Introducing Special Guest Anne Ursu

We are thrilled to share that queen of middle grade Anne Ursu will be joining us as a special guest for our chat on Thursday, March 6 at 8 pm Eastern time. 

Our topic will be Middle Grade. What are “middle grade” books? What’s out there in middle grade? Who is reading middle grade? What should we know to be great reader advisors of middle grade books, especially if it’s an area we’re not familiar with? 

Anne Ursu is the author of the middle grade fantasies Breadcrumbs, The Real Boy, as well as the Cronus Chronicles trilogy. Breadcrumbs was listed as one of the best books of 2011 by Publishers Weekly, Amazon.com, School Library Journal, and BCCB, and The Real Boy was on the long list for the National Book Award. Anne teaches at Hamline University’s low residency MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and is the recipient of the 2013-14 McKnight Fellowship in Children’s Literature. She lives in Minneapolis with her son, many cats, and lots of books.

Please join us on March 6 for this chat, and if there are questions you’d like Anne to address, let us know in the comments or with our Twitter hashtag, #readadv. 

Wrapping this pup up!

This week was push week and so much got accomplished. I feel like the end is in sight and I think we’re all feeling positive about the direction of the project.

On Monday, Laurie and I sat down to finalize the organizational scheme for the books. We decided on the following scheme, with the main title being the major category and the ones after the dash being facets of that main category:

Architecture and Interiors

– Architects and Monographs (general first, followed by specifics)

– Building Types (grouped by like types)

– Regional (groups alphabetically by continent, then by country, then by state and city)

– Technical and Reference (alphabetical by author)

Art and Photography (We chose not to facet this further since alphabetical was enough)

Design

– Monographs (alphabetical by author)

– Color and Light (alphabetical by author)

– Environmental Graphic Design (alphabetical by author)

– Identity and Information Graphics (alphabetical by author)

– Annuals (arranged by publication group alphabetically)

– Graphic Design (alphabetical by author)

– Typography (alphabetical by author)

– Illustration (alphabetical by author)

– Usability and User Experience (alphabetical by author)

Reference

– Dictionaries, Handbooks, and Writing Style (alphabetical)

– Computing (alphabetical by program)

– Business/Marketing/Productivity/PR (alphabetical by author)

– Travel Guides and Maps (alphabetical by continent, then country, state, and city)

Miscellany (alphabetical by author)

Once this decision was made, we went ahead and began the alphabetizing and organizing on the shelves. Laurie did nearly all of that part while I entered the schema into LibraryThing’s comments field. We did that so when the colored labels are placed on books, it will be so easy to go to the catalog and know exactly on what shelf the book belongs.

Reorganizing the books and determining how much space we need to leave.

Meanwhile, we also made decisions about the materials collection. Due to time constraints, we are not going to be able to get done what we wanted to initially with the materials collection before the capstone presentation, but we have a solid plan in place and will be moving forward. We, with input from stakeholders, decided to move all of the code and regulation books from the materials collections to the general print library. We are not 100% sure where they will go yet, but they are being moved because they’re not truly part of the materials collection.

The materials library has a mix of both print and material samples. We decided to separate them so that specs and buyer guides are shelved above their corresponding material bins

With stakeholder blessings, we decided that using the CSI MasterFormat organization purposes was ideal. The materials are already in those categories, though we plan on breaking out category 10 into more facets, and we will consider using unassigned category classifications for sign samples. In addition, we will separate the specs and the buyer guides from the materials themselves so that print resources will be located on the shelf above the bins housing materials. For digital access, we will develop metadata fields in an excel spreadsheet that will be available via the fd2s intranet. One of the designers has been building a wiki with materials information, so this will be a great and useful addition to his project.

The materials library has a number of sign samples that will be given their own facet in the CSI MasterFormat classification scheme

Next week’s the week of the poster session, so my mind has been on that, as well. I’m going in to work on the project Monday and Tuesday for the last time before presenting, and I am certain we will come to a great place by then. I have so much great stuff to talk about at the presentation, and after worrying about designing an interesting poster, I took some photos on Friday and feel I made a great poster now. I’m extremely lucky, too, to have done this project at a design firm since I have the opportunity to print and mount my poster there. I got a little extra time to perfect the final product.

Just in case you are curious, here’s a sneak peak at my poster. The colors do not translate well into the format I chose for posting onto the blog, so you certainly need to see it in person. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. To see the final product, though, you’ll have to come out to the capstone presentation Friday from 2-4 pm in the Al Kiva Auditorium.

