Book Review

Having just finished The eerie silence: renewing our search for alien intelligence by Paul Davies, I thought I would share my opinion.  Davies is a professor at Arizona State University.  In a nutshell, this book, as many of Davies' books are, was both entertaining and thought-provoking.  I am not one to easily grasp advanced scientific concepts, and I always find Professor Davies' books easy to read and understand.  Basically, Davies lays out the case for expanding what we should be looking for if we ever expect to "make contact" with an alien intelligence (think SETI).  Rather than simply searching the universe for radio waves we might want to look beyond what we, as a peculiar species might do (and expect) to establish communications.  I won't bother to go into great detail, but Davies provides chapter after chapter filled with ideas not only for us to use to try to establish contact but for us to look for where someone else might already have tried to contact us.  I would encourage taking a look at this book if for no other reason than it forces one to confront the real challenges and opportunities surrounding, and the deep, deep questions raised by, the fact that there seems to be such an eerie silence out there.

Facebook, privacy, and MORE!!!!!!

An extravaganza!  OK, maybe not.  I think I have mentioned in the past that librarians are a privacy-minded lot.  On the whole, we have taken the idea that what information you access and exchange is your business alone.  I suppose with the one caveat that you "do no harm" to others.  Hmm...does that make us weak libertarians?  People often accuse librarians of being liberal and prone to protecting the rights of criminals and perverts (you know, those folks who try to browse the naughty Internet sites on the public computers).

The truth is, from a certain perspective that's partly true, but with a very good reason.  Don't get me wrong, none of us (librarians) like criminals or perverts.  It is just that now more than ever before, the line between "acceptable" and "unacceptable" in societal terms, has been horribly blurred.  So librarians, as a group, tend to stick to our tried-and-true method of finding the best that we can provide and letting you, the individual, decide what is best for you and your dependents.

For me, it all boils down to an interaction I had with a friend of mine many years ago.  This friend holds many beliefs and opinions that are completely antithetical to mine.  However, we always got along well because we agreed to disagree in some cases.  A statement he made to me one time during a discussion about book banning types and their motivations exemplified what I mean.  Despite his very conservative values, he said to me that he could "never support pulling books from public libraries regardless of how I feel about some of them because that opened the door to someone else removing the books I want, and want others, to be exposed to."

So, how can librarians help patrons with their private pursuits?  With an open mind and good tools.  So where does the Facebook part come in?  This is a great tool to help protect your private information on Facebook.  Bear in mind that the ReclaimPrivacy.org tool is a free tool and provided "as-is".  That said, if you use Facebook, follow the instructions and run the scanner to see what you have out there available to all.  I made some changes to my account based on the results.  Here is an article with more information.

Summer Celebration - with a special guest

Summer is nearly upon us and we are busily preparing for the summer reading program.  This year, the theme is "Make a Splash" so rather predictably, we have a number of fun water-related games and activities in the works for the annual big kick-off.  Among your choices for water-based mayhem will be a chance to soak me in the dunk tank.  I'll bet you all have lousy aim!  (A friendly taunt :-P )

Another nifty activity that day will be a visit from the OverDrive Digital Bookmobile.  The Hutchinson Public Library contracts with the OverDrive company to provide downloadable audiobooks and (so far) a few epub ebooks.  The Digital Bookmobile provides a unique opportunity to try out various electronic gadgets and learn about the wealth of literary entertainment available through the service.

You can check up on the latest information about these programs at HPL's Facebook page.  There are FREE programs scheduled throughout June and July, including our popular craft Wednesdays in July.

I wonder how many books will be read during the various summer reading programs?  Last year we had nearly 1,100 children, young adults and adults sign up for the programs.  The children's program required the reader to read 10 books to complete it and just shy of 40% reached that goal.  The young adults and adults averaged about 5 books per person entered.  Checkouts overall were up 5% last summer over the previous year.  I hope this year they are up even more and I'd love to see us break the 50% mark for children reaching the reading goal!

More HPL 2010 Project Goodness

While the project's initial run-through may be over, if you missed out the opportunity is now here to see what it was all about.  Also, even if you did go through the 10-week project but didn't do all the exercises, you can now go back to any week you wish and try something you skipped.  The modified site will remain active through the end of 2010.

The link to the 2010 Project website is here.

Things to note about the re-vamped site:

1)  There are no more "Report your progress" links.  This is because the reporting feature was our way of keeping track of who was eligible for the contest.

2)  Speaking of contests, they are over.  The real reward though, is the knowledge contained in the project, right?

3)  No one will be monitoring links listed in the "Related Resources" sections (or the main activities for that matter).  If something becomes unavailable, we are sorry but you will just have to move on.  The Internet is littered with good ideas that just couldn't sustain themselves.

4)  The HPL 2010 Project is now truly self-starting and self-paced.  No more gently encouraging emails but also no more deadlines.

Finally, a HUGE "Thank You!" to everyone who participated in the project.  This includes library patrons, library staff, and especially Kristine, the creator and driving force behind the Project.  We learned so much from the participants that will be useful in designing classes, services, and special activities, I can't even begin to describe it.

