vexed issue

LIKE 32: digital preservation

2012-01-30T16:49:00.001Z

While over 90% of data is born digital, there is no official strategy in the UK for preserving the material. From private companies to public bodies, it is often unclear who is responsible for capturing all the emails, blogs, online videos etc. that are generated every day. As such, items of historical importance are simply disappearing.

This, then, was a perfect discussion topic for LIKE. Lena Rowland started the session by stating that digital preservation is the process of ensuring the continued access of digital material with an enduring value, for present and future generations. She clearly set out the issues noting that while gaps in current preservation programmes could be filled with print versions, this will not be possible in the future.

Of course not everything can be archived - would anyone seriously think of archiving an individual's entire Twitter account? The key point is to have a clear selection and deletion policy. Lena also mentioned that she uses WebCite, an online service that enables readers permanent access to the cited material, for her own work.

Adrian Brown, Assistant Clerk of the Records at The Parliamentary Archives, then talked about his own digital preservation experience at the House of Commons. One of the most interesting points was an explanation of the 'performance' model as a framework for describing digital preservation strategies. Developed by the National Archives of Australia in 2002, the idea in its most basic form is for the archivist to concentrate on the actual information content, or 'performance', rather than the processes used to deliver it. Read more about the concept here as well as in a A digital preservation policy for Parliament paper.

There is no one answer to prevent digital obsolescence but current practices include migration, whereby file formats are changed so that information remains accessible, or, emulation which involves ensuring old software functions can still be read. There is always hardware preservation but, as Adrian pointed out while waving floppy discs of various sizes in the air, it is proving harder and harder to find machines that still work.

LIKE 32 was an informative evening that generated a lot of debate - as demonstrated by the fact that people were still talking long after the food had finished.

Jazz: From New Orleans to the new generation

2012-01-26T16:34:00.002Z

Jazz: From New Orleans to the new generation is a new Guardian ebook that offers a distinctively British perspective on the history of jazz. Consisting of Guardian and Observer reviews and profiles from 1919 to the present day, the book includes everyone from Duke Ellington, Miles Davis to Robert Glasper. I've written a bit more about this unique collection in a blog for the Guardian's music pages.

Knights of the scissors

2011-07-21T17:29:00.007+01:00

The life of the news librarian used to revolve around a pile of newspapers, a pair of scissors and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the organisation's classification system. I was reminded of those long gone days when I came across an 1827 Manchester Guardian article about French censors chopping out offending passages from newspapers. The piece is an interesting read but it's the description of 'knights of the scissors' fulfilling 'thought-clipping functions' that caught my eye - a perfect description for all those people who used to gut the papers for their news archives.

Read the article here.

Guardian 190: 1821-2011

2011-05-13T18:01:00.003+01:00

The first issue of the Guardian appeared on 5 May 1821. To mark the occasion, @guardianlibrary is tweeting articles from the Guardian and important moments in the paper’s history throughout the month – one per year, starting with 1821 and coming right up to the present. Even the dullest years, 1835 for instance, will get a mention in this rapid run-through of the past couple of centuries. Each tweet will link to an article or image on the Guardian’s new From the archive blog. We’ll tweet several times a day between now and May 30, providing by the end of the month 190 fascinating insights into the way the Guardian has evolved.

See more on the Guardian 190 site.

LIKE 24: The Human Library

2011-04-26T15:40:00.012+01:00

The phrase 'Human library' has the whiff of Dave Cameron's Big Society about it - something, perhaps, along the lines of getting volunteers to run the reference desk. Well, that was my first thought when I recieved the invitation to LIKE 24: The Human Library. A little research revealed that in fact this is a scheme whereby readers 'borrow' a person or 'book' for a conversation - just as they would borrow a book from a library. Hopefully this leads to people engaging with others to draw upon their experiences.

It all sounded very interesting but I was still a little doubtful about the concept. Linda Constable, who has been involved with Human Libraries since 2007, began the talk by explaining that the idea started in Denmark in 2000 and used to be known as the Living library. To illustrate that power of the 'library', she talked about number of popular 'books' that can be borrowed such as a recovering alcoholic, Big Issue seller, or a Muslim lady who helped 'readers' gain a better understanding of cultural differences. This was all very interesting but can the concept be used in a business environment?

Once the explanation was over, it was time to put the idea into practice. The room divided roughly into those who had volunteered to be books and those who wanted to read. Topics ranged from KM issues, Italy, to something about adults and comics. There was soon plenty of conversation and from the people I spoke to the general consensus seemed to be that it was a useful technique for passing on knowledge. Initial reservations about the concept only being relevant to more marginal areas of society were dismissed and they could see it being useful in connecting work colleagues, seeing the benefits of being able to 'read up' from an expert.

In the LIKE experiment, the Human Library seemed to work best where the 'book' was about a specific subject or an autobiography, rather than a general topic like Travel. For example, I volunteered myself as a Mountaineering book. I chatted away about the subject but feel that it would have been better for my readers if I'd narrowed the title to a particular area of the subject.

