Source: http://xkcd.com/956/

Author’s note: My interests within the LIS field are data curation and e-science librarianship. This is a hot topic that is growing every day, and skilled e-science librarians are needed to fill the gap. If you’re interested in learning more about data curation librarianship as a future career, leave a comment here, and I’ll follow up with more information.

Back in the Fall, Micah wrote a post about Open Access Week. In it he discussed open journals, open data, and the ALA Code of Ethics. Open data is what today’s post is about. An important ongoing question in the world of data curation today is how to get scientists to share their data by placing it in a data repository. There are many scientists who are unaware of the fact that their data has value to anyone but them and their research team. On the other hand, there are scientists who are very possessive of their data and don’t want to release it for fear that they will lose control of it and not be credited for its creation. There are also those who want to suck every drop of publishing potential out of a data set before releasing it to anyone else.

Last November, there were two requests for information (here and here) put out by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. One asked if peer-reviewed journal articles resulting from federally funded research should be accessible to the public. The other asked if data from federally funded research should be accessible to the public. OSTP has released the comments from that RFI here. I have not read all the responses, but the ones I have read seem to indicate that the support of open-access is high among those not affiliated with a publisher and cautious, at best, from those affiliated with a publisher. The questions, concerns, and issues I see raised generally deal with how journals can remain profitable for the value they add and how researchers can receive due credit for their efforts.

But let’s set aside the questions of whether scientists and researchers should be required to share their data and articles or even if it’s a good idea that they do it.  I think an even larger issue here is whether or not our current crop of scientists and researchers has the data management skills necessary to make the research data usable to anyone but themselves and their immediate research group. Data management practices of researchers are not exactly stellar. Infrequent or nonexistent backups, inadequate metadata on variables and research background, and loose standards all contribute to a set of data that is basically useless to anyone not involved with the project from the beginning.

Do you think that the data generators know how to manage their data properly? What can be done to improve the situation? How can librarians help?

That said, I’m going to downshift from an overview of library blogging into a product review of three to-do-list programs and apps to help you with your efficiency. Lists help, and these three programs help take lists to the digital level.

Do It Tomorrow: A simple and elligant solution for time management

First, and my personal favorite is Do It Tomorrow. In addition to being a functional web application, it also comes in an applet form. Do it tomorrow functions as a digital representation of a moleskin notebook. Tasks for today are on one side, tasks for tomorrow are on the other. When the day changes tomorrows tasks move to today. Which is perfect if your just starting with time management. A two day span is a perfect way to think about things. The app itself is super functional, and until it stopped working with my Color Nook (running cyanogen mod 7.2) it was by far my favorite app. I’ve never found anything that approaches this app in terms of simplicity, quality and style. A new update fixed both the compatibility issues with my rooted Nook, and added cloud support (though I did have to turn off sound, but that was no big deal). Who’s got two thumbs way up and loves Do It Tomorrow? This guy!

Then there’s Wunderlist. Wunderlist is a beautiful and pretty functional app, which works across platforms and has cloud support. I have some slight interface problems on my 7” tablet, but I chalk that up to user error. While this is currently not my go to time management app, I think it’s a solid choice in this category.  My only real problem is that it doesn’t sync with my Google account, which would make it really awesome.

Cute, social, to-do-list, loaded with handy features

Lastly, there’s Astrid. Astrid is a cute app. It’s not beautiful in the same way that Wunderlist or Do It Tomorrow are.  Astrid aims to be the 4square of to do lists and if you have a bunch of friends into time management, or enjoy competing with efficiency experts this is definitely the app for you. It has pretty good functionality, a very decent widget, and it syncs with my Gmail, although that’s mostly just log in and email reminders about important tasks.  One drawback or plus depending on how you view it is that Astrid will remind you to work on a task as it gets closer to the due date. While these reminders are helpful, if you have a full list they do get a little bit annoying.  Unfortunately none of the apps I’ve reviewed has the capability to sync with my google calendar which would be a truly awesome feature.

