Switch 2016 - Two Highlights
Caroline Overington
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conference
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Deng Adut
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education
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libraries
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research
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Switch 2016
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As I was typing up the notes I’d hurriedly scrawled down during
the presentations that Chris N, Amy R and I (Steph B) had attended at the
recent Switch 2016 NSW Public Libraries Conference in Ulladulla, I noticed a
few words appearing again and again – knowledge, experience, diversity,
challenge, innovation, accessibility, information, inspiration and (rather
interestingly) justice. Some of these words we’d perhaps expect to hear from
library workers when discussing new technologies, events and projects they’ve
been involved with, but when used by people like the extraordinary Deng Adut,
Jennifer Byrne, Matt Finch, Gill Hicks, Richard Morecroft and Caroline
Overington to describe the importance of libraries to their work and, indeed,
their very lives, it makes an impact on an audience. A big impact.
As Chris and Amy have both already written in their blog posts, we
were incredibly lucky to have attended the Switch Conference (despite the
rather abysmal service encountered at the motel!) and to have had the
opportunity to hear firsthand from such a varied and informed group of speakers
on how public libraries enrich, stimulate and even transform the lives of
members of our communities.
I’ll be writing another blog post shortly with a brief update on a
handful of the presentations, but for now I wanted to write about two of the
speakers who were nothing short of inspirational – Deng Adut and Caroline
Overington. During both of their presentations these outstanding speakers
highlighted the intrinsic value of libraries which goes beyond quantifiable key
performance indicators such as number of books borrowed, attendance numbers and
computer bookings, etc.
Deng Adut - The Transformative Power of Education
If you haven’t yet heard of Deng Adut, you will. Deng was born in
the small village of Malek in South Sudan to a local fisherman and his wife.
This modest background coupled with a Christian upbringing meant that Deng’s
educational opportunities were always going to be limited. But when, at just
six years of age, Deng was taken from his family and forced into the army to
fight as a child soldier, he lost everything – his family, his freedom and a
childhood he can never reclaim.
Miraculously, Deng not only survived unspeakable wartime horrors, but
after many years separated from his older brother, John (each thought the
other was dead), the two were reunited and together managed to make their way to
Australia as refugees. During his presentation at Switch, Deng enjoyed retelling
stories of several cultural misunderstandings he encountered when he first
reached Australia. These included the time he put a can of Coca Cola into a microwave to
heat it up (you can guess the result); the occasion he almost cooked himself when
using an electric blanket for the first time; and his shock at being told on
arrival in Australia that he and John were to be taken to a place called
Blacktown!
Deng could not read or write when he came to this country, but
he did have a wealth of life knowledge gained through brutal wartime experiences
and a determination to succeed. Deng started his formal education at Blacktown
Tafe and not only learnt to read, but fell in love with books. The library
became his second home. Deng felt like he’d been given a “new beginning” and was
“hungry for learning and education”. After Tafe, Deng enrolled to study for his
Bachelor of Law at Western Sydney on the advice of his brother, John, who told
him he’d make a great lawyer as he was “always fighting" and a "free thinker”.
Deng found the law degree very difficult but knew that the only way to learn is
to “fully commit.” For four years Deng slept in his car at the university, not
because he was homeless, but because he wanted to be at the library from the
second it opened in the morning until the moment it closed at night. John also completed
degrees at Western Sydney University. Tragically he was killed in 2014 after
returning to Sudan.
Deng, now a successful lawyer with his own law firm in Sydney’s
western suburbs, works to “achieve justice”, which he feels is the “highest
achievement possible” and one which is “only possible with education.” Deng
wants to be the “most visible Australian” and aims to visit every school in NSW
by 2018 to tell his story and to stress to Australian schoolchildren the
importance of education and the value of including and respecting people from diverse backgrounds because, as he said at Switch, “this is what being
Australian is and it’s what I learnt in libraries.”
Last month Deng Adut was named NSW Australian of the Year and is
now shortlisted for Australian of the Year. After hearing him speak it’s
difficult to imagine a more worthy nominee.
