Walt at Random

Cites & Insights 8:6, June 2008, is now available for downloading.

The 28-page issue is PDF, as usual, but (since My Back Pages is missing) all segments are also available as HTML separates at the Cites & Insights homepage.

The issue consists of:

• Bibs & Blather: Quick Updates: Limits and Slouching - A brief reminder of a timely essay, and a progress report about where things stand on the possible 2007-2008 liblogs project.
• Perspective: On Wikis and Transparency - Transparency is great, as long as you’re aware of it. MediaWiki makes your wiki (and most other wikis) very transparent to outsiders. A good thing, but do pay attention.
• ©3 Perspective: DRM and ISP Surcharges - Comments on the slow death (?) of DRM for purchased audio downloads–and the latest plan to assure Big Media of ongoing profitability.
• Perspective: On Semantics, Reality, Learning and Rockstars - “Reality” in this case: When is a book not a book? Discover the connections between these four mini-perspectives and win yourself a virtual candy bar!
• Retrospective: Pointing with Pride, Part 2 - Selected excerpts and comments on issues past, another part of the centenary celebration.

This week’s post at PLN Highlights, repeated here for your edification…

• In Looking in the mirror, Peter Bromberg offers a dozen questions you should ask new employees to help gain a clearer picture of your own library–and five questions to ask yourself about where you are and where you’re going. Steven J. Bell asks “are you where you want to be professionally?” and suggests that you define your own signature statement–and Barbara Kelly expands the “signature statement” idea to suggest stepping back and making sure your library has a clear, authentic, understandable and real signature statement of its own.
• Service and policy complements the existing Service attitudes roundup (primarily non-library notes), offering notes from several library writers. Barbara Kelly notes ways she’s been delighted by deviations from policy–that might not be deviations at all, but rather flexible, service-oriented policies. Tyler Rousseau takes on the “teach them to fish” attitude in reference services, suggesting that sometimes “just give them the ichhyo…” might be the best course of action. “Karen K.” offers some lessons in customer service and Walt Crawford offers examples of unusually good customer service and the remarkable effects of being just a little more helpful.
• Jeff Scott adds the perspective of a rural public library director to the discussion in Directors, leaders and work-life balance. You’ll be seeing new additions to other existing articles (especially the sets of notes from non-library sources); this one happened a little faster than most.

Your contributions and feedback help make PLN work. Let us know how we’re doing.

You may remember this post, the second half of which discussed the exemplary customer service I received from a Hilton HHonors phone representative. (Maybe I should have noted in that post that I’m not a Very Frequent Stayer–I’m at the base “blue” level, although I’ve had higher level one or two years. So I don’t believe I was getting special treatment.)

Here’s another one–unexpected because, given the circumstances, I really didn’t expect much of a response at all. Maybe my expectations are too low?

I’m watching the movies in the 50 Movie Pack Hollywood Legends, alternating discs with the 50 Movie Western Classics set. On April 28, I finished Disc 9 of the Western set and, on April 29, started up Disc 8 of the Hollywood Legends set. I was really looking forward to this–not for the first movie, but because the second movie is The Man with the Golden Arm, which I’ve never seen and is supposed to be excellent.

Except that, when I started Side A of the disc, the two titles weren’t what I was expecting. Instead of The Town Went Wild and The Man with the Golden Arm, the menu showed Heartbeat and He Found a Star. A little investigation showed that those two movies should be Side A of Disc 11–and, indeed, Side A of Disc 11 also had those two movies. Side B of Disc 8 was fine. Somehow, in the point in disc manufacturing where the two sides of a two-sided DVD are pasted together, the wrong Side A got matched up with the right Side B. (The hub labels were what they should be–but that’s probably a separate step.)

Well, OK. not a huge deal. I don’t have any idea how long ago I purchased the set or who I purchased it from; probably at least a year, and I probably paid no more than $15-$18 for the 50-movie set. I sure didn’t keep a receipt that long. These things happen–particularly when you’re running such a low-cost operation.

