Annie’s Blog

I’m condensing all of the last week into this post because, on the whole, it was very similar to the previous weeks. I spent some time attending classes, and observing with reference interviews. I’m now feeling much more confident, and I’m quite happy to assist people where I believe I can. I still hesitate on some questions, but overall I feel that I’m definitely getting the hang of working in a business and industry focused library and being able to point people in the right direction.

definitely the most exciting thing about this week, and perhaps the entire trip in general, was spending the entire day at the Schwarzman Building on 42nd street, talking to some of the librarians there, receiving a tour, and getting to look at the special collections that are housed there.

I began with a tour of the library by Phil Yockey, who is the Reference and Instructional Services manager at Schwarzman Building. The tour encompassed the entire library, including the reading room (where I was allowed onto the balcony, which used to be public access, but has been blocked off due to disabled access laws in America), the room where the trustees meet (which also happens to house the fireplace where they burn the books to keep warm in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow”) and the arts collection housed at one end of the reading room.

After this I spent some time with David Lowe, who is the only staff member working with the photograph collection. He has been in that position for around 7 years, and although he doesn’t have any information management training, his background is in fine arts, which lead him into the position. The photograph collection at NYPL is not a browsing collection, and people who would best be served by a browsing collection are directed to the Mid-Manhattan Library across the road. The collection at the Schwarzman building is organised by artists, and much of it still remains to be catalogued, as originally it was shelved in the stacks and one librarian took it upon herself , many years ago, to build the collection as a separate entity. Items from the collection are sometimes lent out for exhibition purposes, and new acquisitions are still made. These acquisitions include older works and artists, but also new and emerging artists that are deemed important enough for the library to collect. Acquisitions are still made through donations also.

After this I went to the Berg collection, a collection donated by two brothers who were avid collectors of American and English literature. The collection houses not only books and manuscripts, but letters and correspondence as well. They even have Virginia Woolf’s walking stick, which was found near the shore after she drowned herself. A little bit morbid, but quite exciting none the less! The acquisitions process for the Berg collection is similar to that of the photography collection, through some funding and largely donations. There are three full time staff members in this department. Whilst there I had a very interesting conversation with Isaac, the curator of the collection, who talked about the problem of digitized data vs. print books, and the need to update and maintain this data as formats change. This is something that we have often talked about at Uni, and Document Management One focused largely on this, however it was very interesting, and made the issue even more real, when hearing it from someone who has worked in the industry for quite some time. (Not that the lecturers at Uni haven’t!)

Some of the items that they pulled from the collection and allowed me to view included the original handwritten draft of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, the original handwritten draft of Virginia Woolf’s Too the Light House, some photographs of and by William Boroughs, and the very last letter that John Keates wrote his lover Fanny Brawne before he died.

After this I moved on to the manuscripts and rare books collection, where I had a great conversation with some librarians who have recently been donated the entire archives from the New York Times, which although exciting, raises an issue of privacy, as the family who owned them prior are still alive and active in the business world. This means that although the library has the archives, they will remain closed for a number of years, and the public will not be able to access them. We then had a great talk about conspiracy theories relating to the times and World War II, and why it was necessary to keep the archives closed for a certain period of time.

While I was in the manuscripts section I was able to see a collection of letters written by each of the American Presidents, an item donated by a private collector, and so I have seen documents signed by George Washington, John Adams and Abraham Lincoln! There was another similar set of documents, that included a letter written and signed by Mary Antoinette! I have been very very lucky and have seen some amazing things during my time here, that I will remember forever! If similar items are to be found in Australia, I imagine in most cases they would be owned by private collectors, and it is something that I would most likely never get to see during my career, but the truly amazing thing about the NYPL is that they are part of the collection, and it’s publicly accessable! I know New Yorkers don’t know how lucky they are because I’ve talked to many of them about it, and most hadn’t been to the main library building, but those who had, weren’t aware that it housed such amazing things in its collection!

Today is my last day, and I am sad to be going home. Although I’m excited about seeing my friends and family, I’ve had such a good time, and it’s been such a great experience that I will be sad to leave! I definitely plan on coming back to New York again one day and exploring further.

I’ve changed the way that my blog looks, seeing as at the moment the posts are quite lengthy, and the Fjords04 theme, although it looked fantastic, didn’t really accomodate large slabs of text all that well. Unfortunately I’ve lost my cool umbrella picture in the process, but I will upload something else asap. Hope this is easier to read!