Finally, I want to talk a bit about the concept of efficiency itself.  When I decided I wanted to write this post, I thought a lot about the role that business superhuman efficiency and functionality standards are beginning to play in our libraries. It’s important to step back from your work and your stress and take some time to breath. Too often we expect people to work rigorously, and effectively, and quickly. I guess I wanted to make a point to remember humanity in your work, and in your model for what good work is. Human beings have failings. I think as a society we tell people that, failure isn’t acceptable, entirely too much. People need to breath, you might too. Remember this is a time when it’s ok to drop a ball or two, because it’s also the time to learn how to pick them up. The key to being great is not the avoidance of  failure, its learning from failures and having the perseverance to carry on.

But sometimes, I just want more.

I mean, we’re library scientists, right? So where are our research facilities? Where are the experiments? Shouldn’t at least a few of us be library mad scientists? (I know some librarians who totally have the crazy eyebrows for it.) So who do I have to see to get my lab coat and my tesla coil?

This is the sort of eyebrow I mean.

The reality is that library school, as valuable as it is, is always going to be mostly about the past and the present, with at most wary/hopeful glances in the general direction of the future. That’s not criticism, it’s just the nature of the thing.  If we library students want to know more about what’s going on closer to the cutting edge, we’re just going to have to go look for it ourselves. And isn’t that what Hack Library School is all about?

Here are a few places to start:

Harvard Library Innovation Laboratory: 
This is the stuff, right here. This group of developers and librarians work under the auspices of the Harvard Law School as a sort of think tank for the avant garde of librarianship. And they’re doing incredibly cool stuff, from the very promising open-source ShelfLife collection navigator to their consistently great podcasts. This is where I go when I need a solid dose of experimental librarianship.

Harvard Library Lab:
Not to be confused with the above, this Library Lab is run by the Department of Scholarly Communication and is more concerned with supporting research projects in the library and information sciences. A few minutes spent poking around the current projects page always leaves me with new things to think about.

Library Test Kitchen:
Yep, these folks are at Harvard, too, this time a seminar being run out of the Graduate School of Design. The Test Kitchen looks at the future of the library from a perspective of space, use, and the experience of being in a library. Ethereal-sounding stuff, but it also has a lot to do with why many of us came to love the library in the first place.

InfoCamp:
I’m using InfoCamp as a representative for a whole array of similarly-structured (un)conferences around the country, because I just recently got to attend my first (which was, by the way, co-organized by Hack Library School’s own Turner Masland; Zack is pretty familiar with the concept as well.) InfoCamps are springing up all over the place, and that’s awesome, because they generate the sort of cross-pollination between information nerds that can ultimately lead to great things for all of us. At the one we just had here in Portland, I heard some talks that were exciting, some that were outside the normal library territory but really useful, and one I didn’t even begin to understand. But even getting a look into other ways of thinking about information was more enlightening and inspiring than I’d imagined it could be.

Library Boing Boing:
Hopefully most of us have heard about this one: the ALA is partnering with tech/culture uberblog BoingBoing to support, celebrate, and collaborate on all sorts of cool new library-type things. This one is still in the development phase, but isn’t that the best time to get involved?

The natural extension of hacking library school is to hack the library itself. Where do you go when you want something a little more futuristic than what your MLS program provides?

"Good Code," www.xkcd.com/844; if you get it, you're probably a programmer!

I’m sure you’ve all heard a million times by now that libraries are looking for young professionals with technology skills. And I’m sure you’ve all thought to yourself “But of course, I use technology all the time! I’m proficient in the Microsoft Office Suite, I conduct online research like a champ, I would medal in the social media Olympics!” And, of course, you’d be right. Libraries do need professionals that are intimate with and can teach software applications, are comfortable with online research both in databases and free web resources, and can smartly and strategically develop a social media plan. But I’m also increasingly sure that we need to up our game in order to stand out and better serve our patrons. I’m talking about the hard stuff, the stuff we were hoping we’d never have to think about because of our blessed IT departments, the stuff that puts us face-to-face with the command line: y’all, I’m talking about coding.