But, well, the website for Mill Creek Entertainment has a contact email. So, just for fun–and just to let them know, if it was a widespread problem–I wrote email. Not angry email, mostly amused.. I did mention the reviews I’ve been writing, and said:

Since I have no idea how long ago I purchased the set and I certainly don’t have a receipt, I’m not going to make a federal case out of this (particularly since your prices are excellent and I admire the work you’re doing in putting the public domain to use). Still, I’ll admit that I was really looking forward to The Man with the Golden Arm, one old movie that I do regard as a classic–and have never seen. So if there was an easy and affordable way to send me a replacement copy (that actually has the right movies on the disc, not just on the label), I’d be delighted.

One business day after I sent the mail, I got a response–with an apology and a note that they’d be sending off a replacement DVD and include a bonus DVD set with their compliments. I immediately responded with thanks–and with a list of all the sets I already own (since, given current prices, that’s a fairly long list).

A few days later, the box arrived. It included a replacement disc (and this one has the right movies on each side), a replacement sleeve (they’ve upgraded the sleeve text somewhat)–and, instead of a 50-movie pack, three different and fairly unusual packs, two of which probably sell in stores for $5 or $6, one maybe $12 to $15(?):

• A two-DVD “slapstick festival” with 35 shorts from Charlie Chaplin, the Keystone Cops, Our Gang, Three Stooges, W.C. Fields, Buster Keaton, Fatty Arbuckle, Stan Laurel, and an “all star extravaganza.”
• A two-DVD “Legends Series” collection: “Shirley Temple: Smiles and Curls Collection”–with three movies on one disc and 11 shorts on the other.
• A four-DVD “Legends Series” collection: “Alfred Hitchcock: The Legend Begins”–billed as “20 Movie Classics” (there are a bunch of four-disc 20-movie sets). It includes two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, 18 feature films (including six silents dating back as far as 1926), and a 55-minute set of movie trailers as a bonus.

I would have been more than satisfied just to get the replacement disc, particularly this long after the original purchase. The extras were, well, extra.

I note, as I also noted with the newest of the 50-Movie Packs that I picked up, that Mill Creek has changed its manufacturing for new sets. Instead of two-sided single-layer DVDs with hub labels, they’re now using dual-layer single-sided DVDs with full labels, which are much easier to handle. (At VHS resolution, you can get six+ hours on a dual-layer disc.) These smaller sets don’t use the one-sleeve-per-disc/multiple sleeves in a box packaging of the 50-movie packs (and, I presume, the 100-movie and 250-movie boxes). Instead, they’re in regular DVD two-disc boxes (well, the Hitchcock uses two hubs on each side with discs overlapping one another).

Anyway: Just another good service story. And maybe I’ll get a lot more familiar with Hitchcock’s early work…

This week’s post at PLN Highlights–the notification mechanism for the PALINET Leadership Network, which you really should join (if you’re not already a member). It’s free, it’s loaded with material, it needs your participation.

• Wikis and libraries offers a five-minute introduction to wikis: real-world definitions, key characteristics, dominant software, why library leaders should care about them and a few library-related wikis.
• Transparency and MediaWiki considers the extreme transparency of the wiki software most commonly used for library wikis (including PLN itself)–not as a weakness (it’s generally a strength of MediaWiki) but as something leaders should be aware of.
• Wiki notes includes miscellaneous notes on wikis (except Wikipedia, which has its own article).
• Leadership, balance and choice begins a new composite page of notes (mostly outside librarianship) to complement some discussions elsewhere in PLN.
• Presentations begins with segments of Leader’s Digest April 2008 (also added in the past week) on effective presentations.
• There’s a new What’s hot at PLN? page showing the 25 most frequently read articles from April 7 through May 6, 2008, and you’ll find substantial new material in Searching notes, Technology trends and elsewhere.

PLN is your resource. Tell a friend, blog about PLN (if you’re so inclined)–and let us know how we’re doing:

• Give us feedback, by responding to the polls and adding your own suggestions.
• Comment on articles when you disagree or have something to add–every article has a Talk page and you can add content directly to most articles.
• Start a discussion in the Forums–or pick up on something that’s already there.
• Direct email is always welcome, to crawford@palinet.org or waltcrawford@gmail.com

I don’t know that my German grandparents (the Gruenig side) ever said it that way to me, but I’ve certainly heard the English version often enough:

We grow too soon old and too late smart.

