Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with libraries

What makes a co-author?

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:50:58 -0800

I worked on a project with some other academics. Now I want to present on and write about the project. Help me understand the etiquette of co-authoring. I'm an academic librarian. Anonymous because some of you know me. Some colleagues and I, as part of our job, collaborated on a big project with multiple parts, over about two years.

Perhaps unnecessary background:
Last year I was accepted at a conference to present on the first part of the project. I worked very hard on my proposal without help from the other people who participated (though they knew I was working on this). After my proposal was accepted, my teammate Bob found out he got external funding to attend the conference. A third team member told me it'd be appropriate for Bob to present with me.

I probably should have said yes, but I was taken aback at the time because I had done a ton of work outside of the work day on the proposal. Also, it was going to be a short presentation, and Bob is one of those types who creates endless powerpoints and reads them and runs out of time before getting to the heart of the content.

I was also being selfish. I didn't know if I had funding to attend the conference when I submitted the proposal. Bob waited til he had guaranteed funding to even raise the issue of participating in the presentation.

Also, the paper itself, for the proceedings, was going to take a ton of work--the angle I was taking in the presentation was going to require substantial additional research--and so it wasn't just about sharing the limelight (which, admittedly, I did not want to share). I wasn't sure if Bob was really ready to put the time into writing the paper.

In the end it didn't matter; because of family illness/emergency, I couldn't attend the conference, and Bob didn't want to step in with my powerpoint. The paper was never written.

But I did bungle it, and created some ill will at work in our team. (Which was never discussed but simmered for a long time.)

Fast forward til now, when I am working with a different team. I am again proposing to discuss this project (which got much bigger) at a big conference which also has a paper component. I alerted my old team members. No one can attend the conference, but one is very enthusiastic about co-authoring the paper (and she, "Sue," happens to be the other person who led this part of the project with me). I know she will put a lot of work into it, and we work well together. Bob responded in a very confusing way, saying it was a group project and I should let people write the parts they know.

What is the proper approach for co-authorship? Do I list the whole team because it was a group project? Or only those who are willing to do the extra work to write the paper? Is there a certain amount of work expected? Papers in other fields often have endless lists of authors, but you don't always see this in librarianship.

My other concern is that if I include Bob as a co-author, he'll expect to have a lot of input, which then I won't like. I need to publish for my job, but Bob does not. So there's more on the line for me.

Regardless of co-authorship, I plan to credit the entire team explicitly in any papers I write about the project.

What should I do? I'd be interested in general input about co-authoring in academic fields, and advice specifically about my situation. Thanks.

Information literacy in higher ed?

pahool — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:25:03 -0800

I'm looking for information on methods of introducing information literacy in higher education. I'm especially interested in methods used outside of information literacy courses. Curriculum or projects used in other courses or venues that encourages information literacy would be great. The Roxbury Community College in Massachusetts, for instance, does a library treasure hunt in the form of a mystery where clues lead the participants through the library to solve the mystery. But links to more traditional curriculum would be great as well.

Differences in libraries

bad grammar — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:09:13 -0800

Librarians on Metafilter: Do you still find significant regional differences in U.S. school and public library collections? I'm not speaking of obvious differences (e.g., local history and area guides, collections in languages other than English), but demographic, social, and political influences on collection building between, say, urban and rural regions, or the Northeast U.S. vs. the South or West.

I'd expect that the Internet would have a homogenizing effect on library collections. The education of librarians might also have a homogenizing effect.

However, it is traditional that public library collections, dependent on state and local funding, reflect community standards. There are many areas of the U.S. that are less connected, more conservative and more religious.

This also impacts the job search -- can blue-state librarians seek jobs in red states / localities, and vice versa?

At the risk of chatfilter, I'm interested in your actual experiences, not just academic studies. I haven't visited enough public libraries in different states. I live in a blue area of a blue state; the public libraries buy a range of political viewpoints, but political books by people like Hannity, Beck, and Coulter tend to remain on the shelves. I'm aware that it might be different elsewhere.

What training and orientation does your workplace provide to new employees?

