NetLibrarians

[SJ Klein]

Hello Don,

How many are needed depends on how strict your definition of 'net 
librarian' is.  Every laptpo may give rise to a future net-librarian.  A 
hierarchy of students, teachers, and other volunteers is especially needed 
in areas where there is no culture of librarianship and effectively no 
library system on which to build.

Where national clearinghouse staff are available, that can be a great 
resource; making resources from libraries visible to servers outside their 
networks (and vice-versa, for those libraries interested in hosting or 
curating new material from their communities) is important.  OCLC in 
particular is interested in making this process of cataloguing and sharing 
resources easier for us.

Internationally, the existence of people who self-identify as Net 
librarians and consider the whole world as their library-clients is 
promising; here too a constellation of support, and not just a few 
specialists, is called for (again, see the many online counterparts to
the traditional reference desk which have sprung up in recent years,
from Wikipedia's Reference Desks to the assortment of open commercial
Answers projects).

SJ


On Thu, 14 Dec 2006, Don V Black wrote:

> Hi All -
>
> The magnificence of the laudable task you have set for yourself staggers even 
> my overgrown imagination.
> I have been waiting for this since the introduction of the microprocessor 
> over 30 yeas ago.
>
> How many Net-librarians will we need when we get to 100,000 laptops? 250,000? 
> 1,000,000?
> Remember that these OLPC devices will be in literally every timezone, and in 
> every language.
> Also we need to make them useless for adults, or the resources will be 
> mis-allocated.
>
>
> ABOUT VOLUNTEERS:
>
> 1) Internationally: the process must be automated in some manner,
>     with the human element  introduced only when necessary (or requested).
>     An academic specialty specific (or pedagogically specific) cadre of 
> volunteer
>     librarians could thus be efficiently allocated and accessed.
>
> 2) Nationally: Another option is to make the resource available at the local 
> level,
>     and to encourage the client nations to provide a national net-library 
> clearing
>     house staff, thus reducing the language and timezone barriers.
>
> 3) Locally: A hierarchy of students, teachers and volunteers could be 
> accessed
>     via the OLPC device's network to provide local librarians, and 
> regionally
>     specific libraries and support.
>
> With a networking plan in place, cost estimates could be generated, and 
> funding
> then becomes a real possibility.  Also, it is easier to find volunteers, when 
> they
> can understand their place in the bigger picture, and their exact duties.
>
> ABOUT AN EDUCATIONAL DATABASE:
>
> Another issue that I would like to address later.
>
> Kindest Regards,
> Don V Black, Founder
> Edutech Project
>
> ===
> At 08:12 AM 12/13/2006, Idit Caperton wrote:
>> Joos,
>> Thank you for your email and putting your energy and thinking in an
>> important direction.
>> 
>> Some things to think about:
>> 1. Different styles/kinds of NetLibrarians? Real and Virtual?
>> 2. Different NetLibrarians who are creating different kinds of experiences
>> for different people who have different personalities, purposes, needs, and
>> inquiries? Maybe NetLibrarians are not waiting in a specific library, but
>> rather creating one for you on demand based on what you are looking for?
>> 3. How to create good "matches" and "mashes" for the above?
>> 4. Generating on the fly different kinds of libraries in terms of content,
>> size, locations, and experiences?
>> 5. How NetLibrarians are different than your current concept of Librarians.
>> Let's not try to imitate the old, but invent something new, different,
>> better...
>> - Idit.
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: library-bounces at laptop.org [mailto:library-bounces at laptop.org] On
>> Behalf Of Joos Search
>> Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 1:21 AM
>> To: library at laptop.org
>> Subject: Online librarians
>> 
>> Hello all.
>> 
>> I'm currently working on a "do-it-yourself" method for becoming an
>> online librarian.  I'm somewhat concerned that the children that we
>> are welcoming to the world of the Internet may just need some helpful
>> assistance finding the correct place to go sometimes.
>> 
>> If I could use one word to describe the Internet it would be: Library.
>>  In fact, it's the best darn library in the world.  I helped to build
>> much of that library over the past 20 years through programming for
>> fun and industry.   I'm determined to take a gigantic step backwards
>> in my own life and **stop programming** in order to help persuade the
>> Internet that the library needs to have some librarians.  Otherwise,
>> "Web 2.0" may come along and perhaps move the Internet in a direction
>> that reduces the usability of the library.
>> 
>> If I may, I'd like to extend the analogy to "the Internet is a town."
>> Let me explain.
>> 
>> When the Internet originally began, it was a really small town with
>> just a library.  Anyone could come to the library to find information
>> or put up new information.   Then, the town began to develop.  They
>> put in a movie theater, and a mall, and strip clubs, and an amazing
>> telephone system, just to mention a few additions.
>> 
>> And the library is still there, it's just not as flashy as all those
>> other new and hip things that are being added to the Internet town
>> everyday.  Fortunately, the library just got a fantastic new card
>> catalog (Google) and an amazingly growing encyclopedia (Wikipedia).
>> Unfortunately, the library doesn't have a librarian to tell any
>> visitor who just happens to stumble in where to go if it's their first
>> time.   And the librarian(s) really doesn't have to do much.  They can
>>  just be available if anyone has a question and be trustworthy.  While
>> they're not busy, they can help catalog and cleanup.
>> 
>> In some ways, I'd like to help an effort to gather a group of advanced
>> Internet users to serve as Internet librarians.   Or, another way to
>> think about it would be Internet concierges.  Welcome to the Internet,
>> may I help you?
>> 
>> I've started some research on the matter.  If you're interested, I'm
>> keeping it cataloged at joossearch at gmail.com.   Thanks for reading my
>> ramblings.
>> 
>> -Jeremy Lueck.
>> aka Joos
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>> 
>> 
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>
> ===================================
>              Don V Black, Chairman
>       IEEE-OC Video Game Engineers
>             http://www.gamesig.org
>       Executive Committee Member,
> IEEE CS Task Force on Game Technology
>                  1-949-548-1969
>                dblack at ieee.org
> ===================================
>          Affiliate of Center of GRAVITY
> Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
>       University of California at Irvine
>    http://newport.eecs.uci.edu/~dblack/
> ===================================
>