, so she found the money for the computers and the monthly dial-up fee because she understood that the emerging web of information would help level the playing field for her patrons. She never stopped fighting for libraries and their users, which is something I’ve always admired about her. I don’t think I’d be where I am today if she hadn’t hired me for that job.

Sadly, Susan died yesterday morning. Megan Heligas has written a blog post where anyone can leave a comment In Memory of Susan Roberts. I left sympathies there, but I wanted to link to the site for those who may not yet have heard this news, and I want to extend my deepest sympathies to Susan’s family.

It’s taken a long time for them to release this, but OCLC has finally made their Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World report available for free on the web.

“The practice of using a social network to establish and enhance relationships based on some common ground—shared interests, related skills, or a common geographic location—is as old as human societies, but social networking has flourished due to the ease of connecting on the Web. This OCLC membership report explores this web of social participation and cooperation on the Internet and how it may impact the library’s role, including:

• The use of social networking, social media, commercial and library services on the Web
• How and what users and librarians share on the Web and their attitudes toward related privacy issues
• Opinions on privacy online
• Libraries’ current and future roles in social networking

The report is based on a survey (by Harris Interactive on behalf of OCLC) of the general public from six countries—Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States—and of library directors from the U.S. The research provides insights into the values and social-networking habits of library users.”

I’ve heard OCLC staff say they don’t believe they asked the right questions for some of the topics, which I agree with, so I think we have to take the data with the proverbial grain of salt. You’ll be able to order a 280-page paper copy starting October 28, which is how I’ll read this if I can get my hands on a copy. I couldn’t totally resist, though, so I did jump ahead to the conclusion (PDF) and already I’m intrigued.

“In the 18 months since the publication of the Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources report, the use of search engines and e-mail has grown by more than 20% over what were already enormous participation levels. User participation in basic Internet services, such as searching and e-mailing, is approaching total participation. More than twice as many respondents are using blogs now as then….

Internet use has not simply increased, it has infiltrated our lives, offering more and more services at more and more service points. Use has grown for almost every Internet service we measured in this survey—well, almost every service.

The percentage of Internet users that have used a library Web site has decreased. Library Web site use declined from 30% of respondents in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. in 2005 to 20% of the general public in these same countries in 2007, a 33%
decrease….

The more intriguing question is—what are the services and incentives that online libraries could offer users to entice them to come back or to visit more often or even devote some of their own time to help create a social library site?…

If convenience does trump quality, then it is the librarians’ job to make quality convenient. If sharing will trump privacy on the social Web, it is the librarians’

On the social Web, the library brand must go from institutional to personal….

The social Web is not being built by augmenting traditional Web sites with new tools. And a social library will not be created by implementing a list of social software features on our current sites. The social Web is being created by opening the doors to the production of the Web, dismantling the current structures and inviting users in to create their content and establish new rules.

Open the library doors, invite mass participation by users and relax the rules of privacy. It will be messy. The rules of the new social Web are messy. The rules of the new social library will be equally messy. But mass participation and a little chaos often create the most exciting venues for collaboration, creativity, community building—and transformation. It is right on mission….

The new Web is a very different thing. Libraries need to be very different, too.”

Now, I give full credit to OCLC for running, analyzing, and publishing (especially freely) this report (I so wish MPOW published this kind of wonderful data this freely), but I have to dock them points for the way they invite feedback on this report. On social networking. And sharing online. And privacy concerns.

Where do the points come off? The only way to submit feedback is via a form that has your name and email address as required fields and which sends the message off into the ether instead of posting it online. No discussion at all on the report’s site. Given the social efforts OCLC is making elsewhere (WorldCat, WebJunction, etc.), I have to believe they have something in the works that just wasn’t ready yet, but this certainly does fill the belly of the irony beast.

Update: And indeed, the online community is now live via open comments on what appears to be a blog. Discuss away.

There were many reasons I hosted the ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium this past July, not the least of which was to share with others the breadth of gaming services libraries can offer. The fact that I got to meet some of my heroes (like Henry Jenkins and James Paul Gee), as well as meet new people doing interesting things around gaming, was rich and tasty gravy.