Coding is an invaluable skill for young information professionals. While we won’t be expected to attend to database or systems administrator duties, we may be expected to embed videos in our library website’s HTML file, or modify a database, or troubleshoot electronic resource access issues, or simply be familiar enough with coding restrictions and limitations to have informed discussions with our IT department. Austin Public Library is currently transitioning to the Drupal platform to decrease the reliance on the IT department for doing basic things like updating a blog. Platforms like Drupal and WordPress do not, in themselves require any programming knowledge, but knowing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript will enhance interactivity and customizability. In other words, it just can’t hurt to be familiar in a programming language (and, believe it or not, its kind of fun!).

I’m lucky in that because my program has such a focus on information science, it offers several programming courses, the most popular of which is Database Management which teaches the language PHP and database language MySQL. I went into the class expecting to see unfamiliar faces, students who are in my program but take most usability or information architecture classes. Instead, I was greeted with mostly people like me: library- or archive-track students who want to improve or begin their programming knowledge. We move at a quick but manageable pace. More importantly, while the assignments are difficult, they’re so different from what I’m used to (ahem, writing papers, ahem) I find a good challenge in them. In addition to looking good on a resume and making me the official computer genius of my family, coding also challenges my brain in new ways, forces me to think creatively and problem solve, and affords many opportunities to collaborate with my classmates when a script just won’t do what I want it to –and I think we can agree those are skills useful to ANY information professional.

I want to be clear that I’m not advocating librarians become professional programmers– programmers spend years of their lives and dedicate their career to the art. If your library or museum is lucky enough to have a dedicated IT department, bless them. I will say though, as library websites become the primary service point by which patrons interact with the library, librarians should know how the web works, what languages it works in, what languages do what, and how the web is structured. My vision of the future library does not have each department working in a vacuum from one another but rather librarians and IT professionals working together, sharing a common language, and figuring out how to best serve the community.

What can you do if your program doesn’t offer any introductory programming courses? First, look outside of your department; many graduate-level departments teach introductory courses. Talk to your advisor and see what your campus offers. Similarly, if you can receive credit for them, check your local community colleges.  There are also lots of free online sources. Code Year is a great program that has weekly assignments and is done entirely online for FREE. The W3 Schools have all of their training manuals online and they are easy to understand and offer exercises. The beauty of programmers is their willingness to put their work on the web for others to use, modify, and learn from.

What skills are you improving? What resources do you use for improving your technical skill set? Leave a comment or message me on Twitter, @beccakatharine.

So I took a deep breath, and dove in. What follows is a record of my wayfinding & sense-making as I puzzled my way through the first year of the HackLibSchool project.

Micah got things rolling over on In the Library with the Lead Pipe. Inspired by Hacking the Academy, a crowdsourced, digital book sharing resources, questions, and innovations on scholarship, Micah started Exhibit A: the Google Doc. It’s well worth perusing, and the conversations held there sparked…

Exhibit B: the Wiki. Another proverbial ghost-town, but even today that wiki holds valuable resources. I remain convinced that the hardest part of entering information science (or any other field) is finding out what people are talking about; the wiki can help with that. The conversations there, however, soon outgrew the wiki format, and needed a new home. Which brings me to…

Exhibit C: the Blog! Where to start? With over 200 posts, we have options. Some people would likely find a chronological approach the easiest to parse, starting with Micah’s welcome post & official kick-off (Big-Tent Library School), and moving upward from there. I found, as others might, that various resources are needed at various times, and went for tags and series like Library School Starter Kit. (LSSK -The First Term was one of the most helpful things I read last semester, and I’m still proud that I did everything on the list!) If all of that seems overwhelming, why not find an author you like, and start there? There are lists of Current Hackers and Alumni Hackers, and virtually all of us have writings beyond HLS.

I expect my relationship with Hack Library School will be an adventure. I’m still sifting through the archives, reading articles that jump out and demand it. For me, the most valuable part of HLS is knowing that I’m not alone–librarianship is indeed a big tent, and we’re all in this together.

So Happy Anniversary, Hack Library School–you’ve had quite a year. I look forward to helping you reach year 2, and many more beyond that!

What are your favorite #HackLibSchool posts? Let us know in the comments, or contact Topher on Twitter @hieanon.