Mar 28 2013
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Simmons

Come have a BiblioBrew!

BiblioBrews

The Simmons GSLIS Alumni Board, of which you may recall I am the current Treasurer, helps to organize several large, formal networking events for GSLIS students and alumni each year, such as GSLIS After Dark and an evening of Speed Networking. We recently decided to schedule a monthly event we’re calling BiblioBrews – a low-key pub meetup the last Thursday of each month. Our aim is to offer a more purely social event, as well as one that “demystifies” networking to a certain extent – after all, networking can happen anywhere, anytime. We’re promoting the event to GSLIS students and alumni, but the larger Boston librarian community is more than welcome too.

Anyway, sorry for the late notice, but the first event in the series is TONIGHT at the Squealing Pig (Mission Hill), 5:30pm. The Board will be buying appetizers (yes, I will wield my power as Treasurer) but drinks are on your own. We’ll have a Nancy Pearl action figure on our table to assure that we embody that librarian brand. You’ve never tasted a brew so delicious (and informative) as a BiblioBrew!

Jul 27 2012
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library futures

It’s Nice to be Quoted

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Boris Hänßler, a science and technology journalist, about my participation in Unglue.it. He was writing a piece for Zeit Online, the online edition of the weekly German newspaper Die Zeit, and he wanted to ask me a few questions. After determining that this was indeed a legit email, I replied that I would be happy to help.

Zeit Online - Unglue.it

Shortly after the piece, which thanks to the wonders of Google Translate I was at least able to get the gist of, was posted, Unglue.it reported in their newsletter that over 100 German ungluers created accounts. (And how cool is it that I got a mention in that newsletter, too?!)

Anyway, I was very glad to be contacted, and writing this post now reminds me that I need to go make a contribution to the latest Unglue.it campaign for Obama Search Words. It sounds like an intriguing work, to say the least.

I am including my full email Q&A with Boris below.

1. How did you learn about unglue.it?
I believe I first learned about Unglue.it from my librarian social media contacts.
2. What motivated you to participate?
I think Unglue.it’s model of crowdfunding campaigns to release creative commons ebooks has a lot of potential to change the way ebooks are released and distributed. Though I love my Kindle, the current Amazon-dominated model is unsustainable, and current systems for library lending of ebooks are even more broken. We need to stop pretending like ebooks are the same as print books.
3. Can I ask you which books you “unglued”?
I pledged to each of the five initial campaigns, including the successful campaign for Oral Literature in Africa. At this point, however, the success of Unglue.it’s funding and distribution model is more important than the content of the unglued works.
4. Do you think the prices for the current books are fair / good?
I trust that Unglue.it did their due diligence in setting fair prices when negotiating the details of the campaigns with rights holders – otherwise I don’t think the authors would have gone forward.
5. Isn’t there a risk, that authors or publishers just want to make money with books that do not sell well any longer?
I do see this as a potential risk. My hope is that the market won’t allow this to happen too much. I think ungluing campaigns will only succeed if there is demand for the ebook. If the book wasn’t selling well in print, or if generally there isn’t much interest in the title, this should mitigate the risk.
6. As you work in a library – do you think libraries will benefit from creative commons ebooks? Do you know if there is a demand for them?
Absolutely. A recent Pew study found that awareness of library ebook lending services is low, but that people were very interested in learning more about it. Libraries could actually do more than just lend unglued titles – they could serve as distributors of them, and help the public, scholars, etc., learn more about the availability of creative commons titles. This model would also solve many of the frustrations that current library ebook borrowers experience (as reported in the Pew study) – unavailable titles, long wait lists, incompatible formats, restrictive DRM, etc. Unglue.it could potentially create a great collection of open access content for libraries to make freely available to their patrons.
7. What do you generally think about creative commons? Isn’t there a risk for artists, that people get more and more used to get books for free and are not willing to pay any longer? (there is currently a strong discussion about this question in Germany)
The internet has majorly transformed the way all types of content – books, music, movies, journal articles, etc. – are created, distributed, and consumed. To be sure, this has led to many creators not being fairly compensated for their work. That is why I think Unglue.it is so promising – it presents a win-win for all parties, including rights holders. Society is still figuring out how to do this – how to make works widely available in the new world of the internet, while still supporting the livelihoods of artists and authors. Unglue.it represents an out-of-the-box solution to this problem, and one that I hope continues to succeed.
Jun 20 2012
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library futures

Follow up: ungluing win!

A quick follow up on last week’s post about Unglue.it: as of (very) early this morning, Oral Literature in Africa was unglued! It’s pretty exciting to see that the campaign has reached 101% of its goal, as of blog time.

unglue oral literature in africa at 101%

There have already been a lot of great reactions to this first ungluing, including one from Roy Tennant. He makes the excellent point that according to Worldcat, over 700 libraries own this title (mine says 946). Do you think Unglue.it could have some implications for library collection development? Methinks yes!

Congrats to the Unglue.it team all around. I’m excited that my credit card will actually be charged for my pledge tonight, and even more excited to continue following where the project goes. Let’s hope that this first success proves the effectiveness of the crowdfunding model in the crazy universe of ebooks.

Jun 18 2012
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Simmons, updates

Update: Hank’s a Treasurer

Hot off the presses: I am now officially the Treasurer of the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science Alumni Board. (That’s a mouthful.) A few months ago, the Board put out a call for nominations to several positions that were opening up. This email somehow managed to catch my attention amidst the floods of communications I get from my alma maters, so I (humbly) nominated myself. A few emails later, and voila, I was offered the position.

