Digital Collections for Lovers of the Obscure and Hard to Find.

Do you have a library patron who loves obscure, rare, and hard to find items? Perhaps they are into genealogy or avid history readers. Maybe they are researching turn of the century farming practices. Or perhaps they would love to browse through the stacks of a historical academic archive? It can sometimes prove difficult to find these items; here are a few free open access digital archives that may serve these patrons. You might even find yourself falling down the rabbit hole exploring these resources too!

• The Hathi Trust (pronounced Ha-tea) is a partnership between research institution working to preserve and make the cultural records accessible for future generations. The digital library allows for searching by subject (Catalog Search), Full text – Search (keywords within the items) and by Collections. So far they have digitized 8,580 tons of materials - a full 10,560,508 volumes!

• The Internet Archive is a non-profit founded in 1996 to build an internet library. The archive contains text, audio, moving images and archived web pages. The collection at the Internet  Archive is robust and diverse, from archival shorts played during the intermission at drive-ins, to a collection of NASA photographs, news & public affairs video clips, a web archive of Hurricane Katrina, and of course digitized collections of rare or out of copyright books. The Internet Archive has something for everyone no matter what their fancy.

• For local information check out Peel’s Prairie Provinces, a digital archive created by the UofA. The archive contains newspapers, postcards, images, books and other ephemeral material. Especially of interest to local genealogists is the digitized Henderson’s Directory collection. Using Optical Character Recognition users can search by name or address.

• Lastly is the Canadian Agriculture Library, I stumbled across this digitized collection while looking for a hard to find Interlibrary Loan item. This is a super simple collection to search and the specialized contents are sure to please patrons interested in the history of Canadian gardening, agriculture, home-economics, and sustainability.

All of these resources are free and available for use anywhere you can find a web connection - like a Chinook Arch library!

Digital Literacy: A Primer

Digital Literacy is a topic that I have been wanting to write on for some time, as it encompasses a lot of what I do. However, due to its breadth, I have struggled to find a clear definition of it. Enter Leanne Drury Melsness and her wonderful presentation, "Digital Literacy Initiatives," at Netspeed 2012.

As Manager of Digital Literacy Services at Edmonton Public Library, Leanne has been working hard to make Digital Literacy a core service, as per EPL’s Business Plan for 2011-2013. Her presentation was not only on what Digital Literacy is, but how she and her three librarian teammates are implmenting it at their library. Leanne uses the same definition for Digital Literacy as the OITP Digital Literacy Task Force: “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information requiring both cognitive and technical skills.” To succeed as a citizen in today’s world, one needs to be digitally literate.

Digital Literacy is necessary for carrying out any number of activities:

1.)    Access and Skills: To be digitally literate, needs access to technology, and technological tools,and have the skills to use them effectively.

2.)    Social Inclusion: People use technology today to communicate, seek employment, find government information, participate in political action, care for their health, access education, continue lifelong learning, practice economics/commerce, and be culturally active. Digital Literacy allows a person to fully engage with these areas.

3.)    Creative and Personal Expression: Knowing how to create products and art  through the use of technological tools is another aspect of digital literacy.

4.)    Ethical and Critical Thinking About Digital Media and Information: Because technology now allows us to access many news sources and content streams, this is skill that is now required by everyone. Being able to examine your own use and understanding of technology is part of this this critical thinking ability.

Digital Literacy is important for public libraries because we are in the unique position of being able to provide our communities with the space, tools, and resources to play, learn, and work in a digital environment. We do this every day when we help a patron use the computer, access eBooks, print out resources and more. I hope to write more on implementing Digital Literacy training in a upcoming post, but for now, I need to go fill my head with more information!

2012 TD Summer Reading Club Library Awards!

The deadline is coming up - November 1st 2012!

Did you do something extraordinary for your TD Summer Reading Club this year?  Well, don’t be modest! Share your story by applying for a 2012 Library Award.  The awards are designed to celebrate innovative and effective TD Summer Reading Club programs in public libraries throughout Canada. 

TDSRC has also provided us with “Tips from the Jury” outlining some key pointers from previous successful applicants. 

Here are a few of their tips:

• Provide clear evidence of your program’s focus on “changes/improvement in children’s literacy and reading habits” – this is a good chance to include a “patron impact story” from your program.

• Indicate how your library promoted materials of various genres, at different reading levels, and geared towards participant’s interests and experiences.

• Outline creative techniques used to engage children in the TD Summer Reading Club.

• Keep your essential points clear! Jurors may have to quickly scan an application and will want to see the most important and valuable information right away.

Want to see more "tips from the jury"? Click here.

If you have any questions about applying for a Library Award please contact your 2012 TDSRC Provincial Coordinator.

Good Luck!

Banned Websites

It was Banned Websites Awareness Day yesterday (October 3) in the U.S.. Although the day has passed I thought this was a good time to bring attention to this other type of censorship that can occur in public institutions (including libraries).

I recently read an article about how schools (including post-secondary) that prohibit students from using their wireless and public access computers to access social media sites can actually inhibit students' ability to create a positive online presence and networking community. ALA's Banned Websites Awareness Day was developed "to raise awareness of the overly restrictive blocking of legitimate, educational websites and academically useful social networking tools in schools and school libraries". The American Association of School Libraries has designated one day during Banned Books Week as Banned Websites Awareness Day.

Located on the Banned Books website is background material, a complimentary webinar, and resources and activities - including the article mentioned above.  If your library uses internet filters, or you just want to know more about it, the resources on this website are helpful to get you thinking about the issues of internet filtering. Even though this site is geared towards school libraries, the issues still apply.

The Banned Books website is located at: http://www.ala.org/aasl/advocacy/bwad