Macro Trend – Insourcing

http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2012/12/four-unexpected-macro-trends-for-2013-and-beyond/ (viewed 23 Jan 2013)

Oh how I hope that futurist Thomas Frey is correct with his prediction about this macro trend for 2013! Having seen the results of outsourcing in a previous job, I know that it produces a disconnection with what is happening within the business. Managers don’t use the same levels of oversight when dealing with outsourcing partners.

Administration and accounting functions which were once subject to strict key performance indicators from employees have been handed over to outsourcing partners with little supervision of results. As a consequence, managers are often not as aware of potential problems or opportunities.

But, if Thomas Frey is correct, businesses will return to using their own employees for many key functions which have previously been outsourced. Good news for potential employees and better news for the firms who will have employees with a vested interest in doing their best for the business.

Having retired from an accounting and administration job, I decided to retrain as a Library Technician. Unfortunately jobs are few and far between – I think I need to move out of the south-east and go to the northern suburbs where many more library jobs are being advertised. However, reading Thomas Frey’s blog gave me some hope that things may change in 2013. While I am studying for my Diploma this year, I hope to at least find a part-time job – to put to use all that I have learned about libraries and for my employer to benefit from my years of business experience.

Radical or just catching up?

http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/12/software/academic-consortium-makes-radical-shift-away-from-ils/ (viewed 21 Dec 2012)

Old habits die hard and when I saw this article I just felt that I needed to comment on it. I am late coming to library studies having spent over 20 years working in the business world; but one thing I know works is centralised offsite storage for computer programs and records.

The agreement between Ex Libris and the Orbis Cascade Alliance to shift resource management from individual locally-based systems to a shared cloud-based system takes the libraries in the consortium to the forefront of technology. Resource sharing is the obvious benefit, but opportunities for collaboration and enrichment of systems and technologies should not be ignored.

Business systems have long benefited from increased functionality in one area due to technical work undertaken in another area. When the same system is available to everyone, collaborative work between staff is facilitated and everyone benefits when the results are made available.

The new cloud-based LMS should offer these same opportunities and benefits to the consortium libraries where circulation and collection data is available to all. Technical collaboration between staff should be easier as their knowledge expands and opportunities to develop the functionality of the system will present themselves in the future.

While libraries are lagging behind business with this innovation, they will not take long to catch up as other consortia see the benefits of centralised resource sharing. The advantages of being able to share expertise, workflow and collection management will persuade other groups to move to the cloud and the next generation LMS platforms.  

Latest Read

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

I was excited to pick up this book from my local Library, as I had really enjoyed Wolf Hall a couple of years ago. Someone from work lent me their copy of Wolf Hall and I was so interested in Thomas Cromwell that I bought Robert Hutchinson’s biography, just so that I could learn more about him. Hilary Mantel’s imagined Cromwell seems a bit more human than the Cromwell described in the biography.

Bring up the Bodies did not disappoint. I was taken straight back to where we finished up last time and immediately drawn into the problem of how to give the King what he wants. I was taken straight back to the ambiguous nature of Cromwell’s place at court and his treatment at the hands of various courtiers.

One of the things that I loved about Wolf Hall was how Hilary Mantel gave depth and character to Thomas Cromwell, usually reviled as a villain. He seemed to be at war with himself for much of the book and even when he was remembering the past, there was some conflict between actuality and reminiscence.

The second instalment in Hilary Mantel’s imagined life of Thomas Cromwell is much more contained given that the events take place over a relatively short space of time. In Bring up the Bodies, we see less of Cromwell’s accumulation of wealth and property as he concentrates on the task at hand. The fraught relationship with Norfolk is still there, as is the friendship with Chapuys.

I look forward to the next story as Cromwell becomes more and more embroiled in the king’s business and as Hilary Mantel continues to imagine a much more rounded personality for him than the one usually portrayed.

Recent Reads

So now that I've finished blogging for my LIS course, I thought that I might use it to review some of  the books I have read recently. I like to watch "First Tuesday Book Club" and often make a note of books that the panelists have read or are reading. My first review is one of those books, while the second review is the latest from one of my favourite Aussie author.