Jaybo — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:35:50 -0800

What sort of training and orientation does your workplace provide to new employees? I'm particularly interested in what libraries do with new employees - both front line and support staff - but would also love to hear what what other organizations, companies and sectors do as well in case I could adapt something for our library's new employee orientation plan.

I'm interested in anything from the type of training that new employees are given, how long it lasts, how formalized it is, who leads it, what it is comprised of (do you use manuals? Online modules? Are these developed in-house or obtained from somewhere else?) If employees receive one-on-one training or group training? How does it differ depending on the role of the employee (what does a front line public service clerk get versus a librarian versus a support staff member working in say, IT or Marketing?)

Will Work for Books

Jilder — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:34:57 -0800

ZOMGLibrarianfilter: Help me get this library job! I've scored an interview for a basic library assistant job. It's entirely entry level and is more or less a customer service role with no diploma required. I'm jack of working in retail, and would really like to make the best impression possible.

So! Librarians of the Hive Mind! What do you look for in this sort of hire? I read like a maniac and know my LoC from my Dewey. I've also got a BA in Communications sitting around - is it worth harping on about that too much? It's a city council role, so there's an opportunity to get my Actual Library Certification - should I talk about that?

Help me, O Blessed Knowledgeable Ones!

Library summer work

waterandrock — Sun, 10 May 2009 13:53:32 -0800

Is it too late to find summer work in a library that will provide good experience? I had a very likely summer job lined up, but it has fallen through due to changes in the organization. I am between my first and second year of a library master's program in Canada and would like to find a position that will offer valuable experience, ideally in an academic setting. I'm not sure that universities are able to skirt the formal HR process, so I would also be open to any sort of information setting, such as one in health care. Money is not an issue at the moment. How should I go about contacting potential employers? Will making phone calls/direct queries be welcome, beyond asking for informational interviews? How should I address my limited experience in my attempts to build upon my experience? I'd love to be able to do something systems related, but beyond the ability to design simple databases, my systems skills are meager. Failing the ability to find a summer position, what else can I do to make the most of the next three and a half months? I at least have had, and will have, part-time library work during the year, so I have some library experience, but the work I've been doing doesn't hit too many of the bullet points found in the descriptions for jobs I'd like to have in the future. I plan on taking a practicum next year to help with this.

IPods and virtual tours in libraries

jingo74 — Fri, 01 May 2009 08:14:37 -0800

My library is in the process of creating a virtual tour that we would like to pre-load onto a few IPod Nanos for students to check out. I've read a couple of interesting articles which discuss the implementation of such a project. But the one thing I cannot seem to find anything about is if there is a way to lockdown or protect the IPods while circulating so that students cannot try to add or remove content synced to the IPod. Having an IPod myself, I am aware that if a student were to try and add content to one of our IPods using their installed version of ITunes, the unit would have to be formatted to factory settings because it would already be tied to our library's ITunes software. But I wonder if there is some software option that would make this process easier on our circulation staff. Additionally, is there a way to sync several IPods to one computer with each unit having the same content? I'm envisioning several IPods connected to a USB hub that can sync to the same machine. Thanks to anyone with experience on this matter who can provide some insight.

Enlightening and lovely literature on libraries.

mrhaydel — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 06:46:30 -0800

Books about libraries, and books/essays about the future of them? While looking at this book, I came across *this* book, and it got me wondering.

I'd like to read a book (or two) on libraries and their role throughout history. I'm not sure if "Libraries of the Ancient World" is what I'm after, but it did pique my interest.

I love what have been referred to as mono-histories, so I'd like to find something in that vein: tracing the earliest form of libraries in history, their role in society, all the way up to their current incarnation.

There seem to be any number of them out there on Amazon, but I'd like to hear from someone (maybe a librarian even??!) who can recommend a good read here.

I don't necessarily want library porn, so no coffee table books with pictures of beautiful libraries (unless of course, it also doubles as a history of them to some degree) - I guess I'm just kind of after the "Salt" of the library world, ya know?

Now, the second part of my question: have there been any good publications about the future of libraries? The SO and I were discussing how it used to be, to us at least, the library was a place we'd go to get research done for term papers and such for school.