Tying things up

The last couple of weeks have been a bit up in the air for the project, due to a number of unforeseeable things that came up on both ends. Not really anything to get concerned about, since the project is expected to kick into overdrive this coming week.

I’m spending Monday, Tuesday, and all of Wednesday tying up the loose ends on the project prior to making the poster for the poster session. I’m confident that the bulk of work will be done, and I will have a pretty great presentation and project to share with colleagues.

For this week, the goals include:

• Book labeling
• Determining the materials collection cataloging plan
• Cataloging the materials collection
• Designing a how-to manual for cataloging both the books and the materials

Those are, of course, client-side. For my side, I plan on doing the following this week:

• Figuring out how to design my poster for the poster session – I know how to do it, I’m just trying to figure out how to make it visually appealing
• Printing and mounting the poster.
• Preparing a 90 second synopsis of the project

I’ve got something brewing in my mind about how to make the poster visually appealing. I just need to figure out how feasible it is to do.

I’m pretty excited that things worked out so I can devote this entire week to working on and finishing up the project. The last couple of weeks have been tough classwork wise, but putting in the extra effort there helped carve out this nice wrapping-up time for the capstone.

Running to the end

This week, we made substantial progress. The physical materials collection is almost done. We’re talking done as in, everything is cataloged digitally, everything is organized physically, and everything is labeled accordingly.

Monday I met with one of my site supervisors to discuss the input that key stakeholders had in my original organizing suggestions. We then opened up a few different company and firm’s organizational schemes I had accumulated, including Amazon’s, William Stout Books, Princeton Architectural, and DBB in New York. We conceptualized how fd2s would organize based on these and on the collection itself and devised a modified scheme. To visualize the process, I made a chart with our organization plotted aside our compariables, which can be downloaded as a .pdf here.

Tuesday, both site supervisors were in and we moved the books on the shelves to their suggested categories. To do this, we pulled out some plastic shelf labels and arranged. We had some inequities size-wise in the categories, but this week let the key stakeholders make some additional calls to the categories. Monday, they should be finalized and we will begin (and finish?) labeling.

We made a decision to pull some of the books that currently reside in the materials collection into the print collection. This was an idea I had initially since it made sense to me to keep like materials together (that is, print with print, materials with materials). The print materials were codes, which would fit far better in a reference section.

After we finish labeling the books, we’re moving on to materials. I’ve been in contact with SLA’s architectural, building, construction, and design caucus and rounded up some insight into how others have organized their materials. It actually isn’t as daunting as originally thought, so hopefully, these last few weeks will sail and there will be two useful, usable, and user-centered libraries at the firm.

Another week with great progress

Monday morning, entering materials into LibraryThing was done. Aside from a few stray materials that trickled in, all of the print volumes are in and have covers. We began loosely tagging the materials for shelving reference, as well, but not too much and nothing permanent.

This week brought with it an interesting problem: how to label materials. Although the bulk of books are not rare or archival, these are books that will likely be in the library for a long time. The thought of marking them with some sort of label made me concerned about the chemical compounds that could eat away at spines or dust jackets with ordinary labels. I did some research and came up fruitless; I even asked my colleagues who are seasoned in this knowledge, and I came up with nothing. A search of listserv discussions on groups such as Libris and Conservation Online brought up some interesting discussions about how this is a sorely missing component of library materials. A colleague who has been a great resource for me throughout this project sent me a link to an interesting article about the problem of labeling, which can be read here.

Although the final decision on labeling will happen this coming week, we’re leaning heavily toward using booktape like that used in public libraries. The booktape would protect the spine or dust jacket from the label, which would then be placed on top of the booktape. At least the acidity would be lowered for a longer period of time. This solution seemed best and most logical, as using book inserts like they often do in archives did not seem appropriate or permanent enough.

I also devised a shelving scheme this week. It’s nearly identical to what appears in place now, although I have added a few additional categories that emerged as important when materials were imported into LibraryThing.

The last project I took on this week was shifting serials. The library itself is situated in a “U” shape, with serials appearing on the left side of the “U.” I moved them one column over, and I spaced them out using both bookends and journal holders. I turned those around to make them look like plain black spacers, which looks sharp against the colored titles of the serials. After shifting the materials, I am motivated to consider adding serials to LibraryThing — I can add just the title of a series and list runs. It seems like an even better enhancement to the collection with a small time investment.

