Talking library things with Tim Spalding – Part Two

Allison Page and I discuss cataloguing and challenges for libraries with Tim Spalding in Part Two of our interview:

(6.3MB, 6:57 minutes)

 

Talking LibraryThing and library things with Tim Spalding

An interview with Mr LibraryThing Tim Spalding.

Part One: An introduction to Tim and LibraryThing.

(6.2 MB, 6:38 minutes)

See the LIANZA 2009 Blog information on Tim:

Tim started LibraryThing in 2005 as a pet project to catalogue his books. Since then over 700,000 members have catalogued over 40 million books on LibraryThing, and whole new form of book life has been created.  But of course LibraryThing is about more than just books, its sense of community … is one of its strong points.

The stats are on the move – now more than 850,000 book lovers have joined Library Thing…

(Thanks to Richard Liddicoat of the Digital Library Web Team for his work on this interview)

 

What do Librarians do all day?

First up, an apology. I got our international speakers muddled up yesterday – it was Claudia Lux who spoke at the Powhiri yesterday. She confused me by mentioning North America. Claudia Lux is the outgoing president of IFLA – the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions – and her key note speech this morning was titled “Libraries on the Agenda.” It could have been a very dry talk on how to get libraries involved in politics but by half way through the talk I was inspired to get out there and advocate for the importance of libraries in all aspects of life, not just education and culture. Claudia posed an interesting question, that we often struggle to answer – What do librarians do all day? We should be able to have a proud and loud answer ready, an answer that pushes our profession’s importance to society, an answer that reflects the variety of things we are involved in, an answer that would make politicians want to support us. So, what do we do all day? (and you aren’t limited to 140 characters like you are on twitter)

 

LIANZA photos

Some conference visuals from our Flickr -
From the weaving at the Te Rōpū Whakahau stand to Tim Spalding, conference star (creator of LibraryThing)

You can also see a huge range of Conference images taken by the official photographer Ross Becker. He’s done sterling work capturing the people and places of LIANZA09.

Have you got any photos to add?

 

Kindle your Kindles – It’s Richard Stallman

I scorched my shorthand notebook at this session. Richard Stallman was a mine of quotable quotes. And not at all dry and techy – he started his address with a veritable barrage of jokes – about Wellington’s weather (gumboots/Wellingtons, furniture made from punga – fern-iture).

Chair Brenda Chawner named Stallman as “the most influential person no-one has heard of”. And my, what influences – WWW guru Tim Berners-Lee and Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales both namecheck the influence of Mr Stallman.

As the LIANZA 2009 Conference blog reports: “Richard Stallman pioneered the concept of copyleft, and is the main author of the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license. Twenty-five years ago he launched the GNU operating system. GNU is free software: everyone has the freedom to copy it and redistribute it, as well as to make changes either large or small.  The GNU/Linux system, basically the GNU operating system with Linux added, is used on tens of millions of computers today.”

Before he launched into copyright (the topic of the address), he explained the concept of software freedom:

0. Run the programme as you wish

1. Allow people to study source code to change it

2. Help your neighbour – redistribute

3. Contribute to the community – publish your modified version

If any of these components is missing from software, Stallman would define it as proprietary.

Here are some of the quotes from the session, but I’ll expand on this more later – there was a lot to take in, particularly in relation to e-books.

QUOTE 1: ALL SOFTWARE SHOULD BE FREE SO ALL USERS CAN BE FREE

QUOTE 2: THROW WINDOWS OUT OF THE COMPUTER, OR THROW THE COMPUTER OUT THE WINDOW
(Microsoft is entering your computer’s back door and can forcibly install software changes – therefore Microsoft has owned your computer)

QUOTE 3: COPYRIGHT NO LONGER FITS WITH THE TECHNOLOGY
(It came from the era of the printing press and doesn’t reflect today’s digital world. Copyright is now a restriction on the general public by publishers in the name of authors)

QUOTE 4: WE ARE IN A PAY PER VIEW UNIVERSE
(DRM Digital Rights Management is trying to make us pay for every view – how would this apply to books?)

QUOTE 5: DRM = DIGITAL RESTRICTIONS MANAGEMENT

QUOTE 6: SONY SHREDDER (Reader), AMAZON SWINDLE (Kindle)

QUOTE 7: A WORLD WHERE NOBODY LENDS BOOKS TO ANYONE ANYMORE … OTHER READERS WILL NO LONGER BE YOUR FRIEND, BECAUSE YOU’LL BE ACTING LIKE A JERK

QUOTE 8: PIRACY IS A PROPAGANDA TERM. SHARING ISN’T THE MORAL EQUIVALENT OF ATTACKING SHIPS

…

 

The war on sharing

Free as in freedom

Richard Stallman, referred to in Wikipedia as a software freedom activist, spoke about the war on sharing. He questioned how on earth sharing could be seen as bad, argued that true piracy should really involve ships and pirates and fighting (fair enough) and put forward some ideas for sorting out the copyright mess that has left some authors without ownership of their own work, and the rest of us without the ability to share.  He talked of the “Kindle Swindle”, Digital Rights Management (DRM) and the conspiracy of governments (or at least collusion) as digital media becomes more and more restricted. Watch out you folks with your e-books, he warns, if everything is on your e-reader device, then to share a book will mean sharing your personal library. Which means you won’t. Which means you will upset your friends; and your friends will think you’re a jerk.

