Presentations

The latest issue of Collaborative Librarianship is out along with my Technology Matters column entitled "The Golden Ratio and Community."  

My column begins like this....

"I recently read The Secret Code: The Mysterious Formula that Rules Art, Nature, and Science by Priya Hemenway. It is a book about the Divine Proportion or the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ra-tio is roughly five to eight (more precisely the square root of five). It turns up in nature in nu-merous ways and you see these proportions over and over again in art and architecture be-cause it resonates with us in some mystical way.

It came to mind as I was pondering the relation-ship between using Open Source software and being actively involved in an Open Source community. I developed the theory that the more one actively participates in their Open Source community, the more satisfied they are with their Open Source choice. Could the Gold-en Ratio apply here as well? We may not be able to divine the exact relationship, but I do know that the success of any Open Source pro-ject relies on an active, engaged user and devel-oper community, and that there is something mystical involved...."[read the whole article]

Other goodies from this issue include:

• "Co-Teaching Relationships among Librarians and Other Information Professionals" by Ann Medaille and Amy W. Shannon
• "Team-Based Ingenuity Supporting 21st Century Learners" by Sarah C. Hutton, Robert C. Davis, and Carol Will
• "By and For Us: The Development of a Program for Peer Review of Teaching by and for Pre-Tenure Librarians" by Jaena Alabi, et al
• "Extending Access to Electronic Resources of a Merged Community College and University Library" by Angela Dresselhaus
• "Innovation & Leadership Through Collaboration – The Orbis Cascade Alliance Experience: An Interview with John Helmer"
• "Tribute to a Cooperative Pioneer: Bill DeJohn" by Cecelia N. Boone
• Review of "Social Networking Tools for Academic Libraries" by Alison Hicks

Debut "Technology Matters" column for Collaborative Librarianship. This article, Holding Your Vendor's Fee to the Fire, talks about the importance of standards in library technology and encourages libraries to be more demanding about the importance of adherence to those standards.

The article begins like this:

"The nut. The bolt. When you go to the hard-ware store with a bolt in hand, you probably feel pretty confident that you’ll be able to find the nut you need to tighten that bolt. When I hand over my bolt to my local Rex Ace Hardware man, he strides down a nearby aisle and within seconds, I’ve got my bolt’s mate. It screws on perfectly. Do I care who made the bolt or the nut? I do not. This is because nuts and bolts have standard on sizes and threads. Any quar-ter inch nut will screw onto any quarter inch bolt.

That’s how it should work with the nuts and bolts of library software – the integrated library system (ILS). But that isn’t how it works at all. For various reasons, our library systems have evolved into Winchester Mystery Houses that require all sorts of special, and often expensive, adaptations to bolt anything onto them."  [read entire article]

Art work by Terry Moore.  For more of his artwork, see terrymooreart.com

From the Introduction: 

It’s an interesting time to be writing an issue devoted to RFID. So much has changed for libraries in the last decade. Ten years ago, it seemed like RFID was poised to take off and become a standard piece of library technology. But standards were slow to develop, and e-books were not. While libraries waited for RFID standards to develop, the iPad and Kindle emerged. As a result, libraries are struggling more with DRM, discovery interfaces, and patron authentication systems than with new technologies focused on their physical material.

Today, RFID systems are nothing more than glorified barcodes largely because libraries think that storing only the barcode on the tag is the best way to ensure patron privacy and because the ILS (integrated library system) doesn’t support doing much with the tag besides reading the barcode anyway. To make financial sense, libraries must use RFID more expansively and expansion relies on taking advantage of the new standard. Existing and new systems will have to migrate to the new standard to ensure vendor interoperability and interoperability between libraries. To protect their investment in RFID, libraries need to insist that vendors comply with the new standards to ensure their systems are interoperable with any vendor’s hardware.

RFID could be a powerful technology that could change how libraries deal with physical material as well as leverage digital technologies to offer new services. RFID tags will soon be readable by smartphones, but to take advantage, libraries will need to develop new, patron-centric RFID applications.The fertile ground for RFID adoption is in moving beyond RFID-as-barcode. It may or may not happen. My hope in writing this issue is that libraries will understand how hobbled our use of RFID in libraries is today. If we, as an industry, choose to invest further in this technology, we need to extend the use of RFID beyond circulation and security to resource sharing, materials handling, technical services, and beyond—into wholly new ways that will delight our patrons.

Available from: ALA TechSource

I presented a session with Jed Moffitt of KCLS on how to get going with new developers in the Evergreen environment.  My part of the session focused on the protocols to follow to help ensure your developer has a warm reception from other developers and helps ensure that others know about what you have in mind.

Also included: a sample contract you might want to check out for you and your new developer.

Presented Open Source and RFID Update at the Edgy Librarian online conference.  This PDF file includes the slides as well as speaker notes.

