eBooks - Absolutely Fabulous?

In looking at my notes about the CILIP eBooks executive briefing last week, #ebooks11 on Twitter with some awesome tweeters, I figured, instead of going through them and rewriting them, I may as well do a blog post!

The CILIP Executive Briefing on eBooks was basically a conference for librarians interested in eBooks, whether they already provide eBooks or not. The speakers' presentations were a mixture of case studies and current awareness, but all looked to the future and all highlighted the issues we still face when it comes to eBooks.

Surprisingly muscular Newton statue at the British Library on the way to CILIP

Those of you who haven't been to CILIP London, the mothership for librarians in the UK, before will be in the same boat as I was. Those who have, many a time, will read this and (hopefully) roll your eyes affectionately. I don't often go to London, despite living in Cambridge and therefore a maximum of an hour's train journey away. I don't like London, I suffer from a kind of culture shock every time I visit. So I was very grateful when I happened upon Jayne Kelly, @ebooksatcam on the train. We had both got to the station early, both decided to get the earlier train and both decided to sit in the same carriage. We also both wanted to walk from King's Cross to CILIP, thereby avoiding the tube. I decided this was fate. However having a familiar face at a conference is both a help and a hindrance; it gives you courage, but you do tend to stick together at the same time.

The day was seamlessly organised, with breaks just when you need them and a fabulous lunch. But enough about that, I'll get onto the important stuff now. eBooks are absolutely fabulous and absolutely frustrating in equal measure. Like Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous in fact. No, before I lose you, let me explain. eBooks seem brilliant at first, charming you with their flashy facade, modern ways and easy access; Patsy was for all intents and purposes, a bit of a floozy. However when you get to know them better, you realise how difficult they can be, how you can't actually take them everywhere you want to and how they aren't for everyone; Absolutely Fabulous loved putting Edina and Patsy in fish-out-of-water situations. How when it comes down to it, you would prefer a traditional Saffy, a printed book, after all. I don't know why I used that allegory, except for the fact I unintentionally wrote absolutely fabulous and decided to go with it.

The Ab Fab family

I didn't know what to expect at an executive briefing, but there was something for everyone: public, FE and HE libraries. Kate Price from the University of Surrey opened the conference with a brief introduction, introduced all the speakers and also did a stirling on the organisational side too. Her presentation was a general overview about the state of play, which I needn't go into here. Kate highlighted a few useful survey websites, student feedback surveys that help us to gauge the response to how well we are doing with our services: National Student Survey (NSS), Key Information Sets (KIS) and Student Barometer. Kate also mentioned device complexity, a common refrain throughout the day, culminating with James Clay's excellent presentation about mobile devices and eBooks.

Emma Walton, who showed no trace of being a last-minute replacement, then presented us with a case study from the University of Sussex library. Emma went through their eBook project right from inception to future plans.They use the scary PDA system: Patron Driven Acquisition *shudder* That would never work in our library; our budget would disappear in a week!

After each block of speakers, there was time for a Q&A session and then refreshments. James Clay from Gloucestershire College opened after the break with his aforementioned presentation about eBooks and mobile devices. His presentation consisted of him speaking and a Powerpoint with only pretty pictures. Very brave. It meant James stood out from the other speakers as it was more vibrant and entertaining, with good use of humour which always goes down well. James simply explained the issues with a plethora of examples of mobile devices, getting us to say how many we had with us at the time with the age-old stand up-sit down method. The record is 73! James stated that eBooks are not a replacement for printed books; it's about giving our patrons the choice. The part I found the most useful was about marketing eBooks, especially about QR codes. I even collared James later to get his advice. Another refrain during the day was trying to get academics and teachers involved, particularly with the reading list which is a major bugbear for all of us in FE and HE.

A bugbear

Poor Virginia Havergal from Bridgwater College had a hard act to follow, but it helped that she was lively, light and had case studies to back up her points about where eBooks are going in the future. It also helped that she showed us this truly amazing video from TED which shows us where eBooks are heading:

Martin Palmer from Essex County Council and Stephen Edwards from Hampshire Council Library Service had the hard time slot of after lunch. And unfortunately I was a bit dopey after the good food and because it wasn't relevant to me as I work in an HE library, I didn't pay as much attention. But from my notes, the presentation hand-out and from what I do remember, Martin tackled the device complexity issue, and the difference between downloads and online access in an informed and authoritative way; he had a great chart showing what works with which device which can be found on Wikipedia. In our experience, students want to either print or download eBooks rather than read them online, so device issues are very important to our students. Stephen, nobly battling a tickley throat, came from the publisher's perspective, explaining why there isn't a consensus among publishers and using current news to add impact, such as the recent statement from Penguin.