Today I met Borgan Horbal, who works in the Processing and Technical Services division of SIBL. We spent an hour together in which Borgan told me about the acquisition and processing of various materials that come into the library. At the moment they process around 10,000 journals. It used to be 20,000 but this has dropped due to the financial crisis.

The journals come into the library, processed by the staff, that use their own coding system to determine when the item came into the library etc, and where it should be shelved, before they are sent to the stacks. The same processes is carried out for books, however depending on the title and its content, it may end up in the circulating collection or in the open shelf reference collection, and not in the closed stacks.

The library also used to have its own binding service, to re-bind any items that were deemed flimsy or that would deteriorate significantly over time. In recent years they have out sourced their binding services, but due to the current economic climate, no re-binding of books is taking place at all. This actually answered one of the questions that I had about the library. I had noticed during my observations and through walking around the library, that some of the items on the shelf had spines with their call number imprinted into the binding. I wondered if perhaps they were special copies of items that had been published for the library specifically, but these are simply the items that have been sent out for re-binding at some point.

Borgan explained to me some of the major problems with the processing of journals in particular. Sometimes publishers make mistakes about the volume or issue number of a publication, and this can cause problems down the line with the cataloging of the item at a library. This may not be of concern to the general public, who often don’t look at the volume or issue number of an item, even if they have a personal subscription to the service, but when you are trying to keep an accurate and up to date catalog for public use, it can cause quite a problem. The other major problem is that subscription to journals and databases are not designed with public libraries in mind, they are often designed for personal use, and working out ways of subscribing to this content, and making it publicly available through the library has been an issue of concern. One of the ways that SIBL has dealt with this is that some of the databases subscribed to are only available from the library, and you MUST be on site to be able to access them. Others are only available from certain computers, so not only do you have to be in the library, but you must also be using a certain computer if you wish to be able to access the content of these particular databases.

We also briefly covered the subject of dealing with different formats, and the problem of obsolete data. This eventually lead into a discussion about the future of print, and whether or not the book will still be in existence in the future. This is a huge topic in all areas of business and industry at the moment, not just in information management. As companies such as Amazon bring out electronic print readers, or books, such as the Kindle, it seems like there is a good possibility that print and books as we experience them today will be all but extinct.

An example of obsolete technology was a particular form of microfilm that Borgan had. This microfilm contained government documents and legislation, or something similar, but the machine that was used to read this particular microfilm was no longer working. Even if the library is able to find another machine that could read the information, there is no guarantee that this machine would continue to work in the future, or that it could properly maintained for an indefinite amount of time. This problem occurs today in the electronic age as well, as different types of files and formats are used across all areas of information. PC’s and Apple Mac’s are becoming more compatible, but there are still issues. Not all of the information on floppy disks has been transferred to CD’s. And then what comes after CD’s? Will the USB always be the desired way of carrying around information, or will it go the way of floppy disks? These are all questions that no one has the answer to, but need to be considered when making decisions about the creation and archiving of information.

The other hot topic is whether or not print will continue in the future and what will happen to books? I have heard many discussion similar to this, and attended a very interesting talk at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival in June about what the future holds for the book. Ever since Gutenberg designed a printing press in the 1400′s that allowed for moveable type, books have been the predominant format for information. Now with the internet and electronic data, the book is no longer the only information format, nor is the most popular. More and more people rely on computers and the internet everyday. Will this make the book completely obsolete? Some people believe that there will always be a demand for books, and I certainly hope so. One speaker at the Writer’s Festival made the point that books will probably disappear as a mainstream format, but they will become highly collectable works of art. Or that artists will begin making books, and book making and binding will become a sort after and selective skill once more. We will be able to get books, but they will be highly expensive and resemble the bibles created by the monks in the first millenium, time consuming, hand crafted, visual masterpieces.

Borgan talked about the possibility of printing booths becoming available. Where people were able to select the text that they wanted, and have it printed and turned into a book at an express booth, similar to the way we take passport photos now.

I’m not sure what will happen with books in the future, but I do hope that they hang around. I will always prefer a physical book in my hand, as opposed to reading from a screen, but who can say the same of future generations? Perhaps they will not be used to holding books, and will access texts on screen, so it will no longer be a matter of preference, but of what is normal, what is the common experience.

