dispatches PERSPECTIVES Visualize This plus its documents’ text patterns and its images’ visual patterns. Graphic data opens up In addition, graphs may reveal hidden patterns that provide digital collections BY Monika Glowacka-Musial insight into the process of collec- tion development. Monitoring Since the 1990s, cultural heritage institutions have been collection progress also means investing in digital technologies to address growing public assessing its metadata for com- demand for permanent open access to information resources. pleteness and quality. Computing This trend continues to accelerate. Because of the pandemic, applications used for visual- ization reveal inconsistencies print collections have rapidly become more difficult to access, while and missing values in metadata research and learning activities have moved to an almost entirely vir- fields, meaning that visualiza- tual environment. Even the nature of digital content has tion becomes an MONIKA shifted: Once it represented a preview of a physical collec- Digital collections effective tool for GLOWACKA- tion; now it’s the primary access point. are not simply metadata quality MUSIAL is control. Finally, metadata Digital collections, however, are not simply repre- representations of visualization may librarian at sentations of physical collections but resources in their inform the creation New Mexico own right. Unlike physical collections, their digital of metadata. When State University counterparts feature detailed metadata. Often, they also Library in Las feature full text, thanks to optical character recognition physical collections, we know what Cruces. conversion of text images into machine-encoded data. information pro- Both metadata and data can be mined, analyzed, and duces useful charts, but resources in visualized—not only opening digital collections for active their own right. we can reevaluate exploration and discovery but also providing tools for the metadata ele- content analysis and communication. ments that describe A growing body of literature highlights graphics’ rel- our collections. evance for digital libraries in the context of our culture of ubiquitous At New Mexico State Univer- screens. For example, graphic representations of digital collections are sity Library, we use visualiza- a great alternative to text-based interfaces and search boxes, especially tions primarily to curate digital for nonexperts and casual users. Unlike empty search fields, which rely collections, especially legacy on user input and background knowledge, graphs and diagrams pro- ones. We have just started exper- vide a comprehensive collection overview easily understandable by all. imenting with visualizations Along the same lines, interfaces designed to offer more generous that provide fresh insights into choices than the traditional search prominently display graphs of collections’ content and allow digital collections on web portals in order to spark users’ interest and library users to explore it further. inspire them to explore digitized material. In addition to providing a We’ve also added graphics to holistic overview of a collection’s scope and content, these interfaces digital yearbooks. Creating include the collection’s context, display relationships among its items, visuals for digital collections and offer a quick close-up of selected images.These graphic overviews has been a rewarding process, make natural starting points for browsing large sets of digital items, and we encourage readers to identifying relevant topics and patterns, selecting pertinent documents learn the tools and start experi- and images, and focusing on details. Graphics also foster serendipi- menting with digital collections tous findings. Some interfaces let users navigate digital collections as data themselves. virtual galleries. Adapted from “Data Visualiza- Similarly, archivists and curators find graphics useful when ana- tion with R for Digital Collections,” lyzing large digital collections. Visualization lets curators examine Library Technology Reports vol. 57, a collection’s structure, organization, content, provenance, scope, no. 1 (Jan. 2021). Read more at and size, as well as the number of files it contains and their formats, bit.ly/ALA-LTR. americanlibraries.org | March/April 2021 49
PERSPECTIVES youth matters It’s Okay to Be Wrong tools, just knowing the technology doesn’t equate to high-quality teen Analyzing our failures leads services. Instead, I focus now on the outcomes that staffers want to better teen services BY Linda W. Braun to achieve through their services. Once desired outcomes are known, Over the past two decades, I’ve trained many library staffers on work backward and think about the how to work with teens and have written extensively on the tools needed to reach those results. topic. But I haven’t always gotten it right. With the pandemic prompting us to step back and think Wrong idea: Library staff- ers have to be where teens are online. I also used to talk about set- critically about our users and the programs we bring online, it’s also a ting up social media accounts as a good time to reflect on past missteps. I’d like to share some of the wrong way to get teens to engage with the ideas I’ve had and why some of my original thinking was library. As I look back LINDA W. BRAUN incorrect, as a reminder of the importance of regularly If we’re willing on that, I think, “Why is a California- reassessing how we serve teens through libraries. to talk through would I ever suggest based consultant mistakes, we can that?” Just as know- and a past pres- Wrong idea: Teen-only services are essential. Over ing how to use tech- ident of ALA’s