Lastly the publishers themselves spoke. Hannah Perrett from Cambridge University Press and Jude Norris from Dawson. Hannah's presentation was frank and honest and highlighted the problems with eBooks from not only the publisher's side, but the author's side too. Jude took us through how their eBook platform works and all the different subscriptions. We are already using Dawsonera, along with other platforms such as CUPs Cambridgebooksonline, the equivalent platform for OUP, MyiLibrary, the former NetLibrary now on EBSCO, ACLS and more. What I will take away from the day is a better sense of the eBook landscape, inspiration for our own eBook service and I have more ideas of how to use QR codes now and how to manage the different devices and eBook platforms.

At the end there was a panel discussion with sweeping questions, such as: where do you see ebooks in 10 years time? From there in a rambling conversation kind of way, we somehow got to: what do you think the role of librarians will be in the future? Such questions were a great way to end such a thought-provoking, informative and inspiring day.

An ever spinning wheel

Recently, a freelance writer for the Guardian, Laura Laker, wrote a piece about cycling in Cambridge, titled:

What makes Cambridge a model cycling city? With considerate drivers, dedicated bicycle parking and bike-friendly city planning, it's no wonder cycling is a popular means of transport.

The article made me mad, incensed even, so much so it incited me to write a comment on it. 186 others, and still counting, have done the same thing. It wasn’t just that it was poorly written, rambling, repetitive and riddled with delusions. The delusion came down to the fact that the writer based her whole article on seemingly one visit to Cambridge, in a quiet time on the roads and no proper experience in cycling around Cambridge. It wasn’t even that initially she wrote, “in a city of 120,000, students number only 3,500.” It was subsequently changed, after a few comments citing the error, to 43,000! How could someone get it so wrong? No, it was because she painted this misleading idyllic portrait of perfection, a haven for cyclists and everything is bright and sunny in the world. She relied on facts and figures, not opinions, perceptions and most of all, experience.
What she doesn’t seem to understand is that Cambridge is a cycling city. The new measures creating cycle routes and the such like haven’t made it into a cycling city, like the much lauded Sheffield, it just has an inherent cycling culture. She comments on the cycle racks at Cambridge train station, stating the numbers, the facts, but not mentioning that cycle thefts are rife, that it’s impossible to find a space unless you get up very early, and even if you do find a space, the chances are you won’t be able to get your bike out again as someone will have locked theirs to yours.
She goes on to say, “Cambridge drivers are considerate of cyclists in a way I've never witnessed in the UK.” Yes, drivers are more considerate, but through experience rather than civility. As one commenter said, “you just assume that every cyclist is an idiot and, despite the city being a world-renown centre of education, you're rarely proved wrong.” There are too many horror stories about cyclists being clipped by cars, forced into the curb and attacked by other road users to say that drivers are considerate.

There "were no buses driving on [her] back wheel and no cars revving their engines trying to overtake dangerously". She was certainly not there during rush hour and had a very lucky journey by the sounds of it, found a sweet spot in time when there was barely anything on the roads, an eerie silence which I have experienced; it’s like Cambridge is a ghost town. She sees all the bikes chained to every conceivable object or just chained to themselves, not commenting on what that means: not enough cycle racks or racks in convenience places. She also mentions the cycle parks, which she doesn't say are usually full.

Lastly, and the comment that got me the most incensed, "Hills Bridge Road [sic] near the station, for example, is used by 4,000-5,000 cyclists a day, and recently priority was given to cyclists, pedestrians and buses as a result." Let’s say we ignore the possible typo, but more likely idiotic naming mistake. She hasn’t done her research. A little digging would’ve found how long it’s taken to make the “improvements” to that damn bridge. How they changed their minds three times before they settled on the design of the cycle route over it and if she had asked any cyclist who uses the bridge, bar the kamikaze ones, they would have told her how dangerous it is. It wasn’t just me who got incensed about it, "Hills Road Bridge is a complete nightmare and the planner who redesigned the cycle path 3 times in about a year, each time just as dangerous and confusing as the last, should be shot." Here's a picture of the lovely cycle bridge instead:

Anyway, here is my comment, under my moniker mingsysar, don’t ask:

I am Cambridge born and bred. I have been cycling since I was a child. I cycled to school and I cycle to work. Every day. I have been cycling the Cambridge cycle routes for over 10 years, and I still don't think I'm qualified enough to write an article about cycling in Cambridge, but here goes.Cycling is extremely popular in Cambridge, there are many cycle routes and there are lots of cycle racks, repair shops and schemes to support cyclists. There are less lycralouts as @burtthebike called them, cycling is the best way to get around Cambridge (the traffic is terrible and the buses are expensive and unreliable), as my refusal to use any other mode of transport will attest, and I did start cycling to school on my own from the age of 11.