Serving on the Board is going to be a great experience – several of my friends and colleagues are current or former members, and I look forward to working with them in this new capacity. I just had my first Board meeting a week ago, so I am still learning what my role actually entails. No doubt my efforts will be in support of the Board’s mission (Article II, Bylaws):

The Alumnae/i Association represents and serves the alumnae/i of the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. The purpose of the Association is to strengthen the alumnae/i relationship with the GSLIS in order to serve and advance the interests of the GSLIS and its graduates. The Association wishes to maintain an interest in recruiting qualified individuals into librarianship and the related information and knowledge professions, to raise funds for scholarships, and to promote mentoring, continuing education, professional development, and leadership.

The Board also has a blog – its only web presence as yet that I am aware of. Perhaps one of my first initiatives will be getting some content up there. ;)

Jun 15 2012
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library futures

unglue.it : putting my money where my mouth is

Unglue.it is definitely one of the coolest and most interesting startups in the library universe, imho. What is it, you ask? Well, Unglue.it’s basic mission is to release free, legal ebook editions of already-published works to the world, under Creative Commons licensing. They enter into agreements with rights holders to set a fair price for doing so, and then host crowdfunding campaigns on their website to raise that amount. Once the money is raised, the “unglued” ebook is released, and its creator(s) is compensated. (Unglue.it takes a cut too – they are indeed a “for-profit company with a public-spirited mission.” And you better believe they deserve to make some money for doing what they do!) So, it’s really a win-win for everyone, readers especially.

Unglue.it

I’ve been following Unglue.it since before its launch, and I really do care about its model succeeding. Right now there are five active campaigns – if even one succeeds as a proof of concept, I believe we could see some major changes in the way ebooks are published and distributed. Though I love my Kindle, the current Amazon-dominated model is unsustainable, and current systems for library lending of ebooks are even more broken. Wouldn’t it be amazing if the Unglue.it model really took off, and we could unglue something like the Harry Potter series, or a widely used undergraduate textbook like Gardner’s Art through the Ages?

So, I hope you will consider joining me in pledging to unglue some books. Some campaigns are further along than others, but I decided to make a contribution to each of them. With a week to go, the campaign to unglue Oral Literature in Africa (Finnegan, 1970) has raised 65% of the needed $7500. (Though this sounds like an interesting read, the success of Unglue.it is more important to me than the content of the book, at least as this early stage.)

I myself should have been on the ball with this sooner, but it’s not too late for action!

May 22 2012
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Harvard, library futures

The Awesome Box is Awesome

I thought I would give a quick shout out to a Harvard Library Lab project (which I am not at all directly involved with) that I think is particularly awesome, called the Awesome Box.

Awesome

Developed by Annie Cain and Matt Phillips at the Harvard Library Innovation Library at the Law School, the premise of the Awesome Box is remarkably simple, yet truly original and “out of the box.”

“Interact with an amazing or useful item from the library and return it to the Awesome Box instead of the normal drop box. That item gets recorded as Awesome so the community can see what others have found helpful, entertaining, or mind-blowing.”

The “minimal” technical infrastructure includes an interface for library staff to scan Awesome items into a database, and a Twitter stream and RSS feed of Recently Awesomed items. The project is currently in a pilot phase as certain details are ironed out – signage, staff workflows, etc. I will be paying close attention as the project continues to develop – I think it would be great to see it rolled out throughout Harvard or perhaps even more broadly. Well done Annie and Matt!

Apr 25 2012
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Harvard, library futures

Video: Libraries are Obsolete

I said I would post when the recording of last week’s Libraries are Obsolete Oxford-style debate was posted. Here I deliver!

Apr 18 2012
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Harvard, library futures

Libraries are(n’t) Obsolete

I just came from a great Oxford-style debate on the resolution “Libraries are Obsolete,” hosted by Harvard Library Strategic Conversations. The four esteemed panelists filled Piper Auditorium at the Graduate School of Design: arguing for the resolution (that is to say, that libraries are indeed obsolete) were James Tracy, Headmaster of Cushing Academy, and David Lankes, a Professor at the Syracuse iSchool; opposing the resolution were Susan Hildreth, Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and John Palfrey, Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School (just one of the many hats he wears).

Jonathan Zittrain, a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, chaired the debate, which bounced like a ping pong ball between pointed contention and good humor. I, for one, believe the question of libraries’ obsolescence was posted at least somewhat in jest from the outset – can one genuinely debate this question in a room (mostly) full of librarians? Can a panel of librarians (or if not librarians per se, persons heavily invested in libraries) genuinely debate this question? Nonetheless, with a certain amount of role-playing on the part of those in favor of the resolution, a great conversation was had and enjoyed.

John Palfrey, whose words never fail to make me want to be the best librarian I can be, made one particularly apt point about how we are at a point in time in which libraries are redefining themselves. By choice or by force, that is what we are doing. I take this to mean that libraries need never become obsolete, should we dedicate ourselves to this redefinition in ways that our meaningful to our users. We can’t just redefine ourselves once – we need to do so constantly in response to users’ evolving expectations. John commented that our greatest potential problem could be a lack of imagination in our redefinition. So, here here, for imagination.

I believe a video of the debate will be up soon, so I’ll post again when it’s available. You might see me sitting on the bench right behind John.

Apr 15 2012
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updates

the new hanksway.com

Why hello there! I’ve decided to migrate my portfolio website to a new platform. I was tired of editing and uploading and re-uploading static html pages, so I’m taking the more modern content management system approach (thanks WordPress). This also means it’ll be easier for me to give you updates about what I’m up to, right here on this page. I’m hoping it will make my site more interactive and fun, too.

So welcome! Many changes to layout and content will be coming over the next few weeks. Please don’t hesitate to let me know what you think in the comments.

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