myliblog

Wandering around town

2012-02-11T13:21:00.001-07:00

I do a lot of walking. Today I was strolling downtown Castle Rock. I met a woman in her 70s.

Without a lot of preamble, she launched intoo the core issues of her life.

now that's dancin'

2012-02-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

Some smooth moves, for your viewing entertainment, from the Provence Swing Festival, France, October 2009.

It features a "Teacher Performances" by Sharon Davis and Juan Villafane (Australia/Argentina)

Local control and education

2012-02-04T09:06:00.001-07:00

So now I read that the members of the Douglas County School Board have endorsed Mitt Romney for President. It's a puzzling message on at least two levels.

First, they took pains to say that this was not an official board resolution. That part's good; by statute, school boards are non-partisan, and have no official role in influencing voter selection of national political candidates. But board members also took care to point out that this was a unanimous decision by all of them.

So ... is it a school board action, or not? Clearly, it violates the spirit of non-partisanship. While I staunchly support free speech, particularly about political issues, I have taken great pains through the years to make it clear that I speak for myself. Here, the attempt seems to be to give the appearance of institutional action.

Second, the reason they articulated for endorsing Romney was that he will help "get the federal government out of education." They're entitled to that opinion, too. But it's tough to defend.

The premise seems to be this: local experimentation, the application of market pressure to public education, will result in swift improvement in academic achievement. That improvement will then be adopted by others.

But of course, it hasn't, doesn't, and won't work like that. Everybody knows that when you move from state to state, or from district to district within the state, or from school to school within the district, or even from the same grade's class to class within the school, there is wide variance of both curriculum and instructional approach.

And not to put too fine a point on it, but after all this experimentation and "local control," the United States isn't even in the top twenty internationally for math and science. (See the Programme for International Student Assessment.)

Who IS in the top twenty? Those educational systems that adopt a uniform national curriculum.

In other words, the tenets of our school board and the educational philosophy of Mr. Romney have already been contradicted by decades of data. Our local Board and their preferred presidential candidate support a failed approach, and reject the likeliest path for improvement.

The issue, apparently, has nothing to do with evidence. It has everything to do with politics.

Government creates jobs

2012-02-04T08:38:00.001-07:00

Recently I was at a meeting where I heard Frank McNulty, Speaker of the House for the Colorado legislature, address a group of Douglas County elected and appointed officials. He said, "Of course, government doesn't create jobs."

I gather this is one of the new talking points for the Republicans. But it doesn't take much thought to recognize that Representative McNulty is mistaken. When a school district hires a teacher, when a town hires a policeman, when a fire district hires a firefighter, when a library hires a librarian, and indeed when the United States Armed Forces hires a soldier, all of these government agencies are indeed creating jobs. We pay people to do work, just like a business. Offering a job is creating employment. This point is particularly clear to people who get laid off. It doesn't make any difference whether it's private or public sector.

Strangely, McNulty then spoke about the need to continue to build and maintain our roads. Those roads are paid for, of course, by government. And when the people approve a new bond, the money is used to hire workers. In other words, of course, government does create jobs.

I don't know why it is that so many politicians run on the theme of contempt for government. If they really have a such a low opinion of it, then why do they want the job? Yeah, it's a job for them, too.

True Stories of Censorship Battles in America's Libraries

2012-02-04T08:24:00.002-07:00

This new title, edited by Valerie Nye and Kathy Barco, was published by ALA, copyright 2012. It is available from several sources.

The book is divided into various themes or "parts:"

* Sometimes we're our own worst enemy: when library employees are censors;

* How dare you recommend this book to a child: reading levels and sophisticated topics;

* Not only boy scouts should be prepared: building strong policies;

* When the tribe has spoken: working with Native American collections;

* Conversation + Confrontation + Controversy = Combustion: vocal organization and publicly debated challenges;

* Crime and punishment: when library patrons have committed a crime; and

* Perhaps it is possible to judge a book by its cover: displays.

The book concludes with discussion questions, a list of contributors, and a solid index. Disclosure: I wrote a chapter on "Uncle Bobby's Wedding."

The collection includes stories from all types of libraries: public, academic, school, and special. I'm still dipping into them, but find them all to be pretty direct and honest stories, told by real people. This is what defending intellectual freedom is like.

Like most professional books, it's pricey: $40. But of course it underwrites various other ALA activities. I can recommend the book for most library collections.

Maddow and DeGette on Komen/Planned Parenthood debacle

2012-02-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to a wonderful, if completely head-scratching expose of a profoundly anti-woman's health push by the Republican party.

The outrage of the moment is occasioned, I think, not by the completely predictable and normal Congressional vendettas, but the sense of betrayal many women felt when a group of women turned against their own gender. But you can bet the men in Congress noticed. I have to hope that eventually the profound overreaching of the Right will catch up with them.

Douglas County Libraries - the Digital Branch

2012-01-25T15:52:00.006-07:00

Restoring American Exceptionalism

2012-01-25T10:23:00.008-07:00

Last night I went to "Restoring American Exceptionalism" at the Douglas County Events Center. It was an event of the National School Choice Week.

I went to see who would speak, and what main themes they would work. I wish I'd poked a little more into who was bankrolling all this.

Although I arrived a little too late to hear the first introduction, I believe it was Steve Kelly, KNUS Radio host. He said several interesting things: "We've lost something, folks, and need to restore it." What that was, he didn't say.

He mentioned "Americans for Prosperity," a group with links to the Koch brothers. He said that his own kids went to public school, "but this isn't about my kids." Why is it, I wonder, that people feel they need to force choices they themselves don't want?

The big themes: first, competition is good. If he shops at Walmart and finds bad apples, he goes to ANOTHER Walmart. (This is competition?)

Second: when he asked five different groups (how selected he did not say) of parents, kids, teachers, administrators and elected officials what was wrong with schools, they all blamed teacher unions. Although no evidence was cited for that conclusion (the state of the schools), either.

Then Professor Hugh Hewitt, author of a hagiography of Mitt Romney talked about how the worst school in America was the unified school district of Los Angeles, and the school near it, Compton, was worse than a prison. He praised parochial schools, which he attended as a child in the 60s, and how they were affordable to ordinary families ($300 a year back then). He praised the tuition tax credit of Arizona, and the Great Hearts Arizona charter school. "Unless and until teacher unions are broken," he said, "we will have Compton replicating, not Great Hearts." Question: are Arizona students now acknowledged as the highest achieving in the United States? (No. But see this state by state comparison by the US Chamber of Commerce.)

There was some meandering discussion about funding. According to State Senator Keith King who spoke the night before (don't know to whom), Colorado offers $11,000 per student (combined state and local aid). With an average class size of 25 (it's higher than that in Douglas County!) that's $275K per K-12 class. Where does the money go? No answer - but I guess we're supposed to think there's something suspicious about it.

Bob Schaffer, chairman of the state board of education, and former legislator, then spoke at length. Pronouncing school choice "the most important public policy topic in the United States," he began by referring to the Founders' belief that "we won't last long if we don't have an educated populace."

He then cited Milt Friedman's cost and quality matrix. The idea seems to be that the only time you care about cost and quality is when you're spending your own money on yourself. He touched on the 1994 charter school act, then alleged that the performance record of charter schools is "quite good."

But in fact, it's about the same as the performance of regular public schools (see this report), which seems to me to disprove in one go both the premise that school choice is a panacea, or that unions are the key factor in preventing educational achievement or improvement.)

He got applause when he said that "Parents bear the first responsibility for education."

Then he said, "If you trust government workers outside your own family, I guarantee your children will not be successful."

That's the kind of astonishing statement I go to these meetings to hear. So, all (union) teachers fail? No one who has gone to public school can be successful? Really? The statement is both false and absurd.

It was announced that there were 1200 people in the audience, which seemed about right. The show was also broadcast to Michigan, Nebraska, California, and Wyoming.

Dan Gerken (Douglas County School Board member) spoke briefly about the voucher experiment, and announced that he thought an appeal would be heard this April, and he expected a Supreme Court decision by the end of next year.

Dick Morris spoke. He used to be a strategist for Bill Clinton (where he advocated for pushing bad teachers out of schools, but he said that strategy didn't work). He was behind "No child left behind," but he said that didn't work, either. So we need competition. And that will work because... ?

To sum up: I wasn't impressed. Charter school data, in which we have lots of schools that waived union contracts, pretty clearly prove that teacher unions aren't the problem. In fact, it would be refreshing to hear a nice, succinct description of just what problem this group IS trying to solve.

And here's something else worth considering. Being "happy" with your choices is NOT the same thing as making good ones (in the domain of either cost OR quality). Educational accomplishment isn't about reinforcing the values of your parents; it's about demonstrable mastery and application of content. And there just isn't much evidence here that "choice" by itself results in that.

On the other hand, every chair had a free, pretty spiffy canary yellow scarf on it. It has "National School Choice Week" stitched into one end. It is 100% polyester fleece, made in China, and was wonderfully warm around my neck as I walked home. I don't know who paid for it, but I'm grateful.

Sarah Lacy and embracing volatility

2012-01-21T08:53:00.001-07:00

The keynote speaker at OCLC's Americas Regional Council Member Meeting and Symposium was Sarah Lacy. She was incredible: funny, articulate, insightful,and thought-provoking.

She's a journalist who got her start writing about Silicon Valley and Web 2.0 then took off for 40 weeks all over Africa, India, and China looking for tech entrepreneurs.

She had a lot of fascinating things to say, but what sticks with me is the reality of what some educators have long been saying: the significant innovation, the rapid job creation, the Big Ideas, aren't coming from us anymore. They're being cooked up in formerly third world countries by people who are solving problems Silicon Valley wouldn't even think of. For instance: in India, there's a guy who has figured out a way to build super cheap transmission stations, providing cell phone service to rural communities for $2 a month per customer. And who knew that in Nigeria, the mostly bootlegged film industry (called "Nollywood") is 2nd after Bollywood in the sheer number of new movies, and third (Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood) in terms of revenue?

Lacy said, "Because of when these people were born, where they were born doesn't matter."

After digging into what makes entrepreneurs tick, she's become one herself. Check out her new company here.

When someone asked her what we could apply from what she had learned to libraries, she put it succinctly: entrepreneurs don't fight and deny volatility; they embrace it. So should we.

Sneak peak on OCLC research on librarian perceptions

2012-01-21T08:30:00.003-07:00

Yesterday I heard OCLC's Cathy deRosa give an advance preview of a recent study of librarian perceptions. Her team surveyed 4,168 OCLC member librarians. About 48% of them were academics, and 31% public.

Below are a few highlights:

General priorities were for public librarians the provision of access to the internet, the demonstration of value, licensed e-collections, access to technology generally, and the need to form community partnerships. For academic librarians, the issues were licensing, future of higher ed, facilities, visibility of collection, and digitization projects. Only community college librarians listed as a significant priority providing services through mobile devices, which played a big role in our keynote speaker's remarks about third world innovation.

Current initiatives for public librarians were ebooks and other eresources; for academics, discovery tools and digitization projects.

Use predictions. 55% of public librarians thought physical visits to the library would increase over the next five years; but only 44% of community college librarians and 40% of academics thought so.

About 85% of all kinds of librarians thought online use would increase; in the last survey of users, about 72% thought it would stay the same. Who's right? deRosa says, "Usually the users."

Staying informed. Or particular interest to me was how librarians stay informed about professional issues. The source most used (by 66%) was listservs and email. Next came periodicals. Public librarians read, in this order, Library Journal, American Libraries, and Public Libraries. Webinars are rising for newer librarians (although still not huge). About 20% cited blogs, and the top rated were Annoyed Librarian, blogjunction, and Librarian in Black. But blog reading by librarians seems to be falling, which is worth thinking about. As is the case with users, 85% do NOT use Twitter.

OCLC has earned its position as a "thought leader" through precisely this kind of research and reporting. And it certainly gives a writer something to think about. And of course, to blog and Tweet about, although it appears email would be smarter.

Citations about the library as a force in the book purchasing market

2012-01-21T07:55:00.001-07:00

I keep looking these stats up, then keep forgetting where I found them, but I want to let librarians and publishers know that I didn't make them up. So, some assertions and citations from an upcoming article I'm writing for Public Libraries:

We account for about 10 percent of publisher sales (American Library Association, "Marketing to Libraries," ALA Library Fact Sheet 5.)

and 40 percent of children's (Barbara Fister, " Publishers & Librarians: Two Cultures, One Goal," Library Journal, May 1, 2009.

Library as publisher: the Wisdom Within These Walls

2012-01-18T12:47:00.002-07:00

Libraries are more than distributors of content. We are, or can be, co-publishers, and even co-creators. Here's an example of one project here in Douglas County, Colorado.

Finding Wisdom - Transforming the 21st Century Library from David Schler on Vimeo.

Dear Publishing Partner

2012-01-17T14:21:00.002-07:00

This is a second document (the other is here) that the Douglas County Libraries hopes can be broadly adopted by the library community as a guide to the purchase of digital content.

Dear Publisher Partner:

Thank you for your bold willingness to invest in the future of publishing and readership. Libraries and publishers have a lot in common: we connect writers with their audience, we promote literacy, and in the process, we grow the whole market for literacy. Our goal is to replicate the current print-purchase model libraries have had with publishers like you for centuries with e-content. We invite you to participate with us.

We want to buy e-content from you. In the past year alone, my library redirected 10% of our $3.5 million collection purchasing budget for e-content. We suspect that our e-content purchasing will reach 20% next year. We are encouraging and supporting other libraries to join us in supporting our new publisher/partners.

We need to own the files. Douglas County Libraries has built an industry standard platform (using Adobe Content Server) that enables us to smoothly integrate e-content with our catalog, providing a seamless experience for our patrons that replicates our print check-out model. But that requires us to have possession of the content. We are not asking for the copyright, or the right of exclusive distribution. We only want possession of the file on our own servers, just as we traditionally had possession of a copy of a book within our facilities. The Library may index the eBooks to better enable patrons to locate materials of interest. However, this index will only be used for that purpose, and will not be provided to any other organization.

We have already teamed up with a few other publishing pioneers, among them the Colorado Independent Publishers Association, Gale/Cengage, Lerner, Marshall Cavendish and IPG. For some of those publishers, we wrestled through a contract-writing process that wound up being both expensive and time-consuming for both parties. In the interests of getting more content sooner, I’d like to streamline things while still letting publishers know what they need to know.
Douglas County Libraries represents the following to you:

• We will buy a copy for each simultaneous user. That is, if we buy one copy, one person can check it out from us at a time. That loan period will be for 3 weeks, although our system allows people to return a book early, making it available for another patron. Note that this is precisely what we do with print titles. For virtually all e-content, we intend to purchase an additional copy for every four “holds” (people waiting for the title to be available) in most cases. Our users will be able to read the ebooks either through a browser on a private cloud (hosted by the library), or through a device capable of reading Digital Rights Management (DRM)-protected ePub files.