2010 Project Wrap-up

The 2010 Project is finally [sot of] finished!  I included the "sort of" because the part that is complete is the initial 10-week roll-out of the program.  The initial group of patrons and library staff who signed up to start in late January / early February had the opportunity to go through the program as it was revealed week-by-week and participate in the contests and receive completion prizes.  Now, however, the 2010 Project website is getting a minor re-vamp and will be made available as a link off of our library website in early May.  This link will remain active through the end of the year.  This will allow participants to go back and explore related resources or try activities they may have skipped the first time through.

Most importantly, opening up the 2010 Project site for the rest of the year will allow people who weren't able to start in the first place a chance to try the program.  Of the 300+ people who initially signed up, 150 (give or take a couple) finished.  The participants generated over 100 pages of comments and suggestions!  Here are a few examples:


"Thanks to the HPL Project Teacher and those who support and sponsor these programs it gives old dogs new tricks…" 

"Thanks for the various topics covered. I would not have known about them otherwise."

"This has been a great resource for the HPL to offer. No where else in Hutchinson would you be able to find such a wealth of knowledge for everyone at no cost. This is especially helpful to us technology challenged senior citizens!"

"The truth is, I have been opened to so many new things that I enjoyed each week for a different reason. Taking this class shows me that although I resist the technology forms of "socializing", I am curious about it and want to join in (on my own terms). What a shame it would be to be left behind in this era of technology.  A great project. thanks, HPL."

"This is a great project and I hope you have more of them in the future. Keeping up with technology is a never-ending process and you're helping us get up to speed on the Information Superhighway - thanks!"


"I would be interested in any other online educational projects you might have in the future. This was quick, fun, and easy and I picked up some information I wouldn't have known about. Learning something new just keeps you that much sharper, and you have to be in this technological world."

"Please keep me on your database list if you do another! Thanks!"

That last comment really gets me to thinking.  When we set out to do this we had NO idea how many people would be interested, nor did we have any way to contact and advertise the project cheaply once we decided to do it.  As it turned out, we were overwhelmed by the response.  So I wonder how people feel about signing up for events with a contact and then having the library, from time-to-time, use those contacts to send out alerts for upcoming events?  Hmm...another new project to work on.

Time for a different look

It's Spring, what can I say?  I'll try the left-side links for a while.  I am left-handed after all.

Do you have a Wowbrary subscription?  If not, and you are interested in hearing about all the new stuff that HPL acquires before anyone else, I would highly recommend signing up.  Personally, it has contributed greatly to reinvigorating my desire to read for pleasure.  There are so many great things coming in every week.  One word of warning however, some patrons have been experiencing difficulty receiving their Wowbrary emails when signed up using an email address from Cox Communications (for example, "john123@cox.net").  We are working with Cox to solve the problem, but as of 4/21 it is still an ongoing issue.  I will update with a resolution as soon as we have one.

One of the books I found through browsing the Wowbrary newsletter was Boneshaker by Cherie Priest.  If an action-packed, zombie-filled book set in an 1870's steampunk alternate universe sounds like fun - this is the book for you!  I think it would make a great movie - Ridley Scott would do it right.

I just started The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence by Paul Davies.  Dr. Davies has published numerous works on physics written in a way that even a mathematically-challenged librarian can understand them.  This one is interesting in that Davies examines the SETI program and the search for "ET" to date and describes the possibly erroneous underlying assumptions we've made in trying to detect how an alien species might contact us.  As I said, I've just started this one but it is shaping up to be something I would recommend if you are inclined as I am to occasionally scan the stars and wonder who or what and how many might be looking back.

Clouds and my experience with the "Magic Smoke"

No, this isn't a confessional.  The Magic Smoke I am talking about is something that at my old job we called the "Genie" - that smoke that appears when an electronic device burns up or short-circuits.  Proper usage is, "Dave powered on the reference desk CPU, heard a crackling, and saw the genie escape."  Or one might say in a stern, chiding way, "It's definitely down since you let out the magic smoke!"  While I (thankfully) don't have to deal with it, at least on a regular basis anymore at work, the genie escaped from my home PC about 6 months ago causing a mini-crisis in my home.  After some work, all was well and 99.9% of our home network life was restored (the remaining 0.1% was lost saved games - the kids were a little miffed...)

What's the point, you ask?  A good portion of my documents, spreadsheets, etc. and software were not stored on my genie-less PC, they were stored in "the Cloud".  This situation certainly has its advantages.  I could use our other computer to work in the meantime, for one.  Also, there was no fretting over anything but the inconvenience of having to order new guts for the dead computer.  Cloud computing saved me again a couple of weeks ago when my work computer succumbed after a battle with a drive-by virus.  A combination of keeping important and/or currently used documents in the cloud and on a back-up USB hard drive made the whole experience much more tolerable since I lost no data.

But there are some worrisome aspects of cloud lurking always in the back of my mind.  Not least of these is privacy.  Although that is an 18 month-old article, the fight over who can see how much of your info out there in the "cloud" is still raging.  This brings a definite sense of insecurity to privacy-minded folks, like librarians.  Google, Amazon, and those sorts of commercial enterprises already track our searching to serve us targeted ads, ISPs could potentially (and may be already) tracking much more.  Nearly 5 years ago, an agency of the federal government was alleged to have captured data without warrant and with the cooperation of AT&T, (the folks trying to deflect the issue in that "privacy" article above).

Privacy issues aside, cloud computing appears to be gaining considerable, if sometimes grudging, acceptance.  And, as with all new twists in our technological world, our library and libraries everywhere will continue to wrestle with it.