Dilemma: Photo Release Forms

I was so glad to see the Librarian in Black point to this issue. It's something that nags at me a lot, because I'm a librarian by career and a photographer by hobby--as well as being the frequent graphic designer/photographer for various library projects. And yes, for patrons to take photographs or videos in Willis Library, they are required to stop by the Administrative Office first.

I can certainly understand people's reticence to have their kids show up in photographs all over the internet--and in fact, that's one reason why I almost never tag kids in my Flickr photos with full names. In fact, I rarely do this with adults--when I do, it's usually colleagues that I photographed at a work-related event. I'd rather have very specific tags, for my own use, but I'm also reluctant to be the reason that someone's embaressing or silly moment shows up top in a Google search by their potential employers.

I'm frustrated with how awareness of this issue has cramped my photography in the past two years. If I'm taking photos involving children in a public place, but I don't personally know them, I tend to take photos from the back or side. I try to take images of adults in groups, and if they are individuals, again try to get them without a full front view of their faces. But perhaps I'm being too cautious.

I'd like to take photos freely, without worrying about release forms--but I'd also like to take photos knowing that I'm not making my subjects uncomfortable. Meh.

And on that note, I'll get back to web updates and my current graphic design projects: library calendars and reading fesitval posters. Perhaps if I cross my fingers very, very hard, Photoshop won't crash my system this afternoon.

Note: GovDocs librarians or those in the DC area, I'll be in DC for Interagency from Friday, July 25 through Saturday, August 2. Anyone who wants to do lunch or site-seeing, let me know.

My Boss, Depository Library Council Member

Now that it's official and the press release is out, let me finally burst out with the news I've been waiting to say: my boss, the incomparable Suzanne Sears, is on DLC this year! Yay!!

Of course, this means I'll be a bit busier for the next three years as well, helping to take on more departmental responsibilities when she's away. But it's exciting and huge news and I'll be interested to be so close to a council member.

(And yes, this would fall under the "docs nerd" category of posts to this blog.)

Not Home Yet...

So, the San Antonio trip/presentations is done, the DC trip and presentation is done, we picked up Bryce, and now we're in Abilene. It's been a packed two weeks! And for once, I've been mostly off-grid--which is both disturbing, and nice. I've been rediscovering the use of the phone for things like checking museum hours, and enjoying the silence of a hotel room with nothing but a comic book in hand (the internet connection having gone bad, and me having not the energy to complain). But a break from email, even for just three days, was a great way to relieve some stress (momentarily, however, as there will be four times as much to deal with when I log in tomorrow).

The DC trip was fantastic--I had a great three days of vacation with Alex and all four of our parents, seeing many thing I didn't have time to see before. And then the FDLP conference was really great--it's nice knowing so many people now. Plus, my presentation went so well and was so packed (upwards of 100 people!) that I was asked to give it again in KC in the spring--w00t! And since Alex's parents stayed while I was in conference, Alex had people to go out and have fun with, which left me feeling at ease about attending meetings I needed to. And even gave me a few hours after my presentation to decompress with that comic book mentioned (Jack of Fables vol. 1, which was as great as I expected). Then I watched part of two of my favorite movies, Star Trek: First Contact, and Stargate (not as great as the series, IMHO, but still awesome, particularly the beginning).

Now I'm in Abilene for HSU Homecoming (i.e. what passes for vacation for us busy folks). I'll be slowly catching up on work and personal email and homework, but I don't expect to be fully back on the grid until Monday. I'm trying this new thing, called unwinding. And unplugged.

(By the way, I do plan to post more about the presentations in SA and DC, as they were both great experiences and things I learned from.... just not while I'm vacationing!)

Playing in the Pro League

This has been a great week for me, professionally. I've been invited to speak on Library 2.0 themes at the San Antonio Public Libraries' staff development day, finished a book review for JWL on an amazing guide to writing web content, and was just informed that my proposal for an educational program at the Fall DLC meeting has been accepted.

Hooray! (Oh wait... does this mean I actually have to write the presentations now?)