While libraries are still ultimately just trying to provide access to a wealth of information, it seems that students in junior high or high school may not necessarily use them the same way as how we might have used them pre-internet. Maybe they do, but, I'm still curious as to what the prevailing thoughts are as to what libraries may be like in another 10-15 years, and how they can continue to live as public institutions.

A little Googling turned up an NPR story, and a smattering of other mildly informative things, but again, I'd prefer something a little more in depth.

If both of my questions happened to be answered in the form of one book, then that'd be just swell.

Library school with an English MA: should I even bother?

thesmallmachine — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:56:19 -0800

Library school with an English M.A.: should I even try? Reading the recent MILS question, and doing a search through other MILS questions, I was struck by the recurring remark "at least you're not an English major" or "you'll be competing with people who have history or English degrees, so you'll have a leg up." I *do* have an English degree, and have been admitted to an online MILS program. Am I doomed?

Background: I am dropping out at the M.A. level of a Ph.D. program, and have been considering academic library work instead. I'm not giving up on it because of worries about competence or people skills, but because I don't like the competitive environment, or care about the kinds of criticism you do as an academic in English. Both tend to exhaust my faculties to the point where I can't work on my own writing.

I'm not doing this as a fallback. I sincerely want to be a librarian. I've been considering the field casually since I worked as a page in high school, and I recently completed a library practicum (related to the documentation and preservation of our semi-abandoned 16mm film collection) which was very encouraging and exciting.

I know there are many people with my story. This is my question:

1. Are there *too* many people with my story to make this a good risk?

2. What specializations could I undertake to make me anything other than a faceless ex-English major? I'm interested in Special Collections; will focusing on that help or limit me? I know that any tech stuff will help me, but will it do that if I have no other tech background?

3. I understand that libraries, from a hiring standpoint, do not tend to care where you got your degree. That said, can I do better financially than a relatively cheap distance degree at full price? (I'm in Oregon, where there are no schools; moving is a possibility but not an immediate one.) Are there actually fellowships somewhere?

I hope this works out, both because I want it and because I really don't know what else I can do.

Academic Librarian market

pahool — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:59:49 -0800

I am interested in academic librarianship. I am currently finishing my first year in an MLIS program. I already have my Master's Degree in computer science and am currently working as a computer programmer in an academic library in Southern California. I'm curious as to what the job market is like out there for academic librarians now. I know that many universities have experienced dramatic budget cuts recently and several (including ours) have instituted hiring freezes. I won't be graduating for another year or more but I'm curious as to what the climate is like out there now. Are there many openings? Also, given my programming background, what areas do you think it's best for me to focus on in my studies? What is going to make me hireable and look good on a resume?

Can I rap a baby rhyme?

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:31:41 -0800

I work in a library. We have storytime and baby's rhymes for toddlers and infants. Unfortunately I hate singing. But I have a good attitude and I'm willing to get in there. Please, librarians and parents everywhere - what are your best rhymes/songs that require a minimum of singing!? Other ideas for interactive things to add to my storytimes would be good too! Things like "This little piggy went to market", "2 little dicky birds sitting on the wall", or even the game "Simon Says" are good. I think I can pull off enthusiasm if it's more like talking/straight rhyming, than full on singing.

(Anonymous because I don't want colleagues knowing I'm scared about this!)

LibraryFilter

bad grammar — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:46:40 -0800

What questions do library users most often ask? I'm not asking about the library's FAQs (many library websites have them), but about your experience with actual questions, from both sides of the desk. Lest this be chatfilter, I'm getting an MLS and I'm trying to figure out how my future customers think.

What does a trailing zero mean in a Dewey decimal catalog?

saguaro — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:30:07 -0800

Hey Librarians! Why is there a trailing zero on this Dewey number? I've asked the available meatspace librarians why Tim Wendel's book The New Face of Baseball is cataloged at 796.3570, and the best they can come up with is that it's some topical designation. (The worst so far was, "Good question, troublemaker, I'm not a cataloger.") OK, so if that's it, which topic does a trailing zero indicate? If that's not it, what's going on here? Is it extraneous? FWIW, there's one other book in this collection with the same catalog number, and I can pull up more in the google.

I can barely hear myself think!