This coming week

I’ve got a check list of things to tackle this week. This includes meeting with my site supervisors to finalize labeling and categorization details. Once those are determined, Trish (who has been tirelessly helping me immensely in adding materials to LibraryThing and will help in moving books) and I will begin moving the books. Sounds like an easy task, but the books are situated in the bottom of the “U” and many are large, hardbacked annuals. Talk about a workout!

The next step in the progress is figuring out the materials collection. I am both clueless and with ideas, if that makes sense. Searching the literature is really proving fruitless, and my contacts have had little experience. Although I am tempted to develop a catalog utilizing Dublin Core or other metadata standards, I’m not sure what value that has. I want to make this easily updated by others, so at this point, I’m not entirely sure. I have considered actually developing something within LibraryThing – although it’s meant for books, I think there could be a way to create a way to catalog materials. Physically, I think clear tubs with labels would be easy, attractive, and sustainable. I’m hoping for the wealth of information and ideas for the materials collection this week!

Catching up on a couple of weeks

The weeks leading up to this were less research packed, so they didn’t quite warrant a lengthy post or two about them. But this week, things began to pick up for the project. Fd2s purchased an account with LibraryThing which they have made private. This week, I’ll have gone in for about 15 hours to work on entering material. I’m lucky to have a couple of other people helping me out since our process is a bit complicated — many of the monographs that the collection has are older volumes and don’t have the flashy cover pictures in the system. To alleviate that, since the decision to use LibraryThing came about because of its visual appeal, we’ve been scanning the covers into the system. This not only helps our library look great, but it also does a service to other users of the system who want to make sure they do not have empty covers, either.

We have entered about 675 books so far – a bit under half of the collection. Another day or two should bring an end to the easy part of entering the books into the system. I’ve included a couple of screen shots of our library. Since it’s private, there’s not a link you can go to to look at the entire collection. The only challenges arising at this point include ensuring that the volume entered and selected is indeed what is at hand: a few times, I’ve entered a title in to find six or seven purported copies in the system, but none of them is actually correct – either the date or title are incorrect. I’ve gone through and fixed necessary metadata inaccuracies for our collection. Additionally, I’m anticipating a challenge when we begin entering serials. I’m going to go back to my resources from the start of the project – that is, the people who I have communicated with – and see how they addressed it. I’m almost certain I read a solution to adding serials to LibraryThing; it’s just a matter of finding it. While we can add it manually without a problem, I suspect the system has an option built-in for doing serials.

This image shows off the list view of the library system which captures the metadata and will allow wiki-style editing of certain columns.

Once the materials are all entered into the system, we will begin a tagging scheme. One of the ideas tossed out there was printing the library listing and asking people to write out tags. This seems like an old-school way to do it, but it will also be incredibly beneficial if for no other reason than it will show the impressions people who have used the materials have of them. In other words, a book with pictures of French design might have been used as inspiration for font and signage rather than for buildings, and having someone suggest that as a tag would probably be more true to the library’s use than simply importing the tags others have used on material.  Since the collection is so large and time limited, it is likely many tags will be pulled from those used by others, if they exist. Another option is to seek out tags from other sources like Amazon, WorldCat, and even GoodReads.com.

Stepping back a second, one thing I forgot to mention was a secondary reason LibraryThing was selected as a good cataloging tool. The system allows you to download all of your library into an Excel sheet and store on your own system. That ensures extra security in keeping materials cataloged, and, since we’ve actually scanned a good chunk of the covers, that is also saved on the library’s own system. The ability to make sure this cataloging system is sustainable was one of the goals of the project, so we’ve made sure there are multiple methods of doing so.

So what about after the online system’s up? The plan is to explore the system that is in place now for organization — even though there is not a set system, there is some semblance of organization. That in conjunction with what we find when we look at tags should sketch out a shelving system and labeling system. That will be big step number two.

This shot shows off the cover view feature of LibraryThing – a key reason why this cataloging tool fit the firm.

Quick update

This week hasn’t been particularly active in the capstone department beyond thinking about how to organize the materials collection. One idea I am kicking around is simply organizing the materials by type into clear tubs and labeling each tub. The tubs would be lined on the shelves for each browsability by type, but the tubs would also be labeled. Those labels would correspond to an index created and stored in a binder on the shelf. The index would include more details about the vendor, types, and other such information. Simple, straightforward, and it affords two ways to access the materials samples for those who want to browse and those who want to find.