An interesting evening that left introduced LIKE members to something new and useful. A short film about the Human Library can be seen here.

LIKE 23: Information in the palm of your hand

2011-04-08T08:45:00.014+01:00

There seems little doubt that the future of computing is mobile. Eric Schimdt, Google's chief executive and chairman, recently said that soon mobiles will be able to "do things that we haven't even begun to think of." Numerous commentators seem to be predicting the same thing, backed up by the phenomenal sales of smart phones.

According to Mark Needham, Chairman of Widget UK, the technology that drives these devices has actually been around for 20 years. Mark was talking at LIKE 23 on the subject of Information in the plam of your hand: evolution of mobile information access. He started his career working at Psion, makers of the first handheld computers, and has been in the industry ever since. Interestingly Mark thinks that future generations will recognise the devices we use today in much the same as we see many similarities between today's cars and the Ford Model T.

Continuing with the evolution theme, he suggested that one of the the first written references to a handheld computer was in the 1974 science fiction novel The Mote in God's Eye. This book charts the first contact between humans and alien lifeforms and is noted for its attention to scientific detail. I was interested to see how the book was reviewed when it was first published. Martin Amis devoted a few words to it on the Observer's Science Fiction review (as an aside, his father, the novelist Kingsley Amis, wrote the Observer's Science Fiction review during the 1960s).

Mark was followed by Andrew Swaine from ARM, a technology company know for its processors and software development tools. Points made included that mobile development is all about power consumption and the battery technology. Also that the industry has been surprised at the success of apps, plus the problem of losing data is becoming a thing of the past as most devices now automatically save data.

Some sort of manageable keyboard was top of the wishlists that arose from the following discussion.

The changing face of corporate information services

2011-04-06T12:20:00.011+01:00

Outsourcing, the contracting with another company to provide a particular service, has been part of business practice for a number of decades. Originally this covered non-core areas such as pay-roll or data-entry. However, in recent years services to internal clients, such as law libraries, have been outsourced, or offshored (outsourced business processes carried out in another country.)

But is this practice an efficient business model that delivers benefits both to the an organisation and employees? If ever there was a subject waiting to be discussed by SLA Europe, then this was it. And so on March 30 around 50 people gathered at Balls Brothers, Mincing Lane, to take part in a SLA debate, The Changing face of corporate information services - new service models and partnerships.

The panel of experts included both those who had outsourced services - Sarah Fahy from Allen & Overy and Kate Stanfield formerly of CMS Cameron McKenna, and vendors Greg Simidian, CEO of Perfect Information and Liam Brown, CEO of Integreon. The event was chaired by Stephen Phillips from Morgan Stanley.

The debate centred mainly on the the legal sector but the issues raised were relevant to anyone working in information management. Excellent accounts of the evening can be read on both Nicola Franklin's Fabric blog and Tina's Library Related stuff. One thing that I'd add is that it was reassuring to find the whole subject of professionalism being discussed - both in terms of the efforts that have been made to maintain professional development for outsourced staff, and the fact that senior management, particularly in law firms, respect and expect to deal with well qualified information personnel. However, as Tina Reynolds points out: "if firms hive off their less complicated work but keep senior professionals in house then where will we find the next generation of professionals?"

The speakers were certainly knowledegable about the subject and generally delivered their points well. Perhaps the evening could have started with a general summing up of what exactly outsourcing is, along with an explanation of the terminology. At times the discussion veered into David Brent territory with a liberal use of acronyms and overuse of phrases such as 'moving the needle.' All in all though, a worthwhile attempt at trying to get to grips with what exactly outsourcing involves.

Digital archives and crowdsourcing

2011-02-07T16:49:00.010Z

As regular users of newspaper digital archives well know, when a scanned image is turned into text as little as 60% of the resulting article's words can turn up in the right place. It is an irritatant but as the cost of correcting an entire archive is so prohibitive most institutions choose to only do this on an ad hoc basis. However, the National Library of Australia has turned to its users to amend jumbled text in a massive crowdsourcing exercise. This has has seen millions of lines of newspaper text being tweaked thus ensuring more accurate searching.

The Sydney Morning Herald recently reported that the public's help in working on the text has been particularly important over the past few weeks as, with huge areas of Queensland under water, many Australians have been seeking news reports from 1974 - the last time there was flooding on such a massive scale.

A video about the library's project can be see here while an article about how and why libraries should do crowdsourcing appeared in The Magazine of Digital Research. See also how newspapers such as the Guardian engage their readers in similar exercises.

Double Measures

2010-11-28T20:25:00.010Z

Moral fears about drink have often exercised British newspapers, something that soon became apparent when I began compiling material for Double Measures: The Guardian Book of Drinking. From concerns in the 1860s about drunken children, the dangers of absinthe, the very act of drinking itself during WW1 to current debates about 24-hour licensing, the paper has not been afraid to warn of the dangers of drinking alcohol. That said, the editorial lectures are leavened by plenty of celebratory pieces about all things grape and grain.