However you cannot write an article about cycling in Cambridge until you have experienced rush hour, which, lets be honest, is when the majority of cyclists are out; apart from students, most of the Cambridge cyclists are made up of commuters, parents taking their kids to school and schoolkids themselves. Cars cut cyclists up, buses gets so close that it is frightening, cars encroach on the cycle lanes and don't get me started on the new Hills Road Bridge which is going to get a cyclist killed it's such a death trap; cyclists will have to cut across traffic to go straight ahead on the Leisure Park side. It's not just Hills Road. We do have a great cycle bridge over the railway, but Cherry Hinton Road, Queen Edith's Way and Newmarket Road are extremely hairy to cycle down. But by far the worst for me is Mill Road; it's so bad, I refuse to cycle down it. It's not just me and the roundabouts are notorious for cycle accidents; Elizabeth Way, Coldham's Lane, Midsummer Common, Perne Road/Cherry Hinton Road, Perne Road/Birdwood Road... Cycling round Cambridge in ice and snow is treacherous as well.

It's not just vehicles, the cycle routes and the roads themselves, there are cyclists that make good cyclists look bad, cyclists that think they rule the road and foreign students ride three abreast; there are ideas afoot to run cycling proficiency courses for foreign students. There are cyclists that flout the law, running through red lights, going up on the pavement endangering pedestrians and despite the schemes the police run, more cyclists still don't use lights than not. You only need be out of an evening to realise that. It's become so bad the police are issuing on the spot fines.

Cycling isn't safe in Cambridge for another reason too. You should see the cycle store at the Police Station, it is full of stolen bicycles. There is a dedicated team of policemen who work flat out trying to prevent cycle crime in Cambridge, but the thieves are just getting cleverer. The amount of bikes that get stolen in Cambridge rises each year. You have to be extremely savvy when locking your bike up in Cambridge.

Lastly, there must be a reason why cyclists put cameras on their helmets and film their journey. And why was this never mentioned in the article?


That's my beloved old bike, Destiny. To big myself up a bit, my comment is the second highest recommended comment (out of the 185 comments, mine has been recommended 117 times) after this one, and so many cyclists in normal clothes and no helmet. This is what all other conurbations in the UK should aspire to: cycling as a perfectly normal activity, not just the preserve of lycra louts and pastie heads.”

Here a couple of comments on mine, Have to agree with mingsyser [sic]. His [sic] article is much closer to the truth than Laura's." "I'm a longtime Cambridge resident. Mingsysar nails it. Laura really, really doesn't."

Oh and in case you didn't get the reference, the title is taken from the song Windmills of Your Mind” used in the film The Thomas Crown Affair. Check the lyrics out, they’re haunting, poetic and perfect.

Thing 10 – Everything is open, nothing is set in stone

Everything is happening for me at the moment; I have a full-time job as an Information and Library Assistant at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, a job I've managed to keep for about two and a half years now, I’m learning to drive at last after years of putting it off and I’m about to start a distance-learning MSc in Information and Library Studies in September at Aberystwyth University. It has all fallen into place all of a sudden after coasting through life with nary a thought of the future. I thought I had all the time in the world, just "with the cares of the world" right in front of me instead of far behind. My boss finally encouraged me enough to give me the confidence to apply for the MSc and it has all happened so quickly. In researching where to do the course, I settled on Aberystwyth as it seemed to me to be the best, had a great set-up and many Cambridge librarians have gone there. It just so happens by complete coincidence that our summer holiday, which was booked over a year ago, was a mere 18 miles from where we were staying. I didn’t realise until afterwards! So I organised a visit, spent a long morning there getting my own private open day basically and I now feel a lot happier about the whole thing. I also fell in l
ove with Aberystwyth. But how did I get here? How come I'm studying again? How did I become a library assistant?