Deng Adut's new book, written with Ben McKelvey, is Songs of a War Boy.
Caroline Overington - Spreading The Word... About Women's History
Caroline Overington was the final speaker of the Switch Conference
– a big ask in anyone’s book - especially after two full days packed with
impressive, thought-provoking and animated presentations. But for me, Switch
2016 saved the best till last.
Caroline Overington is an awarding winning Australian journalist
and the author of eleven books including Last Woman Hanged, a “forensic history of a 19th Century criminal
trial”, which won the Davitt Award for True Crime Writing in 2015. It was the enterprise of writing this book and the questions which arose from her research which
Caroline focused on in her fascinating and (for me) timely presentation.
One of my favourite quotes about the process of historical
research was written by Australian historian, Stuart Macintyre, in his 2003
book, The History Wars…
‘The historian goes to the archives with a hypothesis… But you
never find precisely what you’re looking for, or if you do it bodes ill for the
project. The sharpest excitement comes when you open a file and are confronted
by some unexpected evidence…. Historians reach new conclusions because they ask
new questions.’
And so I was absolutely delighted to hear Caroline speak so
enthusiastically about how she had utilised the primary resources available at
the Mitchell Library and NSW State Records to go beyond merely uncovering the
story of the criminal case of Louisa Collins, the last woman hanged at
Darlinghurst Prison in 1889, and to question and analyse why it was that this
woman had been tried not once, but a record four times before being found
guilty and sent to the gallows. And of course one question always leads to
another. How could they hang this woman? What was the context of the time and
place of these events? Like all women of her day, Louisa had no power to vote
or make the law (much like a child today), and yet when put on trial before an
all-male judge and jury she was treated as an adult and faced the repercussions
of their verdict, a verdict which compelled many women at the time to come out
in protest. “This was a story about justice,” explained Caroline at Switch, “and who gets it.”
There’s that word again. Justice.
Some of you may know that last month I conducted a presentation at
Cronulla Library on researching convict ancestry. In preparation for the talk I spent quite some hours at the Mitchell Library trawling through historical
records and so it's probably no surprise that Caroline’s presentation resonated
so much with me. Fundamental to researching her book, Last Woman Hanged, was that the necessary historical records not
only exist, but that librarians and archivists have collected, catalogued, preserved
and made these documents accessible so that future generations of historians and researchers, like Caroline, can uncover these stories for themselves. As Caroline herself
said at Switch, “Librarians are the guardians of our nation’s history – including women’s
stories”.
These were two exceptional speakers and it was such an amazing experience to hear both Deng Adut and Caroline Overington share their stories and articulate so beautifully the role that libraries have played - and continue to play - in their lives.
I promise my next blog on Switch will be much shorter!
Steph B.
SWITCH 2016 part 2
In November Chris Newett, Stephanie Bailey and myself were
lucky enough to attend the annual Switch Conference. It was a great opportunity
to focus on what’s happening in libraries and to be reminded of the importance
of public libraries in the community. I left the conference feeling inspired
and motivated and would highly recommend it to others. It was a hugely
enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Here are some highlights.
Men reading to
children, does it matter? Elizabeth
Duursma
Elizabeth Duursma has spent 15 years researching the
importance of reading to children and in particular the importance of men
reading to children.
In general wide and intense reading to children is the best
way for them to learn infrequently used words; it supports a creative and
effective environment and is a way to transmit cultural knowledge. When adults
read to children they use more complex language when discussing stories read,
creating an even bigger benefit to the child.
Readers are not born, but created and reading to children
from an early age is particularly beneficial to the under 5’s. The style of
reading impacts language and literacy development and this is where men and
women differ in their approach.
Paternal book reading has a stronger impact than maternal
book reading. When reading to children Elizabeth’s studies showed that men
talked with the children a great deal more, this was both in terms of immediate
talk (directly related to book and story) and non-immediate talk (talk not
related directly to book or story) Fathers engaged their children more than
their mothers, used a wider variety of words, focused more on book handling and
used more diverse strategies to engage their children. Where mothers are more likely to read the
book and focus solely on immediate talk, reducing the impact of the reading
session. Elizabeth felt this was because mothers had a clear social construct
for reading to their children, while men don’t have that construct so make
reading a broader experience.