I’m not sure why, but Roy Tennant’s response to my comment on this blog post brought that saying to mind. To wit:

• Roy said “I’ve been to more ALA conferences than I care to count, and know exactly how I can be most effective there (even if I don’t always completely follow through…)”
• I commented (among other things): “You know exactly how you can be most effective at ALA? I’ve been going for 33 years, and I’m still not sure…”
• Roy responded: “Yes, Walt, I DO know how I can be most effective, and I can say it one word: Bars. That’s right, I can be most effective having conversations with people over our favorite drinks, whether it be diet soda or The Macallan. You won’t find it on the official schedule but there it is. Set up your meetings in advance with the folks you most want to hook up with. The rest is, well, up to you. As I’m sure you know.

Now, before you think I’m poking fun at Roy Tennant for achieving age before wisdom, be aware that the title of this post is reflexive: I’m talking about myself, not Tennant.

I’d guess I had no bar-style meetings set up in advance with the people I should have been meeting with for most of the Midwinters and Annuals I’ve attended (and certainly not for most conferences I’ve attended as a speaker). Oh, sure, some of them–but even then, maybe one or at most two per conference. And I suspect that’s been a mistake all along the way–that I’ve let my introversion get the better of me, failing to do enough networking.

I won’t say “and that’s why Roy Tennant is Roy Tennant and I’m not.” There’s much more to it than that. But it probably plays a small part.

So am I going to reform–make sure that Anaheim is chock-full of bar sessions with people I want to hook up with, for our mutual benefit? And Denver after that? And Chicago, Boston, Washington, San Diego, New Orleans… (Hey! Where’s San Antonio? Dallas for Midwinter but not San Antonio? Really?)

Probably not. I don’t think I’m angling to be the next Walt Crawford, whatever that might mean.

But that’s my failing. As they said in the old country, “wir werden zu früh altes und zu spätes intelligentes”

Update: Title and last line modified, although I have no idea which “original saying” is really original.

Part the first:

I just finished writing a Perspective for the June Cites & Insights (which will emerge well before June 1, but certainly after May 11–I’d guess May 18-20, but that’s only a guess), “On Wikis and Transparency.” It’s mostly about MediaWiki and transparency, but that’s OK, since MediaWiki is pretty clearly the dominant wiki software for library-related wikis. The Perspective’s about 4,000 words long before editing; I plan to do a shorter version (maybe 2,000-2,500 words) to mount on PALINET Leadership Network as a companion piece to the Wikis and libraries article I completed there yesterday.

But first, I’ll give alert, knowledgeable, weekend-blog-reading folks a chance to tell me: Is this obvious stuff? Does everybody already know that MediaWiki wikis tend to be much more transparent than their owners might realize? (Which is, by and large, a good thing–once the owners realize it.) When I say “everybody,” I explicitly mean library leaders who need to know a little about wikis but are probably never going to install one or become intimately familiar with it…

Thus endeth part the first. And hey, if I do write something “obvious,” it won’t be the first time.

Update Monday, May 5: Having heard no cries of “everybody knows that,” I’ve completed the C&I essay and added a briefer version to PLN here.

Here’s the setup: My wife and I are going on a real vacation, for the first time in a couple of years. It’s a cruise, and it makes sense to fly to the departure port a day early and stay overnight. To make it even more fun, we’re going with a dear friend of ours–who’s also flying in a day early.

As we investigated places to stay overnight, we found that this is one of those cities where we could either spend a lot of money, or stay in an iffy part of town or in an iffy establishment, or maybe both. But if we stayed nearer the airport, we could stay in a Hilton at a reasonable price.