I also prefer the thought that we will continue to publish books and physical print materials, because I do not trust technology. It goes out of date, it becomes obsolete. It crashes and stops working. It is erasable. One day the internet and everything that is on it may disappear, and we will have no way of getting it back. One day, for whatever reason, we will no longer have electricity, and then none of the technology that we rely upon will work. If that happens I imagine people will be too busy to notice the information that has gone missing, initially, but one it will be missed. At least with the book we have evidence that with proper preservation, there is the possibility of a single printed text lasting hundreds of years. And the only way to erase a book, or delete it for ever is to physically destroy it. We don’t have to worry about a power failure or the accidental pressing of the wrong combination of keys.

I’m not sure which is the more reliable way of storing information. As technology stands at the moment, I think we should stick to books, but who knows what sort of technologies the future holds? I hope that no matter what it holds, I’m holding a book.

So I haven’t posted yet this semester, but the cogs have been going around, that I assure you.

I have been thinking about this subject and just exactly what it is we are learning, or attempting to acheive through it. Obviously we’re looking at social software, and we are being encouraged to engage with it and think about what it means now and what it will mean in the future. That’s fine and cool and I understand that. But it seems to focus on the idea that everyone is using and enjoying using this software. That its now a part of everyday life, so much so that it is beginning to have an effect on who we are as people. But what about people who don’t use it, and aren’t really interested in using it? People who believe its far more fun and far healthier to make friends and meet new people in person, rather than on some cyber space beach in Second Life? People like me.

I have to admit that even in the real world I am not terribly social. I have a small group of friends who I speak often, but perhaps not as often as most people would. I have no real interest in greatly extending this friendship group, feel that it is fine just the way it is. I’ve never had an large group of friends, and find very little reward in the type of friendships that are basically knowing someone, having their phone number and catching up with them or hearing from them every few months. I also very rarely go out, unless it is for a special occasion, such as a birthday or a housewarming, and although I love spending time with people and am more than willing to have people come and visit whenever they wish, I very rarely go out of my way to go to others houses. I am quite comfortable in my own company, and would much rather stay at home reading or playing the computer than going out. I guess some people would call me a nerd.

This ties into the social software side of things, especially Second Life, Flickr, MySpace etc, because this antisocial behaviour extends beyond real life and into cyberspace. I have absoloutely no inclination to meet new people in Second Life, buy things that aren’t real and walk around in a body that resmebles an annorexic who’s just visited a plastic surgeon. I don’t look like that in real life, and that doesn’t really bother me. The fact that I can change my appearance in Second Life so that it doesn’t look like the real me doesn’t really appeal to me either. I’m me, having a hot avitar won’t change that, and I don’t really care what other random users around the world think, I don’t know them.

As with Flickr and MySpace, I believe that they are excellent and inventive programms that have a use. I can understand why many people choose to engage with MySpace, its a great way of communicating with your friends, particularly if you don’t see them very often or you are living in a different country etc. I guess it’s also a good way to meet friends. But i’m afraid that it just isn’t my cup of tea. I’m not particularly interested in using the internet as a way of meeting new people, nor am i interested in using it to impress strangers. And I’m not overseas and can see my friends whenever I want, so MySpace currently has no use for me. BUT IT DOESN”T MEAN THAT I DON”T APPRECIATE THE USES IT HAS FOR OTHERS. Same goes for Flickr, and Facebook and all those similar programms.

I’m sorry but they really don’t interest me, and I don’t engage with them. I’m not really into putting my personality out there for everyone to see, particularly on a global scale. Hell, I wouldn’t even have a blog if it wasn’t for course assesment and reflection purposes!

But I believe that I’m a dying breed. It seems that everytime I turn around, more and more people have a MySpace or Facebook account. More and more people are getting into displaying themselves on a global scale, and I have to admit the thought scares me.

I understand the use and need for these programs, and the effect that they are begginning to have on the way we define ourselves as individuals. However I also believe that in a way they have moved on from their original purposes, have taken on a kind of life of their own. I often look at friends and aquaintances MySpace pages, and to me it seems that in many cases it has gone beyond being a channel through which you can speak to your friends and family, keep them updated about what you’ve been up to etc. and become a kind of competition to find the coolest person in the world, a kind of quest for fame that’s a by product of the celebrity obsessed culture we live in.