Many of the articles were accompanied by cartoons. As Drawing Drunks, a new exhibition at the Cartoon Museum demonstrates, artists and cartoonists have long played out the dilemmas over drink in the country's press. The Today Programme recently reported on the exhibition and a number of cartoons can be seen here (unfortunately the museum's site is a little out of date). One of the most famous is William Hogarth's Gin Lane.

Read Martin Rowson's piece about the love-hate relationship between editors and cartoonists here.

LIKE 20 and the art of networking

2010-11-27T20:48:00.015Z

With the Christmas party season almost upon us, LIKE20 focused on how to be more successful with your networking. Guest speaker Lesley Robinson passed on a few tips but the bulk of the evening was spent putting the theory into practice. Simple advice such as catching someone's eye or having a few pre-prepared opening gambits soon made sense and before long the room was alive with the sound of some serious networking.

So far, so good, but what happens when you want to move on from a conversation and engage with someone else? Extricating yourself from a group or person without giving offence is much harder to do than making the initial contact. Lesley offered some ideas but unfortunately there wasn't much time to put these into practice.

Chatting about this after the main networking session elicited a number of responses. More than one person suggested the simple, direct, and usually effective, 'eff off, you're boring me' approach. Fair enough, although someone else commented that having a host/hostess to connect the like-minded etc. might be a more subtle way of going about this. Good idea, although not always possible. At professional events it is usually easier to move onto the next person as everyone (hopefully) knows the rules of the networking game. Of course it's harder to do at social gatherings - guess it's just a case of getting out there and practicing...

Once again, a great LIKE event. More of Lesley's networking tips can be read here.

Beyond the echo chamber

2010-11-26T18:06:00.013Z

Complaining or commenting about something in an enclosed space acts like an echo chamber with the same things being heard over and over again. No matter whether it's in the social media sphere or a trade journal, airing the issues may be reassuring for those involved but has little impact outside the space. This is particularly true in the library world where there is an awful lot of chatter about the forthcoming cuts in services but little that makes it into the mainstream media. It was with this in mind, that SLA Europe organised Marketing Libraries Outside the Echo Chamber, a seminar that aimed to show information professionals how to reach beyond the converted.

Held at the City Business Library, one part of the the evening was taken up with Escaping the Echo Chamber, a talk by Ned Potter and Laura Woods. Using a series of examples they built up a strong case for the need to challenge inaccurate reporting in areas where non-librarians and opinion formers will take notice. A good case in point is that of a blog post by the influential marketing guru Seth Godin who wrote, amongst a number of things, that 'information is free now'. Naturally there was a huge response but it was Toby Greenwalt's response on the Huffington Post that was probably read by the most. Another point made was to use a popular medium to get the message across as illustrated by this very funny film on YouTube. There are lots more useful links on their respective blogs and presentation (which, incidentally was a brilliant demonstration of Prezi.)

How to go about putting all this into practice had been demonstrated by two of the organisers behind Voices for the Library, a campaign that "seeks to highlight everyone who loves libraries to share their stories and experiences of the value of public libraries". Bethan Ruddock and Jo Anderson gave a truly inspiring talk, describing how they they were getting (and encouraging others) a positive library message across through stories in the local press, commenting on popular blogs and writing on forums such as Comment is Free.

There was no doubting the enthusiaism of all of the speakers. However, Ned seemed to suggest it was an information professional's duty to promote libraries. As he put it, "if people don't know how we can help them, they won't come to us for help."

This was an evening that challenged all those present to do something. Thanks to SLA Europe and also the City Business Library staff for hosting the event.

History of Social Media Infographic

2010-11-19T16:49:00.006Z

Those Who Dared recently featured a post about Munroe's Map of Online Communities which showed current levels of social activity around the globe. Now there is a History of Social Media Infographic, a timeline that acts as a useful companion piece to the map. Produced by Skloog, it traces everything from the birth of the telegraph in the late 18th century to Google Buzz in the present day. It's so easy to forget that Wikipedia is nearly 10 years old and Second Life has been around since 2003.

Books about journalism

2010-11-08T22:03:00.014Z

Michael Frayn's Towards the End of the Morning (1967) is often cited as the ultimate 'old Fleet Street' novel. Set in an obscure national newspaper it follows the lives of the journalists from the crossword and nature department in the decling years of the street. Most of their time seems to be spent in the pub, usually accompanied by the stout-drinking Lucy from the library, moaning about workloads and life on the paper. The novel is very funny and much loved.

However, many other fine books have been written about Fleet Street - something that has been dubbed hack-lit. This month's Press Gazette features a piece about Revel Barker's Books About Journalism which republishes long lost classics. A former Mirror Group executive and brains behind Gentlemen Ranters, Barker's catalogue includes such tales as as Murray Sayles's A Crooked Sixpence and Anthony Delano's Slip-Up, not to mention the ever popular Waterhouse on Newspaper Style.

The Press Gazette publishes his top 20 classics but plenty more can be found on the website.