• We will attach DRM when you want it. Again, the Adobe Content Server requires us to receive the file in the ePub format. If the file is “Creative Commons” and you do not require DRM, then we can offer it as a free download to as many people as want it. DRM is the default.

• We will promote the title. Over 80% of our adult checkouts (and we checked out over 8.2 million items last year) are driven by displays. We will present e-content data (covers and descriptions) on large touch screens, computer catalogs, and a mobile application. These displays may be “built” by staff for special promotions (Westerns, Romances, Travel, etc.), automatically on the basis of use (highlighting popular titles), and automatically through a recommendation engine based on customer use and community reviews.

• We will promote your company. See a sample press release, attached. [Note: not attached to this blog post.]

• If you provide a link to enable this, we will enable our patrons to directly purchase the title. Some of our patrons don’t want to wait!

• We may remove your content from our catalog if it is not used. But we will not resell or transfer ownership of the file to any other person or entity. But see Concerns below.

What we need from you: a discount. Libraries are volume buyers. For print, we typically get a discount of 45 percent. Our goal is to buy as much content as possible, and to demonstrate to our community the value of the cooperative purchasing agreement that is the public library. We also understand that the pricing for e-content is in flux. This discount can be negotiated annually.

Concerns for the future: many book buyers got their start by picking up used books. The library contributes to that market significantly: we give books to schools, churches, thrift stores, and active veterans. Used books are a significant part of the larger reading ecosystem, and they promote both library use and new book purchasing.

But there are no used ebooks at this time. At some point – not now – I hope that publishers and libraries can come back to this issue. Again, we assure you that anything we buy from you will NOT be resold or transferred to any other person or entity. But we’ll want to talk with you about this further down the line for new materials.

I hope that this letter clearly delineates the terms of engagement between the Douglas County Libraries and you. Again, this understanding closely mirrors the terms between libraries and publishers for over a hundred years. We think it greatly benefits both of us.

Would you be willing to accept this letter instead of a more formal contract?

Sincerely,

Statement of Common Understanding for Purchasing Electronic Content

2012-01-17T14:18:00.002-07:00

Below is a draft document produced for the Douglas County Libraries with the assistance of Mary Minow of librarylaw.com. We propose to start using it - and to encourage other libraries to start using it, too. Your comments are welcome. See also our "Dear Publishing Partner Letter."

[SERU: A Shared Electronic Resource Understanding for Purchase of
E-Content Sold by Providers to Public Libraries]

Statement of Common Understanding for Purchasing Electronic Content

The Purchase Order
The nature and extent of the content is detailed at the outset in a purchase order with such specifics as: title(s), format(s) (including details of multimedia files), price, discount, any agreements to promote and/or link to Provider’s site to bring readers to information on buying copies.

Rights
The Provider affirms that it has secured the rights necessary to distribute the e-content to the Library in the manner specified below. The purchase order does not transfer any copyright interest in the e-content. It transfers only the ownership of authorized copies of e-content files.

The Library affirms that it will comply with U.S. Copyright Law. The Library uses Adobe Content Server and/or standard digital rights management best practices to inhibit unauthorized copying of files.

The Library and the Provider interpret U.S. Copyright Law in the following manner:
The Library may not make multiple unauthorized copies to sell or lend. The Library may lend one copy to one user at a time. For example, if the Library buys four copies of a work, it may lend four copies simultaneously. It may not make derivative works, such as translations or movies. These are exclusive rights granted to the copyright owner 17 U.S.C. Sect. 106.

The Library may lend a copy to a library user under First Sale 17 U.S.C. Sect. 109. The Library may make incidental copies as necessary to perform the lending function. The lending copy is an “evanescent” copy that disappears after a set period such as two weeks. During that time, the copy is not available to any other party. Incidental exercises of other lawful rights constitute non-infringing “fair use.” See Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, 508 F. 3d 1146 (9th Cir. 2007). Consideration of four Fair Use factors (see 17 U.S.C. Sect. 107): (1) The purpose for the digital copying is for nonprofit lending through a library, a favored purpose. (2) The nature of the work is published and may range from the highly technical to the highly creative. (3) The amount copied is an entire work, but it is “evanescent” in that it is not viewable after the loan period has ended. (4) The market effect is negligible in that the content owner is compensated for an authorized copy. Although a digital file is not susceptible to wear and tear in the same manner as a physical book, it is susceptible to digital decay.

Archiving and Perpetual Access
The Library may make a replacement copy for a damaged, deteriorating, lost or stolen file or if the existing format in which the e-content is stored becomes obsolete and if the Library, after a reasonable effort, determines that an unused replacement cannot be obtained at a fair price and that any such copy reproduced in digital format is not made available to the public in that format outside the premises of the library. 17 U.S.C. Sect. 108(c).

Accessible Copies
If a published nondramatic literary work is not accessible to library users with disabilities, the library may reproduce and distribute a copy in a specialized format exclusively for use by blind and other persons with disabilities. The copy shall bear a notice that any further reproduction or distribution in a format other than a specialized format, and will include a copyright notice identifying the copyright owner and the date of the original publication. 17 U.S.C. Sect. 121.

Additional Uses
This purchase order may be accompanied by a separate license agreement that allows concurrent or other additional uses that go beyond the uses permitted under U.S. Copyright Law.

Authorized Users
The Library’s current staff and registered patrons are authorized users and may access the e-content remotely with appropriate log-in credentials.

Inappropriate Use
The Library recognizes that the material provided as part of the acquisition is a valuable business asset of the Provider and that misuse of this material, such as unauthorized resale or systematic redistribution, negatively affect the Provider’s business. The Library will make reasonable efforts to prevent the misuse of the content and limit access to authorized users, and will not knowingly allow unauthorized users to gain access.

While the Library cannot control user behavior, an obligation to inform users of appropriate uses of the content is acknowledged, and the Library will cooperate with the Provider to resolve problems of inappropriate use.

When questionable activity such as systematic downloading is detected, the Provider should notify the Library as soon as possible. If the Library detects inappropriate use, the Provider should be notified as soon as possible. Both the Provider and the Library should strive to resolve the incident quickly.

Douglas County School District updates

2012-01-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

Both of these bits come from theTaxpayers for Public Education site. One of them is the results of the survey by Augenblick, Palaich, and Associates of "the climate of employees" of the district. It's not pretty. Brenda Smith, president of the Douglas County Federation of Teachers, writes, "Among employees there is a high level of dissatisfaction with district-level administration. Only 14% of the employees feel the District is moving in the right direction, a number that has steadily declined to a new low since 2007-08."

A second link tracks the money paid by the district to schools under the ill-fated voucher program. Not all of it has come back. See this spreadsheet for the current status.

Decline of the public good

2012-01-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

First, this link is a piece by Robert Reich.

Second, it reminded me of this column I did about the change in language in the Boy Scout manual.

Wonder how it all worked out

2012-01-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

This is from a friend, Bob Hofmann.

I’m currently reading Lawrence Lessig’s latest book, Republic, Lost. In it, he provides the following quotation.

After reading it, please scroll down to learn the source.

“The Republican party is now facing a great crisis. It is to decide whether it will be, as in the days of Lincoln, the party of the plain people, the party of progress, the party of social and industrial justice; or whether it will be the party of privilege and of special interests, the heir to those who were Lincoln’s most bitter opponents, the party that represents the great interests within and without Wall Street which desire through their control over the servants of the public to be kept immune from punishment when they do wrong and to be given privileges to which they are not entitled.”

This is an excerpt from a speech delivered by Teddy Roosevelt and reprinted in Outlook 100, April 1912.

Krugman on Friedman

2012-01-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

My friend Frank Morris sent me this link. It's beautifully written, very lucid, and explains a lot. Recommended.

LaRue's Views last column

2012-01-01T19:02:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I sent off my last local newspaper column. The archive - from April 11, 1990 to January 2012 - is here.

So figure a minimum of 500 words per column, an average of 50 a year (sometimes they didn't print it one week, or I had guest columnists), times 20 years. That's half a million words.

I learned a lot from writing those columns. Not least, it provided a discipline of thinking and writing that greatly helped me understand things. Librarians, like many other professionals, tend to write only for themselves. I liked that process of trying to write for the general public. It forced me to be clearer.

It took me about four days to cut and paste from my files into blogger. At that rate, I didn't read every word, usually just a snatch of the first and last paragraphs. But I did notice a few things.

First, I let a lot of other people do guest posts. I think Rochelle Logan, my Associate Director of Support Services, wrote more than anyone else. But I handed over the podium to board members, shelvers, front line staff, and citizens.

Second, the two people I seemed to have quoted the most were Ayn Rand and Robert Heinlein. They were profound influences on my early intellectual development. But I have moved on from both of them, adopting a less libertarian, more communitarian perspective over the years.

In the process, both of my kids grew up. And I suspect that's one of the forces that made me come to appreciate the importance of social infrastructure. Both Rand and Heinlein were childless.

I also came to realize that I really am worried about our society. I think the issue has a lot to do with language. Recently, I was at a meeting where a local state representative was saying that the conservative voters of Douglas County expect their representatives to talk a certain way. So if the choice is between giving money to schools or giving tax exemptions to seniors, then the language will be harshly anti-teacher union. But then, this representative suggested that we shouldn't take that language seriously -- it's all politics, and the job of politicians is to argue. I think we damn well better take the way we talk seriously. Language sets how we look at the world, and its cynical manipulation for partisan gain is a profoundly corrosive force.

The Baby Boomers as a group have been institution destroyers, and the libertarian mindset is now firmly entrenched, to our peril. I think that needs to be changed. I want to help change it.

But a local newspaper is read mostly by those same Baby Boomers. The next generations look elsewhere for the facts and language that form their opinions; their minds are more open. They come to the Web.

So I think that's where the intellectual battle will be fought.

The columns were a good long run, not only detailing my own intellectual growth, but documenting a whole lot of institutional history. Now, it's on to the next thing.

But first I need a little down time, a little mindfulness of life cycles, a little recharging of my intellectual and emotional batteries.

Planning next year revisited

2011-12-27T13:36:00.002-07:00

So I used it for awhile today, and quickly realized it had to be simpler.

* To Do, as I first set it up, was a comprehensive list of all my tasks. But I already have that in Hivemind, and don't want to try to duplicate things just so I can get to them on various devices. So instead, I'll leave everything in Hivemind, then begin each work day by reviewing, and pulling out the four or five that I intend to tackle that day and putting them in Notecase Pro (from now on, NP). But I eliminated the whole "To Do" heading.

* Journal. Dragging things from To Do to Journal was an unnecessary step. Now I just have one heading: "Daily Log." I open a new node, use Shift-Ctrl-T to insert the date, then (as above), plan my day from consulting Hivemind and my calendar, and cross them off as I complete them. That gives me a work record without having to drag things anywhere.

* Goals and Projects - just cleaned it up and renamed it from Projects. The idea is to keep those big ideas in front of me all day.

* Key Contacts. Dunno how much I'll use this. From my work computer, I already have contacts where I'm likely to use them (email, etc).

* Misc is now just three little reminder notes, mostly logins. (NP is encrypted, so I don't worry about security.)

* Organizations. This might still be handy. It's hard to remember what I've promised to all of those institutions sometimes.

* Talks. This one is very handy. But I need to consistently use a tag for my calendar to help me track this more consistently. (I just went back and did that!)

So Daily Log, Goals and Projects, Key Contacts, Misc, Organizations, and Talk gives me a tidy list of just six things. And - the best part - it's in alphabetical order. Joy.

But overall, yeah, this will work. Oh, and another little trick. NP lets you toggle between three screens: just the leftmost outliner pane, just the rightmost text pane, or a split screen. Toggling between the outliner and text pane seems to aid in focus.

Planning next year

2011-12-26T12:04:00.001-07:00

I spent some time yesterday (after a low key but fun Christmas with both kids at home) thinking through not just my work projects for 2012, but also what tool or tools to manage them with.

For a long time I've used Notecase Pro, a very full-featured and actively developed two-pane outliner. I hadn't really been paying a lot of attention to all the updates, though. Over the past year or so, it has turned into a remarkably capable project manager.

So I played with the idea of using it as a "dashboard." What I like about it, as opposed to Outlook, is that Notecase Pro is multi-platform (accessible from Linux), and allows for the hierarchical nesting of tasks or information. That arrangement helps me think. On the other hand, Notecase is NOT available on my Palm Pre or iPad, which requires some thoughtfulness about notes (Google Docs, mostly), and Hiveminder (a great to do manager with apps for the Palm Pre and for the iPad).

The layout of my first Notecase Pro draft looks like this:

* To Dos (tasks and dates on the left pane, details and notes on the right - I like that just tapping the space bar marks one as "done"). This is the daily work space.
* Big Goals for the Year (the four or five big things I will try to get done in 2012)
* Key meetings and organizations (I mapped weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings by organization: my administrative team, the board, the Partnership of Douglas County Governments, the front range public library directors, state and national library association conferences and committees, and OCLC)
* Quick contacts (this is a little duplicative -- info that exists in a couple of other places, but is handy for the management of my tasks and projects)
* Miscellaneous notes that I keep needing to look up, and finally think it would just be easier to have them right there.
* Talks (dates, places, topics, arrangements for my speaking engagements: goal 1 a month)
* Journal (this consists not only of transferred tasks that have been completed, but any other musings I might have. I think that this kind of mindfulness of my job, and not only my job, makes me more thoughtful and consistent.)

I haven't tested it yet, but it seems promising: a compact screen that keeps the important things at the top of my mind.

So what ARE the big projects for 2012?

The big institutional goal is still to develop and disseminate our model for the management of e-content. My staff has three big pieces of this well underway: (1) finding publishers willing to sell us at a discount files that we manage with industry standard DRM; (2) developing a system for the acquisition of e-content; and (3) identifying a couple of partners (Marmot and Anythink) to further test and promote our model in the state of Colorado.

My piece of it is to look more deeply into the frontier of our system: library as publisher. As I've written elsewhere, there's an explosion of self-published content that libraries just don't know very much about. As I've been thinking about my goals in this area, it comes down to:

1) helping would-be authors to write better. This might include links to writer's groups, programs and workshops we either link to or deliver locally, and lists of resources for everything from graphic designers and copyeditors to writer's guides and tools.

