One step forward

I have good news.

Earlier this year I applied for the Graduate Preprofessional Library position at Catholic University of America. Essentially, it's a program that pays for six credits per semester as well as gives me a two-year position at the library on campus. So it's tuition + experience, and there's a stipend as well. The program is incredibly competitive, and while I thought that I had a decent shot, I in no way expected it to be offered to me.

Tuesday morning I received an email from Shanyun Zhang (who you'll remember I interviewed last year about her department), saying she was interested in my application and wanted to meet with me. Seeing her name was something similar to an angelic chorus. I remembered her well, her sense of humor and her unrelenting kindness when I spoke with her last year. Apparently she remembered me, too, and after talking briefly in her office later that afternoon I was offered the position within her department, which I accepted without hesitation.

AND SO on August 19th I will begin working at Catholic University of America's Mullen Library in their electronic resources department! This includes working on the web site, some digitization, learning more about the vendors and other lovely things like LibGuides! As an added bonus I will be able to do some projects with the humanities and religion librarian, Kevin Gunn, who shares my interest in the digital humanities and fringe library weirdness. To say that this position is all I ever wanted would be a gross understatement. I'm incredibly excited to kick off my graduate school experience with these opportunities.

Whatcamp? THATCamp? Oh.

Several months ago, I attended a monthly meeting of digital historians (translation: nerds) here in DC. Among the attendees were several programmers, developers, and contributors to George Mason University's Center for History and New Media (CHNM). These wonderful people develop the incredible platform called Omeka, an online repository designed for digital archivists, cultural heritage specialists, and digital historians. I became fascinated with this platform, and I intend to use it in order to  publish the project I was working on in Kansas over Christmas break.

Being a somewhat cautious tech nerd, I didn't want to dive in and mess up anything within the program, so I thought I'd be intelligent and ask some questions and get some advice before I did anything. After a conversation with one of the developers, I walked away with some very valuable insight: "Just get in there and mess around a bit. Have fun." So I did. I created a short and sweet site with a few items, but I was still a little confused by it all. As my archives class continued, so did my knowledge and understanding of how archives work - and how Omeka complemented that structure (or lackthereof).

THATCamp Prime

The same developer suggested that I look into attending a THATCamp, which I cannot recommend highly enough. Last weekend, I followed my flock of digital archivists to CHNM for THATCamp Prime. The best way to describe THATCamp is a sort of tech retreat for nerds. Space camp, but with code and concept-heavy discussions rather than gravity walks or any sort of physical exertion.

Look! We went outside!

The entire weekend was full of a strange balance of technobabble and abstract discussions on the future of the digital world. It was incredible. Rather than try to explain in detail about what I learned or did, I'm just going to share some links and hopefully you'll see the fruits of my labor some time in the future. :)

• Participad, an awesome WordPress plugin developed by CHNM
• The Knotted Line, and interactive laboratory which shows the tenuous relationship between  freedom and law in US history
• Crowdsourcing Image Metadata from Digitized Books, self-explanatory
• The Maker Challenge, a collection of all projects created by THATCamp Prime participants (black hole warning - you'll get lost if you're not careful!)
• DigitalHistorians.Org, a web site for digital historians to share their projects and work.

A long overdue update

Hello, friends! Things here have been wonderfully crazy in the best way possible. I have graduated with my bachelors degree and plan on continuing on to graduate school at Catholic University of America! The acceptance letter came in mid-April, and I'm hurriedly applying to programs and scholarships which will allow me to pay for a graduate degree from a private school (oof). At the moment, I'm looking at Catholic's Graduate Library Preprofessional (GLP) program, which would give me hands-on experience in the library (35hrs/week) as well as pay for my tuition (6cr/semester). It's an extremely competitive program, but I hope that given my bachelors in Library Science as well as my current internship at a library in the same consortium, I'll have a fighting chance.

This brings me to my current job! I've landed a fantastic summer internship at Trinity University (Trinity DC) here in DC. I'm working mostly evenings, which gives me times to work on projects and learn the systems as well as practice my reference skills - which are extremely rusty, but getting some use. Fortunately for me, many of the staff members are MLS-grads who are happy to share their experiences and learned advice with me. The library workers here are experienced and passionate as well as intelligent and kind, and I couldn't be more grateful for their example and teaching moments. The library (and campus) are small yet powerful, and the same can be said of the staff.

The Rare Books Room

The library itself often feels as if it came straight from the 1970s and somehow got ahold of 21st century technology. It's beautiful and it smells of books - just like the library of which every new library student dreams. It's also so full of the smell of books that it borders on the musty. The lights flicker, the doors slam, and the air conditioning doesn't work. For all of that, the technology is current and the library resources which are most often used are the electronic ones. To some degree, I feel as if the only truly old things about the library are the building and the books - and even those are getting some new friends. All the other resources are shiny and new.

Looking out over campus

While I haven't been blogging as much as I should have, I'll try to remedy that. It's certainly true that I have a lot to write about. This past week alone is worthy of several entries. Next up: WHY THIS WEEK WAS EXCITING!

JHU: Music to listen to while reading

I love making music mixes, but I've never posted one on this blog. Here is a short playlist of music from, about, or that reminds me of Baltimore.