the years, I’ve talked with library staff about the need to nology isn’t the key Young Adult provide teen-only services—the logic being that teens do to success, being on Library Services not want to participate in activities that include parents, Association. caregivers, or siblings. While this might be true for some revise the way social media won’t be teens, it is not a universal sentiment. In some cultures, and we do our jobs. effective if you don’t for some teens, participating in activities with other family know what services members is an important part of life. Working with parents teens want or don’t or caregivers to learn a new skill, helping a younger sibling have a relationship in with a project, or simply enjoying time together working on an activity place. Instead of being everywhere of mutual interest is valuable for many adolescents. If libraries do not that teens are online, choose plat- provide programs and services for teens and their families, they are forms thoughtfully and be where putting up barriers for many in the community who would be interested you can assist teens in the activities in what’s available if family participation were encouraged. they care about. For example, if Wrong idea: Off-the-shelf programming works. In my early days you learn through conversations as a library consultant, I would fill workshops with examples of “pro- that area teens have an interest grams that work”—programs that staffers from around the country had in civic engagement, you could implemented. I’d say, “This is something you can do with your teens leverage Instagram to highlight the and be successful.” That was before I realized that the only way to serve activism of other youth and help teens is to get to know their specific interests and needs and then develop them connect with those who share services with and for them that support both. It’s not possible to take an their passions and pursuits. entire program that worked in one community and expect to replicate it I’ve been wrong many more in another community. Customization for a local audience is a must. For times over the past couple example, the rural Cherokee (Iowa) Public Library realized it couldn’t decades—enough to fill multiple launch the type of middle school makerspace programs that worked at columns—but the point is that we libraries in cities and high-tech corridors. Staffers factored in the specific should all be regularly evaluating interests of youth as well as the demographics, infrastructure, commu- our ideas and questioning our nity assets, and available partners in their town. assumptions. If we’re willing to Wrong idea: Learning the technology teens are using leads to talk through our mistakes and better programs. For about 10 years I facilitated workshops that simply find ways to move forward, we focused on how to use a particular application or tool. These included can revise the way we do our jobs. how-to sessions on video and audio software, Google apps, and Face- Join me in being wrong—and book and Twitter. While library staff should have proficiency with these then fixing it. 50 March/April 2021 | americanlibraries.org
on my mind PERSPECTIVES Bookmobiles for Justice how might this impact the way they access our services? How can What outreach librarians can learn we augment our outreach to better serve this population? from community organizing BY Lesley Garrett Another principle of disability justice, leadership from the most Before I was hired as bookmobile coordinator at McCracken directly impacted, complements County (Ky.) Public Library and tasked with leading outreach the Jemez principles of bottom-up efforts for a service population of 65,000 people, I had been organizing and letting people a community organizer in western Kentucky for four years, speak for themselves. This prin- ciple has been key to designing working in environmental, economic, gender, and racial justice. our bookmobile program and During my time as an organizer apprentice with Kentuckians for the outreach strategies, which focus Commonwealth, our chapter led a successful campaign in partnership on being accountable to our com- LESLEY with the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Kentucky Fairness and ACLU of munity and keeping open lines of GARRETT is Kentucky to pass a 2018 civil rights ordinance in the city of Paducah communication. bookmobile that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and coordinator gender identity. I began my bookmobile at McCracken program planning in late 2019 County (Ky.) I’ve since found that applying principles of community organizing by holding meetings with local Public Library. and social justice work to library outreach can make our services more teachers and school administra- They are also inclusive and help us reach many more individuals. In adapting these tors to get input on how book- a community principles, we prioritize improved access for the most marginalized mobile services could best support organizer cur- people in our community. them and their students. What we rently engaged learned was that the need from in social move- In my experience, an emphasis on inclusion is more effective when surrounding school systems could ments around it coincides with other principles, such as solidarity, mutuality, and prison and commitment to transformation. (Read more about the 1996 Jemez not be met with just one book- policing aboli- Principles for Democratic Organizing at bit.ly/AL-Jemez.) This mobile. Our library responded tion, disability justice, food process involves critically interrogating existing library structures by creating a school outreach sovereignty, and