eBooks Revisited

I have written before about the issue of ebooks, but I will again today because of one statement I keep hearing over and over. It continues to both crack me up and make me sad when people say, as if consoling me, that it must be difficult for me that ebooks are the new trend. Um, no, not really. While I am continuously surprised that I am considered a “techie”, ebooks are not breaking my heart at all. My concern, as I usually reply, is that the students are getting up-to-date, accurate information, not the format that it is in. With budget cuts a constant threat and limited funding available for consistency in annual database subscriptions, I kind of like the idea of building our own database through ebook subscriptions. I am now focusing on the unlimited, simultaneous access ebooks rather than checking out individual ebooks to students.

This statement also leads me to wonder if the misconception that ebooks are causing librarians’ hearts to shatter the world over is another product of the general public’s confusion about what libraries are. Do they think librarians cursed the book as it replaced the scroll? As I say in my header, libraries are not about books, but free access to information. They provide educational and entertainment opportunities to whomever wishes to take part. I have written before that I have become an ebook/ereader convert. While I value the editorial process, I don’t feel any loyalty to the format of the book. Whatever will keep my students on the right track and provide accurate, timely information gets my vote. Libraries are evolving.

However, there is one thing that does cause me to pause and reconsider my stance. I wish I could give credit to the article I read recently that planted this seed, but I don’t remember which one it was. Growing up there were always books in my house and we made trips to the library. Will future children be as enticed to read if there aren’t books lying around the house like they were for us?

Professional Development

I’m a HUGE advocate of professional development (PD). I’m not sure if it is my fear of not having the resume to get the job I want or the fact that I can get bored easily and am always on the lookout for new things. Either way, I sometimes wonder if it is possible to fall into PD overload.

I realized not long ago that except for an 18 month period during my first year and half of teaching, I have been in some type of formal education program. I went straight to graduate school from undergrad. After a brief break, I started working on an associate’s in accounting. I thought this would be a good idea since understanding finances would be helpful if I ever ran a large library and I could pick up a business education certification. I abandoned that program when I began to question how much I would remember down the line. I also decided that a doctorate would be more beneficial in the long run and I wanted to get it done while I was still young, carefree, and single. I’m currently developing the research prospectus for my dissertatation and am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In between all this I also worked part-time at Huntington Learning Center, coached three seasons each of junior high girls basketball and junior varsity softball, and began teaching as an adjunct instructor.

I also try to attend any workshop or conference that I believe will be beneficial. I have served in a leadership capacity for several local and state organizations and have found such involvement to be a great way to make connections with other library professionals. This can be difficult for librarians who are isolated in their buildings. I have been to the state conference (PSLA) almost every year since I started college and was able to attend PETE&C once. I hope to get to AASL (why is this during the school year??) and ALA sometime in the near future.

Social networking tools are also helpful to stay connected and learn new things. I have a separate email account for all of the list servs I belong to. Last week was crazy in the library (in a good way) and I hadn’t had a chance to go through all of the emails. The inbox had almost 1500 unread emails this morning. As I sort through them, deleting most and saving information from others, I began to wonder if there is too much out there to keep up with. I tend to save a lot of links and information  “just in case”. A good thing or time waster? Twitter is a great tool, but how many people can you truly follow? I have many lists that I break my “following” list into, but it is still overwhelming at times. (And frustrating when an abbreviated link is blocked by the school filter and I know I either won’t remember to check at home or won’t be able to find it.)

The thing about quality professional development is that you have to initiate it yourself. I suppose that is part of being a professional, too. I don’t understand those who say they are too busy to do it-any of it. We are all busy, but we have to do what we can, not drive ourselves crazy by trying to do too much or belittling ourselves for doing too little. You can’t read every Tweet, article and email, but something is better than nothing. It is critical now for librarians to stay on the cutting edge through PD opportunities, large or small, formal or informal.

iPhone Apps

I love my iPhone. Yes, many apps are distractions when I should be grading or working on my dissertation, but others are just awesome. Here are a few current favorites:

Words with Friends: Who isn't addicted right now?

Groupon & Living Social: No longer need to print out and carry around my deals. I can also get instant deals no matter where I am.

Key Ring: Bye-bye stack of rewards cards! Plus get more deals through the app and you can easily share the cards with others.

HBO Go: All my favorite HBO shows travel with me.

EasyBib: Not for complex citations, but for basic books, just scan the barcode and you are done!

Angry Birds Seasons & Angry Birds Rio: Fun variations of the game

NY Times Crossword: I like the check feature and there are many historical puzzles to try (a lot of Mondays to pick from!)

Flashlight: Very bright tool – don’t point it at anyone!