Two of those people were Mark Engelbrecht and Martin House from the Public Library of Charlotte Mecklenburg County, who received a $69,000 LSTA grant to study gaming for adults last year. There’s a reason we talk so much about the kids and the teenagers when it comes to gaming in libraries, but we can’t forget that there are valid gaming services for 20somethings, 30somethings, families, parents, boomers, seniors, and pretty much everyone else who enjoys games. So their session at the Symposium was high on my list to hear but as it turns out, when you host an event like this, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll actually get to see much of the presentations. So I missed almost all of their talk, and unfortunately we didn’t have video of it. There is audio, which you can grab to listen to here, and I highly recommend you do that.

But now, you can also read (and subscribe) to Martin House’s new blog Technaeum, where he will be posting excerpts of their research and data from the grant. I’m thrilled about this, because it solidifies 2007 as the first year we started getting actual numbers of any kind surrounding gaming in libraries, and just like Scott Nicholson’s data, PLCMC’s numbers are fascinating.

Gaming and Libraries: Reference Ain’t Dead

“As an indication that reference really ‘ain’t’ dead, I would like to share some research with you from an LSTA Innovations Grant. The library received $69,000 to create gaming programs for adults and study the impact of these events in terms of their library use. What we found is that the single biggest reason patrons cited for coming to the library was reference, or an informational need….

…libraries today are still faced with the age old charge, being ‘The People’s University.’ If my research is any indication of this, libraries are more needed than ever due to people’s needs to have knowledgeable professionals guide them through the world of information overload - oh and bad information too boot.

There is also a very good indication that patron who attended the gaming programs frequented the library more in subsequent months.”

Be sure to read the rest of Martin’s post and to check back or subscribe to his blog, because he will be posting about their research regularly. Thanks, Martin - this is a huge contribution to the profession.

I’ve been waiting for Michael Wesch, the Kansas State professor who created the viral The Machine Is Us/ing Us and A Vision of Students Today videos, to do one that more directly addresses libraries. Last week he did just that. Hopefully it will help spread David Weinberger’s message from Everything Is Miscellaneous (which you need to read if you haven’t already). Is your library part of this new r/evolution, or are you still facing the future with only a 20th century service orientation?

Information R/evolution.

Bonus link via Paul Pival: Jon Udell on Remixing the Library
. Can your patrons remix your library?

“Any discussion of the future of libraries must consider the impact of the technological advances and innovations that are inextricably wound up with library operations and user expectations. According to Rachel Singer Gordon, librarians remain relevant and useful by confronting technological challenges head-on and finding ways to integrate the best and most appropriate innovations into library services and operations.

In Information Tomorrow, Gordon brings together 20 of today’s leading thinkers on the intersections between libraries and technology. They address various ways in which new technologies influence librarians’ actions and goals and offer ideas for using technology to meet patrons where they are. The result is an engaging, wide-ranging, and sometimes provocative discussion for systems librarians, library IT workers, library managers and administrators, and anyone working with or interested in technology in libraries.”

I’m honored to have authored one of the chapters in this book, both because of Rachel’s vision and because of the quality of my fellow authors. Learn more (and order a copy) here.

I just returned from giving a presentation about gaming and libraries to a crowd of enthusiastic librarians at the NetSpeed Conference in Calgary. I love doing presentations for and talking with Canadian librarians, because I think they do a much better job of pooling resources and working together than we do in the U.S. I’ll be interested to see if they apply that same effort to gaming (I’m betting they will).

For those NetSpeeders who may be visiting here for the first time, welcome! Please feel free to leave a comment about the presentation or gaming in general. The slides will be available at http://theshiftedlibrarian.pbwiki.com/ later today.

I also want to thank the conference organizers for making a donation to the Lois Hole Library Legacy Program in my name. What a great idea. Yeah, Canadian librarians rock hard.

Patrick McDonald let me know he has started a new blog, PHM3. The subtitle is “Information, Libraries, and Provocative Ideas,” and the first one is a doozy: The Google Proposition - Challenging our Identity, Furthering Our Mission?