Zé Pequeno — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:02:02 -0800

With all the comings and goings of housemates, my home is a veritable mental aslyum at the moment and I am finding it impossible to study. I absolutely must complete a literature review for my Masters thesis this evening or I am dead. Does anyone know somewhere here in Barcelona that is quiet, cosey, conducive to study AND open until very late? Bonus points if they serve coffee and have wifi. For what it's worth, I'm writing an economics paper on Mercosur and the possibility of it creating an Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It involves looking at lots of complicated graphs, hacking through complex economics and finance jargon, etc. so I need absolute concentration.

Video Libraries 101

sswiller — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:08:10 -0800

Can you point me towards some articles about planning and methodology for developing small video libraries? I am freelancing as a video editor for a non-profit organization. They have here a collection of many hundred hours miniDV, BetaSP, CDs & DVDs containing raw footage, finished projects, and miscellaneous media. Some of this material could be harvested for future projects; however, there is no catalog of what is here and worse, many of the tapes are poorly labeled.

I would like to make the case for a total overhaul of the video collection in order to evaluate what is in the collection and make it accessible. I would also like to set up standards for labeling tapes and ingesting new material into this hypothetical catalog.

I have recently received an M.L.S., but I don't have any experience executing this kind of thing. What I would like to find are articles and case studies that outline a methodology for developing a small video library; how to evaluate how much time it will take to do it; and how to make a convincing proposal. I am not looking to create an online catalog or anything fancy.

Would multiple part-time jobs be worth it?

radiomayonnaise — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:45:45 -0800

How difficult is it to manage multiple part-time jobs? Would it be worth the hassle if one of the positions was in a field I'd like to pursue a career in? Any tips for handling more than one job are appreciated! I'm a recent college graduate with plans to eventually pursue a Masters in Library and Information Science. In the meantime I would like to gain more experience working in a library, public or academic doesn't matter, I'm interested in both. Full-time positions in libraries that only require a BA have been few and far between (even living in a city with a university), and I haven't had any luck snagging those that have come up in the past 3.5 months or so (not that 3.5 months is a particularly long period of time).

However, part-time library jobs, both academic and public, are more plentiful. Obviously, in order to make something like a full-time salary I would have to take at least one other job. I've been hesitant to go the two (or more) part-time job route because it seems like I would be devoting a lot more than 40hrs a week to work with transit times and waiting for shifts. I'd also like to have something kind of close to my boyfriend's 9am-6pm schedule most days of the week. Assuming I can get one of the part-time library jobs for the second job I'm thinking I would get an administrative assistant gig.

Would it be worth doing this for experience working in a library? If so, how do I make it work without driving myself crazy?

Education/Experience background if it makes a difference: Double major in History and English. I worked for 3 years in my college's library and in my senior year worked as a research assistant for a professor. I've done administrative assistant and customer service jobs in the past. Right now I've got an open-ended temp job with a non-profit that's great but can't go permanent.

Thank you all!

the Dr Frankenstein of collaborative software

brandnew — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:18:17 -0800

Easiest, most effective way to stand up a collaborative portal? I'm interested in standing up a collaborative portal for a new digital community. I want to take advantage of new advances in web software over the last 3-4 years.

I want to include as many of the following "features" as possible (in order of preference): membership profiles, social relationships, social bookmarking, search, content management, file storage and sharing, wiki, messaging, discussion boards, ratings & rankings, chat, sub-group creation, whiteboards, project management, time management, web-casts, surveys, polls, blogging, collaborative filtering, and Q&A.

Sure, I can implement these features from the bottom up myself - it would take awhile and be quite expensive. However, I really don't want to re-invent the wheel. I know most, if not all, of these features already exist in some form or another, either as either hosted services or separate web products.

So, a few questions:

1. First, is it even possible to mash up all of these various hosted services into something that looks like one cohesive site?

2. If yes to 1, are there patterns, best practices, examples, or support groups to help execute such a thing?

3. Otherwise, if I host it myself (to protect sensitive data), would it be easier to build it from scratch (assuming I'm an expert developer)? Or hack together a bunch of separate products?