Both men and women reading to children is important, it does
not have to be the father to have the benefits of male reading, but needs to be
an important man in the child’s life. Men reading to children creates a unique
and important contribution to a child’s development and it is hugely important
that children see men engaged in literacy activities. This is a significant
impact on literacy and cognitive development that should not be
overlooked.
Jennifer Byrne
Not surprisingly Jennifer Byrne was a passionate advocate
for public libraries. She introduced herself and said what a huge pleasure and
great honour for her to be there amongst the “servants of the book”. She
proudly held up not one, but two public library cards and told us how much she
loved and cherished her weekly visits to the public library, as well as her
great love for the returns trolley. She has been visiting the public library
since she was a small child and has a photo of her as a baby in the pram at her
public library. The library lifts her heart and although she visits the “grand
libraries” for her research, it is the public library she loves the best. She
likened the public library to being reunited with old friends and said it was
them that gave her the idea for her tv show “ The Book Club’’.
Jennifer’s focus on the “Book club” is the audience and this
came from her experience in commercial television. She wanted to make a connection with the
audience rather than focusing on authority and expertise. No-one expected it to
be a huge success but her aim at the beginning was longevity and she is proud
and has a great sense of satisfaction that the show has become part of the
landscape of television. It is approved to go to air next year which will be
its 11th year.
She has four rules for the Book Club
1.
Consistency of the panel.
2.
One surprise guest, no publishers allowed.
3.
Honour the principle of Book Clubs and focus on
fiction.
4.
Use all genres
Jennifer always picks the titles for Book Club, she finds
this may be a flaw in the program and that she sometimes has too much to say.
Jennifer felt that book stores are encroaching on libraries
space, setting up book clubs, holding author talks and story-times and reaching
out to the community. Although she loves book stores she love libraries better
and advised us to hold our ground.
She noted the dramatic changes that are happening with
e-books, Amazon and book shops and urged us to never doubt our value. Physical
books are the least important thing we hold, more importantly we hold the
communities hopes, dreams, expectations and education.
7 does go into 1. Mirla Edmundson- General Manager Auckland
Public Libraries
Mirla Edmunson is the General Manager of Auckland Libraries.
Auckland is super diverse, growing at 45000 people per year and has 21
different tribal groups that need to be considered when developing services.
Auckland Libraries merged from 7 different councils five
years ago, creating a library service with 55 branches that loan 44 000 books
per day and have 20 000 visits to their website per day.
Mirla found the first years of amalgamation soul destroying
and had to change her management style completely. She previously managed by
“wandering around”, was a big picture person and not interested in
processes. In the merged Library service
she manages 1100 staff and had to focus completely on processes for the merge
to be successful.
From day one of the merge they had a borrow anywhere, return
anywhere, reserve anything policy which although was hugely problematic, was a
huge win for them and seen very favourably with council. This was made easier
because most of the seven library systems were using the same LMS.
All seven library systems felt they had unique cultures and
it was hard work and took “intentional leadership” to engage and include all
staff to work towards one united service.
Their key focus points are
*Library, anywhere, anytime
*Every child a reader, every child a library member
*Engaging spaces at the heart of the community
*Programs and services that inspire
Aucklands unique stories celebrated
Mirla has found that as a library service they need to move
from being collection focused to community focused, creating sustainable,
customer driven collections. They have also worked very hard to strike the
right balance between digital v’s physical collections.
Now that the amalgamation has settled down Mirla noted that
amalgamation can make you inward looking and you can take your eye off key
indicators. She is now faced with reducing staff and delivering savings without
cutting or reducing services. With 67% of her budget going to staffing it is
the only place she can find savings.
With only a 2.5% rate increase it is extremely hard to
create new community libraries that are modern, relevant, accessible and
appealing. With this is mind they are looking at developing a new service model
that focuses on “radically local” where not all programs are offered throughout
library service but are targeted to areas that can benefit most.
