Thing 19: Podcasts

At last! I thought. I’ll finally get around to hearing a "DisVisibility" podcast (and finish a Thing as well).

Not immediately. I opened up the podcast app on my phone, and couldn’t find a listing for the series at first. @DisVisibility is actually the Twitter handle of the Disability Visibility Project, the activist site “dedicated to recording, amplifying & sharing disability media & culture” and the source of the podcast. Trying a search for “disability” brought up the Disability Visibility podcast itself. It’s always good to have reference skills.

Episodes to date range from 21 minutes (immigration and disability) to 36 minutes (two of this length, one on the ADA, the other on the BBC America science fiction drama Orphan Black). Transcripts are posted for each episode (enabling hearing-impaired people to access the content). I picked what at first glance could have been a light-hearted topic: “Disabled Comedians,” episode 21.

Of course, the nature of disability is that there are always external challenges people need to overcome. Danielle Perez and Maysoon Zayid, the guests interviewed, made it clear that many facilities for comics aren’t accessible, which hinders both their ability to build a following through live performance and their ability to get booked for gigs. In addition, the conversation, perhaps inevitably, touched on advocacy--very fitting for this section of the MOOC. Zayid remarked on using comedy to change negative perceptions of Arabs and Muslims after the September 11 attacks in the U.S. Perez, a Latina bilateral amputee who uses a wheelchair, noted that when she can make people laugh, she can shift their perspectives on who can be a successful comedian.

I won’t say I’m completely smitten by podcasts, but their portability is definitely a selling point. My phone contains a collection of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! episodes, which come in handy during long bus rides. 

Note: Like some other participants, I did not find a way to enter a rating for the podcast.

Thing 17: Sharing Your Work

Fortunately, I had a presentation on hand for this Thing, a workshop on ORCID I’d led earlier this year. But I hadn’t planned on posting it anywhere. (Me? The “old” librarian who doesn’t have the fresh-from-library-school training so valued in my department? Someone would be interested in my work?) Consequently, it needed some touch-ups for accessibility.

I find Adobe annoying, since PDF document elements (blocks of text, images, links) often don’t mark up in proper reading order and fixing that requires much clicking and dragging. The ordering process in PowerPoint offers an easier approach. Of course there’s more to making a slide show accessible, including entering alternative text for images, verifying working links, and adding both descriptive and explanatory metadata to the file properties. Most of this is quick and simple, and so is uploading to SlideShare (a task for this Thing).

It’s trendy to create presentations displaying only images, intended to evoke emotion, and save the content for oral presentation. (In theory, text files are available afterwards via links or by contacting the lead author.) Does alternative text, however, succeed at evoking the desired emotional response from someone using a screen reader?

There’s debate in the library community about which Creative Commons license is best. Some people argue that CC0 is the ideal, a license we should apply whenever possible (although there are some questions as to whether a CC0 license is interpreted as public domain in all countries). Others insist that they don’t want their work exploited for commercial means, and so they apply Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) licenses. Another contingent opts for the more controlling Share Alike (SA) license, which dictates which license subsequent users may apply to modified works. I like the argument that a simple Attribution (CC BY) makes your work as available and hence accessible as possible. So here’s my presentation on SlideShare: reuse, revise, and improve it. Don’t forget to give me credit, and let me know what you’ve done – I’m interested in seeing your work.

Thing 8: Infographics

Reflections and infographic

This is the second infographic I have ever created (the first being a summary sheet in front of my annual report). The creation process was delightfully painless.

The Rudaí 23 blog post hinted that Piktochart provides a more modular experience than Canva. Using LibGuides at work makes me appreciate modularity. Another selling point was the opportunity to make progress beyond my initial exposure to the service, which came in the form of a much too fast and overly detailed live webinar. (Before immersing yourself in the recording, note that the presenter assumes viewers have access to either a dual monitor arrangement or a large screen monitor. If you use a standard size single monitor and you're not already familiar with Piktochart, you'll probably need to pause the video frequently or even replay parts to keep up with the "hands-on" that works better as a demonstration.)

I drew inspiration from two sources. We are in the process of hiring a librarian and our starting salary attracts (or at least doesn't drive off) brand-new graduates to interviews. I also follow a student on Twitter who attends my former graduate program. Both experiences are a good reminder that what is unsurprising after a few years in the same workplace is not at all routine for a newcomer. The infographic is about that ever-present aspect of a librarian's work: "other duties as assigned."