How do I track simple library stats quickly?

modernhypatia — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:34:34 -0800

I'm a librarian and general tech-assistance resource at a high school library. (So I also do password changes for school accounts, fix the copier, and put paper in the printer, besides reference questions and more involved projects.) The classic way to track what questions a librarian answers is with a piece of paper and hash marks. Due to our paper reduction desires (and my desire to not have a piece of paper taking up valuable desk space), I'd really like a way to track this via computer. We want to keep simple stats both so we can demonstrate what we're doing that isn't a big obvious project, but also so we can show if specific choices have a very high staff-time cost that keeps us from other things. (Like how they decided to handle student passwords this year.) What I'd really love is something that would let me click inside a box, and register it as a click, and tell me the running total (both for type of action, and total actions that day.) I'm hoping for something like Joe's Goals, but with a little more space (because I'll have days where there are dozens of checks in a particular category.)

What I'm looking for:
- A web solution would be ideal, but a program on my computer would possibly work. (Windows XP system - webwise, we're running Firefox 2.)

- All I care about is the number of times I've done that thing, not how long it takes. (i.e. "25 password changes, 20 requests for laptops, 3 reference questions, and 1 copier issue")

- I may have 30-50 checks in a given item on some days - whatever method I use has to scale

- Many tasks are very quick and at times we're very busy: I want to simplify tracking as much as I can. I'm worried about the potential for typos/errors if I track in Excel if I get interrupted.

- I need to track 10-15 categories (password changes, computer requests, reference questions, putting paper in the copier, etc.)

- A notes field would be good.

- Some kind of daily/weekly summary would be ideal, but I can do that in Excel if needed.

Is there anything out there like this? Or any other suggestions that make tracking quick and painless?

How'd they get the goods?

punkbitch — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:21:49 -0800

Librarians! (I know you're out there). While reading this Washpost article, I came across the following quote: "The FBI documents based on surveillance of Ivins said he visited a public library in Frederick that evening, where he searched a Web site dedicated to the anthrax investigation and checked various e-mail accounts." How do they know that? I remember that at one point, the Patriot Act would've had us give up info on patrons (while forbidding us from revealing that we had been contacted by the feds). I mean, in the library I worked at for 9 years our computers cleaned themselves out pretty well after each use.

So, anybody got the inside track on the Frederick, Maryland?
Is it just that the FBI is so unbelievably tech-savvy... ?
I'm being naive aren't I. I'm wasting my potential to ask a question this whole week on this...

Just curious.

What are some ways I can improve a digital library?

Deathalicious — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:42:53 -0800

I'm in the process of revamping a digital library website and I have a few questions about how to link my resources into both Google Scholar and the academic/archival community at large.

I know that it's possible to allow Google Scholar to do a full search of the PDF documents while still making them restricted to normal visitors. I want to do this so that Google Scholar can do a better search of our documents, while still allowing for a subscription model. I suppose I could offer either IP or user-agent based subscriber access to the website, but I know that google often doesn't look kindly upon websites that serve them up different content. Is there a sanctioned way to do this?*

Assume I want documents on this site to get "linked in" to the rest of the academic world. What are things I can do to make this easier and better? I've already implemented OpenURL, kind of (is it really just as simple as making a page like /resolver?issn=blah&volume=blah&issue=blah&spage=blah ?). What other standards would be good to support/implement?

If you're a frequent digital library user I'd also be interested in hearing about features that would make you revisit a digital library on a regular basis, and similarly if anyone out there has developed a digital library in the past, are there any tools or programs (preferably Java-based) that you might recommend that speed up the document handling process?

More details: this is for a non-profit educational organization that has around 10k (and growing) scholarly (peer reviewed and published) papers. They're imported in standard PDF format so thankfully issues of OCR or conversion are not an issue although I would be really interested in ways to pull out metainfo or even things like references and citations.