The library service made a promise to Auckland to
*Nuture Maori
*Have more digital
*Enable new knowledge
*More expert and easier help
*Meet council face to face
*Have more Auckland stories everywhere
*Lift literacy where it matters
After the amalgamation process there was a realisation that
libraries can’t be all things to all people, there was a definite culture of
“if they are doing it we want to too” and they realised this is not practical
or beneficial across such a large library service. To be fit for the future
there needed to be a focus on right people, right place and right time. They
needed to focus on the customers in the local board areas.
Their change management process was undermined by the media
causing huge anxiety to staff. Mirla has learnt that with change leadership you
have to show empathy, which creates empathy in others, change your mindset and
choose how you respond to change and to have humility and humour.
You need to lose your ego and align with the customer in the
change process. “Co-design”is the new thing, we need to focus on what’s best
for the community and realize different areas need a different focus.
SWITCH 2016
SWITCH 2016 – 22 – 24
November 2016
Amy, Steph B and I were very lucky to attend this conference
and we will be reporting on some of the wonderful presentations.
LEARNING STEM FROM
FUN –Jenny Campbell Narrabri Library
Jenny informed us that being a small library there was a
need to partner and collaborate with schools and organisations in the area.
They have a very good partnership with Randwick Library, their sister city
library, local scientists, Sydney Children’s Museum, schools, OOsh and Rotary. Randwick
Library helped with the programming and the Toddler Science program. The
library also used local people’s talent and staff talent to run the programs.
The school holiday programming included Engineering and Technology based programs
with Robotics and Coding Clubs planned for future holidays.
AUSTRALIA’S FIRST 3D
TACTILE STORYBOOK – Joanne Smith Lake Macquarie Library
Joanne spoke about how they used digital technology to make a
3D tactile story book. This storybook is very useful for the visually impaired helping
with literacy and to connect to technology.
An UpBox printer and Tinkercad was used. The 3D printer was introduced to the community.
BRAIN TRAINING –
Christine Birkett Gunnedah Shire Library
Christine talked about this program which was in partnership
with Community Care. This program helps to stimulate brain health which assists
older people to participate in society. This program has a maximum of 10 people for one
hour sessions and includes memory games
like Concentration, word association, logic, creativity, quizzes and origami.
The social aspect and social inclusion is of enormous benefit to participants. Friendships
are formed and the participants mentor and encourage one another. The
challenges are – staffing, sourcing activities, finding presenting time, making it
visually interesting, photocopying costs. Off-shoot programs from it have been
Zen Tangles and Junior Brain games.
STEM and our role in
the development of scientific literacy – Gabrielle Wyllie Ryde Library
The Project – to create a creative interactive space for the
community in the discovery of science. Based on the Curiosity Shop it features
a cabinet with drawers, light boxes, inter-active ipads and interesting
seating. Resources are rotated monthly and examples include dinosaur fossils,
volcanoes, sea life, rocks and crystals. The library installed Digital
Microscopes, touchscreens and incorporated science kits with magnets, simple
machines and insects. New programs include Kids Club, Science Blast, Little
Bang, Scratch, Coding and simple machines workshops.
DEAR ZOO PROGRAM –
Michelle Stuart Goulburn Mulwaree Library
Aim - to sponsor an animal from Taronga Zoo and run programs
throughout the year based on the selected animal. The children voted to select
the animal and the winner was a Sumatran Tiger. The library used promotional
kits, book displays and decorated the library with anything relating to the
tiger. They had an Animal Party and there was a Taronga
Zoo Family pass to win.
LEIGH HOBBS – Author
and Illustrator of Horrible Harriet and Mr Chicken books
Leigh was very funny saying that he doesn’t even like making
children’s books. His passion is architecture and he incorporates this in most
of his books. Leigh feels “Children have a right to create free from the
pressure of assessment” He was very entertaining.
