LibraryTechtonics

Jessamyn did neglect to mention to me that she had run pub quiz nights in her past. Librarians are very interesting when you get to know them.

Here’s something I clipped to blog later and neglected to mention in my post on pub quizzes as outreach:

A Lager, some crisps and Jane Eyre please
[birdie @ LISNews.com 27 nov '04]

If you’re looking for a good read in Wales, the nearest location might be at your “local”…the pub that is. The Lighthouse Inn, just outside Newport, has branched out and is now lining its shelves with books as well as spirits. It’s proven very handy for people who want to pass a bit of time without going into town to visit the library. The books are changed regularly by the library system, and visitors to the pub can also order books for delivery.

It would be neat to add the local pub to a library’s senior center book drop-off schedule.

I seem to keep running into movies that somehow involve quantum physics and time travel (Donnie Darko, Primer). I don’t know much about either, and decided to hit the books. It’s become somewhat of a small research obsession.

I tried The quantum world : quantum physics for everyone / Kenneth William Ford, but it really isn’t for everyone. It would have been better for someone who liked staring at lots of numbers and could still understand complex particle physics mixed in. Mr. Ford has apparently written some brilliant stuff, so I did try to give it a fair shot, but it was just too dry and slow moving, with math too oppressive for my brain.

Continuing my quest for quantum physics in layman’s terms, I came across Quantum : A Guide for the Perplexed / Jim al-Khalili amidst the rubble that was a bunch of subject searching that yielded too many graduate level textbooks. This book has been really useful and helpful so far, taking the complex ideas of quantum physics and speaking on a technical level but in a very human voice. I’ve only gotten through the history of physics section so far, and it really managed to keep my attention. Go fig. The book isn’t very thick, and doesn’t look very dense, but it is, with wonderful diagrams, sassy graphic art, and a sense of knowledged humor. All the same, it’s slow going. I may actually put this on my Amazon Wish List so I’ll really be able to absorb it all before I run out of renewals.

A friend recommended Alice in Quantumland : an allegory of quantum physics / Robert Gilmore, which totally got panned by a good few Amazon reviewers, but I trust my friend, so I’ll be digging into that next in tandem with the al-Khalili text.

I’ve also heard that The universe in a nutshell / Stephen Hawking is very good for the quantum physics-impaired, so that might be next on my list.

Anyone else have some reader’s advisory recommendations in demystifying quantum physics?

Jessamyn happened to be in town a few weeks ago, so we met up and hung out, which was very cool. In talking shop, as we are wont to do, we came upon the topic of outreach, which got mixed in with the idea that the patrons are way more self-service these days, and some librarians have forgotten what being a patron is like, which makes it harder to meet patron needs.

Out of this discussion came ideas that met the patrons on their level. What do patrons do in their everyday that would benefit from librarian involvement? Especially twenty- to thirtysomethings? One really neat option: quiz night at the local pub.

Sounds crazy, I know. Like the stuff of “crazy librarian let’s her hair down after work” fantasies. Alternately, most libraries are understaffed, and there isn’t any time to plan something that could seem very frivolous to more conservative directors. But this idea really has a lot of potential.

Most pubs already have quiz nights set up, with prefab questions and scorecards, so the librarian wouldn’t really need to spend much time on that. It could be just a matter of knowing what topics will be covered the next week, and advertising them at the library as “study up for pub quiz night”. Perhaps a pub quiz prize could include library fine amnesty, or free admission to a library workshop that costs money. Or even just having the friendly neighborhood librarian be the quizmaster once a month, and do a little announcement schpiel on upcoming events at the library might work. At least it gets librarians out there and talking to the next generation of taxpayers.

If the alcohol aspect is just a bit too radical, then having quiz night in the library might also be an option. Gift cards for local coffee shops, book stores, and restaurants could be a draw, and if they were donated, then the local establishments get some advertising play.

I realize it’s not a perfect plan, that more planning would need to be involved, that money is an issue, and that it may be too outside-the-box for the more conservative set. But it’s something to think about: it’d be nice to plan a program that interests patrons on their level, and conveys the idea that librarians are helpful (and hip) on the patron’s level.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that the Amazon-Google-Worldcat bookmarklet is a nifty tool. Heck, I helped develop it.

But lately I’ve been hitting the local OPAC pretty directly. I’ve been using my library a lot these days, keeping myself entertained with books, tapes, CDs, and DVDs while I job hunt, and borrowing the latest books on librarianship to stay current.

Sometimes I do want to hit Amazon first, to have a look at the “See also” type features and reviews. But sometimes I just want to look up and reserve my item.

Couple with this the fact that I’ve totally fallen in love with so many new features and plugins in Firefox, and I decided to go DIY geekster. I looked up the instructions on mycroft.mozdev.org for how to create a search plugin.

The instructions speak true when they note that it’s not hard if you understand a markup language like HTML, and they do try to give you hints and tricks on finding the information you need for the script. The instructions might be a little sparse for anyone without much tech know-how, or those who aren’t big experimentors. But the Mozilla development community is very friendly, so they’ll answer questions and help you out if you need it.

Anyway, after some tinkering and testing, I was able to create a keyword search plugin for the Minuteman Library Network OPAC. I’ve been using it myself and having all sorts of fun. However, before I can submit the plugin to mycroft.mozdev.org for download, or even to my own site, I feel obligated to receive permission. I’ll post when/if that happens. I might go about creating one for the Boston Public Library, too.

I often wonder how many libraries have switched over to Firefox. I think I’ll research that a bit, see if I can find numbers and stories. If you use Firefox in your library or as a personal user who happens to be a librarian, I’d be interested to hear about your experiences, including any plugins you like to play with.

So I’m heading to the NEASIS conference tomorrow titled “Freedom vs. Control: Rights Management in the Digital Age“. I’m particularly stoked to hear Wendy Seltzer from the Electronic Frontiers Foundation speak on “Views of the Digital Landscape”.

Just as I’m looking over the program for tomorrow, I’m also catching up on my feeds. Boing Boing did a nifty write up for another book on filesharing titled Steal this filesharing book: what they won’t tell you about file sharing / Wallace Wang:

Steal This File Sharing Book — A-Z HOWTO for file-sharing
[Cory Doctorow @ Boing Boing 12 dec '04]

Wang is an accomplished tech writer and a stand-up comic, so Steal This File Sharing Book is both funny and lucid. It assumes almost no technical knowledge and it walks the reader through everything from file-compression protocols to anonymizing proxies to the notorious cross-stitch-pattern-trading underground.
If you want to figure out how to file-share safely, avoid spyware, not get busted, and learn about the morality and ethics as presented by all sides of the file-sharing debate, this is the book for you.

I don’t have time to read this book before the conference, but I think it would make for nice post-conference “further reading”.