The short answer is I don’t know. But in trying to rationalise it, I will go through in chronological order, bear with me as it’ll all make sense in the end, it did to me anyway. I do tend to live in my own little world most of the time; for those of you interested it's like the world on the other side of the mirror in the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus where I can stumble upon anyone from people out of my past to fictional characters such as Sydney Bristow from Alias: dream-like, surreal, dark, technicolour and magical. I left full-time education five years ago, wow has it been five years? I graduated from Anglia Ruskin University with a BA in English; I adore reading, literature and books so it was the natural choice, plus it was my best subject. One of my teachers said I was like Matilda: long dark hair, painfully shy and always had my head in a book, yet hopefully with the same intelligence, imagination and spirit. I may have done English, but I also picked and chose modules in drama, film studies and creative writing, whatever interested me. I always tried to choose the juiciest fruit from the tree of knowledge and even those seemingly out of my reach. I fell off branches a few times trying to do just that, but least I tried; the bruises always fade and never leave lasting damage. I am a writer at heart and on top of everything e
lse I’m going to start writing the novel I have had in my head for many years now. I may have left it too late and it may be too much to take on alongside everything else, but committing yourself to something for a few years makes you realise all the things you have not yet done. My time management has never been the best and I'm an all or nothing type of person, so at the moment it's "all" but I've had months and months of "nothing"ness.

After leaving university, I didn’t have a clue what to do; I had vague ideas of journalism, publishing and even MI5! I blame Spooks. So I went to a temp agency and got a very interesting administrative job at the police station, contracted initially for a month as a data entry processor, but I progressed into various and diverse tasks for a few different departments, and finally lasted seven months as I proved too good to let go, that’s literally what they said. As proof, they couldn’t afford to keep me on any longer in that role, but they offered me another so they didn’t lose me. I got a lot of experience: work experience and life experience; if you want your eyes opened, work in a police station; but I couldn’t take the tension any longer. I’m surprised I lasted as long as I did without having a nervous breakdown. So I had to leave. Directly afterwards, I finished working for Heffers in their classical music shop, my first proper job and one I had for seven years. I still miss it.

I then applied for a job off my own back as a content editor for an online reservations company. We had a great team of people, which is what it was all about for me. From doing that job I discovered Watchmen, Veronica Mars, Freaks and Geeks, furthered my love of anime and made a fantastic group of friends. Thanks guys. I can’t remember if I left there or if I was let go, either way it was due to restructuring. I went briefly back to temp work, but quit because I got another job as maternity cover, after a long interviewing process; the final meeting was a presentation about the functional food industry. I was a research assistant for an offshoot of a development agency. I hated the job, not the actual work, just the place. So to rescue my sanity I left; it was either me or them and let's face it, it was not going to be them. I went after I was due to leave I might add because of the person I was covering's procrastination, which didn’t help things. A few more interviews came and went and then I saw the advert in the paper for my current post. I had always wanted to work for Cambridge University, an institution I have great admiration for and pride in; I'm Cambridge born and bred. That may be the reason why it jumped out at me, seemed to fit, made sense; I don’t know how to describe it except something clicked inside my head. I didn’t have the insight to analyse it further, but I applied for the job more in hope than anything and to my great surprise, I got it.

There does seem to have been some overarching master plan to my career progression so far, just not of my own making. All those previous jobs have been unconsciously preparing me for what I do now. Heffers gave me extensive customer service experience, cataloguing skills and till work. The administrative job is obvious: data entry, office experience, acquisitions, filing, word processing, the list is endless. Working with such a great team of people, the relationships I’ve developed and liaising with the different departments in the police station, civilians and police officers alike, have proved essential to what I do now. Working in a police station isn't actually that different to the world of academia, there are similarities between police officers and faculty; the former needs things urgently the latter wants things urgently... The content editing job is less obvious, but I learnt professional creative writing, web-based publishing, proofreading, accuracy, attention to detail, I even did some editing in foreign languages. I also got to go to the headquarters in Amsterdam which was brilliant. The research job, well, working in a business school requires excellent research skills and that job interview where I had to do the presentation is similar to what our students go through now. I was literally doing what our students do for their projects, coursework and so on. It was also my first experience of databases, introduction to the business world and I was basically paid to search the internet and read newspapers! I also got to play It’s a Knockout on one of the company away days, but that’s a whole other subject.

I have never hidden my love of libraries, I have always felt instantly at home in them, surrounded by books and knowledge; it's simply where I belong. So in reading this, you will now know I have never worked in a library before, apart from a brief stint at school, but I’ve been working towards librarianship without even knowing!

My story is actually pretty similar to Lottie Smith; here is her post via Adventures of a Librarian.

#cpd23 Thing 3 or why can't you just let me be me?