Moving forward

This past week, I met with Gwen and Laurie, as well as the information technology guru at fd2s, to discuss options for creating the online catalog component. I decided putting everything in a digital format would be easiest, and when everything is in one place, we will be better able to manipulate the physical locations and labeling of materials.

We discussed the options I’ve talked about in the blog, and ultimately, the decision was made to use the LibraryThing platform for the physical materials. It’s visual, easy to use, customizable, and inexpensive. Though it is in beta (still!), the information uploaded and manipulated can be downloaded into a spreadsheet to ensure it remains in one place, on a local computer.

After making this decision, I found out the library has a bit of a scheme in its organization already. When the LibraryThing catalog is up and running, this might be worth considering as a basis for physical organization — if there is something there already, it might be worth considering as the means of organizing with a little cleanup. I also poked around the materials collection, which is where my research and planning for the next week or so will be focused. This will be a bigger challenge than originally thought, but I do think it can be tackled in a very simple (almost archival) manner.

From across the USA

I’ve managed to make friends on both sides of the country through this project, and I’m learning more and more that attempting to catalog and develop an organizational scheme and method is a never-ending project, even in a facility that has part or full time librarians.

A couple of weeks ago, I did some creative research through LibraryThing in hopes of locating someone using the tool to catalog their design firm’s library. Low and behold, I found many. The only challenge I had was finding contact information for these users. One of the LibraryThing users stuck out to me with its use of tagging and what appeared to be a cataloging strategy, and after getting in touch with the firm’s second or third man on the ladder, I got in touch with the person in charge of their library. And not only did I get in touch, she offered me a ton of great insights.

Since the library is not kept up except for what she’s done, she chose to utilize LibraryThing because of its ease of use and its affordable pricing model. The ability to tag and include notes on where materials are located has aided in centralizing the information about books. The link to their catalog is here. Clicking on the tags feature shows that there is a way to identify where the books are located (and as of now, I’ve been told there is only one location), the section they are in (what category), and finally, what subsection if any.

The organizational scheme of the physical materials evolved from researching how the industry markets and arranges design materials. For the Mulvanny library, it made sense to use very broad categories and then subdivide into subsections. A book on a particular region would be sectioned under regional and then subsectioned under the specific region. With LibraryThing’s ability to add tags, additional subjects can be added — a book on green architecture in Portland would be under the section of regional, with a subsection of Portland, and LibraryThing would include the tag “green.”

For the materials collection — which included not only materials samples, but also technical books, specs, and legal code resources — the organization was based on CSI MasterFormats and arranged in binders. This makes sense to think about implementing at fd2s after evaluating the results from the user survey; since the library’s print collection primarily got use as inspiration, why not separate the more technical materials and move them with the physical materials? Although I’m not certain this is the case, the user survey seemed to suggest that those who used the library solely for inspiration did not necessarily use the materials collection, while those who used the materials samples at a higher rate (those who “searched” or “took items to their desk for periods of time”) used the library more for reference. Perhaps sliding hard reference materials into the materials library would better distinguish uses and identify a method of organizing on the shelf.

I’ve been really stuck on the idea of using LibraryThing, and I think that after evaluting the user survey, it would be a great way to further the collection (or interaction with other design libraries). The point in using it is not social networking, but it’s hard to avoid the fact that being able to look at other “like” material in other user’s collections would spur an interest in maintaining and further developing an inspiring collection. Of course, that’s in the future, but it’s worth mentioning because that seems to be what user responses indicated.

I have been perusing some architectural and design book supplier websites to get an idea of organization schemes in such a specialized field. I’m waiting on putting together a good scheme until I can get deep into the collection itself and until I find out whether there would be a value in separating an interior design collection from a general architectural collection. I’m not sure right now if it would be merited or it would make sense to embody one within the other. Just for reference, a few of interesting sites I’ve been looking at for thematic grouping include: Prairie Avenue Bookshop, Stout Books, Hennessey Ingalls, and Northshire Bookstore. Two others include the British Royal Institute of Architecture and the Book Industry Study Group.

I’ve begun to develop a couple of prototypes for digital catalogs, and I plan to showcase both how a wiki would work and how LibraryThing would work. Since those two were the top picks, I thought those would be best. I may show how a php/mysql database would work too, but I fear that my technical skills would fall short on creating a useful output form for the catalog (that is, I could develop a great input tool for a database, but do not feel confident I could create a searchable output tool). I might see what OpenOffice’s Access database equivalent does, but I feel confident it will not be robust enough to enable really interesting and useful browsing in the same way the others may.