2) defining some collection management strategies. Should we set some collection goals for the percentage of resouces dedicated to commercial versus independent publications? What strategies should we use to identify or accept non-commercial content? To what extent can or should we involve the community in selection or review or weeding? DOES e-content have to be weeded, or can it/should it be just moved over to an inactive archive?

3) working out some financial models. Suppose we require all self-published authors to post their works someplace like Smashwords or Book Brewer. Then we just pay those go-betweens, instead of thousands of individuals. That way, we might also get some percentage of the sales initiated by our patrons, which would then go to the purchase of additional materials. No doubt there are other models. (The creation of a used ebook store?) But this is not a trivial issue. At present, DCL makes about $500,000 a year on fines, and about $200,000 a year from the sale of used books. But e-books don't have fines, and right now, we don't have a way to sell them, either. Finding a replacement revenue stream seems prudent.

A related goal is the propagation of our model. To that end, I intend to do some writing and speaking around the country on this. My goal is to encourage others to replicate the model, thereby assuring that more and more publishers are willing to sell to us because there will be more customers to the product.

Beyond e-content, I have a couple of HR issues that are fun at this point in my career (succession planning and mentoring).

Finally, I'm feeling the need to write another book -- maybe to dive really deep into these waters of self-publishing. Topic? Probably the reclamation of the public sector. But the audience for this is not just librarians. Librarians already know this. The target audience is the larger society, which is still tearing down our shared infrastructure.

I've been growing a little frustrated with my weekly newspaper column. It may be time to set my sites a little higher.

At any rate, I love the end of the year for precisely this reason: I take the time to reflect about what did or didn't work well during the past year, and think about the next one.

farewell Freddie

2011-12-11T17:44:00.002-07:00

Last night, and today, was tough. Freddie (13 year old border collie/Bernese mountain mix) was in a lot of pain. As I did so many years ago when he had surgery to remove a cancerous mass, I slept downstairs on the couch so he wouldn't have to negotiate stairs. This time, he couldn't even stand up without help. So I was up maybe 8 or 9 times in the night. Most of the time, most of the night, inside or outside, he whined. I've never heard that from him. Pain.

Today, I took him to the vet to put him down. Just the two of us (and the very compassionate vet). The end took just 15 seconds (saline solution, anesthetic, stop-the-heart, flush), $300. He sighed - in relief, I think. But I was with him, telling him to the end that he was a good boy.

My wife volunteered to come with me (a very kind gesture), but she had to work. I couldn't have that hanging over me all day, so I took him in after my son got up and said goodbye to him. I wrote this poem:

The pain
of the baby being born
is not the pain
of the mother

The pain
of the mother dying
is not the pain
of the child

The point being, I suppose, that although we may and do witness another's pain, ultimately, that pain isn't ours. But Freddie was a good and sentient being, and I feel his loss keenly.

Beaux Foy video on getting a library card

2011-12-04T18:37:00.001-07:00

I was recently in North Carolina, where I heard about this wonderful video, made by rocker volunteer library spokesperson, Beaux Foy. Absolutely wonderful. Rock on!

Linux Mint 12 Live DVD

2011-11-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

After a lovely Thanksgiving, I plugged in the Linux Mint 12 live DVD, 64 bit version (on my System 76 desktop unit.

It seems rather obvious and intuitive to use. On the one hand, there's the familiar panel below (with Window pager), and the familiar start button. This is Mint's response to the outrage and outcry of Linux users who can't deal with Ubuntu's Unity or Gnome's latest version (3.0).

On the other, I can ignore all that and just click on the infinity symbol (upper left) and find myself in the middle of Gnome 3. Which is also rather obvious and intuitive, although it may take an extra click or two.

Linux Mint 12 started rather rapidly, and seemed to have no trouble at all finding the network; it even felt a little faster than 11.

I can take a screenshot of the usual (familiar desktop), but can't find a way to take one of the newer Gnome one. But this may be because I've been sick, and have run out of steam. Time to turn in early.

Of course, it still can't display my modest 1280x1024 screen size, which sucks. So there's no compelling reason to jump on the train now. Still, another day, another download, another distro.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

Scrooge and Starlighting

2011-11-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

Last year I had the privilege of playing Ebenezer Scrooge for the Front Range Theatre Company's "The Education of Mr. Scrooge." I was also asked by the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce to write a brief history of Castle Rock's "Starlighting" ceremony -- a longstanding tradition for my home town. So I wrote a script, a skit, really, to tell the story. Originally, my "character" was Scrooge, and I wound up with a plug for the play. This year, the Chamber fiddled with the script to make me "Horace Ebenezer." But I thought putting this online somewhere might make for a nice bit of local history. My thanks to the many real life officials who performed this last night. The usual big Starlight crowd seemed to enjoy it, hokey though it was.

I should say, by the way, that I've got a heck of a cold, or flu, or something. So I hope I did my part OK. But the advantage of writing the script is that you can give everybody else the long bits. In the picture below, Gary Shapiro is on the left. I, wearing an awesome Mad Hatter hat, am on the right.

5:08 p.m. Gary Shapiro — Telling of the Starlighting Story

“Let me tell you a story, a tale that you may find sounds rather familiar. Just last night, a grumpy old man, Horace Ebenezer, whose alias around Castle Rock is Jamie LaRue - director of the Douglas County Libraries and longtime Castle Rock resident - asked himself,”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer)--"Why is there always such a fuss downtown in Castle Rock, every year, just to turn on a showy star that wastes taxpayer dollars? Humbug!"

Gary Shapiro—“At that moment, a Voice chimed in--Ebenezer, you will be visited this afternoon by three Spirits."

Just then the Perry Street clock struck ONE. And almost immediately, another voice materialized, this one accompanied by a body and a beard."

Commissioner Steve Boand — “I am the Spirit of Starlighting past!”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer) — “What are you talking about?”

Commissioner Boand — “I have come to tell the story of how, in 1936, a group of hardy firemen scaled the sides of the Rock, without benefit of roadway or footpath. They carried with them heavy pipes, rods, torches and fuel tanks.”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer) — “Whatever for?”

Commissioner Boand — “Upon reaching the windswept heights, they constructed a star, welding it in sections, tilting it upright, wiring it for electricity, and completing the project with 100 light bulbs of 25 watts apiece. When lighted, it was visible for a distance of ten miles!”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer) — “And I suppose this light blazed all through the night?”

Commissioner Boand — “No, for many years, the lights of the star were turned off by midnight. But no longer!”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer) — “It's been up there ever since?”

Commissioner Boand — “The Star was dark during World War II, honoring the government's request to save electricity. But, in 1945, it again shone out over the land, a 'V' of light. In 1949, the brave firemen again scaled the Rock to replace the original star.”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer)—“But what's all this infernal racket downtown?”

Commissioner Boand—“In 1965, an enthusiastic group of citizens worked with the Volunteer Fire Department to prepare an inspirational ceremony to accompany the turning on of the lights. The first Starlighting Ceremony took place on Sunday, November 28, 1965. And so it has continued, so that 'the Yuletide travelers who pass along this way between the hours of dusk and dawn may know that this star, so like that other Star of long ago, radiates its warm and sincere message of Hope for Peace on Earth and Good Will in the Hearts of Men.'"

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer)—“Whose idea was all that?”

Commissioner Boand—“Originally the dream of Golden Dobbin owner Anne McConnell, it was adopted as the joint vision of the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce and the Town's Fire Department.

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer)—“And the idea was just to kick off the Christmas shopping season?”

Commissioner Boand—“You have much to learn, Ebenezer." (fades back)

Gary Shapiro--Then the clock tolled Two. And the Second Spirit appeared.

Mayor Paul Donahue (Spirit of Starlighting Present)--“Ebenezer”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer)—“Who are you?

Mayor Donahue—“I’m Paul Donahue, the Spirit of Starlighting Present!”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer)—“Has anyone ever told you you look just like the Mayor of Castle Rock?

Mayor Donahue – “I get that all the time. But that's not why I'm here. You asked about the revelry of Starlighting. Today, as has been the case for so many years, we will sing carols together, have a benediction, count down together to turn on the light, and then adjourn for a chili dinner.”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer)—“I don't suppose there's a chance we'll see Santa? I've always liked Santa.”

Mayor Donahue – “Yes, Ebenezer, Santa will be here tonight, as he has been so often before. Actually here is the Santa Chair—we will be seeing him very, very soon”.

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer)—“But what else goes on here today?”

Mayor Donahue – “we have seen all afternoon many, many wonderful non-profit organizations around our local streets and the singing of Christmas Carols, horses and carriages clip clopping along, in addition to a new skating rink and wait you will see our grand finale—the lighting of our great Star.”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer)—“So all of this is just a government boondoggle to sing old songs, visit Santa, and eat chili?

Mayor Donahue—“Ebenezer, You just don't get it, do you? (fades back)

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer)—“Bah!”

Gary Shapiro “And then the clock tolled Three. And who should appear but…”

House Rep. Carole Murray—“Ebenezer, I am the Spirit of Starlighting future.”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer)—“You mean this just goes on and on?”

Rep. Murray—“I'm here to unveil the true meaning of Starlighting, Ebenezer. Through our honoring of the past, and celebrating the present, we create something new and vital.”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer)—(suspiciously) “And what's that?”

Rep. Murray—“We create community. From our shared experiences, our gathering with children, our hopes for the future, we build an enduring and inviting Town, truly an inspiration, a light, for the entire state."

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer) (starting to smile) “You mean, the past, the present, and future of Starlighting is not only about economic development, but also the development of a common bond?”

Rep. Murray—“Yes, Ebenezer.”

Jamie LaRue—(Ebenezer) “Why, that's .... not bad! God bless us, every one!”

Gary Shapiro—“And forever after it was said that Horace Ebenezer kept the spirit of Starlighting in his heart, and never missed a single ceremony for the rest of his life.”

Douglas County Libraries hits USA Today

2011-11-17T15:28:00.002-07:00

Check this out.

Cute kid plays ukulele

2011-11-17T10:38:00.001-07:00

This has only had about 49 million hits since it first went up in Dec. 2009, so I'm guessing I'm not the first to blog about it. But I love this kid. He doesn't know the words to the song, and it doesn't even matter. Attitude is all. THIS is content creation that counts. Watch this when you need not only to be reminded of the indomitable spirit of humanity, but you need a laugh.

Thanks to Maddy for finding this. Wonderful beyond words.

More musing on older technolgoy

2011-11-13T21:18:00.001-07:00

I mentioned in my last post that I finally broke down and upgraded my Acer Aspire netbook from its original Linpus Lite (Linux) OS to a new Linux Mint 11. It is MUCH better (and yes, I got tkoutline to work -- just had to apt-get install the file it told me it couldn't find). But Mint also told me that I have an older and never more than 34% charged battery. Truth is, with this 3 cell battery, I don't think I ever had more than an hour before I had to plug it in. Which is pathetic, given that this computer doesn't even have a hard drive. (It uses an 8 meg SD card, which truly has always been plenty for my modest needs.)

So I noodled around on the web and found a 9 cell battery that promises 10 hours of charge. I ordered it. That will be an interesting thing, if it works. It is certainly much easier to write on the netbook, and do various other computing tasks, than it is to use an iPad.

But the point of this posting is to underscore the advantage of holding onto equipment past a few hardware cycles. Recently, I replaced my old Palm Pre smart phone battery. Originally, they cost $20-30 dollars. Now, you can get them for $2.

The 9 cell battery I just ordered retailed originally for $121. Now it goes for just under $30.

There comes a point when you don't actually NEED all of the computer equipment you have around the house, and I just might be there. On the other hand, I actually do a lot of writing, and it's good to have a backup. Or two.

But it's a lot cheaper to hang onto something till it really does die, doing the odd repair as needed, than to replace everything all the time with something new.

Time for an Acer Aspire update?

2011-11-12T18:41:00.007-07:00

I guess the issue is Google. It seems to have upgraded some things in Google Docs, and suddenly my old Acer Aspire netbook, running a version of Linpus Lite (based on Fedora 8, which is WAY back there by now) doesn't work that well with Google anymore. Not only that, I couldn't get it to load Chrome. It's the problem of maintaining an aging platform.

I haven't been updating the little netbook because (a) it wasn't broken, so I couldn't see a reason to fix it, (b) Linpus Lite does boot VERY quickly (20 seconds), and 3) I hadn't backed it all up first, which of course I should do first.

So I burned a CD of Linux Mint 11, and launched it as a Live CD to see if it worked on the Acer. It did. No customization was required at all. I'm using it right now. I was working through the files to see if I could get it all set up, and then started reading about Linux Mint 12.

I aked myself this question: Do I upgrade to the last stable version, based on Ubuntu's Gnome 2.32? Or do I step it up again to the underlying version of Gnome 3.0, but customized by Mint to look a little familiar?

And I suppose asking that question answered it for me. I want the netbook to be stable, which means (usually) that it has to be based on a version or two back in the world of OS's and applications. Mint 11 seems up-to-date enough for another year, I would think.

OK, time to back everything up.

---
Later. I dragged key files to a flash drive, then did have some struggles "reformatting." When I chose a location, the installer crashed. I got past that by launching the installer again, and just waiting awhile before I selected the location option.

It takes a little longer to start up the netbook now -- from 20 seconds before to 40 or 50 seconds now. Now, the OS requires me to type my password before I can use it. I traded convenience for security.

Then I spent some time downloading a few programs I use a lot (Notecase Pro, Xmind, Kompozer), and transferring my address book into Thunderbird, etc. I haven't gotten it to launch tkoutline yet, for reasons that are mysterious, but I'll figure that out soon enough I imagine.

But once I log in, it looks good, is reasonably responsive, and lets me do want I want to do.

My new desktop looks like this:

Incidentally, Linux Mint did tell me that I probably have a damaged battery. It's the original, which never did last long. I can probably track one of those down, too, allowing me to wring another year or two of use out of it.

First sale doctrine

2011-10-28T08:19:00.002-07:00

Thanks to Jeff Donlan, director of the Salida Regional Library District, for this link: "The Digital Death of Copyright's First Sale Doctrine" by AnneMarie Bridy.

The issue is very clearly laid out in this blog post: the difference between copyright (the author's ownership of the rights to the work) and sale of a copy (the particular instance of that work) is what has allowed the flourishing of a rich marketplace of ideas. We buy a book at full price, and pass it along or resell it at a used book store. The author stills owns the copyright, but the copy moves through many hands. And so it finds many readers.