building a soli- and strategies—which have historically upheld oppressive coordinator position. darity economy. systems such as white supremacy—and changing them as When the COVID-1 9 needed to move toward more equitable services and spaces. An emphasis on pandemic hit, that One example of a supremacist system: the “white savior” inclusion is more staffer worked with complex. A tool of imperialism exemplified by Rudyard schools to success- Kipling’s 1899 poem “The White Man’s Burden,” it can show effective when fully troubleshoot up in many ways, such as when we determine services for it coincides access issues related marginalized communities based on our assumption of with solidarity to virtual learning needs and without input from the people using the services. and provide library Outreach to underserved communities can easily become and mutuality. services accordingly. extractive and oppressive if not grounded in solidarity. Public libraries In my daily work, I also apply principles of the disability aren’t here to define justice movement—which includes an emphasis on intersec- and win grassroots tionality and leadership representing those most directly affected. Sins campaigns, but we do have an Invalid (sinsinvalid.org), a performance project led by disabled people active role to play in creating of color, offers a useful guide to these principles. equitable, democratic communi- Foundational in Black queer feminist thought, intersectionality is a ties. By applying social justice method of analysis for understanding the ways that various forms of frameworks to our outreach oppression affect people holding multiple marginalized identities. For efforts, we can build programs example, consider outreach to patrons who have experienced incar- that truly transform lives and ceration. How many overlapping systems may affect their lives, and neighborhoods. americanlibraries.org | March/April 2021 51
PERSPECTIVES librarian’s library Engagement at a Distance Tools and tips for virtual programming and services ARACELI MÉNDEZ Pivoting during the Transitioning to Virtual The Collection All Around: HINTERMEISTER Pandemic: Ideas for and Hybrid Events: How Sharing Our Cities, Towns, is knowledge Serving Your Community to Create, Adapt, and and Natural Places manager at Anytime, Anywhere Market an Engaging Uplift Education Online Experience By Jeffrey T. Davis in Dallas. Edited by Kathleen M. Hughes and Jamie Santoro By Ben Chodor with One of the library’s greatest Gabriella Cyranski strengths is its ability to connect This collection includes 22 reflec- patrons to resources, and this tions from library staffers across Chodor has presented virtual book shows how that skill goes the US on how public libraries programs in the digital media beyond a building’s walls. By have responded to challenges space for more than 20 years. focusing on what surrounds a posed by COVID-19. Whether Drawing on that experience, he library, Davis asks readers to you seek to serve specific patron digs deep into how to become a consider nearby parks, nature, groups, address larger com- more efficient host, understand and places in their community munity needs, or reimagine your audience, and use media as part of their collection. This is programming, you will find beyond videoconferencing. His not to say libraries should embed innovative models and services approach creates an intimacy in the community; rather, it is that many libraries have used that allows event attendees to about making the places around in their communities, including feel directly engaged rather than their users more comprehensible, homebound delivery, virtual ref- just looking at their screens. This familiar, and accessible to every- erence, remote readers’ advisory, book includes comprehensive one. The lessons will assist library and setting up Wi-Fi hotspots. checklists, best practices, and workers as they guide patrons in Pivoting during the health crisis tips for hosting events. Wiley, 2020. discovering the treasures around requires far more than just them. ALA Editions, 2017. 152 p. $57. putting programming online, 208 p. $25. PBK. 978-1-119-74717-8. (Also and this collection will help PBK. 978-0-8389-1505-9. (Also available readers develop new ideas and available as an ebook.) strengthen existing ones. Public as an ebook.) Library Association, 2021. 112 p. $29.99. PBK. 978-0-8389-4974-0. (Also available as an ebook.) 52 March/April 2021 | americanlibraries.org
PERSPECTIVES BY Araceli Méndez Hintermeister Healthy Living at the Coronavirus: Leadership Library Services for Library: Programs and Recovery Online Patrons: A Manual for All Ages for Facilitating Access, By Harvard Business Review, Learning, and Engagement By Noah Lenstra Martin Reeves, Nancy F. Koehn, Tsedal Neeley, and Scott Berinato Edited by Joelle E. Pitts, Laura Lenstra provides resources to Bonella, Jason M. Coleman, and help integrate healthy living and It can be difficult for libraries Adam Wathen wellness practices into library to embrace changes instituted programming, whether through because of COVID-19, especially Access, learning, and engage- garden plots, StoryWalks, or when they may be required to ment are at the core of this fitness classes. Healthy Living transition back to traditional manual, which offers a holistic at the Library outlines how to services at any moment. Through approach to initiating and develop a program, engage in the lens of business manage- enhancing library resources and community partnerships, and ment, Coronavirus: Leadership services to online patrons. The eventually run a program, and it and Recovery motivates readers book looks at reference, instruc- concludes with advice on how to to think through these unprece- tion, and marketing through the make new initiatives permanent. dented challenges while main- lens of online users and guides Lenstra includes information taining a foundation that will readers through the process of about liability waivers, strategic allow them to emerge stronger at making intentional consider- plans, and assessment tools that the end of the pandemic. Broken ations. While this book focuses will support these offerings every into sections that address leader- on academic libraries, its lessons step of the way. Libraries Unlimited, ship, management, and strategic on designing services will help planning, the book presents case readers navigate and address the 2020. 