READING AMBASSADORS
– Gail Dunn Wollondilly Library
This program is in partnership with the library and local
schools. One boy and one girl from year 5 or year 6 are chosen to be a Reading
Ambassador and represent the school and to be an advocate for the local library.
Details are on the library website with a photo of each ambassador and
information about the program. The children have special T-Shirts to wear at
school assembly where they talk about the roles and responsibilities of being
a reading ambassador as well as promoting the library.
There is an end of year presentation for the children with the mayor
presenting them with a certificate. It is a very successful program.
Chris
Chris
Digital Frontiers - NSW.net seminar - 28 October 2016
Helen and I attended this seminar and I thought I'd try and pass on some of the key points I took away from it. The full transcripts will be available some time in the future and I'll let you know when.Our Voices Our World
Jamie LaRue spoke via video link. He is a very animated and passionate speaker. His current area of interest is to try to involve libraries in the new world of self publishing, which he believe all libraries should be supporting on a local level, because they are telling the stories of the diverse individuals in local communities.
He acknowledged self published material is often avoided due to it's poor quality. He proposes that this is a new role for libraries - helping people write a good book. (I thought this fit in well with NaNoWriMo) He suggested providing lists of publishers, editors, cover designers, support writing groups and offer reviewing by readers.
His reasoning was to bring in to our libraries the stories of the diverse range of individuals in the community, because in order to get published through normal channels, the stories must be seen to have a wide market and so must reflect the majority.
Supporting emerging authors brings diverse locally produced quality content into the library - so people can see their own stories. We are censoring by not making sure we get the diverse titles out there that are not offered by established publishers. This includes all the online self-publishing.
Pew report put librarians s the 3rd most trusted profession after fire fighters and nurses - because we do not judge the question asked but are fascinated by them and work towards answering them.
Further information about this idea can be found here.
Building a digital ecosystem
Euwe Ermita Systems and Applications Leader at State Library of NSW.
She spoke about the need to remodel LMS and other databases. Gartner's Pace Layered methodology says online projects fail because of the size layering and the complexity. Simplicity equals success.
It should be easy to integrate new aspects, that are fit for purpose and be able to use digital infrastructure to do it . Open standards for integration helps make systems resilient to change, allows agility and self organisation. There should be a seamless co-existence which understands its touch points with the clients. She spoke of swarming - big companies working together to create a good user experience.
The State Library Business Plan included becoming a Smart Library and Digital Preservation (DPS)
Smart Library involves capturing data on clients - via the wifi connection, what they are using, where and when, analysing the data and then acting upon it.
DPS involves creating/ meeting metadata standards and cultural protocols. Using crowd sourcing tools - Rosetta to bring in all formats - then publishing, like Dictionary of Sydney. Create partnerships - Public Libraries - GLAM - Academic, State, National libraries. Enriching the data at the symantic level. Publish to other aggregators. Automation of the curation, correction and descriptions.
Public libraries need a digital presence for their Local Studies material. They need to start partnering with their vendors. Have a piggyback clause. eg design to have the ability to add things on.
A (fan) Tale of Linked Data
Paul Hagon Senior Web Designer National Library spoke very animatedly about The (Fan) Tale of linked data. http://wiki.dbpedia.org/ He gave us all a fantale and told us to keep the wrapper. What he spoke about was the need for markup for web pages. The heading being the most important. We are loosing the detail that is/was in MARC records when published on the web. Markup addresses this problem. Each concept/aspect of an entry gets it's on URI. Often a triplet - a person could be a creator, the subject and/or in a place - each one of these would have it's own URI so that linkages can be created from all aspects.
Schema.org is becoming the standard for indexing and displaying structured data on the internet.
Eg the Google Knowledge graphs which are now appearing of the right of search screens are using URI's to bring together information from many sources. See this Google search for Hunt for the wilderpeople to illustrate. All the info in the right hand box does not just come from the IMBD info entry.
Further info to be found at rdfa.info/play, Open Graph, Google recipe view, TED: Tim Berners Lee
The point of the Fantale wrapper was to give us homework to do. Adding URI's for the info contained therein.