What has surprised me along the "other duties" path? By doing grunt work (sometimes delegation is impossible) I learned that catering services for business clients (i.e., catering refreshments at staff meetings) are breathtakingly expensive. (This also explains, in part, the costs of professional conferences--which in turn explains why our professional organizations seek sponsorship from commercial publishers for conferences.) As an academic librarian, I didn't expect to work with middle and high school students, but have done so many times to support various community outreach activities.

For the purely visual aspects of the infographic, once again I used a color scheme from my institutional branding toolbox. (If you're searching for a similar guide, also try looking for the "graphic identity" or "visual identity" of the organization.) This time I opted for Cabin font rather than Arial. I've since read a blog post noting that "Cabin is tight in the vertical," and I have to agree--any text block longer than three lines would have looked cramped.

For accessibility, infographics can be marked up for screen readers, posted as accessible PDFs, linked to a text alternative (transcript, "longdesc" file, etc.), or presented with a text alternative (see How to Make Digital Assets Accessible: Infographics and How to create an accessible infographic). I've opted for the last of those options, the text alternative below.

Click graphic to enlarge (separate window)

Text alternative for "Other Duties as Assigned" infographic

"Other Duties as Assigned": Librarians Off-Desk

If you’re a library school student, you’re looking for a job.

You’ve probably seen advertisements or position descriptions that mention “other duties as assigned.”

But what ARE those other duties? Here’s a sample from the University of Notmaine.

1) Book Reviews. We publish reviews of popular and scholarly books to support other librarians selecting titles for their collections.

2) Campus Badging Initiatives. We designed and oversee a 3-step pathway encouraging students to learn more about information literacy.

3) Cultural Activities. We facilitate student book groups and host a film series, bringing students together to learn more about topics that interest them.

4) K-12 Student Workshops. We collaborate with other departments, presenting library resource workshops to primary and secondary students visiting from all over the state.

5) Research Support Workshops. We teach employee and student researchers about finding grants, increasing scholarly impact, and publishing open access works.

Want to know more about what librarians do?

Talk to us. You might transform a conversation into an internship!

Nancy R. Curtis. October 2017.

Thing 4: Communicating Visually

At this point in the Rudaí 23 experience, I should insert a disclaimer. I am not the official voice of my library, which shall remain unnamed. I do not coordinate public relations there, or even serve on our marketing team. I understand there are limits on how I may apply the material presented in this course, and it is not my intent to overstep boundaries and perform tasks assigned to somebody else. No content I post on this blog represents the opinions of my employer. (That should cover me!)

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At my library, I work as a public services and liaison librarian, creating LibGuides and educational materials. Outside of the library, I have been and continue to be a contributing member of professional association committees. In these roles, there may be opportunities to apply some of the course material.

I enjoyed experimenting with PhotoFunia, although I found it easier to use on my workstation than on a phone. A number of the templates are visually “busy,” best combined with simpler images. Libraries or other entities with strong visual brands could certainly take advantage of these options. (I do wonder if the Wyoming State Library’s Mudflap Girl image would still be effective in the “cup of latte” template.)

For fun, I tried applying a yellow and red “watercolor” (actually “watercolour”) modification to a tempting sight captured at my local farmers’ market.

The results don’t do much for the tomatoes, except perhaps permitting them to masquerade as small blurry potatoes instead. But the colors are certainly eye-catching.

I also tried my hand at creating a Quik video. No doubt, this one will keep viewers glued to their seats.

[Title: The Library is Your Seat of Knowledge. Color photographs of different types of library seating, with zoom effects inserted by the Quik software. (0:45)]

Editing on the phone was quick but not always intuitive. Help screens are linked under the settings icon, but I generally prefer reading text on a larger screen. While pulling together another video I realized Quik constructs default title screens based on the metadata of the photographs--in that case, “An afternoon in (the town where I shot the photos).”

Being a librarian in the USA, I need to consider the accessibility of library resources and services. I’m not sure how Quik clips play for a person with impaired vision. Would a phone voice the text, is it necessary to add descriptive audio, or are there are better means of conveying the visual information?