In the Digital Age, triggered by the infamous software EULA (End User License Agreement) and the assertion of new rights (I'm only letting you access this, you don't own the copy), suddenly that open market place is shutting down. Authors -- or more usually, publishers -- are asserting that copyright and copy are the same. Nothing is for sale. It's only for lease.

Does this make sense in the software world? I would argue that it doesn't. But my main interest is the transfer of this issue to the ebook publishing world. The ironic result is that this will result in less recognition for authors -- fewer readers, fewer sales, less influence, and ultimately, a probable real decline in literacy.

This issue is precisely the thing my library is trying to address through its establishment of its own publishing platform. We're happy to pay for what we use, and happy, even, to push our patrons to places where they can buy what we helped them find. But we are opposed to the removal of "first sale" altogether. Our mission is to promote literacy, after all, not to erode it.

NISO - The e-Book Renaissance conference

2011-10-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

Interesting conference. I've been tweeting at #nisoebook. Will come back later to add some of the big takeaways, but the main one is an obvious thing to get from a National Information Standards Organization conference: standards (file formats, accessibility guidelines) matter.

Just listened to Steve Paxhia, who gave a great snapshot about ebook adoption by various markets. The big thing here is that ebook adoption is still on the upswing, about 25% of market, and that they are active library users eager for more content. They read more than others.

And if I may opine here, I think they would like, very much, to be able to donate the books they've bought back to the library.

Training staff on ebooks and ereaders

2011-10-16T13:23:00.001-07:00

The amazing Sue Polanka spoke at our recent Colorado Association of Libraries conference about all things ebook. She has become a trusted business intelligence reporter, and has the most comprehensive -- and clear -- presentation on what's up than anyone I've run across.

As she recently blogged at her No shelf required site, she and I talked about strategies to get library staff better informed about ebooks and ebook readers. Such training tends to be expensive and slippery. It costs a lot - in equipment, presenter time, or staff time - to give a solid introduction to all the issues, and unless a staff member USES that particular device, it all fades away fast.

So my library did something different. We asked our Foundation board to offer a $50 rebate to any staff member who bought a Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iPad, Android tablet, or HP Touchpad (this last was my idea, and yeah, I know HP pulled the plug on it). The board thought it was brilliant. We gave our staff three months to do it: the month before we announced the rebate (so as not to punish our early adopters), the current month, and the next month. And we gave the full $50 AFTER taxes (it counts as compensation). Out of about 320 staff members, 104 took us up on it. And now, they train themselves, get together regularly to compare notes over lunch, and find themselves far more able to support the devices of our patrons. It was cheap, effective, and quick. It moved the whole staff rapidly forward in tech savvy. Recommended.

Sharon Morris on Trends

2011-10-16T13:16:00.000-07:00

For the past several years (since 2008), the Colorado State Library's Director of Library Development and Innovation, Sharon Morris, has given a talk at the annual Colorado Association of Libraries conference about library trends. She has a sharp eye, and I find that the things she picks are the things to watch. I'm pleased to report that she's put up a site, here, where she briefly summarizes her observations. She also, from time to time, posts her thoughts about various issues. Highly recommended.

There, I said it, they're crazy

2011-09-15T13:36:00.002-07:00

Recently I had lunch with a friend, a very successful businesswoman, who went off on a rant. She said three things that made me laugh.

First she quoted some of the wackier comments of the current GOP presidential candidates (particularly Michele Bachman, Rick Perry, and Ron Paul). There were some doozies.

Then she said she blamed Ronald Reagan. Again I laughed.

"No, really," she said. "Reagan cut funding for mental institutions. So there are more crazy people on the streets.

"And you know," she said, leaning forward, eyes wide, "we find crazy people very attractive!"

I laughed again. But the more I think about it, the more I think she's right.

I don't watch TV much, but at a hotel one night I surfed around until I found some kind of game show. Ladies were licking bugs off the windshield of a car. For money, I think. I hope they got money.

And when they completed that task, the gleeful emcee said, "OK, but will they...?" and I flipped the channel. I have no idea what revolting ordeal was next, but I had no doubt that the contestants were up for it. Or that millions of people at home could hardly wait to see it.

Crazy people say things we simply wouldn't, and do things we'd never dream of.

On the one hand, that's because many of us have or had mothers who would be mortified.

On the other hand, there's a sneaking admiration for the unfettered tongue or body. Sometimes, looneyness looks like courage.

But this isn't a political blog entry. (Yet.) I just read about a seminal psychological study.

It was called "On Being Sane in Insane Places," by David Rosenhan. It was published in the prestigious journal "Science" in 1973.

There were two parts to the study. The first part sent to mental institutions eight perfectly sane people complaining of brief auditory hallucinations. All eight were admitted.

Afterward, these people reported that they hadn't had any more problems. One got out in seven days. One of them endured fifty-two days of "treatment." Not one of the institutions caught on that the pseudo-patients were faking it.

Oh, except that the other residents did catch on. THEY could tell.

The second part of the study was a response to one of the hospitals who said that they would never have fallen for such a ploy. So Rosenhan said he would send a few pseudo-patients to them over the next three months. Then didn't.

Nonetheless, this institution reported that 41 of the 193 patients admitted in that time were fakes, and another 42 were suspected to be.

In other words, the only people who can recognize genuine mental illness are those who suffer from it. Sane people who have the misfortune to find themselves in insane institutions may never escape.

And it just might be that insane people, with enough media attention (and voter approval), could wind up being in charge of those institutions.

Or as Adlai Stevenson once said, "In America, anyone can become president. That's one of the risks you take."

----------
Some relevant words of wisdom from Pogo's Walt Kelly:
"I'll tell you, son, the minority got us out-numbered!" - Congersman Frog
"It ain't that your majority is outnumbered, you're just out-surrounded." -
Tammananny Tiger (to Pogo)

LaRue v. CDE: injunction granted

2011-08-13T10:43:00.005-07:00

On Friday, August 12, 2011, Denver District Judge Michael A. Martinez granted a permanent injunction against Douglas County School District's "Choice Scholarship Program."

A link to that decision is here. It's 68 pages long. I read it through this morning and found it fascinating and instructive on many levels.

No doubt the DCSD will appeal it, but the decision, and the judge's language, is both clear and definite. The voucher program demonstrably violates Colorado's Constitution, and it seems to me that that was precisely its intent. The judge concluded that the likelihood of the plaintiffs prevailing is very high; the likelihood of DCSD prevailing is very low.

I haven't written or said much about this lately, because I think the original complaint pretty much said it all. (Please note the exact language of the Constitution therein.) Finally, it was a straightforward legal question, and I really didn't see how the voucher program could possibly withstand judicial review.

But one thing that hasn't been much talked about is the faulty premise lying at the heart of this debate. The position held by some is that the primary purpose of public education is to provide private parental choice, however that might affect the public good. Many letters to the editor repeat the phrase, "It's all about choice!"

But it's not.

The purpose of public education is to communicate an organized and shared body of secular knowledge, and the fundamental skills of literacy and numeracy, to ALL the general populace. A well-educated citizenry is good for all of us. If parents choose to pursue a private religious education for their children, they remain free to do so. They just don't get to use public money. That money was dedicated by the community for purposes clearly defined as a public good, not to further private religious beliefs.

The historical precedents for that do go back to the founding of the nation. The founders believed that both religion and state suffered from too much intermingling. I've read a lot of recycled evangelical statements lately about how we were designed to be a Christian nation, and Jefferson's notion of the separation of church and state was ONLY about protecting religion from the state, and not the other way around. Both of those are simply wrong, have never been true, and repeating them doesn't change the historical facts. I read, thought long and hard about, and presented the evidence for that conclusion in the first chapter of my book, The New Inquisition.

Moreover, despite the repeated cries of Christian victimization, the fact is that the United States' separation of church and state hasn't hurt Christianity one bit. Religion is thriving. It doesn't need governmental subsidy. And providing such support would violate a host of founding principles that make as much sense today as they did then. For the perils of too cozy a relationship between church and state, see the fundamentalist Islamic madrassas in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Finally, the idea that I should be able to claim my per capita share of public money, and divert it to private ends is like saying, hey Colorado, send me a check for all of my gas taxes and road subsidies and a piece of everybody else's contribution because I don't USE public roads, and I want to buy an off road dirt bike. This misunderstanding of the social contract leads first to the forced dissolution of shared infrastructure, then to anarchy.

People are free to dislike, speak against, and even work to overturn constitutional provisions. But there IS such a thing as the common welfare, it's still worth defending, and the funding that we dedicate to public purposes should remain dedicated to those ends.

Oregon photo from tide pool

2011-08-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

Taken with my little Palm Pre, then rotated and cropped in Gimp. Found art.

IE Users are dumb

2011-07-29T16:48:00.001-07:00

I know, that sounds a little insulting. But it's true. Click here to see graphs and everything.

Fedora 15 and Gnome 3

2011-07-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

I burned a copy of Fedora 15, then loaded it first on my desktop machine, and now on my Acer netbook.

A few brief comments.

First, it did load, relatively quickly, on both machines. The desktop image is lovely, and it's all very spare. I got it to talk to both wireless cards without incident.

Second, on the Acer I had to go into the System Settings (much easier than older Gnome 2) and fiddle with the touchpad to enable one tap clicking. The default resolution is right on the Acer too -- I had to fiddle with the display on my desktop. (1024x768 seems to be the standard laptop). But the Gnome 3, or Fedora 15, fonts are too skinny.

Third, it was a little jarring to try to move around from one active program to the next. Instead of just clicking on a panel, you have to click on Activities, then a sort of panel on the right, then the item. That replaces one click with three, which seems LESS efficient.

Fourth, but it's fun to learn new things, stretch the brain.

For now, I'll leave Xfce, still based on Linpus Lite, which was itself based on Fedora 8, up and running. It works.

Pam Sandlian Smith and Sharon Morris on Storycorps

2011-07-11T13:17:00.002-07:00

Click here to listen to two of my favorite people speaking with deep passion and warmth -- and a lot of high mutual regard -- about the wonderful profession of librarianship.

The Seven Things We Do

2011-07-09T13:24:00.010-07:00

This image (thank you Rochelle Logan!) details my attempt to describe to my public library board of trustees, and the public generally, just what we do. Not what we say we do, or think we do. What we can actually measure.

Note: you may have to click on the image to make it large enough to see clearly.

I began by sorting (by descending volume) of all the statistics my library (the Douglas County Libraries in Douglas County, Colorado) gathered in the year 2010 (January-December).

There are seven broad categories of use that far overshadow everything else. AFTER these stats, it's a drop of an order of magnitude (a factor of ten). This is what my library DOES.

I've carried this around for awhile, and think the only big things missing are these:

* wireless use. This is growing very rapidly. it might be as big as PC use. (It turns out we have captured this. It's about 4,000 to 6,000 a month, so 48,000 to 72,000 a year. Right now, that puts it midway between the 7 things and everything else.)

* in-library use. There are a lot of people -- reflected in the door count -- who come to the library who might not do anything captured anywhere else. If they come in and hang out, chat with friends, talk to staff, maybe even use a study room, read a few magazines, and leave, we don't really capture it.

I have several questions. The main one is this: is the experience of Douglas County Libraries similar to that of other libraries? If so, these ratios of use may help us in our planning efforts. I've asked my colleague Nicolle Steffens of the Library Research Service to look at that in her spare time (of which there may be zero!).

I'd be interested to hear from other libraries -- and library users -- about this picture of library use. Does it match your experience? Is there anything that surprises you? Anything that YOU think is missing?

Anyhow, here's the picture: one big thing, two roughly equal things (library as physical and virtual hub), and four other key services, also roughly equal to each other.

Going clockwise from the right side:

* Circ is circulation. It's the total number of items checked out in a year. (I'm working on another slice here. Circulation about splits evenly between adult print, children's materials, and adult movies and music.)

* V-visits is the number of virtual visits (people actually viewing a page). The two big activities, incidentally, are either going to the catalog to look for something and place a hold (which winds up in Circ), or looking for storytime hours (which winds up in "Prog(ram) attendance

* P-visits is the number of physical visits (doorcount divided by two).

* Ref is the number of reference questions staff responds to in a year.

* Database use is the number of unique searches in one of our subscription databases. Most of these come from the public, not from the staff.

* Prog attend is program attendance - the number of bodies who show up for our library-sponsored programs. It does not include meeting room attendance.

* PC is the number of unique logins for use of our public PCs.

Philosoraptor

2011-07-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

We have a notepad in the shower, on some kind of water proof paper, using a special pencil. A few days ago, I found this, created by my son, Max.

A dinosaur, with goatee and beret, says, "Hmm, yes, busy." The "Like" is, I think, my daughter's comment.

So what's bad: the other shower isn't working. What's good: live art feed and commentary.

3M and the Douglas County Libraries

2011-06-30T10:21:00.001-07:00

3M was one of the big hits of ALA -- an alternative to Overdrive. As it happens, DCL had a lot to do with this product, as in pretty much defining the goals, doing the mock-up of how it should work, getting it to directly integrate with our catalog, and more. Major kudos here to Monique Sendze, my Associate Director of Information Technology, and her staff.

I spoke with Eric Hellman at ALA about it, and he wrote a nice blog post here. He's a smart guy.

Jefferson County Public Libraries hosts 6 community meetings

2011-06-28T13:30:00.002-07:00

JCPL Facing Closures: Learn More at Save Jeffco Libraries Community Meetings

(GOLDEN, Colo. – June 17, 2011, UPDATED June 21, 2011) Save Jeffco Libraries is hosting six community meetings to inform Jefferson County residents about the significant budgetary issues facing Jefferson County Public Library (JCPL) and the group’s efforts to form an independent library district.

“Over the past several years, the Jefferson County Commissioners have diverted $6 million in property taxes from JCPL’s dedicated mill levy to other County departments,” said former Library Board chair and Save Jeffco Libraries founder Tom Atkins. “Diversion of these funds has resulted in staff layoffs and Monday closures.”

“If JCPL remains a part of Jeffco government, things will only worsen. The 2012 Library budget will be $2 million short, and it is obvious when you look at the numbers that Jeffco residents will likely see some of our libraries close. As an independent library district, five-year projections look much better. Funding will be tight, but they will be able to keep the doors open.”

Discussions will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. in the meeting room at the following JCPL locations:

Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - Arvada Library, 7525 W. 57th Ave., Arvada
Thursday, July 7, 2011 - Golden Library, 1019 10th St., Golden
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 - Standley Lake Library, 8485 Kipling St., Arvada
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - Evergreen Library, 5000 Hwy. 73 (at Buffalo Park Rd.), Evergreen
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - Belmar Library, 555 S. Alison Pkwy., Lakewood
Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011 - Columbine Library, 7706 W. Bowles Ave., Littleton

For more information, visit Savejeffcolibraries.org, or call 303.726.9003. County residents can support the formation of an independent library district by signing the Statement of Support at Savejeffcolibraries.org and writing the Jefferson County Commissioners at Commish@jeffco.us and the Library Board at board@jeffcolibrary.org.

