Empowering library staff while ensuring the integrity of systems through coding education
“Should librarians be learning to how to develop software? This theme has come up in the past few years1 and I think it is a good thing. I once had a boss that told his group “I want you guys to automate yourself out of your job because there are far more interesting things you could be working on.” I think that is an empowering philosophy for staff of any type.
“There is one thing that has me worried, though, in the enthusiasm to teach ad hoc software development skills to everyone that is interested in learning: security. I was reminded about this by way of a recent New York Times Bits Blog posting:Hackers Breach 53 Universities and Dump Thousands of Personal Records Online.
“You see, when you are creating applications to be used by others, you take on the responsibility of not only writing the code to do the function you set out to do but also accounting for all the things that could go wrong. The Open Web Application Security Project has hundreds of possible code vulnerabilities and attack points that need to be thought through and written into the application. If I were a system administrator, before code written by some just learning to program was put in a place where the world could reach it, I would want a skilled developer to check that code for security problems. If I don’t, I run the risk of being the sysadmin on the hook to explain why there was a serious security or privacy breach.”
From Peter Murray’s article on Disruptive Library Technology Jester, The Security Implications of Teaching Librarians to Program
Random House clarifies it’s use of the term “owns”, further challenges Public Libraries without funds for licensing specialists
“Words have to be put in context. Last week, Skip Dye, Random House’s VP of Library and Academic Sales, was quoted in Library Journal as saying, “Random House’s often repeated, and always consistent position is this: when libraries buy their RH, Inc. ebooks from authorized library wholesalers, it is our position that they own them.”
“As many surmised, the key phrase in Random House’s communications is “authorized library wholesalers.” In the context of the LJ article, Random House was using a definition of “ownership” that you won’t find in Webster’s dictionary, conveying rights where none exist. In fact, Random will not sell directly to libraries or library consortia, although Mr. Dye reiterated that they continue to evaluate many alternative library business models.RH’s approach in the library market is to vet potential library market distributors for auditing, accounting, security, and other business functions, and then permit libraries to acquire titles from that short list of approved bureaus. In Random’s view, libraries “own” the titles they purchase to the extent that they should be able to migrate their ebook catalogs from one platform, such as Overdrive, to another, such as 3M.
“Public libraries seek a different kind of ownership – the kind that appears in the dictionary. The Internet Archive, Douglas County Libraries, Califa, and a growing number of other library systems are running their own ebook platforms, providing their own auditing, accounting, and security. We want to keep ebooks in our communities, run our own services, safeguard the privacy of our users, and be free from overreaching licensing regimes that threaten our services. And increasingly, we are finding publishers who are willing to sell to us directly, seeing the benefits of handing management of digital titles to libraries. Libraries can market e-books to the people that want them, and gather usage statistics in a privacy-protecting manner to help inform other libraries – as well as publishers – about what titles are popular, and where. These are rights and responsibilities that publicly funded libraries should not hand over to commercial distributors that must navigate between the Scylla of publishers and the Charybdis of Amazon.”
From Peter Brantley’s article on PWxyz (Publishers Weekly news blog), Random House Did Not Mean Own, Exactly
Report:User research for the re-designing libraries with students and faculty end-use in mind
“ABSTRACT: Participatory design is an approach to building spaces, services, and tools where the people who will use them participate centrally in coming up with concepts and then designing the actual products.
“The papers in this volume, written by librarians and IT professionals from 12 colleges and universities, report on user research and participatory design projects. All of the authors attended workshops and then dove fearlessly into projects with as little as two days of training.
“The authors wanted to learn how their students or faculty members do their academic work. Their reports share new methods of approaching enduring questions and offer a number of useful and interesting findings. They make a good case for participatory design of academic libraries.”
From Nancy Fried Foster and Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) on INFOdocket, New Report: Bringing Users into the Picture: Lessons from Projects in Participatory Design in Academic Libraries
Landmark HathiTrust Decision: Implications for Libraries
“On Oct. 24, 2012, ARL hosted this webcast to discuss the Authors Guild v. HathiTrust decision and the implications of this victory for research libraries. The webcast was moderated by ARL’s Brandon Butler, and featured discussion from four key experts: Jonathan Band, Peter Jaszi, Dan Goldstein, and Jason M. Schultz.”
Watch the video presentation here from the Association of Research Libraries
Rural libraries yearn for more resources as patronage increases
“Across the country, small-town and rural public libraries face financial struggles including flat or decreasing revenue, increasing costs and rising demand for services such as Internet access. Some libraries are responding by cutting hours and services or getting by with smaller staffs. The library in Seneca, a branch of the Neosho-Newton County Library, is now slated for closure. In fact, it was supposed to close on Nov. 1, but a petition drive from residents prompted the library board to agree to keep it open through June to look at funding options.
“Andrea Berstler, president of the Association of Rural and Small Libraries, said small libraries have been making do with limited resources for years, and noted that in more isolated rural locations, they may be the only source of books and other entertainment or Internet access. The latter has become increasingly important as a tool to help people find work.
“Marcia Warner is past president of the Public Library Association, which is part of the American Library Association. She is also a former small-town library director. She said when towns have to choose between funding police and fire departments or libraries, libraries often lose.
“I think it’s a short-sighted target,” Warner said. She said small libraries provide services that allow residents Internet access to pay their bills online or apply for jobs. They also train senior citizens with computer skills.
“There’s that lifelong learning piece, and libraries are the ones helping to do that,” she said.”
From Roger McKinney’s article for the Joplin Globe, Rural libraries face dwindling revenue, increased demand