All Facts Considered

2010-10-26T10:37:00.007+01:00

In an age when fact-checking often goes little further than a quick glance at Wikipedia (good resource that it is though), it's heartening to hear about a book that is not only full of facts, but is written by a professional whose job it is to ensure they are all correct. All Facts Considered: The Essential Library of Inessential Knowledge is a compendium of information about history, science and the arts written by Kee Malesky, librarian at NPR (National Public Radio).

See here for an article about the book. This includes excerpts plus a few of Kee's favourite questions such as:

- The first e-book was the Declaration of Independence, typed into a computer in 1971 by the founder of Project Gutenberg.

- Red hair, the rarest human color (less than 2 percent of the population), is caused by a variation in what is called the "Celtic" gene.

All sounds fascinating and I'm about to order a copy for the Guardian library (where we double check everything). Wonder if it's going to be made available online...

Information hygiene

2010-10-01T15:33:00.017+01:00

Twenty-first century Info Pros: Changing roles and skills in knowledge and information, was the rather ominous title for LIKE 18 (London Information and Knowledge Exchange). Over 40 people packed into an upstairs room at the Crown Tavern, Clerkenwell, to hear Luisa Jefford, TFPL's Director of Public Sector Recruitment, pass on her some of her inside knowledge.

After talking about the current jobs market, including the fact that many vacancies attract applicants from all around the world, Luisa divided the room into smaller groups to discuss the skills that are essential for the modern information professional.

Not surprisingly, everything from being able to budget, organise and present, as well as core information skills made it onto the list. One attribute though that made a (very) brief appearance in my group was the art of blagging.

Now, obviously, blagging is not something that's going to appear on the average information professional's CV - the Collins dictionary definition of 'obtain by wheedling or cadging' is enough to put paid to that. However, a wider definition of presenting a confident front even when uncertain about something is surely a skill worth having. Random examples of this can be seen here and, with the line 'a blagger persuades. They do not coerce,' here.

Luisa concluded her talk by stressing that you should be fully aware of all of your transferable skills. These are are as valid as formal qualifiactions on a CV, especially when backed up with evidence and examples.

Once the formal part of the evening had finished, the conversation began. Exchanging ideas and knowledge over dinner is one of LIKE's strengths. In the 'fish and chips corner', discussion ranged over everything from issues raised in Luisa's talk, Wikipedia (again) to Ed Miliband's marital status. At one point the phrase 'information hygiene' was introduced into the conversation, the context being something to do with making sure users don't download unsuitable or 'toxic' material.

Naturally I wanted to know more. A quick search on the Cilip website directed me to 'Top tips on sensitive issues - personal hygiene'. Very important, but not quite what I was looking for. The definition of 'managing your personal information' from this site seems more like it. Perhaps a future meeting idea for LIKE?

Thanks again to Virginia, Jennifer, Marja, et al for organising such a great evening. More information about changes in the information management jobs market can found on the TFPL reports section.

Calculating column inches

2010-09-22T16:07:00.011+01:00

Calculating the number of column inches, or words, a publication has devoted to a particular subject is a popular journalistic tool. It's a rough and ready way of showing interesting trends in coverage and it's just the kind of job that lands on the news librarian's desk.

In days of yore a ruler would be used to measure each column. In more recently times the job has involved doing a search in a newspaper text archive such as LexisNexis, or Factiva, noting the word count for each relevant story, and then adding them up. It may sound like an imprecise science but if done properly it can throw up interesting results. For example, a few years ago, there was surprise over the fact that the Guardian had devoted so much attention to Celebrity Big Brother (click to enlarge).

(Guardian, February 6, 2006)

However, changes in the way in which newspaper content is archived has made the job a lot harder to do. With the duplication of articles, archiving of picture captions, trailers, adverts etc, it is nigh on impossible to get a true picture of coverage. It was with some interest then that I noticed that outfits like Journalisted can do the job automatically. Just type in a subject and results spill out. To continue with the Big Brother theme, the site revealed that over the past week or so there have been more articles about the contestant Chantelle Houghton, than those about the Pakistan Floods. As explained on the site:

"All the information on Journalisted is collected automatically from the websites of 21 British news outlets (altogether, this means 14 news websites, since many daily papers share a website with their sister Sunday paper). Articles are indexed by journalist, based on the byline to the article. Keywords and statistics are automatically generated, and the site searches for any blogs or social bookmarking sites linking to each article"

Of course it's not actually searching what appeared in paper copies of news organisations so results could be slightly skewed, especially on a site which carries lots of blog coverage. But as the whole point is to get a snapshot of how something is being reported, it's a great resource. There are several other sites offering such a service. Now, if someone could just work a clever way of doing the same thing with printed columns in newspapers...

Andrew Roth

2010-09-08T16:15:00.005+01:00

Andrew Roth, author of Parliamentary Profiles, died last month at the age of 91. For half a century his books have been a treasure trove for political hacks writing about MPs. Roth left no stone unturned in the chronicling of a career - everything from acts of indiscreet youthful rebellion, forgotten attacks on colleagues on late-night talk shows, business links, to scandals were all there in the tightly packed prose.