###

About Save Jeffco Libraries
Save Jeffco Libraries is a grassroots initiative formed by Jefferson County Public Library patrons, including many former Library Trustees, who are concerned about the Library’s funding and independence and believe creation of a district is the only way to preserve and protect its future. Save Jeffco Libraries is not affiliated with Jefferson County Public Library, its Board of Trustees, Jefferson County Library Foundation, or Friends of the Library.

Back from ALA - the death of commercial publishing

2011-06-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

On June 25, I was one of the panelists speaking at "The Future is Now! e-books and their increasing impact on library services." I made one deliberately provocative statement that woke up some people. I mentioned that my book, which retails for $40, earns me $4 with each sale. 10% is pretty good for a first time author. But somebody publishing an ebook on Amazon can sell it for $10, and make $7. I said, "The bullet has passed through the brain of commercial publishing. Now we're just waiting for the body to fall."

My point here is that the economic model of commercial publishing isn't so attractive anymore. The numbers show it.

I only had 12 minutes for my part of the panel, so as you can imagine, I have lots more to say about all this. Obviously, commercial publishing is still around. Patrons still ask for traditional content. Libraries have to find ways to get it. My library is working with Overdrive, 3M, and others.

My premise is that ebook and self-publishing together represent an explosion in the quantity of writing, and librarians don't know much about it. It's easy to dismiss it all as bad. Much of it may be. Much of commercial publishing isn't so hot, either.

But if the job of public libraries is to gather, organize, and present the intellectual content of our culture to the community, we'd better get busy. We need to look into it, find ways to sample and deliver it, figure out what it means. Maybe even take part in it, help our communities make rich, compelling, and high quality contributions to it. Become publishers ourselves.

And in a time when a lot of publishers are suddenly refusing to sell this content to us at all, I think it's important to remind them that they aren't the only game in town. They are not even where the action is. Many independent publishers and writers are EAGER to sell to libraries.

Librarians can whine about how corporations are unilaterally redefining the whole system of public access to content. It's true, too. Or, we can do something more than react to a market. We can help define one that is far more interesting and modern. Guess which one sounds like more fun?

Incidentally, our own library's attempt to grow a new information infrastructure that seamlessly integrates print and digital media, through one unified catalog, instead of a series of vendor silos, is pretty neat. But I was blown away by Brewster Kahle talking about the enormous scale and success of the Internet Archive.

My message to the ALA audience was to start some experiments with the managing of content, instead of passively waiting for vendors to tell us what they'll allow us to do. But Kahle is doing it internationally, with all kinds of media, and his message was even more powerful. Go to publishers and tell them this: we want to buy your ebooks. Will you sell them to us?

Obviously, I think our messages go together pretty well. And it was a pleasure to meet the good people involved with that effort.

LaRue versus Colorado Board of Education

2011-06-23T12:41:00.003-07:00

The ACLU website has the press release here. There have been other articles about it in the Denver Post, EdNewsColorado, and others.

There are a few facts I want to declare.

First, this is a private action, not a library action. My wife (Suzanne) and I are doing this as parents of a child at Douglas County High School. Although I am indeed the director of the Douglas County Libraries, this action and my employer are completely separate. Public servants do not sacrifice their rights to free speech and civic engagement. We are taxpayers who strongly disapprove of the rechanneling of public funds into private and religious institutions. I repeat: THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DOUGLAS COUNTY LIBRARIES.

Second, why are we first on the list of plaintiffs (and there are many eminent plaintiffs, as you'll see in the complaint)? I don't really know. Perhaps because the name LaRue is so mellifluous. But when we agreed to be plaintiffs, we agreed to be a part of the public process.

Third, I think it's important to recite a little history here. We homeschooled our daughter through first grade, and our son through second. Suzanne and I were co-founders of the Academy Charter School, the second charter school in Colorado, and the first to be initiated by parents. A friend of mine, Laurel Iakovakis, and I were key in its adoption of the Core Knowledge Curriculum (which was subsequently adopted by many charter schools). I served on ACS's Board twice. I have served on Douglas County School District committees. I've worked on state curricular standards. Both of us (although Suzanne far more than I) volunteer for various school organizations like the Douglas County High School Band, and the DCHS International Baccalaureate program. I have written many newspaper articles about issues related to public education.

In other words, we are not opposed to educational choice, or educational reform. We are firmly committed to the support of public education, whose work is so vital to our nation. This isn't a new thing for us.

The Colorado Constitution is quite definite that public moneys shall not be spent on religious education. From my reading of early American history (as reflected in my book "The New Inquisition") the separation of church and state is a founding principle of our nation, and I fully support it. In our view, the policy decision by the School Board to launch a voucher program is illegal, inherently inequitable (taxpayers in the relatively poor Costilla County are supposed to underwrite the religious education of wealthy Douglas County taxpayers?), and profoundly destructive to the sustainability of public funding for education. It is also destructive to the rigor and consistency of education within Colorado, much less the United States of America.

Finally, please note that here, as in my newspaper columns, I don't cast aspersions on people's motives, or try to assassinate their character. I just think the idea is wrong, and should be vigorously challenged. Naturally, I don't imagine for a moment that this courtesy will be extended to me.

Haiku: the Centipede Saga

2011-06-20T21:01:00.002-07:00

Awhile back, I wrote a haiku about a centipede. It went like this:

towering cloud
dominates evening sky
and centipede

It happens that I'm part of a haiku email list with a couple of close friends, Sharon and Jeff. Sharon was tickled by it.

I was driving up to Windsor one day, which took a long time. Along the way, I turned on the radio, and NPR was doing a fundraising drive. So I got this idea. We should write 100 centipede haiku. It was kind of a matching haiku program. I imagined the call: "Send in ONE haiku, and we'll put another one right up against it!"

And because there wasn't much to listen to, I cranked out a bunch of them:

journey begins with
a single step - but which one?
centipede quandary

martial melody:
rhythm of centipede feet
drumming on window

for haiku chorale
just 96 centipedes
to go

first take a deep breath -
the centipede's ambition
to climb Mt. Evans

when centipedes sing
they have to stop walking and
hold perfectly still

stopping is just wrong
it takes so long to get it
all going again

wind rippling through grain
centipede whirring along
the edge of wet field

if for every foot
someone gave him a penny
he'd have a dollar

OR
if someone gave him
a penny for every foot
he'd have a dollar

master machinist
needed to build centipede's
tiny bicycle

what is the sound
of fifty handsclapping
one centipede

So then Jeff came back with a couple of his own:

In the moonlight
flowing like silk
centipede

How does one know
when a centipede
is bored?

Then a few more:

applause
at the centipede opera
sound of thunder

PBS special
about the viking ships
centipede favorite

how many
centipedes does it take
to change a light bulb?

centipedes gather
to watch the truck pull in
piano movers

pale centipede
organs of Tömösvary
night touch

sightless
the old centipede still knows
she's got legs

then even more:

sign at the
centipede foot massage
sticker shock!

no broken legs
in the centipede
emergency room

how to hold hands
on the first date
centipede angst

no market for
roll-on centipede
deodorant

at the stadium
centipedes take too long
to do the wave

Now the interesting thing is that centipedes rarely, in fact, have 100 legs. According to Wikipedia, though, "Centipedes have an odd number of pairs of legs, e.g. 15 or 17 pairs of legs (30 or 34 legs) but never 16 pairs (32 legs)." So you have to ask: is 100 poems right?

This just in: Sharon writes,

centipedes
dosey do
among the clover

(and an alternate:)
Centipedes
Dosey do in the clover
Allamande for luck

And now I'm thinking:

centipede
marching band
only one horn

and

crack the whip:
one centipede
at the roller rink

So this is my frank call to the universe. This may be your ONLY chance to contribute to a haiku centipede saga. Remember, poets are standing by.

---
Later. More from Sharon:

Please keep off the grass
Sign on justice center lawn
Savvy centipedes

Squirming blades of grass
Catches robin's searching glaze
Centipede for lunch

Centipede hand jive
Too complicated for
Curious worms

Centipede searches
Through the field of clover
Any with four leaves?

--
And another one from Jeff:

do centipedes
ever dare to ask
for handouts?

Linux Mint and Xfce

2011-06-12T17:37:00.000-07:00

I mentioned that I'd upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04. But I was irritated by the fact that it wouldn't display the right resolution: it did 1024x768 instead of 1280x1024. I messed around with the Monitors program, but couldn't get it to work. Eventually, in a fit of pique, I just wiped it all out with the latest Linux Mint. It's based on Ubuntu, but has all kinds of special applications.

The good news: in Mint, the Monitors program allowed me to reset the resolution for a session without much fuss. ANOTHER program allowed me to set it as a startup setting. Why it didn't work in Ubuntu, I have no idea.

But something about the Linux Mint Gnome setup just didn't feel right to me. So I downloaded the Xfce desktop. I like it. It seems much cleaner. I did have to mess with display settings yet again: Settings>Appearance>Fonts, then enable anti-aliasing, do slight hinting, and RGB pixel order.

That's a lot to go through just to get it to look good on a generic LCD monitor.

But I'm happy with it now. It's fast, spare, and easily customizable through the user interface. I set up the panel to include the programs I want readily to hand, and it already feels unobtrusive and comfortable.

Besides, it beats doing anything useful on a Sunday (other than taking out the recycling).

Library standards - videos

2011-06-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

The video here is my interview, arranged by the Colorado State Library's Shelley Walchak, talking about the new library standard of community engagement. This is just one of the series, but I was proud to be a part of this. Not only are the standards good in themselves, genuinely useful, but I like the video format as a way to introduce people to them.

Apple kills ebook app developer

2011-05-11T08:33:00.000-07:00

"BeamItDown Software and the iFlow Reader will cease operations as of May 31, 2011. We absolutely do not want to do this, but Apple has made it completely impossible for anyone but Apple to make a profit selling contemporary ebooks on any iOS device. We cannot survive selling books at a loss and so we are forced to go out of business. We bet everything on Apple and iOS and then Apple killed us by changing the rules in the middle of the game."

You can read the full story here.

Author walks away from $500k deal to self-publish

2011-03-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to DCL staff person Dedra Anderson for sending this to me. Author Barry Eisler says, "my general point was that digital was going to become more and more attractive relative to paper. First, because the price of digital readers would continue to drop while the functionality would continue to increase; second, because more and more titles would become available for digital download at the same time more brick and mortar stores were closing. In other words, everything about paper represented a static defense, while everything about digital represented a dynamic offense. Not hard to predict how a battle like that is going to end."

And later, "the trends reinforce each other: the Borders in your neighborhood closes, so you try a low-priced digital reader, and you love the lower cost of digital books, the immediate delivery, the adjustable font, etc... and you never go back to paper. The reverse isn’t happening: people aren’t leaving digital for paper. There’s a ratchet effect in favor of digital."

And later, "Paper won’t disappear, but that’s not the point. The point is, paper will become a niche while digital will become the norm."

Bottom line: today's commercial publishers are "legacy publishers." Self-publishing is the future. And libraries really aren't ready for it.

Center for Digital Storytelling

2011-03-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

An interesting site here. I had a conversation with the Denver Post's Claire Martin today about some publishing trends, and she told me about this. It is yet another area where libraries could and should be active.

Author on publishing today

2011-03-24T10:43:00.001-07:00

Funny Margaret Atwood video and blog here about an author's perspective on the changing publishing world. The content is rich and incisive. The Power Point slides are priceless.

American Libraries piece

2011-03-24T10:38:00.002-07:00

I really like this Beverly Goldberg piece. She makes an important point with the question: "why should it matter that a 'single eBook license to a library may never expire, never wear out, and never need replacement?' Most printed books last for years in library collections and that didn’t affect book sales when the economy was a bit more flush; those loanable titles just whetted the public’s appetite to borrow and buy more. Why should that pattern change for e-books? If anything, there may well be more incentive, since a borrowed e-book vanishes from a patron’s e-reader device when the loan period ends even if the borrower wants to retain the copy for a few more days to finish it."

See also this Slate piece, which also cites studies about the contribution of the secondary market to the primary market. As I wrote to a publisher friend, "I think the publisher/author fear of resale/lending is not only bad for society, it's bad for YOU."

Independent Publisher opines on ebooks and libraries

2011-03-24T09:55:00.001-07:00

I realized that I should have blogged about our press release about a partnership between Douglas County Libraries, Red Rocks Community College Library, and the Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA) last week. My column about it is here, though.

Since then, we've had a follow-up meeting with past, present, and future presidents of CIPA. The past president, Kenn Amdahl, wrote an interesting post. You can find it here.

This kind of conversation - publisher concerns, library concerns - is good and important. Kenn and I have some disagreements about the resale of digital works. But we are agreed about many more things, and we might even get to agreement about this. It certainly a lot better for publishers/writers and librarians to talk to each other than it is for those publishers to simply announce, as HarperCollins did, how things will work now.

Google settlement overturned

2011-03-22T14:43:00.002-07:00

I'm surprised, but generally pleased. Google digitized many titles without copyright approval, then required people to "opt-out" if they had objections. That meant, as critics noted, that centuries of copyright protections disappeared overnight, and Google became the owner of record.

But now, United States District Court Judge Denny Chin writes, "In the end, I conclude that the ASA is not fair, adequate, and reasonable. As the United States and other objectors have noted, many of the concerns raised in the objections would be ameliorated if the ASA were converted from an 'opt-out' settlement to an 'opt-in' settlement."

I bet there's more to come!

Open letter to HarperCollins

2011-03-03T12:46:00.002-07:00

Today I wrote this to HarperCollins, at this address.

You may wish to do the same.

Dear HarperCollins:

I have written about this elsewhere, most recently here.

I have three concerns and one suggestion. My first concern is that as a volume purchaser, libraries should get discounts, not price hikes coinciding with new limitations of use. A second concern is that content licensing is itself profoundly destructive to the emerging ebook ecosystem. At present, libraries greatly assist authors in finding audiences. Passing things around – pulling copies from the library and distributing to booksales, church bazaars, charter schools, etc. – not only helps people find authors in ways they can afford, it also encourages reading, which is clearly one of the library’s role. From the other side, many libraries RECEIVE donations from people who bought a book but are done with it. How does one donate an ebook to the library under your model? My third concern is simply the long tail problem. What happens when our license expires, but the file is no longer available for renewing? You won’t let us own things. How can we be sure that titles endure past some arbitrary time?