Legal & social dynamics of ebook lending in Aust. Public Libraries
Kimberlee Weatherall is an Associate Professor with Sydney Law School
She saw the challenges in the ebook market for public libraries as; pricing, bundling, disappearance of titles once purchased, being locked into a specific platform, titles not being available at all, and usability of the item/platform.
Copyright gives the owner exclusive rights, but lending is not mentioned. It was always left to 'copy' for preservation purposes etc. But that is not happening with ebooks.
We are bound to our contracts . We must do what was promised in the contract, however this does not bind the third party eg customers. (I think this means that if customers copy the title to a secondary device they could not be in an legal trouble for doing so).
Physical books Digital Books
Don't need permission Require publishers permission
Have statutory rights/exemptions Contractually required to give up these
Retain copies until worn out Titles may be withdrawn
Competitive pricing Can impose higher prices
Ongoing payments to publishers and May be required to pay recurring costs
authors come from general revenue
She stated that the remarkable thing is that there has been no deliberate decision made on these things AND they have been made with no real understanding of how it affects public libraries ability to fulfil their mission.
The example given was music bought and downloaded from itunes in Australia is not available when one moves to the UK. One would need to rebuy due to licencing requirements.
She is taking part in a 3 year investigation into elending. It's in it's very early stages, looking at 3 aspects;
Availablity - what titles are available as ebooks as compared to print - patterns in what becomes an etitle - time taken before titles are available as ebooks.
Access - terms of contractual arrangements eg. pricing & bundling
Readership - how and why Australians use ebooks - characteristics of users.
It will use the data to better understand how ebook regulation impacts on Pub Lib. ability to achieve their objectives.
Aim - to produce - better understanding of the reader - inform decision making about resource allocation - evidence for regulatory reform.
For more see 'At the intersection of public service and the market: Libraries & the future of lending' 26 AIPJ Giblin & Weatherall
Ampilfy: a new audio transcription tool
Jenna Bain, Digital Project leader at State Library.
She talked about a new State Library service which had only been launched the day before and was already a great success.
It was launched in Nimbin and the 75 digitally transcribed interviews of original Aquarians from the 1970's and some were all corrected by the time Jenna was speaking!
It is essentially a crowdsourcing tool to encourage the public to help correct audio that has been digitally transcribed (and so is not perfect the same as OCR)
It's a providing a digital village for volunteering, access to the material for the first time, collaboations, engagement with communities, shared cultural heritage, exchange, value-adding, it's open source, allows tagging (people, emotions, places, objects, science), translation, geo-coding and adding maps, captioning and descriptions.
No account is required, anyone can edit. After a line is edited 3 times it is locked and any further adjustments are then sent to a librarian, for the first time, for adjudication.
Fulltext search is available and it works with MP3 or MP4.
Indyreads - public library as content aggregator
Ross Balharrie - Digital Services Coordinator, NSW.net Services State Library.
Indy Books have been a neglected part of library collections. Sees the Public Library as aggregator.
Indy publishing is growing over the last 5years whilst the mainstream publishers have been fairly stagnant.
23% of 1000 authors questioned have self published.
Leichhardt and Parramatta libraries have Indyreads Pilots.
NSW.net is exploring opportunities to make the platform available to NSW public libraries.
A great platform for including Local History material, encouraging local authors to publish on it, oppotunity for Makerspace for authors...expand NaNoWriMo!!!
Digital Reads: history moves forward
Amie Zar - Local history Librarian, Leichhardt Library.
Very briefly showcased her new online digital Local History collection made available via Indyreads.
They have a few collections Parramatta Local History books, Leichhardt Local History books, Leichhardt Historical Journal, and Leichhardt Oral History Collection.
If you are interested in having look at the format and functionality, look up our library card number and password in the Online Catalogues - Van run list on Compass.
You can then get in to see what's available.
I found it all quite interesting and enjoyed getting a feel for where the wider library world is headed, as well as getting ideas for advancing our own service.