User survey results

Twelve people participated in the survey which offered a lot of insight into current library use — or more accurately, how users wish the library would be useful for the firm. Below are the compiled results and any additional commentary or points worth pursuing.

For what do you currently use the print library?
–    Inspiration, including typography, patterns, color
–    Image, materials, and design reference

How often do you use the print library?
–    Weekly: 1
–    Bi- or Tri- Monthly: 4
–    Monthly: 7

How do you currently access the print materials?
–    Searching (including emphasis on extensive searching): 9
–    Ask someone: 2
–    Browse: 1

* I pulled browsing apart from searching, since results that stated searching highlighted their needs to look for something specific. The answer of browse was interesting, since it instead indicates that there should be some level of disorganization to the library — things should be organized so that materials do not need to be searched for, but it should also be loosely arranged such that it is conducive to browsing. Since “inspiration” is a huge component of why the library is used, being able to browse the shelves is important.

What would be your ideal method of finding and accessing material from the print collection?

–    Labeling: all of the twelve answers emphasized a labeling system
–    Seven answers emphasized a digital reference accessible from their desktop
–    Four suggested a wiki, with one answer suggesting the wiki include title, author, category, and a place to add comments. This answer also suggested building a digital collection of reference images that are often scanned multiple times.
–    Two answers emphasized the need to add keywords and descriptions themselves (easier to customize by how they use language to search for items).

* What looks important is having materials labeled and including at the bookshelves a key to the labeling. The labeling should be simple and straightforward. Remembering that inspiration is the main use of the library, I think it’ll be important to make simple labeling with enough structure to find materials but without constraints that would hinder browsing. The responses focused on a wiki-like system indicate the need to allow users some element of control and input — since books are used for inspiration, it’s likely that some books will be useful in ways that are not necessarily explicit by their name or descriptions. As for key words and descriptions, tags seem like a perfect solution.

How do you currently use the materials collection?

–    Identifying sources for ideas, materials, and finishes then referencing company online
–    Assess character of materials – thickness, durability, color, finishes and color match between materials and Pantone colors (graphic design)
–    Browsing
–    Convey materials selections to clients
–    Mostly used by Environmental Graphic Design (EGD)
–    Some find it too overwhelming to use.

How often do you use the materials library?

–    Daily: 1  (responder indicated the need to loan materials to others)
–    Weekly: 2
–    Between 2-4 times a month: 2-3
–    Less than once a month: 2
–    Rarely: 2
–    Only during specific periods of work: 2

How do you currently access materials in the materials collection?

–    Searching (including emphasis on extensive searching): 5
–    Asking for help: 6
–    Many answers indicated asking for help from an EDG specialist or co-browsing
–    Bring materials to desk or work where materials are located for long period of time

What would be your ideal method of accessing materials samples?

–    Labeling by material type:  4
–    Digital reference: 6
–    More references to wiki use, including material wikis to link to product vendors
–    CSI format for organizing and customizing by type of product
–    Emphasis on type of product, not company or product name
–    Reference binders to mirror physical library

* What emerges from the input about the materials library is that those who use it, use it frequently and are used to having to search for what they need. Those who do not use it regularly have the need to co-browse with someone who is used to using the materials. It seems that by organizing the material in a clear, type-based system, everyone who uses the collection either daily or rarely will be able to use it themselves. As alluded to in a previous post, it seemed that using the CSI standards (MasterFormats) would be a straightforward, industry-standard method for organizing the material, and it appears that at least one user agrees. Perhaps the materials will be simplest to organize — putting materials into their standardized categories in binders with clear labeling. For a digital component, a wiki seems both easy and desirable, as well as customizable for including additional information such as links to vendor websites.

What is your ideal library? What would best allow a sustainable method of organizing and accessing material (print and samples)?

–    Not including answers since most are replicated above, though there is an emphasis on visual cues

Any additional comments:

–    Major comment: Should there be a special section for key books to practice (wayfinding)?
–    Inspiration is our most important tool.
–    Emphasis on library needs, including international design (architecture, graphic design, typography and art), as well as new magazines.

* Dividing the library into two categories might be useful, but perhaps adding an additional label to those materials essential to the practice of wayfinding would be most effective.