AllRecipes: Love, love, love the site and now I can take the recipes to the store so I don’t forget any ingredients

Grocery iQ: Never forget a shopping list – and share them with others

Kindle: Still can’t believe I read a whole book on my phone

What are your favorite apps?

Libraries without books

Books are such a sensitive topic, especially to those who work with them on a daily basis. While I love the physical book, I understand the evolution of medium and concede that there is nothing wrong with ebooks. Well, most of the time. Let's explore this.

Pleasure Reading

I recently read my first novel on my iPhone. I still can't believe it. Yes, it is a small screen, but when you are truly captivated by the story, it doesn't matter. I read  Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand as part of a book club for work. It was a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. I liked the fact that I always had the book with me and could read a few minutes here or there since my schedule is a bit crazy right now. I thought it would be a little tough on the eyes, but I played with the settings until the page was more of a beige than bright white and a little dimmer. (I must confess that while I enjoyed the experience, I want an iPad even more so that I have a bigger screen!). I did have some trouble flipping back and forth between the story and hyperlinked notes. Overall, I can see the appeal and ease of using ebooks for pleasure reading. While I'm getting on the ebook bandwagon, I don't have an ereader yet, which always surprises people. But I'm a librarian - shouldn't I have one? When I was interviewing for my current position, one of the administrators asked which ereader I had and his look of surprise was priceless when I said I didn't have one. I clarified that I want an iPad since they are more versatile and can use the apps for the major vendors such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Once Adobe and Apple get the Flash issue straightened out (and I have a few dollars) I'll get the iPad.


Textbooks


I keep reading articles about how college students will choose a physical textbook over an ebook even if it is cheaper. While the thought of not carrying around textbooks is appealing, there are some concerns about e-textbooks that lead me to believe the technology just isn't quite there yet to eliminate all print textbooks. 

• Staring a a screen all day is physically and mentally draining. 
• The battery life of laptops and ereaders may not last through hours of classes and library time - there are only so many outlets in classrooms.
• Some subjects (business, math, science) require the regular use of tables and other appendices in the back of the book. It may be difficult to read the charts depending the size of the ereader and it may be easier to flip back and forth with a physical book

I have purchased some ebooks to use with my graduate work, but I have mixed feelings at this point. The books I purchased weren't really textbooks, but books to assist with qualitative research so flipping around was not required. On the positive side, the books were a bit cheaper than the print versions and I was able to download them immediately, which was helpful since I was out of town for a week long course. I was also able to get a few items free or very cheaply that were primary sources (Adam Smith, John Dewey, Jean-Jacques Rousseau) on Amazon. However, there are a few problems with some ebooks. I did notice that I may have some problems citing quotes from the books since page numbers are missing. (Note to publishers - please include this! Make your ebook match the print book!). I also have to get used to the highlighting and note making tools. Overall, for subjects that don't require the flipping around to use the book ebooks may prove to be a viable alternative to print resources.

Elimination of libraries

 As the great "we don't need libraries anymore" debate rages on, I can't help wondering if the wording in the discussion is simply wrong. Libraries aren't going away; the format is simply changing. Every so often a university grabs headlines by claiming that they are eliminating the library and going completely online. Some applaud the advancement, while others lament the elimination of the cherished print collection. Ironically, the same people who protest the elimination of physical books celebrated the implementation of electronic journals. Oh, the access! they cried. Are these journals different now that they are accessed online? No, they are the same. And so are the books that are now ebooks. Do books make a library or is it something else?

Does this mean that we should get rid of all libraries in favor of servers and online reference help? No, but perhaps we need to re-evaluate what the definition of a library is. I also believe that there are two discussions happening simultaneously - what the library community believes the definition and future of libraries are and what the lay community believes. And that perspective differs greatly when it comes to print vs online materials. One of the toughest concepts I try to get across to my students is how to cite online sources. First, they need to determine what the source is - book, periodical article, original database article. Then they must determine how they accessed it - print, website, database. It is a two step process that genuinely confuses them because they perceive everything accessed via the Internet to fall under the general umbrella of "online" and don't see the distinctions in formats. The lay community tends makes the following assumption: libraries = books = outdated. That view needs to be changed to: libraries = information regardless of the format = necessary for a free intellectual society.

Education may be the key here. We, as librarians, need to educate our patrons (students, faculty, administrators, public, board) about these differences and what they mean.  Perhaps then, when we are all speaking the same e-language, we can begin to figure out (together) what libraries are and what the future holds.

Infolit & teachers

Is it too early to start making New Year's resolutions? I vow (really, this is one I will keep!) to write at least twice a week on this blog. Really. I mean it.