JHU: Pinboard Linkroll

JHU: It's All Fun and Games

These entries have focused on the services and inner workings at the Eisenhower Library and the larger system of the Sheridan Libraries. I'm going to shift gears a little and take a look at the lighter side of things.

Gadgets! Comfy chairs! A student!

When the library was renovated last year, a lot of thought went into how it would be outfitted. Upon arriving at furniture, the library staff put it to a vote. A series of chairs was presented to the community and the winner of the contest was a 70s-era armchair vaguely reminiscent of Captain Picard's chair on the bridge of the Enterprise. The study cubbies have a more utilitarian desk chair, but these comfortable seats can be found throughout the library.

The U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-D

I've put up a picture of the digital screen which can be found in the library, but I have yet to talk about my favorite piece of gadgetry at the library. The wall-mounted projectors can be found in every study room and many of the strangely-shaped collaboration areas as well as on what would otherwise be blank walls (see above. No, not the Enterprise, the first picture). These projectors are available for any student to use with their own laptop or device, and they're often used for intensive projects. They can be found throughout the library as well as in study rooms.

The study rooms are set aside for groups and individual use, and each are outfitted with snazzy screens for the individuals and the projectors in larger collaboration rooms - both rooms have tables, chairs, and outlets. Some study rooms will become occupied for days at a time, and it's even permissible for students to write on the walls in order to work out problems.

Look closely for THE WRITING ON THE WALLS

The next-most-awesome thing I saw at Eisenhower was their study room. It's filled with tables and natural light, and against the wall is an exhibit by an artist, featuring artifacts displayed in a ginormous curio cabinet that takes up an entire wall. My pictures are pretty limited as I was trying to hide the fact that I was trying to pick my jaw up off the floor and not stare.

The Exhibit

The Graduate Reading Room

Me, the whole time in this room

It was a wonderful visit, and I would like to once again thank the amazing women who took time to speak with me about their library. Thanks to:

• Margaret Burri, Associate Library Director and Academic Liaison
• Dawn Hale, Head of Technical Services and Acquisitions
• Adriane Koenig, Sr. Academic Program Coordinator and Twitter, Blog, and Facebook guru
• Heidi Herr, Library Liaison for English and Philosophy, Special Collections Outreach Coordinator, and Tumblr guru

JHU: Complementary Services

In Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, there are two families whose "ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood make civil hands unclean." Between the prologue and the ultimate scene of reconciliation there is tragic bloodshed, betrayal, and other such wonderful things which run rampant through the Bard's work. This famous feud between the Montagues and Capulets is echoed in the current library world when it comes to the subject of print and digital. The future of the codex and the topic of content are heated topics at this time, and it seems that everyone has an opinion on which format will "win". At Johns Hopkins, it seems as if they've skipped the immature bloodshed and youthful passion that dominates much of the tragedy and skipped straight to the unrealized future of the young lovers' relationship: difficult compromises, communication, and teamwork.

Star Trek: Voyager's astrometrics lab

Both print and digital content thrives in the Eisenhower library. There are true stacks in the building, reaching for stories into the depths and encircling the heights of the library, and their e-book library consists of about a million items. Some other academic libraries have the feeling of being a step towards a more futuristic version of libraries, but Eisenhower has a feeling of gravity and depth to it which can't be replaced by any amount of smooth information interfaces or Majel Barrett-Roddenberry/Siri hybrids. Prospective purchases may be requested by students, faculty, and librarians, and each request is taken into consideration by the academic liaison. Electronic resources are purchased for as many campuses as is practical, and physical materials not in the building may be requested through interlibrary loan and from the off-site shelving facility.

Seeing this made my day

In order to maximize space, the librarians have reduced the purchasing of print books to about 25% of their total yearly acquisitions. There could be many reasons for a library to not make the jump to exclusively purchasing e-books, the reason given to me by Adriane Koenig (Sr. Academic Program Coordinator) was much simpler: many students still prefer print, and e-books don't always fit the needs of the reader. Different publishers have different rules for how their e-books can be used, and the learning curve of identifying these varying terms can be steep for students and faculty alike. Often it's easier to simply hunt through the stacks to find the trusty olde print copy.

Special Collections at the Eisenhower Library

While terms of use and physical access are both that students have had difficulty accessing their desired e-book, there is another barrier to access: formats. Adriane also noted that there are some "misperceptions surrounding the [electronic] resources, and that may be because there is no standard format." While Kindles may be able to download one type, Nooks download another, and iPads yet another. Apps can be downloaded and some middle ground discovered, but this massive and confusing venn diagram still leaves many out in the cold. On top of this, some e-books may be downloaded to computers, but the software used may not be cross-platform (for PCs, Apples, and *nix systems), which causes even more confusion for those who desire access. The solution the librarians have been tossing around casually is to have a kiosk where students can scan a QR code and print off the corresponding chapters, or tidbits from e-books regardless of format - but even this change of formats may not be allowed under fair use. Overall, their approach to the issue is matter-of-fact and straightforward: Until things are more accessible for our students, both e-books and print will continue to be purchased side by side.