* Yes, I realize there is a contact page for this. When I submitted a request, I received a response something along the lines of "Currently due to a huge number of requests you won't hear from us, like, ever"

Help me decrypt this mysterious stone ...

ryanshepard — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:28:57 -0800

I'm trying to find out what "J.S. of A." stands for. It's engraved on a stone included in an archival collection I'm processing. So far I've turned up nothing useful via the Web or the print acronym / abbreviation / initial dictionaries that I have access to. The stone is part of a collection of personal papers and artifacts owned by a Washington, D.C. family that date from from ca. 1895-1945 (though several members lived into the late 1960s). The bulk of the material appears to have been collected by two sisters who were D.C. / Maryland / Virginia history buffs. Some of the materials in the collection relate to Savannah, Oklahoma City and England, where the family had relatives and traveled.

I have no contact information for the donor, and all of the people named in the collection itself are dead. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

A Library Fortress of Silentude?

robocop is bleeding — Thu, 01 May 2008 07:14:51 -0800

There is a war going on in the library. This conflict is between students who seek solitary silent study and those who seek to study or work on projects in groups. An individual student's allegiance to a faction can change from day to day based on their current course load. Because the Grouparians have the advantage of numbers, they tend to win out over the Solitarites. Surely the latter group needs a fortress all their own? We try to have resources available that fit both factions' needs. There is a quiet floor where cellphones and loud noises are (in theory) banned. There are also a host of group study rooms where folks can meet and work. Unfortunately, each group frequently 'raids' the others' resources in order to satisfy their needs: lone students slip into a group study room because it has a door and is quiet, while groups spread out on tables on the quiet floor (where even if their conversation is kept at polite volumes, it can distract).

Groups have a resource in that they can reserve group study rooms ahead of time. Lone students do not have an equivalent "just for them" resource. So in planning for future building/expansion of the library, I'd like to include one for them.

What I am considering would be an invitation-only, application-required, need-a-key-or-card-to-access "Silent Study" study room (as opposed to the "Quiet Study" floor). The room itself would have individual study carrels (say, a dozen) and an even more draconian noise policy. Like orkut or freemasonry, access to the room would only be provided to those invited by a current member. The initial invitations would be extended by the library to patrons based on past experience and statistics. Each room member would be able to invite a limited number of new members.

Upon invitation, new members would have to apply with the Circ Desk for access. Things like overdue books or frequent problems with noise would impact their application poorly. They would get a card or key that would allow access to the room.

Room policy would be positively draconian for anything other than quiet study. Cellphones off. No talking. No group work, etc. Members who violate the room policy could lose their access privileges AND the member that invited them would receive some sort of reprimand/demerit that could lead to them being evicted in their own right (so they'd have to be choosy about who they invite).

So my questions:

Is there any other American academic library that offers a similar room or service? If so, is there any literature about it?

If you were a college student, would you want access to this room?

How best to promote the room such that membership spreads equally through the college's many social groups? I don't want this to become a "grad student only" or "accounting majors only" type room.

Can you think of any alternatives? We do not have the staffing budget for professional, fulltime shushers (Plus shushing an MBA group as they work on a project goes against the library's desire to help them with their education) and students of both factions get upset when their needs are not met.

I've already taken steps towards turning the library into a TGI Friday's with the use of buzzing pagers to notify patrons when resources are available ("Dufrane, party of 4, your table is ready..."), so don't have much of a problem of turning part of it into a VIP airport lounge. I just want to know if this idea is worth going to bat for.

I like puppies, long walks on the beach, and tech-savvy publishers

nev — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:52:02 -0800

Looking to find clients who need help with technology in the publishing industry (especially in academic reference and journals). I've quit my job as a software engineer at a well-regarded web company to do independent technical consulting. I expect to offer everything from software evaluation to XML schema design to full-on programming.

I have excellent references from former clients (some of whom I'm likely to retain, thanks to my old employer), and some good contacts already. I'm writing for a publishing/technology blog and I'm planning on attending a few conferences:

1. SSP in Boston (no-brainer, I'm in MA)
2. ALA in Anaheim
3. O'Reilly TOC

I also read a number of publishing blogs that I found recommended in previous AskMe threads, mostly to do with trade publishing.

Are there networking opportunities that I'm missing? Since I'm working on my own, my free time is flexible, so I'd be interested in workshops or lectures in the New England area. I could also use a little more knowledge from the library side of things, in terms of how research tools are evaluated and used. Other kinds of advice also welcome, although I'm not new to the industry as a whole.

