Welcome to Season Ten of Linking Our Libraries! We are so happy to have you join us again! This is the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and our members are all types of libraries and their staff. I’m Mary, the director. It’s so good to have you here also. In this podcast, we talk about the skills library staff need to be successful and to help them to serve their communities.
This season we are talking about library programs – giving you some ideas about different ideas you can try in your own library. It is always good to share ideas across libraries, and we are all better! Each week we will look at a different theme of programs.
Check out our show notes page here, with links to all the libraries and ideas we are sharing.
This week we are looking at Technology programs! You might incorporate some of these into the programs we talked about a couple of weeks ago, with crafting and making. There are a variety of different kinds of technology you might want to use or to create here; and your budget can be either pretty small or extravagantly large. These tend to be programs that need some advance planning, but can be really popular when they work out!
Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon
This one does not require a big technology budget. As with all programs, you probably want to provide some snacks to encourage people to hang around and enjoy themselves. Wikipedia, naturally, provides information on what this is and how to run an event. “An edit-a-thon (sometimes written editathon) is an event where some editors of online communities such as Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap (also as a “mapathon“), and LocalWiki edit and improve a specific topic or type of content. The events typically include basic editing training for new editors and may be combined with a more general social meetup. The word is a portmanteau of “edit” and “marathon“. An edit-a-thon can either be “in-person” or online or a blended version of both. If it is not in-person, it is usually called a “virtual edit-a-thon” or “online edit-a-thon”.” “The events have included topics such as cultural heritage sites, museum collections, women’s history, art, feminism, narrowing Wikipedia’s gender gap, and social justice issues.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
Women, African Americans, and members of the LGBT community are using edit-a-thons to bridge the gap in Wikipedia’s sexual and racial makeup[9] and to challenge the under-representation of Africa-related topics.[10]”
What you should have beforehand
- 2.1 Clear goals
- 2.2 Determine logistics
- 2.3 Recruit active Wikipedia editors and research experts
- 2.4 Determine how to create user accounts
- 2.5 Provide a way to find details and sign up
- 2.6 Have appropriate forms for data collection afterwards
3 Ways to advertise an edit-a-thon
These are more common in academic libraries, but any library could make these happen! Even younger kids could get involved – maybe collecting information that adult “helpers” could add into the actual website.
A few library examples:
- Smith College Library: Learn how to edit Wikpedia and improve its available content on gender, feminism, and the arts!
- Berkley Library: Wikipedia’s inclusion trouble is well-documented. While the reasons are up for debate, the practical effect of this disparity is not: content is skewed by the lack of participation by underrepresented groups. This adds up to an alarming absence in an important repository of shared knowledge. Let’s change that! Join us on Zoom for a tutorial for the beginner Wikipedian followed by communal updating of Wikipedia entries.
- University of Michigan: The Mardigian Library will be hosting a Wikipedia edit-a-thon event in honor of International Women’s Day. We will focus on training new editors and making incremental improvements to existing pages around the topic of women’s contributions in STEM fields.
- University of Wisconsin – Madison: Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon’s are events where a group of people collaboratively edit content on Wikipedia. Many Edit-A-Thons have been conducted with the intentional goal of closing the gap on information around marginalized communities. In celebration of Open Access Week join UW-Madison Libraries in updating LGBTQIA+ content on Wikipedia.
Photo editing in the library:
This can go a couple of ways. Your library can set up a maker lab, formally or informally, and provide the software for people to use on their own. Or, you can offer specific training in learning to use photo editing software. (This may include training for the staff! It’s good to have some help; then we can help patrons.) Think about the ages you want to reach out to: kids are not actually born knowing how to use digital tech, and us older people would like to keep up also.
The Tulsa PL has a lab available for patrons, and some online instruction. “The Digital Literacy Lab has specialty software available for Tulsa City-County Library cardholders after you attend a Digital Literacy Lab Orientation. From photo editing to app development, you can do it all in the Digital Literacy Lab.”
- Adobe Acrobat DC
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe Audition
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Lightroom
- Adobe Media Encoder
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Prelude
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Adobe Premiere Rush
- Final Cut Pro X
- Clip Studio Paint by Smith Micro
- Wacom Intuos Tablets – 10″
- Blender
The Lexington PL has a Digital Studio for patrons to use. “The mission of the Digital Studio is to provide library customers with access to cutting edge video, photo and graphics editing programs. The studio is a place where aspiring filmmakers can learn to take their ideas from inception to completion, where photographers and digital artists make their unique vision reality, a place for musicians to create and edit their own music and where web designers and digital communicators share it all with the world. It’s also a place for people who simply want to restore and preserve precious historic and family media. It’s a place where people of all ages and levels of knowledge can create, share and encourage each other.”
The LAPL has their Octavia Lab.
- DIY Memory Lab: Scan your photos, documents, and transparencies. Audio/video analog-to-digital conversion.