My suggestion is this: instead of punishing us for being among your best customers, make us sales partners. My library has over 2 million website visits a year. All of those people are looking for books. Douglas County is one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, and highly tech savvy. We’re working on prototype systems for the display of ebooks, further simplifying the process of locating new authors.

The way it works now is people like what they read, so buy it. But there’s no reason we couldn’t make that an option right from our catalogs. And for every borrowing that turns into a purchase, the library should get a shareback, or credit for purchase, or reduction in the cost of future purchases, or some mix of the above. Buying through a library is a perk provided by the library, leveraging the cooperative purchasing power of their taxes (and yes, our patrons should get a discount, too). Advantage to you: a nationwide sales system, with eager salespeople you don’t even have to pay.

Remember, all we’re guilty of is the desire to buy books from you, and to generate ongoing interest in them. If HarperCollins isn’t interested in selling to us, I am confident that many small, independent publishers – and a growing number of self-published authors – certainly will be. And that might be a change in the ecosystem, too, accelerated by such decisions as the content licensing model. But I can’t see how HarperCollins would benefit from it.

EBook User's Bill of Rights

2011-02-28T13:07:00.001-07:00

I got this today from Sarah Houghton-Jan and Andy Woodworth. Good and timely stuff, and it's time that it gets out to the public.

The eBook Users Bill of Rights is a statement of the basic freedoms that should be granted to all eBook users.

The eBook User's Bill of Rights

Every eBook user should have the following rights:
* the right to use eBooks under guidelines that favor access over proprietary limitations
* the right to access eBooks on any technological platform, including the hardware and software the user chooses
* the right to annotate, quote passages, print, and share eBook content within the spirit of fair use and copyright
* the right of the first-sale doctrine extended to digital content, allowing the eBook owner the right to retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased eBooks

I believe in the free market of information and ideas.

I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can flourish when their works are readily available on the widest range of media. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can thrive when readers are given the maximum amount of freedom to access, annotate, and share with other readers, helping this content find new audiences and markets. I believe that eBook purchasers should enjoy the rights of the first-sale doctrine because eBooks are part of the greater cultural cornerstone of literacy, education, and information access.

Digital Rights Management (DRM), like a tariff, acts as a mechanism to inhibit this free exchange of ideas, literature, and information. Likewise, the current licensing arrangements mean that readers never possess ultimate control over their own personal reading material.

These are not acceptable conditions for eBooks.

I am a reader. As a customer, I am entitled to be treated with respect and not as a potential criminal. As a consumer, I am entitled to make my own decisions about the eBooks that I buy or borrow.

I am concerned about the future of access to literature and information in eBooks. I ask readers, authors, publishers, retailers, librarians, software developers, and device manufacturers to support these eBook users' rights.

These rights are yours. Now it is your turn to take a stand.

To help spread the word, copy this entire post, add your own comments, remix it, and distribute it to others.

Blog it, Tweet it, Facebook it, email it, and post it on a telephone pole.
#ebookrights

To the extent possible under law, the person who associated with this work has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.

http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0

Ten Strategies for Being Future Minded

2011-02-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

My friend and colleague Sharon Morris, Director of Library Development and Innovation for the Colorado State Library, has written a wise little essay here -- "Ten Strategies for Being Future-Minded." As I say in my comments, this isn't about just library futures; it's a fundamental orientation to existence. Recommended.

Recombobulation

2011-02-23T08:24:00.002-07:00

You know how when you go through airport security you wind up all discombobulated? Pants falling off, shoeless, coatless, etc.?

Well, at the end of the line, the Milwaukee airport has this wonderful sign.

Below the sign is a nice, big, comfy spot to pull yourself together again, catch your breath, straighten up, and fly right.

Recent articles on ebook publishing on Linux

2011-02-22T15:03:00.001-07:00

"Linux and borrowing library ebooks"

"Creating and Reading eBooks on Linux with Calibre"

"10 ways to e-publish with Linux"

Trim pdfs for your ereader with Briss

2011-01-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

Click here to find an open source tool to make it easier to read pdfs on screens the pdf program really wasn't designed for: ereaders.

Amazon ebooks overtake paperbacks

2011-01-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

Click here to read the full story.

"Barely six months after crowing that its Kindle e-books were outselling its selection of hardcover books, Amazon has announced that sales of Kindle titles are now outpacing paperbacks, as well.

"The news came as Amazon announced its (disappointing, for Wall Street) earnings Thursday, with online retailing giant noting that since January 1, U.S. customers have bought 115 Kindle editions for every 100 paperbacks sold."

The trend continues apace.

I'm reading a book

2011-01-26T20:51:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, well, click here to see what I'm talking about.

Minimalist writing tools

2011-01-22T15:10:00.004-07:00

I downloaded an interesting program for my Ubuntu system today. It's called "PyRoom." Written in the Python programming language, it is like a walk back through time.

I went to the Synaptic software manager, found that PyRoom was listed as a choice, so installed it. A few moments later, it showed up in my "Office" menu. Launch it and you get...

* a mostly black screen, with a thin, outlined box for text in the middle.

* text that defaults to green (but I changed to amber).

And that's it. No menus, no control buttons. I don't even think it will print - you have to copy and paste into something else.

If you're not sure how to do something, type Ctrl-H and a help screen comes up in another black window. Ctrl-I tells you how many words you've written. Ctrl-P lets you change a few things. Ctrl-S lets you save a file. Ctrl-O lets you open more files to work with. Ctrl-Page Up or Down toggles between those files.

But basically, this cutting-edge program puts you back to word processing in 1985: an environment that is Zen-like in its purity, and apparently knows nothing at all about IM, or email, or distractions. So leaves you with nothing to focus on but creating text. Cruel, isn't it?

Apparently, the idea for this came from WriteRoom, which is a Mac program. You can even find a version of it online here, if you would like to sample the experience in a browser window. There are other distraction-free programs for various platforms: Q10 seems to be one of the best for Windows, and it has spell check!

ALSO, if you use the Chrome or Chromium browser, go to the "Web Store" and download Write Space. Open a tab to get the big, blank window. Type, and get both word count and spellcheck highlighting. It saves LOCALLY with each keystroke, as an SQLite database. It doesn't print or export, though - you have to copy and paste to something else.

Oh, and get this. All of them are free!

More on ebooks

2011-01-20T17:46:00.006-07:00

First, here's the graphic (revised):

[Click on it to get a more readable size!]

Next, here's a little more text to describe my thinking about the issues faced by libraries this year.

From left to right -- in something like chronological order -- I think there are 7 key strategic directions:

* Free content. Thanks to the amazing Valerie Horton of CLiC, it took just two months to deliver about 500 classics to virtually any library that already knew how to load a MARC file. If memory serves, over 68 countries, and some 2000+ libraries have at least looked at the file, and may well have downloaded it. Whether we use public domain or Creative Commons titles, we've proved we can quickly add them to our "holdings," and thereby demonstrate that libraries are paying attention.

* Vendors. Overdrive we know about; 3M and Baker and Taylor are now rolling out products, too. But we have to be vigilant to ensure that the content shows up in our catalogs (instead of requiring one search per source, like databases), AND that we continue to get DISCOUNTS, not price hikes for materials that are far cheaper to produce and distribute than paper. Libraries are a cooperative purchasing agreement, and we contribute, today, some 10% of the entire publishing market's income, and for children's books, 40%. That deserves a discount.

* Training. We do public tech petting zoos, one-on-one support, and online training right now. But we can be more systematic about all of these. Where are the Youtube guides?

* We have to work econtent more smoothly into our systems and work flow. We need mobile apps for people to grab our content, perhaps managing it from a Dropbox-like cloud location. Monique (head of IT at Douglas County Libraries) tells me that the Adobe Content Server would allow us to grab any ebook, with or without Digital Rights Management, and circulate it ("check it out," for you non-librarians). We can restrict use to one-copy-at-a-time, just as we've done for over a century. We don't NEED a vendor to offer us that content-and-presentation service. We'll be testing this in the first half of the year. I'm working with an ALA task force to help us roll out a "give an eBook to the Library" national campaign, highlighting the issues involved. Like, if you buy an ebook, you own it, right? So you can give it away!

* Display: our prototype Digital Power Wall is under rapid development. Imagine a wall-sized iPad that let you browse ebooks, then check them out on the spot.

* Longer term, I'd like to see libraries step into the world of self-publishing, guiding local writers up to a level of quality, then offering their ebooks for public use.

* Finally, resource sharing. I haven't given much thought to this one yet. First we have to learn how to acquire, display, and manage these materials as well as we do everything else. But eventually, we'll want to loan them to other libraries. Valerie has already started thinking about this.

There's a lot libraries can and should do, right now, to do what we've always done: provide public access to the intellectual content of our culture.

Amazon lending program - what should libraries do in response?

2010-12-31T09:16:00.003-07:00

A self-published author recently forwarded this email to me. It's intriguing on several levels.

From: "Amazon DTP"
Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2010 12:47 PM
Subject: Announcing Amazon’s Kindle Book Lending Program

Dear Publisher,

We are excited to announce Kindle book lending (http://www.amazon.com/kindle-lending). The Kindle Book Lending feature allows users to lend digital books they have purchased through the Kindle Store to their friends and family. Each book may be lent once for a duration of 14 days and will not be readable by the lender during the loan period.

All DTP titles are enrolled in lending by default. For titles in the 35% royalty option, you may choose to opt out of lending by deselecting the checkbox under "Kindle Book Lending," in the "Rights and Pricing" section of the title upload/edit process. You may not choose to opt out a title if it is included in the lending program of another sales or distribution channel. For more details, see section 5.2.2 of the Term and Conditions.

For more info on how Kindle Book Lending works, see our FAQ here: http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=581

Sincerely,
Amazon Digital Text Platform

First, with cloud computing and a global network in place, this would seem to position Amazon to become the world's digital library. In theory, anyone who buys a book through Amazon can share it with anyone else. That makes buying a Kindle, and one book, the price of a global library card. Add an app that says what all the other customers have available for loan, and there you have it.

Second, it's clear that libraries need a comparable alternative. Absent that, we have only the advantage of physical place, which while real and compelling, cedes the ground in digital lending. Clearly, that's not thinking far enough ahead.

Some options:

* through ALA, OCLC, or some other professional group, get Amazon to offer subnets of libraries. All our digital purchases (collectively made through our members) are available to those same members. A subnet might be limited to, for instance, the residents of Douglas County. This makes us the digital jukebox for our funders. This is truly no different than what we do now: one use at a time, a purchase for each book. It makes Amazon our ILS.

* establish our own independent servers, with various apps to access our purchased content. This means that either we need software to manage and preserve Digital Rights Management (DRM), or something to replace it (we strip the DRM and archive it, which is surely our right as the owner, but still allow only one use at a time, in keeping with the spirit and letter of copyright laws). That approach allows us to add our own content without going through a vendor. Call it the "local cloud."

As I said to my staff earlier today: things are moving fast. Libraries need to move fast, too.

P.S. A follow-up by Susan Linden in Loveland: it seems that PUBLISHERS are opting out, or have not opted in, among any of the top 10 books. That's an important point. But I'll counter with another one: today, self-published materials represent over 2.5 times the number of commercially published titles. They may be more positively disposed toward libraries.

Library Journal highlights eDiscover the Classics project

2010-12-30T10:08:00.001-07:00

A nice article here about CLiC's wonderful project. This Monday, we had about four people per hour coming to the reference desk asking for help with their new ebook readers. Thanks to the eDiscover the Classics project, and the wonderful how to guides posted by our staff here, we were able to help them. We have more to do in this area, but I believe it was vital for the library to appear ready to help our patrons with this new technology - or risk losing them altogether.

New computer

2010-12-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

I got my HP a520 Pavilion computer in May of 2004, and used nothing but Linux on it. Eventually, the fan gasped, memory chips were dying, and using it was getting painful. So I upgraded it for Christmas. I am now running a little System76 desktop machine, 2 gigs of RAM, prebundled with Ubuntu 10.10, "Maverick Meerkat." It's a 64 bit machine, but I can't say as it feels blindingly fast. Much faster than the old HP, for sure. It cost under $400, and will probably last me another 6 years.

It didn't take long to set up. It found monitor and printer with no problem - no setup necessary. I was stumped for a bit until I realized that what I thought was a flash drive was in fact the wireless modem. Nifty. The work of maybe half an hour to grab all my other programs, set things up for multimedia.

I fiddled around with Evolution (Outlook for Linux) for an unnecessary period of time, trying to get it to use my Google contacts and calendar. The trick seemed to be to start the program, then quit, then start it again. After that, it suddenly knew that when I asked for a new calendar, to offer Google as a type. Same thing with contacts. That stuff always feels so sloppy to me. It should work the first time. I also played around with reading in some older Thunderbird folders. So far, so good. It doesn't talk with our Exchange Server - which seems a little too new for Evolution to know about.

I think I also had a little moment of confusion after I copied over my files. I had to issue something like "chmod 760 * -R" to restore my permissions. But that's one command.

On the whole, pretty uneventful. It makes life so much easier not to have to sync my Palm, but let the Palm Pre sync wirelessly with the cloud. And since then, I've updated my website (I got a book with a chapter I contributed on community reference), sent out a column, updated a few journals, and so on. A piece of cake.

The Nook and public domain books

2010-12-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

Through the good graces of the the Colorado Library Consortium, my library added about 500 Project Gutenberg titles, mostly classics, to its catalog. In the past week, I've used that to read several books on my cell phone. Today I found a good review of the Barnes and Noble Nook Color ebook reader, ("It ain't heavy, it's my e-reader," by Nate Anderson") and was struck by this:

If e-book readers have done one thing for me above all else, it's getting me to read some terrific public domain books. In the last two weeks, I've been plowing through The Education of Henry Adams, Thoreau's wonderfully over-the-top essay on "Walking," Kafka's "Metamorphosis," Byron's Don Juan, and a late Victorian translation/abridgment of The Arabian Nights. I wouldn't have read these on a computer screen, I wouldn't have printed them out, and I wouldn't have bothered to purchase them—but I'm enjoying each of them tremendously.

This is exactly my own experience. Of course, since the name of the CLiC program is "e-Discover the Classics," that seems perfectly appropriate.

Castle Rock Arts Center

2010-12-17T11:37:00.001-07:00

http://www.vimeo.com/17901922

Produced for NewsTeam Boulder and TV Newsgathering class at the University of Colorado. Many thanks to Greater Castle Rock Art Guild and Front Range Theatre Company.