Cheers
Jacinta
Hi all,
I recently did an online course with ALIA and TAFE called
“Grow the love: Develop and promote activities, events and public programs.
It gave me
an opportunity to look at what libraries in Australia and around the world are
doing to promote and create ideas and events.
And here are
just a few examples:
Customs House Library presented
·
Late Night Library: Letters of Complaint
Join some of Sydney’s leading comedians as they share the best,
worst and most bizarre letters of complaint from the deep recesses of the City
of Sydney archives. From a noisy sausage machine, to the bothersome smell of
boiling tripe, this Late Night Library event indulges in a long list of comical
neighbourly gripes. Settle in to the Customs House Reading Room and rediscover
Sydney’s history in the words of those who lived here.
·
A.C.T.
Libraries have a great PDF of their events: LibrariesACT_WhatsOnSpring2016_WEB.pdf
·
Yarra Plenty
do plenty at their great website::
And there are so many more libraries out there doing great
things but after talking to many other libraries and librarians I came to the
conclusion that we are so lucky at Sutherland Libraries to:
1 Have a
library culture that encourages new ideas
2 An excellent website that looks good and is easy to use
3 Have a
great community programs team
4 Have an
excellent event planning package available to all staff.
5 Wide and varied talks and events
e.g. . MakerSpace
Special: 3D Printed Cookie Cutters what a great collaborative event.
I really enjoyed looking
around library land!
Cheers Meagan
EBSCO E-books: Public Library Subscription Collection Webinar
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EBSCOHost
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jump to certain sections etc- contents has hypertext links
- Same as other e-book databases –
right click to return items
o PDF
o E-pub format (text can be formatted to fit screen only in this option)
Viewing from a mobile or tablet device?
- If viewing on the mobile- users
will need the ‘bluefire reader’ app
- Bluefire reader app is compatible
on both Iphones and androids
- With the app you can:
o
Download books offline
o
Easily return books and auto delete
(just like overdrive)
o
Customise the reading experience (i.e.
adjust the font etc)
- Sample book will appear in the
reader app – good to know as some patrons might get confused and think they
downloaded it
- Trash can option allows you to
delete certain items.
- Make sure the bluefire app and your
device is on the latest versions
- Error message may occur on
downloading the bluefire app and this is usually because the software is not up
to date
To transfer an e-book from your laptop or personal computer to mobile
device:
-
Open your downloaded eBook in Adobe Digital Editions. If you have not authorized Adobe Digital Editions, you will need to complete that step first. An Adobe ID is not required for authorization. Simply select I want to authorize my computer without an ID and click Authorize.
However, if you have an Adobe ID and would like to synchronize your reading across multiple devices, you can elect to authorize the app using your existing Adobe ID, or create a new one at the following link:
-
Connect your portable device to your computer with a USB cable.
-
Turn on the eReader. If the reader offers an option to Recharge or Connect to the computer, choose the “Connect” option.
-
Open Adobe Digital Editions – it automatically detects the presence of your device and offers to authorize it.
Just as the Adobe Digital Editions software must be authorized, the portable device must also be authorized to be able to transfer protected content to and from the device.
-
Click Authorize Device in the resulting window.
-
Click Finished after your device is authorized.
-
After authorization, the device appears as a new bookshelf in your library. Transfer items to and from the device bookshelf by clicking on the book title, then dragging and dropping the title into the device bookshelf.
Note: Do not disconnect the device while you are in the process of transferring a title to the device.
o Download books offline
o Easily return books and auto delete (just like overdrive)
o Customise the reading experience (i.e. adjust the font etc)
- Open your downloaded eBook in Adobe Digital Editions. If you have not authorized Adobe Digital Editions, you will need to complete that step first. An Adobe ID is not required for authorization. Simply select I want to authorize my computer without an ID and click Authorize.However, if you have an Adobe ID and would like to synchronize your reading across multiple devices, you can elect to authorize the app using your existing Adobe ID, or create a new one at the following link:
- Connect your portable device to your computer with a USB cable.
- Turn on the eReader. If the reader offers an option to Recharge or Connect to the computer, choose the “Connect” option.