Compiled from a library of press cuttings, the New York born journalist added his own pithy, and often very funny, characterisations. An early description of Margaret Thatcher was as a "diamond-hard Rightist suburban feminist, cold-water English rose", while Jim Callaghan, her Labour Party rival, was "avuncular, cocky, tetchy, shrewd, cunning, teetotal."

As well as compiling the guides, Roth had a 12-year spell as political correspondent or the Manchester Evening News and 13 years with the New Statesman. From 1996 he contributed obituaries to the Guardian.

Now that he has sadly died, the question is what happens to the great man's cuttings library? He had been trying to sell it but as many journalists now get their information electronically through the likes of LexisNexis or Factiva, not to mention blogs etc, it's value wasn't quite what it would have been a couple of decades ago. That said, it's still of great historical value and it is to be hoped that it finds a home at a university.

More information here and here.

World Cup coverage in The Guardian

2010-07-27T12:45:00.001+01:00

Martin Belam writes on Currybetdotnet about a display of Guardian World Cup coverage, compiled by the paper's Research & Information team. The pieces, ranging from 1950 to 2006, include Cup final reports as well all the usual stories - Hand of God, murdered goalkeepers, Gazza's tears etc, etc.

Until a couple of years ago, the task of finding these articles would have involved a nausea-inducing session at the microfilm reader. Thankfully, such projects can now be carried out using the Guardian/Observer digital archive.

Chatham House Rule

2010-06-30T17:32:00.003+01:00

To Chatham House last night for a retirement party. Chatham house is the home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and prides itself on "Independent thinking on international affairs". Central to this is the world famous Chatham House Rule which allows speakers' comments to be reported, but not their identities, thus encouraging frank debate. I don't think it was in force last night but I'll refrain from revealing too much other than to say that the general consensus was that libraries are essential to any organisation which want to be taken seriously for its accuracy and independent analysis.

Digital Journalist Survival Guide: Tech terms you should know

2010-06-29T15:39:00.009+01:00

At last - a glossary of all those techie terms and acronyms that non-tech information professionals and journalists should know. PoynterOnline's Jennifer 8.Lee has compiled this with the help of the Hacks/Hackers group. As the ResourceShelf put it, being able to "translate from 'geek speak' to layman terms is an excellent skill to have."

Digitising newspapers

2010-06-14T17:14:00.004+01:00

In last week's Media Guardian Dan Sabbagh examined James Murdoch's claims that the British Library's plan to digitise newspapers was for commercial gain. Obviously the accusations centre around copyright, but there's an interesting response in today's paper where Ralph Gee notes:

"Most 19th century provincial editors shamelessly lifted from the Times as copies reached them by stagecoach and railway; but London presses reciprocated, for their plunder to be used yet again by other provincials. This very incestuous process is now easily proved."

Indeed it is. Digitisation has completely opened up papers in a way that the original editorial teams could never have imagined. Long may it continue.

Association of UK Media Librarians

2010-06-07T11:49:00.007+01:00

After 24 years of promoting and supporting librarians working in the print and broadcast media, the Association of UK Media Librarians (AUKML) is to fold. On May 11, a farewell party was held at IET London, Savoy Place, to celebrate the group's achievements (due to careful stewardship, the group has a healthy bank balance). Over 60 members and former members came together for one last time.

I've written something about the event, for Cilip Gazette (turn to page 3.) See also Annabel Colley's column in Cilip Update, although this is only available to Cilip members...Pictures will soon be available on a Flickr site.

LIKE 14: Transliteracy

2010-05-30T18:06:00.014+01:00

After months of gentle arm-twisting from one of its members, I finally made it to my first London Information & Knowledge Exchange (LIKE) event, last Thursday. Founded in February 2009, the group is a collection of information/knowledge professionals who meet every month to discuss all manner of subjects in a relaxed and informal setting. Unlike more formal associations, membership and meetings are arranged on LinkedIn. Another feature of LIKE is that their evenings involve a good meal, something which has led one devotee to describe the gatherings as "a very good dinner party".

So it was with some excitement that I trotted off to the Perservence, the group's regular haunt on Lambs Conduit Street, London. The topic for LIKE 14 was Transliteracy - how info lit r u?, a talk by Susie Andretta, Senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University.

Transliteracy, just in case you're not familiar with the term, is "a unifying perspective on what it means to be literate in the 21st Century [including] the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital networks" (Professor Sue Thomas, DeMontford University).

Andretta has been studying the concept from the perspective of the practicing information professional. See here for an in-depth explanation. Inherent in the transition is, as she puts it, "the challenges of having to adapt to a constantly changing technological landscape, the multiple literacies that this generates, and the need to establish a multifaceted library profession that can speak the multiple-media languages of its diverse users". Heavy stuff, but it did make me stop and think about what many of us are doing almost every hour of the day.That is, communicating using many different mediums, whether it be tweeting, texting, blogging, Second Life etc.