Right, please dismiss the words that follow as completely naive, but I've been moved to write about library branding after being inspired by all the fabulous blog posts I've read on the subject, such as those from Library Wanderer, Blog On and rampersandk. The same as the first two, when I google myself and check my online identity, there are millions of people with the same name as me as I also have a very common name, but it was mostly taken up with a certain wedding dress designer. Despite being intimidated; some of the posts made me feel like I was facing a 150mph serve from Andy Roddick, some were more subtle like a sliced Nadal backhand; I feel I have something to say on the matter. I am coming from an entirely different angle, I won't use another tennis reference, I promise. Wimbledon has finished now and I must let it go.

I work in a business school where branding is obviously very important and not only for our students, we even have a department trying to maintain a consistent image. This has its own problems. How can you have one brand for everyone, for an entire organisation with all its departments? So my trick is don't try and just be yourself. Here's Will Young, unashamedly being just that:

It has nothing to do with branding, it's just called Who Am I, is one of my favourite songs and a fantastic video. It's a song about being honest, unashamedly, unequivocally and uncompromisingly yourself. As I was a late developer in this sense, not developing my own identity until I was sixteen; before that I was just a sheep, a clueless sheep; I am now adamant that I won't be anything less than myself. Plus I am very impressionable and my sense of self is very shaky. For example, my boss was trying to convince me last week that my second favourite film of all time, The Princess Bride, doesn't even exist and I almost started to doubt my own mind!


A lot of people have been concentrating on themselves rather than their job or their organisation's brand and this is where it gets tricky. I find it very confusing if I think of myself in terms of my job when putting things out there in the public sphere; the lines can be so easily blurred. I have my own Twitter @judgesarah account and maintain our @JudgeInfo account too, we have our own site and I have a blog and I email as myself and as part of my job, that last one from the same address. The way I see it, as long as you aren't representing your organisation, you can be yourself. Whether it means I have different names for my Twitter, my blog, my facebook, is all for the better as you are catering your "brand" to the specific audiences. If you haven't seen it yet, here is a video of Phil Bradley's brilliant CILIP Wales speech comparing web 2.0 applications to the various incarnations of Doctor Who.



Twitter for me is predominantly my work image, though I can't help a few more personal things coming through, my blog is simply for anyone who cares to happen upon my random musings and facebook is now unfortunately all old school and uni friends. So it makes sense that they will all be different. You can't admit that your favourite TV series is Alias in a place where your colleagues or students will see it, actually... I would, but most wouldn't. That's why having students friend you on facebook, like one did to me very recently, is a contentious issue. Even I, who claims to be open and honest in all things, in writing this post, have realised that I unconsciously "brand" myself.

So I guess, you need to tread carefully when it comes to branding, consider your audience and the people that will see what you're writing or creating. The idea for this post came to me when I thought of Merlin; like the eponymous wizard, you need to think about what you reveal to whom. And yes, as all the people who've read my blog posts before will know, I did mean the title to rhyme so much. That's just me. I reference popular culture as much as I can, namedrop my favourite actors, films and music, litter posts about LibraryThing with Shakespeare quotes, use Travis songs for the titles of my posts and I rhyme whenever I can. And I have no plans to change, if only on here...

The playing's the thing, wherein you'll get the most out of LibraryThing

During Cam23 when I first looked at LibraryThing, I said, and I quote, “I feel I'm missing the point on this one.” Never were truer words spoken, or written, as not only did I most definitely miss the point, I didn’t even contemplate it. I’m actually glad I did because now I’ve returned to it, all the little niggling issues seem to have been ironed out, or are less annoying now, in the grand scheme of LibraryThing; it’s much ado about nothing. I don’t think I realised the possibilities of its practical application for libraries, but when our blog was created, it opened up the opportunities as we weren’t constrained by CamTools limited setup. I have delayed this blog post, initially because I started using it for more things, then because I needed to create themed lists and now because I’m hoping to use the widget. Once that has been figured out, then I’ll publish this post. So if you’re reading this, everything has been sorted. Read on to find out how.

LibraryThing for me started off as a way to keep track of all the new books, one of my responsibilities. I used to create a monthly Word document which listed all the newest, in both senses of the word, books that had come in. It featured a picture of the book cover, the book’s details and the shelfmark. Using Photoshop, I then created an A3 poster of the most important or interesting books that had come in that month with all the same details and a description, usually taken from the back cover or flyleaf. As much as I love the quaint way of doing things, as well as going about things the hard way, when the blog came into existence, I realised that my posters and Word document weren’t suitable anymore. In fact they were obsolete, old-fashioned and just looked plain wrong on our brand new shiny platform. Nevertheless I carried on regardless, not thinking of LibraryThing. That is until, like Gregory House, a chance comment from someone provided me with the answer. I am now a total convert. I may doth protest too much, but despite its limitations and frustrations, it has since taken root in some of my other responsibilities too such as ebooks and faculty publications. It’s made my life, well, my job, so much easier. But in getting to this point, it made my job so much harder, not to mention more stressful and to tell you the truth, it still is.