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since March. Although, in my defense, it has been the craziest year of my life - so far, anyway. I was told in January that I, along with many others, were being furloughed from our teaching positions. Although I had suspected it was coming, the reality of sudden unemployment while school districts across the state suddenly decide that they are cutting library positions is a scary thing to face. The spring was spent trying to locate another position, which I was very lucky to obtain. The summer included a Southern road trip and NYC trip that was planned pre-furlough, my last doctoral course, and moving. This fall has been spent trying to get settled in the new job, finally getting unpacked and cramming for my comprehensive exams. And now I'm trying to get back into professional social networking tools that have been neglected.

This fall I had the opportunity to begin teaching a Web-based Information Literacy graduate course which got me thinking about how little info lit is stressed in teacher preparation programs. As a librarian, I was overjoyed at the thought of getting my hands on classroom teachers and indoctrinating them with pro-web evaluation, anti-wikipedia research strategies. But at the same time, I thought it was sad that these concepts were first introduced to some teachers in graduate school. I have a feeling that if you ask any educational professional that he will emphatically reply that 'Yes! These skills are critical and must be taught!'. But does he incorporate them into his coursework? Hopefully, but I have an unsettling feeling that such steps go the way of the 'we are all teachers of reading and writing' mantra - outwardly 'YES!' while inwardly hoping someone else will take care of it. I only had three students in this course, but based on the responses they learned a lot of practical information about information literacy, web evaluation, social networking, filtering and censorship, search marketing and networking policies that will filter down into their classrooms and, even better, into faculty room discussions.

Twitter and Teens

As I was refreshing my browser today to see the myriad of Twitter comments on the HarperCollins e-book issue, I started thinking again about my students and their general disregard of the microblogging tool. In my freshman Information Literacy & Technology course I cover digital footprint and review many of the social networking tools available. We cover how to use them effectively, how not get yourself in trouble and how people use them for communication and to reinforce social norms. My students had all heard of Twitter but most had not looked at a profile or understood what it was all about. I set up a page for the library (@GSLMC) after I realized that I was following some co-workers who had protected their tweets and I was essentially violating their privacy by showing their tweets to the students when using my page (@liberrygurl) for demonstrations. A handful of the teens had their own accounts, but they were few and far between. They thought it was interesting and the videos on the Common Craft site did a fantastic job of explaining how the process works. At the end of the lessons I gave a "quiz" where they had to tell me one Web 2.0 tool that they hadn't used before but thought was interesting, one that they didn't see the need for and what they learned about the importance of maintaining a good digital footprint. Most of my students put Twitter as an interesting, but unnecessary tool. Facebook essentially does the same thing. I wonder if we had spent more time with it that they would see the value in it. I use it for professional development, but they don't have to worry about that yet. Their world, at least at this point in their lives, doesn't extend much further than the county lines. My constant reminders to consider anything online international and permanent was surprising to some of them. Perhaps I should have spent more time and picked a current events trend and showed them another use for it. When I see workshops at conferences espousing how to use Twitter and Facebook in classrooms I wonder if I'm not seeing the big picture or if the presenters don't really understand how teens use these tools - or which tools they really use. Teens, mine at least, don't seem interested in Twitter and I really don't want the legal liability of having to report things I accidentally come across on their Facebook page while trying to incorporate it into a project. I can see value for using Twitter in the classroom, especially with current events, but it isn't a tool that teens are gravitating toward on their own.

26 books

The library world is up in arms at HarperCollins, who announced recently that it's e-books would only be able to be checked out 26 times before the library would have to purchase another copy. This is an interesting dilemma in our digital world. On one hand, 26 seems like a rather low, arbitrary number. I have been reading the numerous blogs, articles and tweets on the issue since the announcement was made and haven't found the answer to that yet. Certainly most library books of decent quality can be circulated more than 26 times before they disintegrate in our hands. However, on the other hand, unless formats change radically in the next few years (which is not out of the realm of possibility), HC has a point that digital copies don't have the wear and tear of paper books and therefore they could lose money on replacement copies. If my memory serves me right from library school, I believe most books go out of print within 5 years, so finding replacement copies for some books may not even be possible anyway.

But to get back to the topic at hand, have we created this through current licensing practices? We basically rent most of our subscription databases on an annual basis. My library spends thousands of dollars a year for access to World Book, Historical Newspapers, all of Facts on File's products, Global Issues in Context and a number of other resources. My patrons don't have access to those resources if I don't get the bills paid every year. Have we already set the precedent of being willing to pay for some digital products and rent others? I'm not saying HC is correct in their actions, but this is yet another issue that needs to be sorted out in our digital world. Librarians have the right to choose who they purchase their materials from and, as long as publishers are upfront about the purchasing rules, this issue should sort itself out soon.

I don't know the solution, but with today's social networking tools it is amazing to follow how quickly the issue was taken up, blogs were written and boycott HarperCollins web pages were created.