“Imagine this: Google, whose mission is ‘to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’, realizes it’s too expensive or just not worth it to fight the fight to scan and make copyrighted books available online. Instead they acquire one or more publishing houses (who perhaps can be had for a reasonable price because their major media parents are disappointed with their contributions to the corporate bottom line) with the intention of providing unlimited simultaneous, free access to texts online while ‘monetizing’ that access via advertising in the same way they have very successfully monetized search results. Then being as resource rich as they are, Google attracts writers and book producers by offering better compensation in exchange for the right make their to-be-published works immediately and ‘universally accessible’ online. In addition to monetizing book access, Google claims it is doing ‘good’ by making this information ‘universally accessible and useful’ free of charge to readers….

Would we protest, perhaps out of a short-sighted desire to preserve ourselves as an institution as we have traditionally existed?

OR

Would we embark on some kind of ‘transformational change’ (as many before me have called it), satisfied our mission of providing freely available information is substantially (if not perfectly acheived - perhaps negotiating electronic and hard copy fail safes to maintain access in case Google and others become ‘evil’) and reorient and redevote ourselves using freed up resources to address other community needs - hosting cultural and/or social centers, focusing on instructing and becoming ‘People’s Universities’, navigating the available information etc….”

Could Google redefine copyright (digital fair use rights really) through behavior rather than law? As Anil Dash notes, “If YouTube has created something fantastic, and it required copyright violation to do so, then copyright law should be changed to make it legal. Laws are ours, people — they’re not carved on stone tablets.” What would digital fair use rights look like in this model? You can remix and re-use content, as long as you keep the ads? Do the ads become part of the copyrighted work?

Provocative indeed - leave your thoughts over on Paul’s blog, and then subscribe to his feed to find out how he tops this post.

This time it’s in the Dallas Morning News and the article is called Video Games Encourage Teens to Check Out Libraries.

The good news: We learn that the Forth Worth Public Library is creating a room dedicated to gaming. Can’t wait to learn more about that!

The bad news: Yet another newspaper story that lets someone (this time a professor at the University of Maryland) get away with sweeping generalizations about gaming. Melanie Killen claims, “a vast majority of the games have negative content and the consequences can be destructive, including increased impulsivity, aggressive behavior and shorter attention spans,” without providing any proof at all.

Whether that’s her fault or the newspaper’s, let’s just nip this in the bud right now in case you encounter this argument at your own library.

First of all, 85% of the games sold in 2006 were rated E (for Everyone), E+10 (ages 10 and up), or T (for Teen). That means only 15% of video games sold in 2006 where rated for adults, so that’s hardly a “vast majority.” Only 4 of the top 20 games sold in 2006 were rated M (Mature) (PDF). That would be 1/5, which means the “vast majority” of games sold were actually appropriate for kids and teenagers.

Second of all, let’s define what we mean by “destructive” and “aggressive behavior,” because as video games have become more popular, youth violence has actually dropped, despite those stories that grab all the headlines.

Third, “impulsivity” and “shorter attention spans” can be attributed to many things, not just video games. If I’m not mistaken, these arguments were made against television forty years ago, so it’s not like this is something new and it’s not like you can blame video games as the master evil behind these problems. In fact, one wonders if shorter, less complex newspaper stories that fail to provide facts or links for further information or, you know, evidence/data/research might contribute to that trend, too.

What’s really ironic is that Killen is later quoted as saying, ” ‘There is a concern in our society about the preparation of the next workforce in terms of reading and math and science skills,’ she said. ‘We should be doing everything we can to facilitate that, and I think that allowing video games to go in libraries is a bad signal.’ ” If you run into this misguided assumption yourself, you can point folks to this report or this report or this report (PDF), which discuss how gaming can help with exactly those things.

The worst part? They cite a figure for the number of libraries offering console or PC gaming programs that is flat out wrong, all the more curious since the summary of the survey is available online (PDF). Had they bothered to point to it from the article, they might have gotten it right. Sadly, the DMN doesn’t allow comments or trackbacks, so their readers will never know just how wrong the paper got this story. Luckily, the rest of us do.