LibraryThing may be very easy to use and set up, but to make it work the way you want it to is a whole other matter. This is the time-consuming part, but once that is done, it is simple. Here is my LibraryThing comedy of errors:

• I created an account, made a list and then started adding the books. However simply typing in an ISBN isn’t enough, you first have to select from the range of different sources. I found Amazon is the best and am patriotic so I’m using the British site. It seems to have the majority of the books, apart from the ones that don’t have ISBNs or are very obscure. The sole annoyance is when they don’t have a cover image, you can either select one from a range of options as the default is a bland, blank and dark cover, upload an image or use one from the web using the image address.
• Once you have selected the correct book, most of the information is imported for you. So you only have to add the classmark and make any necessary alterations to the title and author/editor fields.
• The first major issue I had was working out how to put the LibraryThing lists onto the blog. I spent weeks and weeks in a winter of discontent trying to find a way round the JavaScript limitations on wordpress.com, on the help pages, both WordPress and LibraryThing forums and emailing them direct. It was a tale of woe, so in the end I gave up on the widget and posted a simple link. At first I thought when we transfer the blog to Wordpress.org, there would be no problems at all. But I must have jinxed us as the special WordPress widget doesn’t work properly either; the book link in the widget also won't take you to the place you want it to go to: the book's home page rather than the details. I burned, I pined, I perished, but to no avail. LibraryThing takes a lot of tweaking and patience, as Miranda Hart would say, "Such fun!"
• Another problem is direct links to ebooks. You can’t post a simple link into any of the fields, but it took a week or so before I discovered a solution; you can put html code into the reviews or comments fields. That’s when I discovered LibraryThing has even limited the code so you can’t make the link open in a new tab or window, so it will only open in the same tab or window unless you right click. This is annoying, but you can live with it. You will find your expectations broken like that a lot when using LibraryThing, slowly wearing you down like Rafael Nadal breaks his opponents' spirits; “it has to do that” turns into “that’ll have to do.”
• Finally, each list has a permanent link which you can use. The lists can be customised as you like it, so that it appears with all the relevant details including ebook direct links, the tags and the classmark. Annoyingly, it won’t automatically appear and you have to accept the ‘suggested viewing style’ before it will, otherwise it uses a default style which includes basic details; tags are incorporated, as well as the standard title, author and date, but not the comments field so none of my links. The default also includes the star ratings and entry date which are most likely irrelevant; fair is foul and foul is fair.

Now instead of the documents and posters, I simply update the LibraryThing link on the blog so it goes to the latest new books list and write a short blog post, usually including any particularly interesting books that have come in that month. When we migrate to the new blog next month, I’ll just have to update the widget so it shows the latest books.

I have since branched out from the new books and created a comprehensive list of faculty publications: those books written by members of our staff. I also have started to add a list of ebooks, but it quickly became too unwieldy. Instead of creating lots of lists categorised by theme, I’ve discovered the tagging feature and spent the best part of a week labelling each book with the best descriptive tags possible, tying them in with all the other books on the list, whilst simultaneously trying to keep them relevant, concise and clear. This was no easy task as I had to remember what my tags were, juggling them all in my head, or referring to the ever increasing tags list, doubling back on myself each time I created new tags and using the subject field on the catalogue to help me with the less classifiable books. As some of the titles cross over into the other lists, and there are a few that are a faculty publication, new book and ebook, I soon found I had to tag all 304 books I have added so far to the LibraryThing lists. That’s why it took so long. Now you can simply click on a tag and see all the books that have that tag. However the tags will initially work within the particular list you’re in; you have to select the ‘All collections’ list to search them all. Once I have added all the ebooks on though, it will work to its full potential. It makes browsing the lists so much easier. LibraryThing may have a catalogue of flaws, but as a catalogue, it’s flawless. All's well that ends well. My job is made easier and it makes our students’ lives easier too, the rest is silence.