225 p. $45. PBK. 978-1-4408-6314-1. studies that explore how other needs of any online patron, even businesses in multiple indus- if those needs may not be entirely (Also available as an ebook.) tries are addressing everything apparent at first. Libraries Unlimited, from workers calling in sick to communicating with customers. 2019. 200 p. $55. PBK. 978-1-4408-5952-6 . Harvard Business Review, 2020. 192 p. $23. (Also available as an ebook.) PBK. 978-1-6478-2049-7. (Also available as an ebook.) americanlibraries.org | March/April 2021 53
ON THE MOVE Elaine Bleisch joined Lied Scottsbluff Alan Cornish, 59, director of library technology services at Uni- (Nebr.) Public Library as teen librarian versity of Oregon in Eugene since 2018, died November 5. Prior to and children’s assistant in November. joining University of Oregon, he served as automation librarian at Texas A&M University Libraries in College Station; systems librar- In January Jonathan ian at National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland; head of O. Cain became associ- library systems at Washington State University Libraries in Pullman; ate university librarian and program manager for the Orbis Cascade Alliance consortium in Eugene. for research and learning at Columbia Ben Emmett Grimm, 96, director of Jersey City (N.J.) Free Public Library until his University Libraries in 1985 retirement, died November 9. He served as 1968–1969 president of the New New York City. Jersey Library Association, and after retirement worked as a library consultant. Kyle DeCicco-Carey joined Millicent Frank P. Grisham, 92, died October 9. He served as director of Vanderbilt (Tenn.) Library in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, University Library from 1968 until 1982, then as executive director of the South- as director October 19. eastern Library Network in Atlanta until his retirement in 1994. Grisham, who established the Vanderbilt Television News Archive in 1968, received many library Jessica Dorr became director of Boise awards, including the American Library Association’s (ALA) Melvil Dewey Medal (Idaho) Public Library November 30. and the Southeastern Library Association’s Rothrock Award. J. Eric Ensley was appointed curator of Janet M. Hauser, 85, who retired from Glencoe (Ill.) Public Library as children’s rare books and maps at University of librarian in 2010, died December 7. Iowa Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives in December. Marjorie Lewis, 91, a children’s librarian in schools and public libraries in Mont- clair, New Jersey; Scarsdale, New York; and London, died December 7. Lewis also November 2 Brian Herzog joined wrote three children’s books and coedited Waltzing on Water, an anthology of Tuscarawas County (Ohio) Public poetry by women. Library as assistant director. Stephen M. Roberts, 71, associate vice president for university libraries at Uni- Worcester (Mass.) Public Library named versity of Buffalo, New York, until his 2010 retirement, died September 21. During Jason L. Homer executive director, his 33 years at the university, he established UBdigit, which made the university’s effective in December. Pongrácz Sennyey became associate December 14 Angela Zimmermann Allan Kleiman became director of dean for discovery, access, and tech- became executive director of Racine Edison Public Library in Fords, nology at James Madison University in (Wis.) Public Library. New Jersey, in January. Harrisonburg, Virginia, in October. PROMOTIONS In October Lacey Love joined Chris Siscoe became director of Peters Township (Pa.) Public Library Hurt-Battelle Memorial Library in Mansfield Public Library in Temple, New as director. West Jefferson, Ohio, November 1. Hampshire, promoted Beth Crooker to director in November. Mid-America Library Alli- Highland Park (Ill.) Public Library ance in Independence, appointed Heidi Smith director, effec- Columbus (Ohio) Missouri, appointed tive January 4. Metropolitan Library Jane Mulvihill-Jones promoted Anne executive director, Thomas Vitale started as director of Jubera to manager effective January 6. Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport, of its Shepard branch. New York, November 18. In February Jennifer R. Nelson was selected as state librarian for the New Jersey State Library. 54 March/April 2021 | americanlibraries.org