I know there are publishing people on AskMe so if you want any more information on who I am and what my skills and experience are, please send Mefi Mail -- I'd love to schmooze.

Libraries, Playlists, Ratings... Oh My, iTunes!

polyester.lumberjack — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:13:30 -0800

I have a very confusing iTunes problem, regarding transferring songs to an external hard drive, and maintaining playlists and ratings... hopefully it will not be confusing to any of you, brave MeFites! I have a huge iTunes library on my laptop's hard drive. I have an external drive, fresh from the box, ready to carry these files...

However! I only want a particular set of songs transferred over, and the other songs, I wish to remain on my hard drive. I thought I could simply create a playlist in iTunes of the desired tracks, then select-all, and drag-and-drop those suckers on to the external drive. Alas, no.

Some Google-ing confirmed that the most common way to transfer files from iTunes to an external drive would be to just open Finder windows, and drag-and-drop the folders, forgoing the iTunes program completely. However, using this method means I transfer songs I don't want transferred... so (sigh) here are my questions:

• Is there a better method to transfer over just the songs I want? There are over 3,000 songs I want, currently in a playlist. I tried digging in the iTunes library folders and dragging-and-dropping the songs I wanted, but I made it to the "B" artists before I realized this was insane.

• Can I transfer just an iTunes playlist? I have some playlists in iTunes that are nested. Will they still nested? That sure would be nice!

• How about ratings? I'd love to keep those as well...

• And even more fun, when I have new songs on my laptop that I want to dump on to the external, what would be the best method of keeping that straight? My first plan was to just keep a playlist of songs I want to add, but... well, you can see where that thinking has lead me!

Deploying Remote Monitoring Devices in an Academic Library

robocop is bleeding — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 08:12:05 -0800

Which wireless internet camera would you recommend for deployment in a library? Also, does some form of wireless noise monitor exist? My library is set up in such a way that staff lack a presence on two of three floors. Were this an older-style library and those floors were dominated by shelving this wouldn't be a big issue. However, these floors have tables, reading lounge areas, study carrels, and even group breakout rooms for student use. One of these floors is designated as a "quiet study floor" (but more on that later).

Recently, there have been a rash of thefts from these floors. We have asked, pleaded, and frequently reminded our students to be aware of their surroundings and not leave their belongings unattended. Of course, undergrads feel that nothing bad will ever happen to them and frequently ignore these warnings. And then they get upset when their iPods, laptops, and cellphones are stolen.

We don't have the staff or the budget to station people on these floors and so are considering acquiring some internet cameras that will play nicely with our wireless network. While the privacy issues involved nag at me, they do not nag at me as much as the safety issues. We're often the last people to know about what goes on upstairs and I'm concerned about what could happen. I hope that cameras would be both a deterrent and a way to help us assist students and campus security in recovering lost items.

So my requirements for a wireless internet camera solution are pretty tricky. I want a system that is:
- Able to play nicely with our wireless network, which is password protected.
- Able to record what happened for up to an hour, but then erases said memory unless we save it.
- Detailed enough to pick out identifying features, but not so detailed as to be able to read what people write or are reading.
- Able to be viewed through a single browser, but requiring a password to do so.
- Able to deal with multiple cameras. Shelving and corners break up a single view.
- Not stupidly expensive. We want to keep this affordable and in-house.
- Being able to pan and zoom would be neat, but not required.

Fake camera mounts would not work because we have students who work for the library, so word of their fakery would get out pretty quickly.

Ideally, I'd like to create a command center-like area behind the Circulation desk where staff can monitor the library from.

As a special bonus question, is there any such thing as a wireless noise monitor? The only models I've seen are for machine shops and I get the feeling that they deal in much louder sounds than a library. Keeping with the self-absorbed/unaware of those around them nature of the modern undergrad, we're constantly getting noise complains from the quiet floor, so some form of sensor that would trip an alarm/light at the circulation desk when things got too noisy on the quiet floor would be really cool.

Of course, any alternate solutions are welcome. I admit to being more prone to technological solutions, but we really don't have the staffing or culture to really come down hard on the students, whether its for noise or their own safety.