The British Library tease: part 2

Okay, after the BL demo at the UL I have some more information for you, despite it turning into a complaints exercise at the end where poor Barry Smith from the BL bared the brunt of a seemingly "let's get at the BL" interrogation. The basic presentation was the same as the one at Boston Spa, but as it was more casual, more information come out. Also, as the main "reveal" was a couple of weeks ago or so now, certain things have become more concrete too. Unfortunately they couldn't demonstrate the new platform live as it's still in the testing stage and they weren't in Boston Spa.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, it will be a complete overhaul of the entire service. It's a real-time specific system that can be customised according to your preferences, work processes and management systems. The system will recognise you and your allowances. You can set up email alerts such as notifications when the item has been sent; we're in complete control. The ability to track orders, have immediate delivery times and plain English replies rather than reply codes will enable us to manage user expectations. There will be faster response times and they're aiming for more than 50% of the stock going digital with almost instantaneous downloads. There will be a 4 day standard service from October when it will be fully launched. Cambridge will be one of the first to get the new system, with the back-end system going first and then the catalogue afterwards; we should have it in August.

Price increases will now be capped at 3% and they're planning to stay at the £6 mark for photocopies. It has been as high as 10% before. That's the good news. More problems on the horizon though are they've been facing other than the asbestos problem, cuts and stock movements are the increased licensing restrictions on foreign publications, particularly French, German, American and publications from the Far East. They're now saying 55% of the stock affected by the asbestos problem will be back by the beginning of May. It's a very labour intensive process and involves full body suits and tiny brushes, what an image. It's costing £10 million to clean up...

A couple of things I either didn't hear, have become more concrete since the Boston Spa event or I have realised the full repercussions of are that the SEDs, electronic articles, will be overhauled too. Not only will they now be available in colour, they're working on a system that circumvents Adobe Digital Editions, FileOpen and all the rest of it. It won't need a plugin and only Flash. This means articles can be sent straight to the user electronically, not requiring us to print it off and physically hand it to them. Secondly, they'll have a "get it for me" and "find it for me" service for items they don't have, utilising their partnerships with other libraries, including their back-up library: the UL! The last and most important thing will enable us to go fully paperless. We can set up users with accounts as part of our own account. They can search the catalogue and make a request themselves, but I expect we won't let them be able to order as well. We can have ultimate power and go in and approve their request. However you want to work it. And that's the main message I wanted to put across, the new system will be customisable, literally however you want to work it.

The British Library tease

Kim Anderson

There are some things in life that once they happen, there’s no going back, your life is changed forever. There’s the nice as in your first kiss and there’s the not so nice, as in your actual first kiss that you’ve conveniently chosen to forget. Seeing the new British Library document delivery interlibrary loan system (BLDSS) was like that, encompassing both the nice and the not so nice. It’s nice as it is absolutely brilliant and yet we have to wait for it for a few months, which is not so nice. In experiencing this life-changing event, we have to forget about it, for now. However I will relive the painful moment for you; it’s going to get personal. In the tradition of the British Library tease though, I will describe the whole day first, leading up to when we were shown the new system just as I lived it; unfortunately we had our tour first and the demonstration last, the other group got to see the demonstration first and the tour last. If you want to see the description of the new service, read paragraph nine.

Right from the off, my luck was in and the day stayed like that. It was going to be the longest trip I had ever made on my own and it went completely smoothly, who could ask for more? Well, I could, and the sun had duly come out for the trip home. After discovering that the British Library were going to be coming to Cambridge to demonstrate the new system and I needn’t have gone in the first place, I was searching for a reason to be going. I found one when I decided to treat it as a test, to see how well I could cope on my own, particularly when feeling bad after having to wake up at 5:30am... I am naturally a follower, not a leader. I have a poor sense of direction and I get flustered easily. I don’t like travelling, but love seeing new places, meeting new people and experiencing new things. But most and worst of all, I don’t do being alone. Where else is more lonely than when surrounded by people you don’t know? Little did I know that each of those negatives was going to be blown out of the water; I can lead when forced, I didn’t get lost once, even when I didn’t know where I was going which was impressive, though tense I kept in control, trains are the best mode of travel and I managed to make acquaintances out of strangers. I did almost get lost trying to find the British Library representatives at York Station, but I followed a likely looking librarian and lo and behold, she was a librarian and she was going to Boston Spa too! I told her that I thought she looked like a librarian and she didn’t even take offence, she just accepted it. Having made a new acquaintance before even getting to Boston Spa, I was doing fine. The bus journey took me right back to school trips, but we were all pretty well behaved. When you’re tense, your senses are on full alert and mine seemed to be working on hyperdrive as I spent most of the journey marvelling at the clouds, the daffodils, the cherry blossom, the buildings and the lambs gambolling in the fields. To have my mind open like that was perfect preparation for the tour of Boston Spa and the demonstration of the new system.

