Monthly Archives: March 2022

Learn about Virtual Reality at the Library 2.0 Virtual Conference on March 29, 2022

I am very excited to announce the 2022 line up of free global virtual conferences offered through the Library 2.0 virtual conference series! The three conferences this year focus on Virtual Reality; Urban Librarianship; and Privacy.

The first conference of the year, Virtual Reality and Learning: Leading the Way, will take place next week on March 29th 2022 from 12pm-3pm US-Pacific time.

This mini-conference is part of the Library 2.0 Worldwide Virtual Conference series, which was started in 2011, to build community among information professionals, provide a forum for discussion about important topics, and learn from each other across the world.

Virtual reality is a growing technology trend for libraries, and it’s a technology that is used to support learning and interaction in a wide range of environments. Sara Jones and Tammy Westergard both have extensive experience with deploying virtual reality in libraries, which was valuable as they helped us organize this mini-conference.  We look forward to hearing from them about their VR experience, as well as engaging with many others to discuss this important topic.

The conference kicks off with a one hour opening keynote panel discussion. We’ll hear from the following people:

  • Sara Jones, State Librarian, Washington State Library
  • Tammy Westergard, Senior Workforce Development Leader, Project Coordinator – U.S. Department of Education
  • Greg Lucas, California State Librarian
  • Milton Chen, Independent Speaker, Author, Board Member
  • Catherine Devine, Director, Business Strategy – Libraries and Museums, Microsoft Worldwide Education
  • Karsten Heise, Director of Strategic Programs, Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED)
  • Dana Ryan, PhD, Special Assistant to the President, Truckee Meadows Community College

During the next 90 minutes, you will have the chance to attend three 30-minute sessions – choosing from 18 presentations. Sample presentation titles include:

  • The Virtual Library: Making Interactive Online Tours with 360° Images, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality Technologies
  • An Overview and Understanding of the Metaverse
  • Libraries as the Center of Virtual Reality Collaboration

The conference ends with a 30-minute closing keynote session.

Registration is free; sessions will be recorded and made available after the event.

Thank you to founding partner The School of Information at San José State University for making the Library 2.0 conference series available, and to our partner organizations The Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL) and Califa Group for their support of this mini-conference.

Mark your calendars for upcoming Library 2.0 virtual mini-conferences in 2022; both will be held from 12-3pm Pacific time and will be free and held online.

  • July 14, 2022 – Urban Librarianship: Innovative Ideas, Active Leadership, and Best Practices.
  • October 13, 2022 – Privacy

I hope you will join us on March 29th, 2022 to learn about virtual reality!

Future-proof librarian, part 2: Co-operation with Wikimedia – Ideas from Sweden

Writer: Jarkko Rikkilä, coordinator, Tampere City Library – Regional Development Task, Finland

How can libraries co-operate with Wikimedia – Ideas from Sweden

Besides enhancing our skills in evaluating, the libraries could also participate in organizing, producing and creating information. One of the interesting methods of doing so would be co-operating with the Wikimedia Foundation. There’s a lot of similarities between libraries values and the goals of the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. The aim of both is to make information accessible to as many people as possible. In addition, the professional ethics of the library staff has similarities to the principles recognized by Wikipedia volunteers.

One of the library development organizations that has opened up doors concerning this kind of co-operation is the Sörmland Library Development Unit in Sweden. I interviewed our Swedish colleagues Malin Klintholm and Victoria Lagerqvist, who shared kindly their thought to CPDWL blog readers. We met with Malin and Victoria in the Next Library 2019 -conference in Aarhus Denmark and we’ve been in touch since. Malin’s and Victoria’s ideas were the inspiration to our own Wikipedia related training sessions for librarians in our area. That’s why I think these are good tips and tricks for everyone working with professional development!

Malin and Victoria

Tell us some examples of the co-operation with Wikimedia?

“In 2020, together with Sörmlands museum and Wikimedia Sweden we initiated Project LBTQI on Wikipedia, where we improve Wikipedia from a LBTQI perspective in regarding content and representation of editors. Our co-operation is a way to work with democracy, sustainability and equality online, in line with the mission of the public library.”