Following the talk, a well-informed debate took place with views ranging from excitement at the concept to some who bemoaned that fact that there was "so much superciality" associated with much new technology communication.

So, what's not to like? LIKE offers a chance to learn something, debate with fellow information professionals, and have a great dinner.

Survival lessons for news libraries

2010-05-19T18:08:00.008+01:00

Searcher magazine features an in-depth article about the fate of news libraries: Survival Lessons for Libraries looks at the current situation and pointers to where we go next. It's a detailed piece of work, and includes Michelle Quigley's News Library Layoffs and Buyouts, a table of all the changes in US news libraries over the past couple of years.

In one section Dan Kennedy, professor of journalism at Northeastern University, states that news librarians have been "made utterly obsolete by technology." It may well be true and its certainly a point that's crying out to be debated, but there again, so does a statement like "carpenters have been made utterly obsolete by flat-packs". Anyway, I'd recommend all those with an interest in news libraries to read the piece.

Also worth taking a look at is 200 Moments that Transformed Journalism, 2000-2009 on the Poyner site. Compiled by David Shedden, its library director, the moments were selected from his New Media Timeline (1969-2010).

New roles

2010-05-14T16:37:00.002+01:00

To counter the oft-reported stories about the 'death' of media libraries, take a look at Katy Stoddard's Writing ourselves new roles in the May issue of Library & Information Update. As I've mentioned before, Cilip have shoved all their content behind a paywall, but there's a shorter version on the Librarian of Tomorrow blog.

Is this a News of the World stakeout?

2010-04-04T12:08:00.013+01:00

Walking along the banks of the river Wye near Bredwardine, Herefordshire, I came across a deserted shed. Curiosity got the better of me and I just had to investigate. Inside was an old armchair, a couple of beds, and an overpowering smell of sheep droppings. What caught my eye though was a News of the World expenses form lying on one of the rancid mattresses.

Had the shed been used as a stakeout for one of the paper's investigations?

Someone had obviously spent a bit of time there as a cupboard contained a few supplies (love the sound of Heinz's tinned London Grill). The question is, who, or what, were they waiting for?

National Archives UK on Flickr

2010-03-26T13:31:00.004Z

Thanks to Peter Scott's blog for reporting that National Archives UK has added over 200 images to Flickr. The photos have no known copyright restrictions so feel free to copy gems like this poster.

Satyagraha

2010-03-22T17:43:00.013Z

Satyagraha, Philip Glass's opera about Mahatma Gandhi's early struggles against racial discrimination in South Africa, is currently playing at the ENO. I went to see it last week and the production is three hours of stunning music and staging. See here and here for expert reviews, and here for a digest of the plot.

Satyagraha was the Sanskrit name Gandhi gave his theory of non-violent, or "passive resistance". Central to promoting these principles was the Indian Opinion, a weekly publication that at its height had an estimated readership of 20,000 in South Africa alone. As such, newspapers are a running image in the production, particularly in Act II where giant rolls of newsprint are stretched across the stage, before Gandhi ends up disappearing into a mass of paper and people.

I was curious to know how the paper was viewed in Britain and so turned to the Guardian/Observer digital archive. As part of the Miscellany column, the following piece appeared in the Guardian on January 24 1905:

(click to enlarge)

Tweeting while you work

2010-03-18T15:01:00.014Z

Twitter's detractors usually dismiss the site as a plaything for those with too much time on their hands. Supporters point to its social networking capabilities and power as a serious journalistic tool, citing its use in the June 2009 Iranian elections and Trafigura case.

But what value does Twitter offer for everyday working life and business? That was the topic under discussion at the recent SLA Europe's Tweeting while you work: Making the most of micro-blogging, discussion.

The three panelists - Hazel Hall, Julie Hall and Judith Woods all use Twitter in their working lives - for exchanging valuable information, promoting themselves and, in the case of the last two, generating business. Slides will be available soon. One piece of advice, though, that all gave was that it is important to maintain separate business and pleasure accounts. The aim should be to cultivate your own Twitter 'personality'.

It was refreshing to hear such enthusiastic and knowledgeable speakers. They were so good in fact that the Chair, Bob De Laney, LexisNexis Director, News & Business, UK & Ireland, had very little to do. However, he did lob in the question as to whether the panelists would still be such enthusiastic tweeters if they had to pay for the service. The response was, a yes, a yes, and a possibly. Good news for some.

Hazel Hall slides can be seen here.

BBC listening figures and the Freak Zone

2010-03-08T13:35:00.007Z

With talk of the BBC closing 6 Music and the Asian Network dominating the headlines, it's worth looking at what sort of listening figures other stations get. Katy Stoddard, a Guardian researcher/librarian, has posted all the most recent figures on the Datablog. Bottom of the list is Five Live Sports Extra, although I suspect it's running costs aren't that high. Why though isn't anyone talking about closing 1Xtra?