SUBMISSIONS Send notices and photographs to Amy Carlton, [email protected]. MORE ONLINE americanlibraries.org/currents for Georgetown University’s Blommer Science Library in Washington, D.C. digital collections available, and UB Wings, the first campus-wide information Sandra Hussey retired in December system. His efforts led UB Libraries to receive the New York State Library’s Joseph as coordinator of library instruction F. Shubert Moving Toward Excellence Award in 1997. at Georgetown University Libraries in Washington, D.C. Alexander Tscherny, 93, acquisitions librarian at Library of Con- gress (LC) until his retirement in 1993, died May 7, 2020. He had Tim Kambitsch, director of Dayton previously held several positions at LC, as well as the position of (Ohio) Metro Library, retired in February. junior archivist at the National Archives’ microfilm repository of cap- tured Nazi records. He also worked internationally, including serving In November Melissa Kopecky retired as chief of party of Bryant College’s envoy to the Instituto de Estudios as director of South Orange (N.J.) Superiores in the Dominican Republic (now known as Universidad APEC). Public Library. Luisa del Carmen Carolina Vigo Cepeda, past director and Daniel LaRue retired October 31 after professor at Escuela Graduada de Ciencias y Tecnologías de la 31 years as a librarian at Hamburg (Pa.) Información, the University of Puerto Rico’s library school, died Public Library. November 26. She cofounded the Association of University, Research, and Institutional Libraries of the Caribbean and served at Ann Miller, interim associate dean of various points as its president and its executive secretary. She also libraries for collection services at Uni- served as president of the Sociedad de Bibliotecarios de Puerto Rico. versity of Oregon Libraries in Eugene, retired November 30. Everett Wilkie, 73, head librarian of the Connecticut Historical Society until his 1997 retirement, died December 23. He previously served as bibliographer at Brown Gina Millsap retired as chief executive University’s John Carter Brown Library in Providence, Rhode Island, and reference officer of Topeka and Shawnee County librarian at Indiana University’s Lilly Library in Bloomington. Wilkie produced (Kans.) Public Library December 1. several descriptive bibliographies and research works on French Americana during his library career and in retirement as an independent scholar. He was active in the Bill Olsen, School of Foreign Service Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Rare Books and Manuscripts and government liaison at Georgetown Section, chairing its Security Committee for almost 20 years and serving as section University Libraries in Washington, D.C., liaison to ACRL’s Standards and Accreditation Committee for at least a decade. retired in December. Stacey Russell was promoted to RETIREMENTS November 13 Lisa Richland retired as executive director of Muskingum director of Floyd Memorial Library in County (Ohio) Library System University of Oregon Law Refer- Greenport, New York. in November. ence Librarian Jaye Barlous retired September 30. Ardmore (Okla.) Public Library Public Sarah Smith was promoted to Services Librarian Lorena Smith manager of Delta County (Colo.) Mary L. Chute retired as state librarian retired October 23. Libraries’ Cedaredge and Hotchkiss for the New Jersey State Library branches September 16. in February. Mike Taylor retired December 26 as director of Pender County (N.C.) Library. Virginia Tech University Roxanna Deane retired October 28 as Libraries in Blacksburg director of Tye Preston Memorial Library October 30 Les Valentine retired as promoted Patrick Tomlin in Canyon Lake, Texas. university archivist at University of to assistant dean and Nebraska Omaha. director of learning In December Jill Hollingsworth retired environments. as science liaison and reference librarian Michele Yellin, collection development librarian at Memphis (Tenn.) Public Library, retired October 2. AT ALA Briana Jarnagin left the Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Ser- vices November 6. americanlibraries.org | March/April 2021 55
1 2 345678 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 24 22 27 25 the BOOKEND 28 31 32 33 39 40 41 36 57 42 45 48 51 54 61 62 63 66 69 72 75 Clues You Can Use 83 W hat’s an eight-letter word for “information Through “crossword Twitter,” she befriended other afi- Photo: Eli Burakian/Dartmouth College 86 87 about information”? Metadata, and it’s one of cionados and found mentors. Ben Tausig, an editor for the the library-themed answers Laura Braunstein indie American Values Club crosswords, asked her what has occasionally worked into a crossword puzzle since she planned to do about the dearth of women in main- publishing her first in 2017. stream crosswords. (Women represent only about 27% of New York Times puzzle constructors, for example.) Braunstein, digital humanities librarian at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and co-lead of Digital So in 2018, she and fellow constructor Tracy Bennett by Dartmouth Library, wants to help both crossword started The Inkubator (inkubatorcrosswords.com), a puzzle puzzles and libraries shed their reputations for stuffy subscription service edited exclusively by cis and trans elitism and exclusion. women and nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people. It now has around 50 constructors and 1,500 subscribers. Braunstein started doing crosswords as a child with her grandfather, who emigrated from Moldova; the games Braunstein says her digital humanities work is also were his way of learning new vocabulary. Crosswords about increasing access and representation: “I just want became part of her daily life in college, and the switch to fewer gatekeepers in both areas of my professional life—in digital kicked her hobby into overdrive. “The iPad app for my vocation and my avocation.” The New York Times crossword records your time,” she notes. “Oh, I did that puzzle in five minutes. Could I do it in THE BOOKEND showcases librarians, their work, and their work four next week?” spaces. For consideration, email [email protected]. 94 95 96 97 56 March/April 2021 99 100 98
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