When we first arrived, the cynicism in the room was tangible; I expect everyone had come more in hope than expectation. The BL staff were teasing us from the off saying that it’s not a new interface; it’s a totally revolutionised system. It’s taken 2 years and £6 million, half funded by the HEFCE. It improves the efficiency of their service and thus our services. They took great pains to explain it all and it soon turned into hype. I reckon we all thought that the new system could never live up to everything they were saying. I’m glad to say we were wrong.

As I mentioned before, we had a tour first and it was pretty extensive. They started with the wow factor. The new high-tech “stacks” for want of a better and more official word, is storage building better? were suitably impressive and very vertiginous. My sense of measurement is probably worse than my sense of direction, but I’d say from the viewing platform I was on, there was a 20ft drop and 50ft to the ceiling. However despite all the talk of the technological advancements, I couldn’t Tweet as there was not only no Wi-Fi coverage, but also not even phone coverage in the whole of the Boston Spa. Luckily there was sporadic 3G access, but the signals were willow-the-wisps in the ether. So I just wrote the Tweets there and then and sent them when I could. The reason for my Twitter obsession was because I had been entrusted with the work iPhone and had adopted Tweeting enthusiastically on the train journey.

Then we were taken round the different departments. One of the best parts of the day was seeing the other end of the document delivery service. We spoke to a lady who was retiring in 3 weeks so will miss out on the new revolutionary service; she was typically sanguine about it. She scans 25 items an hour and 165 a day! That’s not just her, that’s the daily target. Due to the copyright and licensing restrictions, she has to scan the article or book chapter each time it’s been requested, therefore adding to her workload as she can’t just sent it from the previous time she scanned it. We saw the a lot of scanners that day: standard scanners, a scanner that turns the pages for you and one for old and delicate books that looks like alien technology and wouldn’t seem out of place in the background of Doctor Who. All this was at the least interesting and at the most fascinating, but was only a precursor to the main event.

As we were going round, I could sense a common thread: budget constraints, job cuts and asbestos closures. One person said everyone was “battle weary” which was clear for all to see, but the sense of hope in the new system was just as palpable as the cynicism from us. It did wonders to alleviate our scepticism. If I was in a more imaginative mood I’d describe a battle between hope and cynicism with hope victorious. These thoughts were echoed all around the building and highlighted in the presentation before the demonstration: due to the public sector cuts, the BL has to save £24 million in 4 years. When you bear in mind that they spend £10 million on acquisitions, that’s not inconsiderable. They have also worked out because of the services they provide, they can save the government £200 million. If that isn’t an advert for the #savelibraries campaign, I don’t know what is. The one thing I wanted to know about is the asbestos problem. They jokingly refused to say the “a” word, but it means the same thing for them, because they can’t get hold of it, they have to find it from elsewhere too. There was no new information apart from 55% of the books that were unavailable due to the asbestos closures will now be back online by the end of May.

The reason for the new system is simple; they have been using the same technology as when the service was conceived. With the advent of the online retail industry, it was due for an upgrade. Whereas the current system is based on a library catalogue, the new system is more like shopping on the internet. This has also changed the way our patrons think. The way they put it is “just in case vs. just in time.” The former is the old system and the latter the new system. From what I’ve seen, apart from books for reading lists, the supply on demand model is the way things are going. In another tease before the demonstration, they showed us some of their statistics: they have a 75% fulfilment rate as 4 out of 5 requests are satisfied; it’s 65% after the asbestos problem. Using partnerships they’re hoping to get that to 100%. There’s also only been a £1.75 price increase since 2004.

Finally they got to the new system. It’s a full replacement for the current system, but they will run concurrently as it’s not compulsory to transfer to the new system. However there will be changes nonetheless; you’ll be pleased to hear there will be less reply codes: 25 out of the 100+ there are now. The new system is close to the end of testing and the roll-out will start in July; there’s a “phased deployment” and those libraries that helped develop the system will get first dibs. Everyone will have it by the end of September. However there will be limited functionality at first. The functionality is impressive; online tracking and despatch dates; colour rather than black and white PDFs; availability in real time with prices; non-reply code emails; multiple users so you can allow others, even students and faculty, to use it (you can let them place orders if you like, with your approval of course); baskets like most retail websites; searchable order history and oh joy of joys, you can change an order after you’ve placed it, rather than in effect ordering it again. The list is incessant.

I was tired by the end of it, but happy. I had also come away with ideas for a paperless system after networking at lunchtime. Not knowing anyone does wonders for your mingling skills! I’ll leave you with my penultimate tweet: “#bldss summary: new system is fantastic. Closer to generic retail set-ups with order tracking and the like. A much more transparent system.”