Incidentally, if you need a good guide for writing online content, buy Ginny Redish's Letting Go of the Words. In fact, just go out and buy it regardless--even if you think you don't need this book, it's unbelievably useful and so clearly written that it sparkles. I, who groan at the thought of trying to read something on top of my already-hectic schedule, flew through this book and enjoyed every moment. You need this book. Just trust me.

And while you're ordering things, get a subscription to the Journal of Web Librarianship. If you're a librarian who uses the internet, this periodical is relevant, no matter how web-savvy you are (or aren't). And if you're a librarian who doesn't use the internet... maybe you should start reading up on that.

Things to Do in Denver When You're... a Docs Librarian

Well, I finally uploaded those photos from the FDLP conference in Denver last month. Oh, and also photos from TLA in San Antonio, which was the weekend before that. Enjoy!

Sunset From Tavern Window (FDLP)

Sunlit Patterns (TLA)

Wading Through Wednesday

Thanks for all inquiries--I did arrive home safely last night.

I had a librarian nightmare last night (not metaphorically; it really was a dream). Patrons were rushing the desk, screaming at each other about who got there first and why everyone else's question was stupid. One patron in particular kept talking about how another patron was weird and didn't I think so too, and wasn't his information need ridiculous, and I had to keep patiently explaining to her that I was here to serve everyone, and that no one's need is weighted any differently than any others'.

I think I had this nightmare because during my service desk shift last night, patrons kept asking for pens. Asking in the way that I intuitively knew meant that these pens would not be coming back.

Completely off-topic from patrons... my task on Denton Reads is nearly done! I've got the Children's Festival photos yet to edit/upload, and probably 20-40 other photos to edit/upload, and I also have to archive the existing website. Then I get to update the website with the "events went successfully!" kind of copy and post/link photos. Then I'll be done.

I think.

Great news: we've got RSS for the UNT Library Digital Collections searches (check out the spiffy orange RSS icon at the right)!!! Now, you can save frequent searches and get updates when new items arrive... much like the RSS feeds now available for wishlists in BookMooch (free online book trading service).

Unrelated Banter

• I found a story about how UNT's new President Bataille read "Hoot" to some 6th graders as part of Denton Reads. I'm really hoping that someone photographed the event...
• My talented colleague Kristen pointed out this spiffy (beta) newsletter collection from the Library of Congress: Chronicling America. Thanks!
• FGI has a great page of resources for Spring DLC Denver.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig

Things I learned while in Denver:

• the altitude really does affect you
• there's a surprising number of documents librarian baseball fans
• if it's a presentation/discussion about digitization, UNT's name will come up
• regionals have widely varying opinions on digitization and title 44
• John Phillips really is that great

As well as, when attending two conferences in the space of a week:

• stick to bland foods
• you won't get much sleep

I've started typing up my notes in my wiki (including notes for TLA), but they won't be done for a few days. Keep checking back; I'll get them done. I'll also be posting in the near future some observations / thoughts on the conference proceedings; I think it will take typing all my notes to re-digest that material.

So, the emails are just about caught up (in stark contrast to the laundry), the Albino Squirrel Memorial looks great, and I'm about to go photograph the Denton Reads Film Festival at the Movie Tavern. Now, if I could only find the time to finish that book review and my research paper for Rare Books...

Also, a big thanks to my interim department head for reading my blog post and getting LAN to up my RAM! Woohoo--thanks, Mel!

Update: There's a great story about the Albino Squirrel Memorial at the Denton-Record Chronicle website, that includes some photos!

Docs in Denver

So, here I am at DLC. My brain's a bit confused from having just been in San Antonio--I spent Saturday and Sunday attempting to decompress at home (as well as finishing up calendar pages for the UNT Albino Squirrel Memorial to be unveiled tomorrow at Willis Library's Cyber Cafe). Note to self: if job continues to heavily emphasize graphic design, be sure to somehow procure a faster computer and more network drive space.