I'm a fan of 6 music, or at least parts of it. If the station does close, I suspect that the brilliant Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone will survive although it will probably be reduced to an hour and banished to the early hours of Radio 2. A suggestion - why not drop Aled 'keep the faith' Jones's Good Morning Sunday show and replace it with Maconie. The Freak Zone includes plenty of spiritual music and the most recent show's featured album was Black Sabbath's eponymous debut.

Wikipedia (again)

2010-02-25T12:17:00.008Z

Over the past few years, information professionals have spent spend an inordinate amount of time discussing Wikipedia. Everyone has an opinion, and usually an example of some inaccuracy. When interviewing wannabe librarians/researchers I often throw in a 'what do you think of Wikipedia?' question as the response can reveal a lot about an applicant's approach to information seeking. Many come out with 'don't trust it' - the 'official' approach that seems to be taught in most British schools and universities. In fact, exams watchdog Ofqual recently said that children should use Google and Yahoo to improve essays, but avoid the online encyclopedia.

Students need to learn how to discriminate between sources, but the fact remains that reliably sourced articles on Wikipedia can be unbeatable. I was reminded of this the other day when reading a post about the process of updating entries on Russell Potter's Visions of the North blog. Potter, an academic and leading authority on arctic exploration, writes about adding his comments to a Wikipedia entry on the sinking of the Karluk, the flagship of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, in 1914. The finished article (for now anyway) is a model of a well researched contribution, "providing a balanced and informative reference entry where before there was only a dark corner with a few half-hearted scraps mingling with rumors and undocumented sources" (Potter).

Bibliomancy on the South Bank

2010-02-23T12:19:00.007Z

To the Queen Elizabeth Hall last night to see Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer. An enjoyable evening although for anyone familiar only with the breathy solos and beats of his 1997 album Khymer, this was challenging stuff. "A 21st-century Bitches Brew," was how Guardian critic John Fordham described the material in a review of Molvaer's new album, Hamada.

Anyway, enough of all that jazz. Rather more pertinent to this blog is the Bibliomancer's Dream, an art installation consisting of hundreds of books, situated in the QEH foyer. Inspired by the ancient ritual of Bibliomancy- the art of divining the future with books, visitors are invited to "select a book at random and pick a line or verse to learn a truth or simply inspire the imagination". It looks rather good too.

The BBC's Virtual Revolution

2010-02-22T14:58:00.018Z

Saturday night saw the final part of The Virtual Revolution, a four-part series on BBC2 that has looked at how 20 years of the web has reshaped our lives. Presented by Dr Aleks Krotoski, it's investigated everything from how commerce has colonised the web, the way social networks are changing our relationships, to evidence that the virtual world is leading to a new brand of politics.

The Virtual Revolution has been a great series - intelligent but entertaining programmes that show the BBC at its best (and I'm sure Lord Reith is nodding in approval). This has been in part due to Krotoski's skill in leading the viewer through the mass of information, but also down to the high calibre of the interviewees. These have included everyone from Tim Berners-Lee, Bill Gates, Al Gore, the founders of Facebook, Twitter etc, to Stephen Fry - not to mention plenty of knowledgeable, and articulate, academics.

This week's programme, Homo Interneticus, included Professor David Nicholas of the independent research group Ciber, at University College London, who was talking about his study into the generational difference between how children and adults consume information online. Nicholas often talks about the 'Google generation' (see Digital Consumers) - young people who have grown up with the web. This group 'crowdsource' their knowledge, looking for the wisdom of their friends and networking what they know, rather than holding on to the information for themselves. Saturday's programme also included a Web Behaviour test (although according to Phil Bradley the BBC system soon crashed).

Nicholas has been looking at the changing information habits of various user groups for the past three decades. Back in the 1980s he was (probably) the first academic to start looking at the impact of online information on both journalists and news librarians. With the emergence of the internet in the following decade he conducted a huge study into how it was affecting information seeking in the media - a significant part of the research being carried out at the Guardian and Observer.

Aside from his research work, Nicholas was to be - although some would dispute this - the catalyst for the creation of the Association of UK Media Librarians (AUKML). As a senior lecturer at the (then) Polytechnic of North London, in the summer of 1986 he hosted a networking lunch for London-based news librarians that in turn led to the beginnings of the group. For more information about this see the News libraries chapter of British Librarianship & Information Work, 1991-2000.

BBC Archive

2010-02-18T18:10:00.006Z

BBC Archive offers a glimpse of the many hours of television and radio content, built up over eight decades of broadcasting. There are themed collections of programmes, documents and photographs, as well as a look behind the scenes to find out how the BBC archives are maintained.

It makes for fascinating viewing - just take a look at any of the Tomorrow's World clips. In Home Computer Terminal, Derek Cooper investigates Europe's first home computer terminal, installed into the home of industrial consultant Rex Malik. Ok, so it's from another age, but many of the predictions are remarkably accuate, and the shots of Malik's son doing his maths look very familiar.

I've also written about the BBC Archive on Those Who Dared.