Available here. 

This was a joint presentation with Henry Bankhead of Los Gatos Public Library, Kevin Pischke of William Jessup University, Scott Hines of Palo Alto University, and Deborah Lipoma of Santa Cruz Public Library. I began with an overview of the ILS and Open Source ILS marketplace.  Then, each presenter talked about their own benefits and challenges along the way to moving to Koha or Evergreen. Finally, each presenter provided some useful procurement tips.

Joint presentation with John Thill of Napa City-County Library.  I provided an overview of the Open Source ILS marketplace and John covered new developments on the proprietary side.

On January 27th, representatives from Arcadia and Los Gatos libraries participated in the Edgy Librarian online conference.  The archive is, unfortunately, only available to participants who paid (and presumably already saw the program).  

For the program, we did an "Open Source - Open Libraries Update" in which I interviewed the two people from each library who have been most intimately involved in their library's migration to Koha.  

The full text of their prepared answers to my questions are included in the notes area of the PPT slides.  It is available here in PDF format.

Presentation at PLA 2010 in Portland Oregon with Gretchen Freeman (Associate Director for Technology, Salt Lake County Library) and Kathleen Smith (Projects Librarian, Fresno County Public Library)

The blurb: Are your technology projects inspired more by the latest bell or whistle instead of what will pay off for your library? Do your technologies deliver both the steak and the sizzle? This panel presentation will outline cost/benefit analysis and case studies for justifying technology projects to administrators and funding agencies. Whether you are vying for large or small dollars, show how a technology investment delivers both "cents and sensibility" for your library.

From a session at the 2009 Califa Vendor Fair on the Open Source - Open Libraries Consortium.  There was no formal presentation.  Instead, attendees were asked to choose the topics to be addressed in the short session.  PPT slides were used to help answer those questions.  Handouts that were available are included as the last three pages of the attached PDF.

Attendees chose the topic to be addressed from this slide.

First of a three-part series of webinars on open source library systems sponsored by Infopeople Califa, and the Open Source Library Consortium. The goal of this webinar was to help clarify the differences between the proprietary ILS model and the new OSLS model, including what it means for the library staff and budget.

Mini-demo at California Library Association 2008 Annual Conference, San Jose, CA.

This was one of three presentations from the Transforming Your Library, and Your Library's Future, with Technology panel at ALA Annual 2007. The other panelists were Casey Bisson and Roy Tennant. This panel was part of the Libraries Transform Communities series. Washington, DC.

Our panel was part of the larger Libraries Transform Communities theme.

If you'd like to hear my presentation, here's the 40 min podcast. Or if you'd rather just watch the slides, here's a Powerpoint Show of my presentation.

Lori Ayre and Mary Minow discuss the intersection of library services and technology issues in this 55 minute podcast.

Slides (PDF) and Handout (PDF)

Presentation to the North Bay Linux User's Group, Sebastopol, CA.

(slides)
Mini-demo at California Library Association 2006 Annual Conference, Sacramento, CA.

Presentation at Moving Mountains: Exploring Library Courier Services Symposium, Denver, CO.

(slides) Presentation at Better Together: Creating Partnerships for Community Learning Conference, Cerritos, CA. April 10, 2006

From the Back Cover: Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is rapidly becoming ubiquitous as businesses seek to streamline supply chains and respond to mandates from key customers. But RFID and other new wireless ID technologies raise unprecedented privacy issues. RFID: Applications, Security, and Privacy covers these issues from every angle and viewpoint.

Award-winning technology journalist and privacy expert Simson Garfinkel brings together contributions from every stakeholder community—from RFID suppliers to privacy advocates and beyond. His contributors introduce today’s leading wireless ID technologies, trace their evolution, explain their promise, assess their privacy risks, and evaluate proposed solutions—technical, business, and political. The book also looks beyond RFID, reviewing the privacy implications of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, smart cards, biometrics, new cell-phone networks, and the ever-evolving Internet. Highlights include

• How RFID and other wireless ID technologies work
• RFID applications—from gas stations and pharmacies to the twenty-first century battlefield
• RFID, privacy, and the law—in the United States and around the world
• RFID, security, and industrial espionage
• How Bluetooth and Wi-Fi can track individuals, with or without their permission
• Technical solutions to wireless ID privacy concerns—their values and limitations
• Stakeholder perspectives from EPCglobal, Inc., Gemplus, The Procter & Gamble Company, and other industry leaders
• The future of citizen activism on privacy issues

Clear, balanced, and accessible, this is the indispensable primer for everyone involved in RFID: businesses implementing or evaluating RFID; technology suppliers responding to user concerns; and policymakers and privacy advocates who want a deeper understanding of the technology and its implications.

New and used copies available from Amazon.

I wrote Chapter 14: Wireless Trakcing in the Library: Benefits, Threats, and Responsibilities.