- We have ten computers installed with Adobe Creative Cloud.
- 3d scanner: Make digital versions of physical objects smaller than 8″ x 8″ x 8″. Additional gaming and creative features.
Robots in the library:
There was a period, a few years ago, where the idea of robots being in the library really exploded; and every public library seemed to be either about to try it or watching expectantly. Maybe it was Covid, maybe people just lost interest, maybe it all got to be too expensive and troublesome – but there aren’t many robots running around the library today.
But, it still seems like a development to come. Letting robots do some of the more tedious tasks in a library can mean more time for staff to do the more important and complicated tasks – working with patrons. If robots could do shelf reading and organizing, then staff can spend time doing more programs, making material to distribute, working on training for themselves and for patrons, running book groups, making things – all sorts of great tasks.
One library that does have robot helpers is in Helsinki Finland. They have three robots, named after characters in Finnish literature: Tatu, Patu and Veera. (You can watch a video of Veera here!)
They also have bots available in their app to recommend books! “Obotti is a mobile app that utilises artificial intelligence developed by HeadAI and can be used by anyone at the library and home alike. It recommends things from Oodi’s shelves or environment based on your selections.
The app features different bots with their own pre-determined areas of interest. You can select a bot that suits your preferences to give you recommendations based on both its own preferences and selections you have made. The experience is interactive and the recommendations are tailored to the user; you can train the bots as you please.”
A couple of libraries have been experimenting with using drones to shelf read. It’s such a complex process, and so easy to make mistakes; using technology to make it work would be great!
- The Chiba library in Japan has been experimenting with with drones: “A drone will soon be flying through the shelves of a city library here, but it won’t be disturbing the concentration of patrons or interfering with the daily operation. Instead, the drone and artificial intelligence (AI) will be adapted to eliminate the troublesome, time-consuming task of regularly examining books at libraries imposed on human staff.”
- The UJI university library in Spain is testing a drone quadcopter: “This paper presents the UJI aerial librarian robot that leverages computer vision techniques to autonomously self-localize and navigate in a library for automated inventory and book localization. A control strategy to navigate along the library bookcases is presented by using visual markers for self-localization during a visual inspection of bookshelves. An image-based book recognition technique is described that combines computer vision techniques to detect the tags on the book spines, followed by an optical character recognizer (OCR) to convert the book code on the tags into text. These data can be used for library inventory. Misplaced books can be automatically detected, and a particular book can be located within the library. “
And of course, there are hundreds of lego robot programs happing in libraries of all sorts. Kids (of all ages!) can learn about coding and about making things with technology!
Technology based programs can help to keep libraries feeling current and interesting to the communities we serve. It is our job, as information professionals, to keep connecting people with the tools they need to be successful in finding the best information they need. And if we all have some fun at the same time? That’s a good thing too!
Books Read
Now, let’s get to the part of every episode that is everyone’s favorite: sharing books! We will link to these books on our shownotes pages, and the link will take you to Amazon. You probably know this, but when you click one of our links and then buy anything at all from Amazon, they give us a small percentage of their profits. That support really helps us, and although it’s anonymous so we won’t know it was you – we appreciate you taking the time to help us!
- Firekeeper’s Daughter, by Boulley Angeline Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team.
Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.
Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims.
Now, as the deceptions – and deaths – keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.
- I Thought You Said This Would Work, by Ann Garvin
Widowed Samantha Arias hasn’t spoken to Holly Dunfee in forever. It’s for the best. Samantha prefers to avoid conflict. The blisteringly honest Holly craves it. What they still have in common puts them both back on speed dial: a mutual love for Katie, their best friend of twenty-five years, now hospitalized with cancer and needing one little errand from her old college roomies.
It’s simple: travel cross-country together, steal her loathsome ex-husband’s VW camper, find Katie’s diabetic Great Pyrenees at a Utah rescue, and drive him back home to Wisconsin. If it’ll make Katie happy, no favor is too big (one hundred pounds), too daunting (two thousand miles), or too illegal (ish), even when a boho D-list celebrity hitches a ride and drives the road trip in fresh directions.
Samantha and Holly are following every new turn—toward second chances, unexpected romance, and self-discovery—and finally blowing the dust off the secret that broke their friendship. On the open road, they’ll try to put it back together—for themselves, and especially for the love of Katie.
Conclusion
This was a quick overview of a few ideas that you might want to use in your library. Be sure to check out the show notes for links to everything discussed today. We are looking forward to chatting with you all season! We will have more ideas to help you keep your library running well, and strategies to help you serve your community.
And if you want to hear more book suggestions, be sure you are also subscribed to our other podcast: Reading With Libraries. Short episodes drop every Tuesday, and we look at different aspects of Minnesota. This season we look at a different historic site across the state each week, and then suggest six books that reference the site. Join us each week!