- Open Adobe Digital Editions – it automatically detects the presence of your device and offers to authorize it.Just as the Adobe Digital Editions software must be authorized, the portable device must also be authorized to be able to transfer protected content to and from the device.
- Click Authorize Device in the resulting window.
- Click Finished after your device is authorized.
- After authorization, the device appears as a new bookshelf in your library. Transfer items to and from the device bookshelf by clicking on the book title, then dragging and dropping the title into the device bookshelf.Note: Do not disconnect the device while you are in the process of transferring a title to the device.
For more details on how to check items out, save pages and downloading Adobe Digital Editions visit:
https://help.ebsco.com/interfaces/eBooks_Audiobooks/eBooks
Or visit the tutorials online at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBC_CPlZqhatEZJN_oIldtg
~Sophie
https://help.ebsco.com/interfaces/eBooks_Audiobooks/eBooks
Or visit the tutorials online at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBC_CPlZqhatEZJN_oIldtg
~Sophie
Linked Data for Libraries
You've probably heard Linked Data being talked about by library people.
You may have even heard jargon being thrown around like triplets, the Semantic Web, RDF and Bibframe.
But if you're anything like me it has not been totally clear what linked data is and how it could benefit libaries. But I've been let into the club and you can be too.
Sydney Mini Maker Faire (and, how Dasha was rejected by a robot)
A quick-ish snapshot of the Sydney Mini Maker Faire Angus and
I attended at the Powerhouse Museum on Sunday.
The concept of a Maker Faire is a huge worldwide event: the “the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth- a family-friendly showcase of
invention, creativity and resourcefulness”. The original Maker Faire was held
in California and eleven years on it showcased around 1,300 makers and garnered
150,000 attendees.
 |
| Laser cut objects. Very want. |
 |
| Core Electronics stall. |
The Sydney Mini Maker Faire is a modest affair in
comparison, originally hosted in 2013. This year featured about 30 different
makerspaces, companies and technologies, including some we’ve come to know and
love – like Little Bird Electronics (who we started out our MakerSpace
e-textiles and paper circuits with) and Core Electronics (the suppliers of our
adored Lulzbot Taz 5, with whom Angus chatted at length to extol the ongoing
wonders of).
Spread across 2 floors of the museum, the faire attracted
hoards of kids and families. Stalls often featured demonstrative pieces of
technology (often 3D printers – which were notably rarely in protective cases). Children interacted with the gadgets on display freely (as kids do). One of the
coolest examples was a topographic sandpit at Little Bird Electronics. When
moulded into peaks and troughs, a coloured ‘map’ was projected onto the sand,
and fish swam in the ‘sea’ created.
The robots. Don’t get me wrong. Robots are cool – I love
robots! But when a facial recognition robot raises a hand to say ‘Hi’ to Angus
and then drops it upon catching sight of me – I could tell because I was on the
adjoining ‘RoboVision’ laptop screen – I could not help but feel a little
dejected.
 |
| Rejected! |
Lots of other robots on show, including remote-controllable battle bots
kids used to beat each other up with. Another highlight was the use of Raspberry Pi/Makey Makey
electronics kits to make musical instruments out of vegetables – very clever
and doable. There are many free online guides on how this can be achieved (e.g. here).
Overall, highly recommended for anyone with a personal or
professional interest in the Maker movement (though you’ll have to wait until
next year). It was also striking how engaged kids were with these technologies,
how little inhibition they have in giving it a go (including the 3D pens, which
caused a production line of goopy plastic sludge, I’m still dubious about their
safety for little ones). It was enough to have displays on 3D printing,
robotics, electronics, etc. simply available, which they could play with and
ask questions about.
 |
| 3D pen goop. |
And now for the photos: all kudos to Angus!
 |
| Metal work demo. |
 |
| Pottery demo. |
 |
| Robots and Dinosaurs' laser cut objects. Note: Dasha did not walk off with any in her possession despite her love of them. |
 |
Little Bird Electronics sandbox map. |
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