Look carefully, and you'll see the famous Tuna Boys at the beginning, and my "giddy as a school boy" dance for Scrooge.

Conclusion: I should grow back my beard.But it's good to see this big step forward for the Castle Rock fine arts community.

Douglas County Libraries' "it" campaign

2010-12-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

This video archives some of the cool posters we did highlighting our remarkable staff!

The visibility and invisibility of librarians

2010-11-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

An article solicited from me and edited by Library Journal's Josh Hadro showed up as today's "Library Link of the Day." The article itself is based on a panel talk I gave at BCR's 2010 Reference Renaissance, entitled "The Visibility and Invisibility of Librarians."

There are a few comments on it already. I did another version of this that will be coming out in a book of conference proceedings at the end of the year. I love the souped up chart they did from my original one.

Anythink

2010-11-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

I enjoy seeing good people and good libraries thrive. Click here for a link to a wonderful story by Norman Oder, formerly of Library Journal, about my neighbor to the north.

Post-election musings

2010-11-06T09:59:00.003-07:00

On election night, I came back from rehearsal (for "The Education of Mister Scrooge," by the Front Range Theatre Company) and checked Douglas County's website. I saw that Amendments 60/61 and Proposition 101 were going down overwhelmingly. Given Douglas County's conservative bent, I figured that was decisive, and went to bed. As it happens, of course, the measures were defeated in every single county in the state by close to 70%.

There were lots of reasons for that defeat. Among them was the good work done by many librarians on their own personal time. Aspen Walker, a librarian who happens to work as my assistant, made a major contribution in her Bad3Bad4Libraries effort.

The defeat of the measures was good in many ways. Yet I woke up mildly depressed. A few days later, I realized why. I've been involved in three elections in four years (2007 and 2008 for the library, and in opposition to the Bad 3 this year). The first two lost. The success of this one did nothing but avert disaster. It doesn't offer anything new or good. And it was a lot of work.

As I've written many times, it would be wrong to say that every tax increase is justified. But it is also false to say that no tax increase is justified. The reflexive use of "reduce taxes" as a catchphrase, as an unquestioned good by conservatives and liberals both, is a threat to the nation and our communities. Government, ultimately, is nothing more than a cooperative purchasing agreement. It is a remarkably inexpensive way to buy many necessary products and services.

I would like to think that a combination of factors - Doug Bruce's sneaky sponsorship of these deceptive measures and the growing awareness that the dismantling of the public infrastructure would have profound consequences in the private sector - provides an opening to have a new discussion altogether. That conversation is about synergy, about the fundamental connection between public and private sectors.

I heard an interview on NPR with Texas Governor Rick Perry, talking about his new book "Fed Up!" Perry was reciting the usual talking points: the light hand of taxation and regulation in Texas meant that the state was a wonderful and diverse place to live, with a strong economy, a place where people really valued their liberties. Steve Inskeep cited an article in Economist that was most complimentary about Texas, whose strong revenues from oil and gas did indeed lead to an economy ahead of many other states. But then Inskeep voiced a truly incisive insight: when it came to poverty, high school drop-out rates, and violent crime, Texas was one of the worst in the United States. Was it fair to say, asked Inskeep, that Texas citizens were willing to trade out the social safety net for a cheaper tax rate?

Perry responded that because people had more money in their pockets, because the states are hotbeds of experimentation and freedom, they could solve these challenges.

But of course, they haven't. The evidence of their policy is plain. Do you really save money if you don't invest in education, but do invest in prisons? What, finally, does such freedom come down to: the freedom to be poor? The freedom to be ignorant? The freedom to be incarcerated?

As long as we persist in thinking it's one or the other - total socialism or total capitalism - we perpetuate collisions and conflict that obscure the real issues. It seems to me that that issue is more about short term versus long term viability.

So I have a lot to think about. But in the meantime, today's intellectual and political climate makes me tired. It may be time for a vacation, for a little rejuvenation.

National Children's Study

2010-11-01T14:03:00.001-07:00

This is about the attempt to do a 20 year study mapping environmental factors to childhood well-being. Ambitious! I serve as chairman of the citizen advisory board. Click here for a link to the project website.

There's also a video. That link is here.

Wonder Girls: Nobody but You

2010-10-31T17:46:00.002-07:00

I feel a little guilty about this. But if you somehow escaped this utterly infectious smash hit from the South Korean girl band the Wonder Girls, then you must be made to pay. The weird thing is that its appeal continues for me.

My daughter, who taught in Taiwan, tells me that EVERYBODY knew this, all ages. That was almost a year ago now. But these Wonder Girls are just so dang cute.

Oh, and here's a bonus link, a clip from the "Korean Beyonce." It goes to show you: American pop songs and moves are extremely widespread. So to speak.

Self-check, automated materials handling

2010-10-28T10:14:00.001-07:00

Recently I was asked by a colleague what I thought about our 2008-2009 adoption of self-check and AMH solutions. Bob Pasiznyuk, who was our IT associate director at the time (now the director of the Cedar Rapids Public Library in Iowa) was chiefly responsible for that decision and its implementation, and I swear he wrote it up for me, although I can't lay my hands on the paper.

But for other librarians considering the solution, here's the short version about why we did it, and roughly how it played out.

We had three problems:

* extraordinary growth of use.
* sharp restrictions on space (for more traditional circulation stations)
* limits on dollars for additional staff
* a rising incidence of repetitive motion stress injuries

The use of RFID tags, self-check stations (3M), and automated materials handling units (sorters from three different companies) was the right solution.

Our initial investment was about $1 million. We paid for it out of savings. We calculate that we recovered our costs in about 18 months. The new setup enabled us to:

* replace large circulation desks with much smaller self-check units. We didn't phase them in. We pulled out the desks and put in the self-check units. We hit 90% use of those machines for all checkouts in the first week. (Kudos to Bob for noticing that we had to tweak a lot of little policies and procedures so we didn't have to prevent a checkout for every little thing. We were trying to ENCOURAGE its use, so we did.) This also freed up a LOT of space for display, and hold shelves.

* we DID phase in the attrition of employees. Roughly, we found that we could have one former circulation person oversee three stations, stepping in when there were problems. That reduced staffing needs in that zone by 2/3.

* in the checkIN process, we went from 5 to 1. One person could oversee that basic check in process, pulling bins, fixing jams, instead of 5 people moving materials from cart through terminal to cart.

* those two trends reduced injuries and headcount. The former circ clerk became a papaprofessional zone manager, problem resolver, display builder. This is a big staffing change. There are FEWER people employed than before.

But please note that our goal wasn't to fire people. It was to improve service. We did. And though we now have fewer staff in those functions, the ones that remain have new duties and better pay.

In 2009, Bob cited the following stats: "Automated checkin systems now handle about 96% of the library’s inbound circulation. The library’s circulation has increased from 4 million circulations per year four years ago to 8 million circulations this year with a drop in overall circulation FTE. The mean time to shelf has changed from 50 hours to just over 2. Claims returns by the public have dropped by 75%."

Continuing issues:

* automated materials handling units are not cheap. You have to budget for ongoing maintenance, for new bins, and so on. But there is no question that it's cheaper than the human beings its replaces -- and far kinder on the bodies of our staff.

As I've written elsewhere, this latest wave of technology has utlimately precipitated a staff change that still ripples through our organization. In brief, the circulation DEPARTMENT is dead, and a new, more integrated reference/inventory management team is on the rise.

And just incidentally, the public loves it. They get that we save money, but we also offer extroardinary convenience and confidentiality. They place holds at night, breeze in and grab them in the morning, and it all happens in a fraction of the time it used to take.

Pomplamoose

2010-10-18T20:31:00.001-07:00

A terrific name for a band, and a remarkably gifted couple of indie musicians, cranking out offbeat music in somebody's house. Nataly Dawn can sing like a funk-laconic angel, and Jack Conte is a demented percussionist with a tiny piano. Give it a listen here.

My favorite: "If you think you need some lovin'."

Green Porno with Isabella Rossellini

2010-10-18T20:04:00.002-07:00

OK. This is about raw sex, featuring one of the hottest women who ever lived.

Oh, and marine animals. And puppets. I haven't seen anything this entertaining since PeeWee Herman.

Favorite line: "What am I - a duck??"

Community reference project interview

2010-10-17T10:07:00.002-07:00

Click here or the title of this entry to hear an interview by Mary Ross of Douglas County Libraries librarians Colbe Galston and Amy Long about the topic of the "community reference project."

Mary is the instructor of an Infopeople online course called Revisioning Reference.

Colbe and Amy are staggeringly articulate - and lay out what I do firmly believe is the frontier of public library reference work.

Traveling librarian: Boise and Sacramento

2010-10-12T17:10:00.001-07:00

In a three week period, I think I'll wind up giving some 10 talks to the library world. Some of them are part of my job, speaking (for free) within Colorado. Others I take time off to do (and get paid by the folks who invited me!).

Yesterday, I gave a talk in Boise, Idaho, for the public library's staff day. I was actually filling in for my esteemed colleague Will Manley, who had some medical issues. (Get well soon!) Looking for an Emergency Backup Speaker? I'm your guy.

This afternoon, I'm in Sacramento, California. Tomorrow, I speak at their staff day on the topic of intellectual freedom.

I have to say, this life of travel and public speaking is fascinating. I'm seeing libraries in a way I hadn't before. So much is context. I enjoyed walking around Boise (ranked as one of the most livable cities in America). My stroll through the main library was surprisingly revealing.

Today I walked through a few blocks of downtown Sacramento, and toured its library. (Another great downtown.) Again, so interesting and revealing.

I think every library in the United States is dealing with the same issues. One of those issues is competence of management. So far, I find that libraries around the country echo those in Colorado: I see extraordinary thrift, frugality, and conscious tracking of trends.

Another issue is use. I don't find any empty libraries. They're busy.

But there are some big issues that our libraries don't address so well:

* space planning. We need to create more inviting, exciting, interesting spaces, better engaging the attention of our visitors. If I had to pick out two key trends that still seem to be ahead of many libraries, it would be these: more displays, and smaller staff desks. I've been following my retail shopping instinct: walk in the building, circle to the right. Too many of our libraries fail to capitalize on prime space. What moves materials is face-out display. I can't think of any reason not to have at least one face-out book, video, or CD on every single shelf. And libraries still give an amazing amount of floor space to enormous service desks. These desks (a) require staffing, (b) isolate staff from patrons, and (c) consume space that could be put to better use. When I see staff behind a desk, they simply don't provide service of the same quality provided by staff side-by-side with patrons. I do understand the concern that sometimes you WANT space between staff and the occasional creepy customer. But setting boundaries, and watching out for each other, is best achieved by a fluid floor-management pattern, not by the construction of fortresses.

* collection management. My goodness there are a lot of old and ill-used materials in libraries. Lately, I've taken to wandering through stacks and just reaching out at random to check copyright dates. I'm finding materials that are 20 years old. Or more. Of course, that might be a reflection of the next issue...

* funding. When I ask directors about their budgets, the story is often painful. The average American household spends $2.68 per month for public libraries. Contrast that with the monthly cost for home Internet access, or TV, or cell phones, or Netflix. Those home expenditures do almost nothing for the community. Libraries are builders - and are treated like beggars.

* customer service. I know from many encounters that library staff provide extraordinary service. But in too many libraries, just catching someone's eye, being treated to a smile, is more difficult, is more rare, than it ought to be. Often, I think that's an issue of space planning, as above. But I can report a wonderful exception: children's librarians just can't stop themselves from greeting and grinning. I love it.

And that's another finding, another thing that libraries do right: they hire people with a genuine passion for service, for changing lives, for the uncanny power of print.

I like the people that work in libraries. And it's a pleasure to have a chance to get to know them.

Quilting exhibit

2010-10-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

I just strolled through the Castle Rock Quilt Club's exhibit at the Philip S. Miller Library. Wow. Below are two shots of my favorites.

Jerry Dunbar's "Mariner's Compass Sampler." Hand-quilted.

And "Delectable Mountains," by Donna Ryman (long arm)

The colors on my little cell phone camera are off. But these, and many others, are awe-inspiring. Come see them!

The Bad 3 in Plain English

2010-09-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

First TV ad against Amendments 60/61 / Proposition 101

2010-09-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

litl

2010-09-18T20:16:00.003-07:00

This comes through Suzanne, then from the Daily Grommet. It's about a little "webbook" that's an interesting twist on simple computing. The design has a kind of Zen-like/Mac simplicity. If all your work is in the cloud, it's not bad. It's apparently based on Flash, not on more open standards. Is it as good as a laptop? Not quite - it only has apps in the cloud. Is it as good as an iPad? Not as many apps here, either, and it weighs more, too. I don't see an ebook reader, and the "store" is still a little thin. Still, it's an interesting design by a small company, and maybe handy for folks who just don't want the bother of a computer.

Amendment 60/61, Proposition 101 poll

2010-09-08T09:55:00.001-07:00

Released on Sept. 3, 2010, a poll by Ciruli Associates reports that support for the statewide ballot initiatives looks like this:

Amendment 60
Definitely/likely to vote for: 32%
Definitely likely to vote against: 45%
Don't know: 23%

Amendment 61
Definitely/likely to vote for: 36%
Definitely likely to vote against: 34%
Don't know: 29%

Proposition 101:
Definitely/likely to vote for: 51%
Definitely likely to vote against: 33%
Don't know: 16%

New newspaper archive

2010-09-04T20:46:00.008-07:00

There are three measures on this fall's Colorado ballot - Amendments 60 and 61, Proposition 101 - which, if successful, will not only reduce my library's budget by 58%, but will wreak similar havoc on municipalities, counties, schools, special districts, and the state itself. They will also create an economic climate that is positively repellent to business. I don't know who first called the "bad 3" "a voter approved Depression," but that sums it up.

I have been writing newspaper columns for 23 years. Mostly, my thoughts have focused on the issues faced by the library, and a host of various program announcements and policy considerations. A couple of times in the past year, I wrote about federal issues. The lashback from some members of my community was rapid and extreme. They threatened lawsuits, they threatened boycotts and punishment at the ballot box, they actively sought to have me fired by county commissioners and the board.

That's ok by me, by the way. Free speech is free speech, and no one harmed me in the least. The library's lawyer confirmed that opining about things I read is perfectly legal. But I talked about my column's growing controversy with my board, agreed that I would henceforth call my columns "LaRue's Views," and end them with "LaRue's Views are his own." I even asked the newspaper to move the columns off the "library page" in the paper. That's funny, really, because until I started writing my columns, that page didn't exist. But the editors moved me to the editorial page.