HHhH by Laurent Binet
I have just finished reading this one after waiting nearly two months for my reservation at the local library to come through. Just as well the wait was worth it.
I really enjoyed the almost chatty style of the book. I liked seeing into the author's processes and I liked how the central story was never far away despite the various digressions and flights of fancy.
At no time did I feel that the author was going to disappoint me by going off on one of these tangents - that he would get side-tracked and tell a different story. He always pulled himself back to the main story of the assassination attempt.
I gave it 5 out of 5 on Good Reads.

Unnatural Habits by Kerry Greenwood
I have just finished (this morning) the 19th adventure featuring Phryne Fisher and a romping good one it was. I love Phryne and all the characters who inhabit her world and enjoy all the twists and turns in the story - the adult equivalent of the Saturday matinee serial at the pictures.
I always appreciate the amount of research behind each book and the use of genuine Melbourne landmarks - extant or not. I hope Phryne has a very long career.
And thank goodness, reading the latest adventure has brushed away any lingering horror from having watched the TV series and seen Phryne and a much too good-looking Jack Robinson flirting!
Also rated 5 out of 5 on Good reads.

Paper books vs. ebooks

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/gruenplanet/pages/s3598460.htm

Last week, I missed watching Gruen Planet as I was busy elsewhere. No big deal after all - it's just a bit of comedic spin on the advertising industry.

But imagine my surprise when I got an email from the ALIA Students elist with a link to last weeks segment "The Pitch", where two ad agencies were asked to present an ad that would persuade us to abandon our ebook readers in favour of old fashioned books.

It constantly amazes me that the ad agencies always manage to come up with widely varied "pitches" and this time was no different. One ad aimed to highlight a simple benefit of paper books, and showed a story being played out until the battery ran out at the critical moment, whereas paper books are "powered only by your imagination". The other ad looked at issues of trust and whether or not your ebook had crucial facts changed, because "you can't hack a paperback".

The panel thought both advertisements were "seriously...brilliant" but had to make a decision about which one they liked best. In the end they voted 3 to 1 for "powered only by your imagination" because the ad showed excellent insight into what drives us to read and was selling its products (paper books) against an obvious weakness of ebooks.

I agree with the panel - I would hate being part of the way through reading a story on my e-reader only to have the battery run out where I cannot recharge. We like to interrupt our reading at a natural break in the story, like the end of a chapter, not at some arbitrary place mid-sentence dictated to by a machine!

Reflections on Work Placement

I was not very confident going into my second stint of work placement, this semester at a secondary school. I was worried about how I would relate to the the students, not having had much experience dealing with teenagers.

Well, I need not have worried. Contact was minimal during my week at the school - lending out laptops and two (yes, two) inquiries for books. In fact, the worst problem I had all week was trying to hear them giving me their student code to input into the computer - because very few students actually carried their student cards with them!!

The whole experience was very different from working at the public library in the first semester. Mostly lending and returning the laptops, plus a bit of shelving. The other differences were lending out electronic resources (cameras, videos, etc) to teachers and putting together class sets of books on specific topics.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the breadth of topics in the reference section and the fairly substantial fiction section, including what I would class as adult fiction. Unlike the public library, there was no large collection of graphic novels.

Staff were only busy with circulation duties if there were classes being held in the library, otherwise they were occupied with other matters (including teaching) or backroom work. During my week there, staff were also putting together the school yearbook as well as revamping the school website.

Trust Me ........ really?

http://www.goscl.com/survey-reveals-librarians-second-only-to-doctors-in-publics-trust/
(viewed 2 Sept 2012)

According to a survey commissioned by the UK Society of Chief Librarians, "80% of the users surveyed ..... said that the support provided in libraries improved their level of understanding of online information and 70% said that it had improved their online knowledge and skills. Users said they would overwhelmingly recommend their public library’s online information to other people."

That seems to be a ringing endorsement for UK librarians - but the survey was conducted for a library organisation, by the government about a government initiative, the “digital by default” online services.  A bit iffy????

Probably not, if UK librarians are being trained like they are in Australia - with the emphasis on information literacy and IT skills. In fact, I think that they are ahead of the game, and that the government is now playing catch-up. 

Librarians have known for a long time that the digital age is upon us and have been busy acquiring the necessary skills in order to cope. They are now passing on those skills to library users. Trust a librarian .... sure can!