I mean honestly, if your page is simply to keep in touch with your friends, as many would claim, why do you need to tell them which bands you love, what your favourite color is, who your biggest crush is, who you want to meet, your favourite movie and all that. To me a freind is someone who already knows these things, because you’ve sat down and got to know each other, you had A REAL CONVERSATION and not one through posts on your page that started off with:

‘Hey, nice pic, i think ur real kool. i also love drinking red wine and tatoos, u seem real awsome! XXOO Da PRanKsta!’

Or something along those lines.

Most of the pages I’ve seen recently, or infact ever, seem to be a desperate attempt to prove how cool you are, not only to your existing friends, but people you don’t even know as well.

And I already know that I’m not cool. I’m normal, and I don’t want to try and decieve anyone about that. Which is just one of the reasons why I don’t have a MySpace, and I will never be a serious user of Second Life.

Participation

WHAT I DID WELL…

I believe that towards the second half of the semester I began to blog regurlarly about my project, where it was headed, what I had done and what it meant. I also believe that my entries were reasonably varied in tone and approach. My attendance was also much improved during the second half of semester, and I spent alot of time outside set hours, both at home and in the labs working on my project, reading Weinberger and thinking about and around problems and theory that arrose during class time.
I am extremely happy with the amount of time I have contributed to this course this semseter, particularly in the second half, a time when normally I begin to slack off as the holidays get closer. I also feel as though I used photoshop and Ezedia well and experimented with what was possible through the use of these programs.
WHAT I LEARNT TO DO BETTER…

I began to address problems that I was having in my blog, and also use it to discuss my learning process, which doesn’t normally happen, at least the documentation of it. Normally this process is internal and I fail to document or blog it.

WHAT I SHOULD/COULD HAVE DONE BETTER…

At the beginning of semester, for personal reasons, my attendance was shocking. And I failed to complete a few of the smaller tasks that were set. A few weeks in I managed to pull myself together and began to get back on track. Also, despite an abvious improvement in my blog compared to last year, I still have a ways to go before it becomes a truly intersting and informative media channel. I have the personal thinking and reflection down pat, now I have to try and use it as a way of discussing and engaging with outside media and other media influences.

It is truly a disconcerting feeling, a terrible day, when one realises they are becoming their mother. (Doubly so if you’re male)

Tonight I find myself sitting alone in the study of my uncle and auntie’s house, desperately trying to avoid over exhuberant cousins of varying ages (five of them, from ten months to 18 years) and wishing that I was curled up somewhere warm and comfy with a book.

I also find myself longing for home (as in Hamilton) and constantly wondering what my friends are doing.

Back to the mother comment. I’ve spent the last 24 hrs watching my cousins fight over the play station and computer whilst making no obvious acknowlegement that the sun was out and perhaps some frolicking was in order. It astounds me the amount of noise these children can make, and coming from a large brood myself I really shouldn’t be that affronted by it, but suddenly I find myself longing to be by myself, somewhere quiet. And although I miss my friends, I’m not entirely sure, had I the option, that I would be hanging out with them either. I’m not a people person lately.

My mother seems to enjoy her own company, and takes little interest in participating in the outside world on a grandly social basis. Tonight I completely understand that approach. I feel fed up and snappy, and I don’t like it.

Am also hanging out for the next adventure to the West, shan’t be returning home until the semseter break though, due to the visitation of my flat mates friend from Queensland. Ah well, they do say absence makes the heart grow fonder.

It seems that Fugu is not letting me use my password to log in….

I can see this week being… difficult

So today was spent running around trying to organise things for Broadcast media.

I remember complaining last semester about having everything due in all at once, it seems that this semester it’s more spread out, but that means you have to be ontop of EVERYTHING straight away. I’m feeling confident about the TV assignment, Radio is also coming along nicely. But then of course I remember the annotated bibliography that we have to do for Media and Meaning, and the essay I’ve got for Authorship and Narrative. And THEN there’s good old Network, and making a webpage.

Talking about the webpage, I feel that I have a pretty good understanding of the basics of HTML code (although sometimes the classes go a bit too fast and I have trouble keeping up!), but at the same time it’s going to take hours of practice and lots of mistakes before I get anywhere near something good enough to hand in.

I checked out some of the examples online and looked at the source code for them. Some of it made sense, but not much. So if my computer at home feels like working I’m hoping to start mucking around with an old essay from year 12 and try making a basic web page, that I can then continue to jazz up as I get more experience with the HTML code. Hoping to start that in the next few days (if I get time!)

First Post. So far, so good…