My columns were also posted on the library's website, with both the title and disclaimer.

But when I started to write about the "bad 3" I had a problem. Something called the Fair Campaign Practices Act forbids the use of public funds to try to actively campaign for or against some local vote. I write my columns on my own time. I send them out from my own email account. While I have no idea how to calculate the cost of posting and hosting my columns on the library's website (pennies?), I talked it over with our attorney, and decided that it was time for a break. I left all my old columns (from January, 1996 to August, 2010) on the library as a kind of digital archive. You'll see that link to the right of this blog. My columns are still around, but eventually, won't appear on the top page of the library's web site.

Then I created a new blog - and that link is to the right of this blog, too - where I can be as bluntly political as I like. "Newspaper columns - current" can be found at laruesviews.blogspot.com.

No public money is expended. Nothing I say now has any sponsorship by my employer.

And that's really good, because if I can't speak up now, speak against measures that would undo in one year what took 20 years to build, then why speak at all?

Incidentally, our BHAG (Public Library Advocacy effort) is now wrapped up. Its successor effort, a private initiative, can be found here: bad3bad4libraries.blogspot.com/. Check it out.

New LaRue Website

2010-09-04T20:12:00.005-07:00

I spent a while this morning doing something I should have done sooner: refresh my website. On my home (Ubuntu) machine, I fired up the open source web-editor Kompozer. Then I went looking for some templates. Eventually, I found one called "Simple Beauty." I also found Youtube videos that gave me a good, quick introduction to how to use Kompozer with templates.

Start to finish, I think it took 3 hours to completely recast most of my site. In the past, I used my website to stash some professional and personal resources that I need from time to time. That's still handy, but these days, I'm seeing the website as something else: a way to make it easier to connect with folks looking for the kinds of talks, workshops, and facilitation that I enjoy doing. To that end, I've concentrated more on sprucing up the look of the pages, and getting a little more professional about what services I provide, what topics I know something about, and which audiences might find any of that of interest. The signature page for that is here.

The template isn't that exciting. If I find a better one, I may work it through again. But the main thing is that I have taken a step toward how I market myself to the world. I like public speaking. I like helping organizations get better. Maybe now I'll get to do that more often.

I should also say that I sent a quick email to some people I admire very much, asking for some feedback on what I might put up on such a page. All of them responded thoughtfully - and quickly. While I didn't take all their advice, I took most of it. I have good friends, and I'm grateful to them.

HAATS

2010-08-28T17:01:00.012-07:00

Yesterday, I flew up to (via Blackhawk helicopter) and back from (via Chinook helicopter) the Colorado Army National Guard's High Altitude Aviation Training Site.

The undeserved experience was the result of the generosity of one of our staff, who was in the Guard and recently returned from a stint in Iraq. (His story is here.) I'm the director of the organization that treated him well, although the credit really belongs to many others.

Nonetheless, I got some cool photos.

We flew from Buckley Air Force base to the HAATS site in Eagle.

The Blackhawk:

Inside (seated right behind the pilots, looking forward):

Looking out the window (not only unpressurized, but with open windows!):

And this is a photo, out that same window, as we just nudged over the very high point of the divide. Our air speed was about 100 mph.

This is the helicopter I rode on the way back:

The chinook is a troop transport copter. This is what it looked like, toward the pilots.

And this is what it looked like out the back. Again, unpressurized, open windows, 12,000 feet. The back of the copter is a ramp. It doesn't close all the way!

I had so many thoughts.

First, our military people are good folks. They go through a lot. They deserve respectful treatment, even if, especially if, our elected leaders (of either party) make poor decisions.

Second, HAATS instruction is significant. It turns out that navigating helicopters in the mountains (whether in the Rockies, or in Afghanistan) is a tricky business. The Guard flies a lot of rescue missions in state; their expertise saves lives.

Third, Colorado is just extravagantly beautiful. I can recommend seeing it up close and personal from an open helicopter.

Fourth, I am deeply grateful not only to Dean, my staff person who served his country so well, but for the professionalism of the Colorado Army National Guard.

Fifth, our veterans need some help in this economy, particularly, in finding jobs when they get back. I need to find something our library can do about that.

Authors @ Douglas County Libraries

2010-08-10T09:54:00.004-07:00

Thanks to the good work of my Assistant, Aspen Walker, we're gradually putting up the "Authors at Douglas County Libraries" programs shot by the Network Douglas County over the past couple of years. You can find the link here.

In particular, I'm pleased to see the interview with Sarah Brannen (author of "Uncle Bobby's Wedding") go up. I don't think it ever made it to the county website.

Right and left agree and me too

2010-08-09T17:12:00.004-07:00

This post is based on two articles.

The first is by Peggy Noonan, entitled, America Is at Risk of Boiling Over. Her essential point is this: many Americans today are thinking that things are NOT getting better for their children. She gives some examples that you may or may not agree with. Myself, I really don't think out-of-control immigration is the issue. But I do agree, as would many of the people who regard the nation's literacy and commitment to education as a leading indicator, that we seem to be setting up our children to inherit a little less than what we inherited.

The second is Cash-Strapped States Cut The Lights by Paul Krugman. Krugman's point is much the same: as a nation, we're pulling things apart, by which I mean our most basic infrastructure. And I think he puts his finger on precisely the issue: we're thinking too short term. We think what benefits our pocket books in the short term is what's good for the nation, for our whole species, in the long term. That kind of thinking is, to be blunt, childishly self-centered.

I wish I could say I was surprised. My own take is that (just to take a timely example) the Tea Party folks are the same generation I know intimately: the Boomers. We are institution destroyers. The problem is not our nation, not our economic system, not our political structure. It is the continuing disruption of our shared life by people who want a little more than they are willing to give. Talkin' 'bout my generation.

I believe we are indeed at a point in our culture when we have to start looking ahead. The future is NOT about Baby Boomers. And for the life of me, I wonder why any subsequent generation would listen to us.

I find myself, lately, saying a couple of things over and over.

First, "if you can't win the short game, play a long game."

Second, "it's rare to find someone who can build a sand castle. It's easy to find people who can kick it down."

Carlin rant on ownership

2010-08-05T17:47:00.005-07:00

The late, great, brilliant comic George Carlin tells it like it is.

In ancient Greece, people looked to philosophers for the truth. Some societies have looked to poets, or journalists, or even political leaders.

Today, we look to comedians.

Black Madonna and child

2010-07-07T22:18:00.004-07:00

I gave a talk on July 6, 2010 to a leadership reunion in Nebraska. The workshop was held at the Saint Benedictine monastery in Schuyler, Nebraska.

The monastery was a beguiling prairie-style building, incorporating aggregate concrete, red brick, and warm cherry wood (I think). It was ensconced in a cell-phone-free dip in the rolling landscape.

At night, there were fireflies.

I spent awhile in the chapel that morning, listening to the silence and watching a candle, the om-sound louder than locusts. And I spent a good long time admiring this exquisite wooden statue, maybe 5 feet tall.

Madonna and child
carved in Tanzania and
shipped to Nebraska

tkoutline, JOE, and Notecase Pro

2010-06-26T17:41:00.007-07:00

tkoutline "is a single pane, cross-platform outline editor written in Tcl/Tk." This free program was written by Brian Theado.

I used to use it a lot. It was very close to what I wanted - but lacked movement by word, and word count. Finally, I emailed Theado, and he promptly sent me back a few lines to add to the preferences and startup files. I could now move the cursor by word and get a word count.

I eventually drifted away from it, mainly because the combination of the tclkit and the program file I was using gave me a dotty-font look, sort of like Windows. It was ugly, and the rest of my Linux desktop was so pretty. Call it an aesthetic issue.

Well, it turns out that I should have broken down and asked Theado how to fix that, too. I did, today, and it's not hard.

For Linux machines, follow these instructions to get a surprisingly handy, quick, stable (and now good looking!) program that works for a lot of things.

1. Grab these files:

* wget http://tkoutline.sf.net/tkoutline-devel.kit

* http://sourceforge.net/projects/kbskit/files/kbs/0.4/Linux_kbsvq8.5-gui/download

(Note, that second file works better on Ubuntu than the download link on the tkoutline wiki.)

2. Then make both of them executable:

chmod +x filename

3. Then put them both in a directory together, for example, tkoutline. (Just use your file manager to drag them over.)

4. Create a text file called tko, with the following content, for instance:

cd /home/yourname/tkoutline
./Linux_kbsvq8.5-gui tkoutline-devel.kit

5. Make IT executable

chmod +x tko

6. Copy it to /usr/bin like so (or with your file manager again, but you do need root privileges):

sudo cp /home/yourname/tkoutline/tko /usr/bin/

7. Add it to one of your panels or desktop so that clicking on it launches the command tko (instructions vary with your preference).

That really makes it the ideal writing tool when I have something short that still has structure. It's easy, then, to copy the text and dump it into an email or word processor for sharing or further polishing.

The two other outliners I mention in my title deserve a little mention too:

One of them is the Java Outline Editor. It's a single pane outliner, too, and even has spell check (which tkoutline does not). I was kind of starting to like it, too, but then discovered that it corrupted some key files - not worth it! It also did some weird display things from time to time. Finally, it also couldn't move by word, which is just annoying. I've purged it from my computers.

Finally, I use Notecase Pro. It's a two pane outliner, and absolutely topnotch. It does it all - except let you easily use it as a one pane outliner.

So for thinking, I now have the pair of Notecase Pro for long documents, tkoutline for shorter ones, and xmind or Freemind for mindmapping.

And my last thought on this long, nerdy post: many thanks to Brian Theado, whose work continues to delight, and whose astonishingly quick helpfulness exemplifies everything that's good about the open source programming world. Thanks!

Uncle Bobby's Wedding story for the Gay and Lesbian fund

2010-06-24T09:08:00.002-07:00

Click here to get to a page from the latest Gay and Lesbian fund annual report. Then click on the embedded video there. The Gay and Lesbian Fund Fund has underwritten many library programs over the years, and recently interviewed both me and one of our most prominent local library philanthropists about the principles of free speech, using our response to a challenge to "Uncle Bobby's Wedding" as a case in point.

Cell phones

2010-06-19T13:39:00.003-07:00

Recently, my library's IT staff tried to link my cell phone, the Palm Centro smartphone, running the now abandoned Palm OS, to our Exchange Server. It was an experiment fraught with danger.

One problem: my current data plan (paid by me, not the library) really doesn't cover that. (I didn't find that out till later.)

Another problem: The wireless sync program represented a different kind of work flow.

Another problem: my own incompetence. I didn't read the instructions for synching very carefully. When it did sync, it wiped out my entire calendar, then wouldn't sync the old way with my Palm. At this point, I'm not sure if I ever tried to sync wirelessly again to restore the settings from the Exchange Server, or if it would have worked.

Instead, I went through a round of reformatting, restoring key files, hopping across a Windows NT machine, my home PC running Ubuntu, and my netbook. Then, trying to figure out how to restore the simple email to my own domain. In the process, I discovered that I'd gummed up my Palm with all kinds of files and utilities I didn't need, and probably conflicted with each other.

And in these couple of days, I was unhappy. I have been using a Palm for over a decade, and it has worked its way into my life. Having it compromised -- not being able to transfer text files and calendar items among my various devices, in particular -- made me exceedingly cranky.

But it also got me thinking about what I actually need. Mainly, I use the basic Palm apps (Datebook, To Do, Memo, Addresses). They are fine, and the outliner Brainforest is a particularly good tool for thinking, storing big blocks of text (mostly columns, journals, and poetry), and tracking a host of work projects. The phone is quite good, I use texting, and mostly, I just monitor email rather than try to actively manage it, which is far more easily done on a PC. Web browsing on the old Palm is lousy. I take a picture every now and then. I do a couple of Sudoku every day. Although I play a lot of music myself in a week (piano, guitar, banjo, ukulele), I don't use my phone or my PC to run playlists.

When it comes right down to it, having been able to use a single platform (the Palm) more or less continuously over just three devices (the original Palm Pilot, an upgrade PDA, and a smartphone) is probably the exception rather the rule.

At any rate, I got things set back in order, understand Palm utilities and Linux transfer tools better than I used to, and got the idea that it won't be long before I'll have to adopt a different approach. Meanwhile, I'm more like my 16 year old son, looking at reports on cell phones. Android? iPhone? Will HP do anything with their WebOS purchase?

Change, change, change.

Rethinking Ubuntu One and the cloud

2010-06-14T18:28:00.003-07:00

In the rain of Sunday and Monday, I fiddled with various Ubuntu downloads, and am now downloading the latest Ubuntu Netbook Edition (UNE). I've also been playing with Dropbox at work (on Windows XP) and on my home PC (using Ubuntu 10.04). To complicate things, I've also been trying out some things on my Aspire Aspire One netbook (Linpus Lite, a sort of tweaked Fedora 8).

After poking into Ubuntu, I suddenly "got" something that has no doubt been obvious to many others for some time: with Ubuntu One, and its integration both into the OS and the Rhythmbox music player's access to the Ubuntu One music store, Ubuntu is now not just a Linux distribution, it's an ecosystem.

There are some files I work on - mostly newspaper columns and project notes - that do spread across all three computers (home, work, and netbook). And sure enough, putting them on Dropbox suddenly made it easier to keep the same file accessible everywhere.

I don't listen to a lot of music on my PC, but I can get why synching those files across multiple computers would be handy, too.

Maybe I'm just getting paranoid about some of my files (I also downloaded "Back in Time" for Ubuntu, a very handy backup tool to dump to a USB hard drive). But I also, on occasion, get paranoid about handing over all my files to the "cloud" when who knows who might also have access to them.

Nonetheless, it does feel as though the Internet is linking together remote storage, and making the local device just the processing point - a return, really, to the mainframe days of old. And like those days, there's a meter running for the use.

Crabapple blossoms

2010-06-02T07:20:00.005-07:00

Taken with my Centro cellphone a couple weeks ago, outside the Nordstrom's at Park Meadows Mall.

Don't sit under the apple tree

2010-06-01T21:40:00.003-07:00

Here are the delightful Vernon sisters. Something about these family groups - the Andrew sisters, the Mills Brothers, the Vernon sisters - is particularly engaging. Their voices, their movements, are uncannily close and synched.

I'm watching this because I'm working on ukulele versions of both this and "Buttons and Bows," for reasons that just might bring the Tuna Boys the fame we so richly deserve. Or not.

The Yike Bike

2010-06-01T09:39:00.002-07:00

Click here to see a wonderful video about a device that is just wonderfully designed and elegant: a fold up electric bike.