Which then caused me to think. Given my odd travel, I belong to several hotel affinity programs–as with air frequent-traveler programs, it costs nothing to join, and some hotel programs at least get you a free newspaper or something–but I tell all of them to give me American miles instead of hotel points, since I rarely have the choice of hotel. But Hilton HHonors has “double dipping”–they give you both miles and points. So I’ve accumulated some quantity of points over the years (given the choice, I’ll tend to stay at a Hilton-family property, especially Embassy Suites). Hmm. Let me check…

Yep. I had enough points for one free night at this category of hotel. In fact, I had more than enough points for two free nights. Now, back in the good old days, at least as I remember it (but this may be airline rather than hotel), this was a multistep process: First you’d send in a mailed request for a certain kind of award certificate, then they’d send the certificate, then you’d book the award with certificate in hand. Now, of course, you go to the Hhonors website, log in, find the hotel and verify availability, and the certificate is created at the point of use: You get two emailed confirmations, one your actual reservation, one your award certificate. Fast, easy, well-designed. Cool.

And here’s the pitch: The best use I could think of for the rest of the points was to pick up another free room for our friend–if the friend wanted it. Which, it turns out, they did. How would I go about reserving a room in somebody else’s name and paying for it with points from my Hhonors account?

So I called the Hhonors 800 number. One clear menu choice. Another clear menu choice. Then a crisp message: You can book awards online, but if you’d like to speak with a representative, just wait. I waited…for about ten seconds, maybe less.

Five minutes or less (I’m thinking three, but could be wrong): That’s what it took to ask whether this could be done (it could), provide my information, validate who I am, give the hotel info, give the other person’s name, deal with a slight variance (yes, a room with two doubles would be fine, if no one-king room was available), and get an award certificate number…following which, an automated voice from the hotel gave me the reservation confirmation code. Within one minute after hanging up the phone, both confirmation certificates were in my email, ready to forward to the friend.

Maybe there’s nothing unusual here, but I’ve surely heard enough horror stories about telephone assistance with even straightforward issues, much less slightly complicated ones like this. OK, I’ve always had great luck with American Aadvantage people–but then, American’s people are one reason I prefer American Airlines (just as Hilton people are one reason I prefer Hiltons). For some reason, this exercise struck me as remarkably smooth and pleasant: No waiting, phone trees used to save me time rather than to avoid actual contact, really slick combined use of the human touch and computer backup–I mean, those emails were there when the call was done.

Just a nice little story for a Saturday. It certainly made my Friday.

I’ve probably seen the announcement and comments on at least half a dozen blogs by now.

For the One Big Library Unconference, that is. To be held June 27, 2008, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. Organized by York University Libraries.

Here’s the blurb:

“It seems like there are lot of different kinds of libraries: public libraries, school libraries, university libraries, college libraries, law libraries, medical libraries, corporate libraries, special libraries, private libraries. But really there’s just One Big Library, with branches all over the world.”

The One Big Library Unconference is a one-day gathering of librarians, technologists and other interested people, talking about the present and future of libraries. It’s organized and sponsored by York University Libraries and the YUL Emerging Technologies Interest Group.

The first paragraph is in quotes–but with no source or link.

The list of participants already includes a bunch of people I know (at least virtually) and respect: John Dupuis, David Fiander, Amanda Etches-Johnson, John Miedema, Connie Crosby, William Denton, probably others.

I’m sure it will be an excellent day. I wouldn’t be going even if money and time allowed: It’s directly opposite my travel day for ALA Annual in Anaheim. (Well, hey, it’s a Canadian conference. Why should they care about ALA’s schedule?)

And there’s something about it that bothers me. Namely, the premise as stated in that first paragraph.

Sorry, but I don’t buy it as a reality or as a desirable future. I don’t think of Harvard College Library as a branch of The ARL Library, much less Mountain View Public Library, Harvard College Library, NYPL, Hewlett-Packard Corporate Libraries and the Poy Sippi Public Library as all being branches of One Big Library.

I think of all these as distinctive and distinctly local institutions–institutions which, being libraries, are really good at sharing and should get even better at it. But sharing is quite different than being a branch of a whole.

John Miedema’s attending, so I’m assuming the “slow library” perspective–a distinctly local view, where a library is distinctly part of its community–will be represented. I hope so, at least. That’s certainly not the thrust of the unconference description.

Semantics? Maybe–but, as I discuss in an upcoming C&I perspective, semantics–the study of meaning in communication–is to a great extent what makes us human.

So, to all my friends up north, hope you have a great unconference (I’ve never been to one, and that should change), but you can put me down as disagreeing with the anonymous writer of those quoted sentences.