Paywalls and engagement

2010-02-09T22:23:00.012Z

Library & Information Update, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals' (CILIP) magazine, is introducing a monthly publishing schedule comprising six hard-copy magazines and six Digital editions a year. This replaces the current 10 hard-copy magazines a year. It sounds like a good move and, with its state of-the-art turn-the-page technology on the digital editions, is sure to be popular with members.

Of course as Elspeth Hyams, the editor, points out: "Update is CILIP's exclusive members' magazine," and so only those with a password can actually see it. I can fully understand why CILIP have taken this decision as offering members something unique and of value is surely one way of ensuring they renew their membership.

I think though that making Update available for all to view (as they used to) outweighs this argument. Opening up the magazine's considerable archive of well-informed articles will surely draw people to the organisation. It's the perfect way to advertise their services to information professionals.

But I guess that's the topic du jour. Hardly a day goes by without someone in the media offering their views on the great free v paywall debate. Last August, Rupert Murdoch announced he was going to put News Corp's websites behind a paywall. Other news groups such as the New York Times have made similar noises, while the Financial Times has been charging for at least a year. However, Guardian editor-in-chief, Alan Rusbridger recently delivered a riposte to Murdoch's plans to introduce paywalls, claiming that it could lead the newspaper industry to "sleepwalk to oblivion." The News Corp Chairman's terse reply can be seen here.

Back to Update, and they may be onto something, at least in terms of 'engagement.' That is, the "clubs, subscription services, regular visitors – that ad men can measure," as Peter Preson put it in last Sunday's Observer.

News librarian speaking on the radio

2010-02-06T12:33:00.015Z

Following being quoted in the recent Columbia Journalism Review article about news librarians, Amy Disch can be heard speaking about the value of librarians on All Sides with Ann Fisher, a local radio station show in Ohio. The discussion was based around This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, a new book by Marilyn Johnson.

Handbook for Media Librarians

2010-02-04T14:07:00.004Z

The Winter 2010 issue of News Library News, the quarterly bulletin of the Special Libraries Association News Division, features a review of a Handbook for Media Librarians, edited by Katharine Schopflin. Through chapters written by leading practioners, the book explores the issues of central importance facing media librarians, archivists, researchers etc. Subjects include managing intranets, picture libraries and legal issues for news databases and archives.

The book came out in March 2008, so some of the information will be out of date. However, this is a good and honest review, with a recommendation that the handbook should be on the reading list of all aspiring news librarians. Read more here.

Bing

2010-02-03T12:21:00.006Z

The jury may be out as to how good a search engine Bing actually is, but you can't fault the stunning pictures on the front page. The current one (see left) is my favourite but you can click back to see previous ones.

Bing, which replaced Microsoft's Live Search product, was launched at the end of May 2009. To see how it, and WolframAlpha, compares with Google, see Mercedes Bunz's post on the The Digital Content Blog.

Evolution lesson

2010-02-02T12:40:00.003Z

Despite the rather sensationalist headline Endangered Species: News librarians are a dying breed, an article on the Columbia Journalism Review site puts a strong case for keeping information professionals in the newsroom. As the writer, Craig Silverman, sees it:

"Now that every reporter and editor has access to Google and a wide range of search technologies and online databases, the thinking is that they don’t need to call upon the Boolean expertise of librarians. You can see how it makes sense - except then the facts start to get in the way. In fact, the modern news librarian seems in many ways more important than ever. Even those old clipping files still come in handy."

Of course this means little to the many news organisations across the globe who have closed their information centres. According to statistics compiled by Michele Quigley, a researcher at the Palm Beach Post, over 250 news librarian jobs have been lost in the US since 2007. No such data exists for the UK but I would guess that at least 30 posts have been lost over the past year or so. The media libraries that survive do so in part because their management still believe in the value of the employing researchers, plus, as Amy Disch, library director of the Columbus Dispatch, explains, they have adapted their skills and knowledge to meet the needs of a modern newsroom.

To return to the title, it's true that the days of armies of people filing cuttings are well and truly over. But, without wishing to get too Darwinian, news librarianship starting evolving with the advent of online information, way back in the mid-1980s. News groups who recognised this are now reaping the benefits of having skilled librarian/researchers on their staff.

Man slashed in pub

2010-02-01T12:33:00.000Z

Contrary to popular opinion, local newspapers still exist. Take a look at Jon Slattery's posting about the Ormskirk Advertiser.

It's a vexed issue

2010-01-27T20:51:00.001Z

What better way to start a blog about news librarianship than to report a victory. Last night saw a team comprising of librarians from The Daily Telegraph, Times and The Guardian come a very close second in the annual SLA Europe Winter Warmer pub quiz.

Big deal, you may say. But the simple point I want to make is that news librarians still exist. There might not be so many of us around, but a few serious media organisations still believe that employing information professionals is integral to creation of quality journalism.

Anyway, vexed issue is going to be thoughts and ramblings of a news librarian as he makes his way through an ever changing media landscape.