“Because of Project LBTQI we had a lot of interactions with Wikimedia Sweden as well as the museum. These led us (Sörmlands museum and Biblioteksutveckling Sörmland) in getting a Wikimedian in Residence during for six months in 2022. With this position we want to explore how librarians can work with Wikipedia, how the museum and library can collaborate, and also strengthen our own organization as one that empathizes with a sharing culture, and accessibility to free knowledge. Both us and Wikimedia Sweden have also been contributing with courses and articles to the theme Wikipedia on Digiteket, the national learning platform for librarians in Sweden.”

How could the librarians participate in creating and editing information?

“Librarians can participate in many ways, like enhancing Wikipedia with better sources as well as help others to find sources. It’s like being a reference librarian in a digital setting. Working on Wikipedia is a way to meet the users where they are and where they seek information, but also participate in building a community, making sure it’s a community for and by all. It’s also a great way to teach literacies.”

“The library could organize Wikipedia activities, for example edit-a-thons on different topics and gather people who are interested or have a lot of knowledge on the chosen topic. Maybe on the climate issue or local authors? Since Wikipedia is a global movement, librarians could also take advantage of the different languages spoken in a community, working together to improve articles in different languages at the same time creating a learning space for language development.”

“We encourage librarians to take part in #1Lib1Ref (which stands for one librarian, one reference) which is a campaign happening every year. Librarians could also join a Wikipedia project of relevance, for example in Sweden, they could join our Project LBTQI, in order to either learn more about how to identify and bridge gaps on Wikipedia, or to raise awareness of LBTQI knowledge in their own library and in the community.

“We see that librarians through Wikipedia could play a part in the work where underrepresented groups gain the visibility they deserve. If you put a light on more stories that matters in our understanding of the world, we contribute to broaden our collective knowledge, making it a much better and more relevant knowledge development.”

What kind of new skills or learning have you detected with the co-operation?

“Libraries and the Wikimedia share the common purpose of providing free public access to resources and knowledge for everyone. With our co-operation we’ve deepened our understanding of Wikipedia itself as well as all the other Wikimedia-platforms, and all the possibilities related. It’s been helpful for us to be more open-minded to different ways of thinking. Also through co-operation librarians are learning how and why it’s a good idea to be a librarian on Wikipedia. For example, increasing the understanding of open linked data, put on the role of being a reference librarian in a digital environment, skills regarding copy right and open source are in our findings.”

Since working on Wikipedia is a kind of never-ending story, it’s also a perfect fit for lifelong learning – for you, your colleagues and your local community.

Future-proof librarian, part 1: Fact-checking, multiliteracy and up-to-date evaluating skills

Writer: Jarkko Rikkilä, coordinator, Tampere City Library – Regional Development Task, Finland

“It’s times like these you learn to… evaluate again!”

In today’s world every librarian should have the basic skills recognizing and evaluating misinformation. The changing media atmosphere and information advocacy affect to the librarian competence. Multiliteracy is essential as it describes the diversity of communication. Also, we could learn new abilities by producing and editing content in Wikipedia.

One of our key themes in library staff training in the last couple of years has been raising the awareness of the changing professionalism that deals with identifying false information. IFLA’s How to spot fake news -infographic is a relevant checklist that is also shared among Finnish libraries. The evaluation of information is in the core of the librarian spirit. We are professionals in evaluating and helping our customers with reliable information from the collection. However, in the diversified global information environment the library collections are just one side of the coin.

There’s so much going on and the libraries have an impact. For example the covid pandemic caused a phenomenon called infodemics and to address this the WHO launched a special training on infodemic management. On the other hand, new channels and tools cause thoughts for the individual library worker. A concept called Data Detox Kit is addressing these themes. The kit offers everyday steps you can take to control your digital privacy, security, and wellbeing.

Disinformation, change of expertise and management of own data -training program for librarians

Last year we organized and conducted a four-part training program with an external library consultant called Disinformation, change of expertise and management of own data. The program consisted of the following parts:

  1. Getting to know the phenomenon
  2. Tools for preventing disinformation and fact-checking
  3. How do I manage and build my own information environment?
  4. Libraries as mediators of “reliable information”

The first part consisted of the basic terms and concepts of the matter. Second part provided the participants with tools of fact-checking. The third part concentrated on the individual – what can I do to clarify my own information environment? The fourth part argued the role of libraries in providing reliable information through collections. According to the feedback we got the program answered many of the questions our librarians are dealing with. The sessions also provided participants with good discussion and perspectives on the role of the library now and in the future.