At some point, I'll have to get my impressions of TLA down in a post... for now, I'm ready to finish this post and sit down with my highlighter and my book to review. I took a lot of hard-copy notes that I want to get into my wiki as soon as possible... I fear that may be difficult to do, as emails and work have no doubt been piling up while I've been playing the jet-setting traveling librarian. The highlights of TLA in a nutshell, however, were:

• seeing my new boss's (yes, it's official!) passionate presentation
• Lesley Williams's incredible session on promoting e-collections
• hearing UNT's name mentioned in every single session I attended on digital intiatives
• going to lunch with my mom (former high school librarian, now art league librarian), three UNT colleagues, and my future boss

And I've got to say--Denton Reads is paying off in a huge way not only for the community of Denton, but for the community of Denton librarians. Because of my involvement in Denton Reads, I knew a TWU librarian and a Denton Public librarian at TLA. I think this program has really brought Denton librarians together in a great way, as collaborators, and I'm excited to see what an effect this has on our library community in the future.

TLA/DLC Trump Blogging

...I'll return on April 19th. In the meantime, I've been doing lots of "hard copy" blogging that I hope to transfer to the digital medium.

• TLA - Texas Library Associaton Conference, San Antonio, TX - 4/11 - 4/14
• DLC - Federal Depository Library Council Meeting, Denver, CO - 4/15 - 4/18

Tags, You're It!

Tags, CMS, and HTML-email... what a glorious combination! We've been looking at options for the delivery of a weekly internal library publication (that I'm soon to take over). So far, the best candidate seems to be Plone, the CMS that we're moving our whole library website to this summer. The only nifty feature that Plone doesn't offer is email delivery, but it seems like we can pull together a HTML email template pretty quickly. Lilly Ramin and I spent a couple of hours yesterday in my office, nerd-i-ly brainstorming about content types and keywords. We looked at three of the most recent publications and basically assigned content types and keywords until we had a semblance of a system, vocabulary, rules, and even examples. We were both pretty excited about it by the time I had to work my service desk shift.

Now, I just need to migrate the HSU BYA Newsletter to a similarly simple model... ah, well. For now, I'm composing those HTML messages from my Gmail address and sending them to the Alumni Relations office, who then sends out an official copy to everyone. But I have yet to figure out why sometimes this sends images just fine, and sometimes it refuses to display them. I need a button in my Gmail that says "reveal HTML code," dangit.

After about seven unsuccessful tries, I am finally registered for the TLA Conference next month. Whew! I think my husband may be able to join me after all, which would be great--and my mom (who was my high school librarian) will be making the rounds at the exhibits while I'm in sessions. My parents live in San Antonio, so it's nice to have a cheap place to stay for once!

Which reminds me... anyone need a (female) roomie for DLC next month? I have a room reserved already, but I'm open to sharing. Looks like I'll be staying Monday night and possibly Tuesday.

Monday, we're interviewing a candidate for the Head of GovDocs position. It's going to be hard to remind myself to be in Denton for breakfast, but I'm looking forward to it. It's odd being on this side of the interview process, that's for sure. It gives a whole new perspective on the job-seeking process.

More publicity for the CyberCemetery! John Pendolino of WBAP interviewed Cathy Hartman and myself yesterday about the CC--they're airing the show on Monday morning (at some point between 5 and 9am). I'm not sure if they link to audio after airing or not (I'll link it here, if they do), but I've got a copy of the audio file for my own archives.

NDIIPP Update

Jill Hurst-Wahl recently posted about new books in preservation and digitization. One of them was Archiving the Web: A Guide for Information Management Professionals, about which she mentioned, "Hopefully this books conveys some of the lessons being learned from the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program." ...Which reminded me that I don't think I've posted an update on the NDIIPP Web-at-Risk project.

I'm the curator for UNT's collection in the project, and over the summer, my boss and I developed our Collection Plan (the CDL and ourselves were asked to provide plans early to act as examples for the rest of the group, who created their plans this month). So far, the first test release of the WAS (Web Archiving Software) was released a few weeks ago for us all to play around with it. It went pretty smoothly, and I was able to capture all the websites I listed in my URL seed list.

Unrelated Banter

• I found this article on Museum Visitor Studies quite interesting. Museum staffers follow visitors around the museum, taking notes on which exhibits they take time at, pass by, or talk about. I like that they notify the visitors, but still try to remain hidden. That would be a neat idea to implement in a library.
• The DLC Vision Document is final! You might want to read the FGI commentary on the document, as well.
• Now I've heard it all: a NORAD podcast! It details how to put together an emergency preparedness survival kit and have a plan.