From trying to control your computer by forcing updates, to removing (yes removing!!) a book (1984) from your e-reader, there is a war on sharing.

Richard’s advice includes:

• Don’t buy restricted DVDs
• Pay for things with cash
• Step away from the e-reader!

 

APNK: facing the future

There’s so much I could write, but I’m going to try and stay on subject. It was an interesting session from Margaret Garland and Sue Sutherland on the future of the Aotearoa People’s Network Kaharoa this afternoon. The introduction of free internet into our public libraries has pushed librarians beyond our previous experience to deal with new demands on our technical and people management skills and none of that is going away any time soon, so get used to it everyone!

The future looks complicated with some big funding questions. It was great to hear the very clear planning and thought already going on in preparation for that rapidly approaching time when the current funding runs out (2011!). Such a good sign for the libraries on the wait-list and for everyone looking to the future when it’s going to be about sustainability – the computers, the skills, the networks.

This was a very strategic session with a lot of focus on the big picture, going far beyond the nitty gritty of getting NZ online in libraries. It looks like there are some difficult waters ahead for public library networks and local government with issues like autonomy and collaboration to navigate. Big questions and a good time to start facing up to them.

…and if anyone knows why Kete take-up has been so slow please let Sue know!

 

Far too early in the morning for me…

The Powhiri venue in Victoria Square

Well it was a bright but chilly start to the LIANZA conference this morning.  A small selection of us from the Waiata group met at 8 o’clock and tried to remember the new (to us) tune to Hūtia te rito, before heading over the Victoria Square to join the other delegates.  After a quick practice of the Lianza Waiata with everyone, we waited for the Mana Whenua to call us with the pūtātara to start the pōwhiri.  Due to a slight technical hitch (the pūtātara was left in the display cabinet) we began with the Mana Whenua calling their karanga.  We moved across the bridge and into the amphitheatre as our Kai Karnaga responded.  There followed some short speeches from both sides, including Jessica Dorr, who has been involved in  the Native American Access to Technology Program.  Her Keynote Speech on Wednesday morning will be about the role libraries play in building communities.  In support of Jessica we sang our second waiata, that covers the theme of this year’s conference – he tangata, he tangata, he tangata – it is people that are important.

The Pōwhiri programme called for those who had been seated (invited guests and speakers) to take part in the traditional harirū, but our master of ceremonies, Amiria Reriti, encouraged us to all join in before walking across to the conference centre for morning tea, and a chance to see where we would spend our money if we had an endless budget….

 

First glimpses of LIANZA Conference 2009

Conference collateral

LIANZA09 – that’s the tag that will link you into all the various blog posts, tweets, photos and various stuff about the LIANZA Conference in 2009 taking place at the Christchurch Convention Centre.

The LIANZA09 conference blog has a list of the varied online presences looking at Conference.

It’s not all virtual. The powhiri is happening at this very moment. The big sessions of the day include :

• Sir Tipene and Hana O’Regan on Generation Ngāi Tahu
• Richard Stallman on Copyright vs Community in the age of computer networks 

Plus a boatload of sessions on subjects ranging from prison librarianship, to online identities.

Conference is go!

 

One Book, One Community – would it fly in NZ?

With NZ Book Month upon us, and various Writer’s festivals happening around the county over the coming summer months, this article in a recent issue of Library Journal might be of interest – One Great Idea, Library Journal, 9/1/2009, Vol. 134 Issue 14, p19-22.

(hint : we have electronic access to Library Journal so go a-hunting for a copy of it through our premium databases)

Beth Dempsey revisits the success of the ‘One Book, One Community’ programs that have flourished across America. It is based on the concept that one book is selected & subsequently championed by libraries, bookstores, book groups and cultural organizations for a set period of time.

Some of the titles that US regions have chosen include To Kill a Mockingbird, When the Emperor was Divine, Persepolis, and The Selfish Gene.

This concept isn’t a new idea, as I recall reading a while ago about a town in Germany doing something similar with Lois Lowry’s The Giver.

I’m thinking that for next year’s NZ Book Month, maybe we could aim some of our programming around this idea. Let’s identify a key NZ author or a key NZ title that might provoke interesting discussions, provide us with an author to champion for the month, and to boost people’s awareness and enjoyment of NZ literature.

What about Owen Marshall, Patricia Grace, Denis Dutton, Fiona Farrell, Kate de Goldi, Paula Morris, or Eleanor Catton?

We could look for a Cantabrian writer who might be able to attend during the month for some workshops, or perhaps someone from out of town who might fly down for the week or a weekend might enthuse our “readers about town”.

Involving local bookstores, book groups, university lecturers, publishers, the NZ Book Council would mean that we had a wider base to pull from in terms of support and funding. The online presence on our website, with blogs, forums, photos uploaded from the community would be a great way to grow our online presence as well.

It could be another way that CCL leads the pack when it comes to promoting reading and community involvement.

All ideas, comments and suggestions welcome!

Wikipedia article on One Book, One Community here.