Information advocacy and workhops this year

This year here in Tampere we were joined by two other regional development organizations (Lahti & Porvoo) to construct and educational program for libraries related to information, advocacy and libraries. Our series is focusing on themes like freedom of expression, fake news and change of expertise. We are kicking off the program with a special day where we have different specialists speaking out their views: Social media influencer, journalist, and civic activist. Besides this there will be a panel discussion where we point out the views of the library.

After the kick-off day we’re going to have three workshops this year for library workers throughout Finland. The workshops are happening this spring and the next autumn. Workshop themes are how to identify misinformation, how to plan a customer event and how to get started as a library with Wikipedia. In the next Future-proofing the librarian blog post I’m going to introduce ideas from Sweden about Wikimedia co-operation. So – stay tuned!

Librarian’s Day in Brazil

[the text in portuguese goes below]
March 12th we celebrate Librarian’s Day in Brazil.

It is always a festive day, with many actions across the country. Librarians motivated to work for more and better libraries, as well as promoting the continued learning of professionals.

In this year – on March 2022 – the Brazilian Commission on Copyright and Open Access of the Brazilian Federation of Associations of Librarians, Information Scientists and Institutions (CBDA3/FEBAB) held a webinar for the presentation of the “Guide to libraries: copyright and access knowledge, information and culture”.

The event was a success, with the participation of more than 150 participants simultaneously.

This guide is to answer professionals about the many questions regarding the balance between the libraries’ mission and the guarantee of copyright. Thus, the content of the guide was built with day-to-day work questions from the Brazilian community of librarians that were sent to the Commission, and answered by it.

The Guide is a fundamental instrument, helping with the uses and practices that can or should not be done by libraries. It gives them – the libraries – security, about compliance with copyright and the guarantee of access rights to information users, and thus they can fully fulfill their noble mission of promoting knowledge and culture.

These actions, by CBDA3/FEBAB, are contributing to goal 16.10 of SDG 16, “Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms in accordance with national legislation and international agreements”.

The guide can be donwloaded from the Federation repository at this link

http://repositorio.febab.org.br/items/show/6214

 

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Dia 12 de março comemoramos o dia do bibliotecário, no Brasil

É sempre um dia festivo, com muitas ações pelo país.  Bibliotecários motivados por trabalhar por mais e melhores bibliotecas, bem como promover o aprendizado continuado dos profissionais.

Neste ano de 2022, a Comissão Brasileira de Direitos de Autor e Acesso Aberto da Federação Brasileira de Associações de Bibliotecários, Cientistas da Informação e Instituições (CBDA3/FEBAB) realizou um webinar para o lançamento do “Guia para bibliotecas: direitos autorais e acesso ao conhecimento, informação e cultura”.

O evento foi um sucesso, tendo a participação de mais de 150 participantes simultaneamente.

Este guia, é para responder aos profissionais sobre as muitas dúvidas quanto ao equilíbrio entre a missão das bibliotecas e a garantia do direito de autor. Assim, o conteúdo do guia, foi construído com questões de trabalho do dia a dia, da comunidade brasileira de bibliotecários que foram enviadas à Comissão, e por ela respondidas.

O Guia e um instrumento fundamental, no auxilio sobre os usos e práticas que podem ou não devem ser feitos pelas bibliotecas. Dá a elas – as bibliotecas – a segurança, sobre o respeito aos direitos autorais e a garantia dos direitos de acesso à informação para os usuários, e assim podem cumprir plenamente sua nobre missão de promover o saber e a cultura.

Estas ações, da CBDA3/FEBAB, estão contribuindo com a meta 16.10 do ODS 16, “Assegurar o acesso público à informação e proteger as liberdades fundamentais em conformidade com a legislação nacional e os acordos internacionais”.

O donwload do guia pode ser feito no repositório da Federação neste link http://repositorio.febab.org.br/items/show/6214

Meet your CPDWL officer

CPDWL will try a new format, to keep the connections of the standing committee members and advisory group members more tight.

As a result of the breakout room sessions during the mid-term meeting of CPDWL in February 2022, we are planning to have zoom meetings every month without an agenda, just to chat and talk about the ongoing projects, questions raised by the participants or information from IFLA and its bodies. And we hope to gain some new ideas for programmes as well.

We’ll start by invitation, but might open up these meetings for interested colleagues from around the world later.

Let’s see, if it will be successful or the hosting officer will be just on her/his own?

Happy for your comments and ideas to make this format successful.

Take care and kind regards

Ulrike, Almuth, Alan and Edward