TOC = Simple and Complex

Sorry I kept everyone in suspense so long.  I worried about the presentation and then the morning of I was rushing out the door and remembered to bring my hat.  I was able to talk about the lines in the design of the hat as well as the uses too.  I love my hat.  People talked about some really neat things.  One guy talked about his MacBook, another about his Pentax SLR camera (that uses film), someone else talked about a pair of hiking boots.  There was also an antique rocking horse, an iPhone, a handmade purse and an agenda.  We were all over the place as a class in what we brought in.  Surprisingly nobody brought in a book – the closest they came to bringing in a book was a CD.  In a way it makes sense as there are only 2 or 3 library science students in the class.  Still, I was a bit surprised and maybe I should have chosen the more obvious.

Speaking of books and the obvious…  I have decided to look at Tables of Contents (TOCs) in my design class.

I never realized that something that is seemingly so simple could be so entirely complex.  As a student and as a person who has worked at the reference desk in non-fiction tables of contents are always quite important to me, but they really have been most important to me as a navigational aid.  I am seeing through this project and through really looking at tables of contents that in addition to being a navigational aid they can add style and identity to a book.  They can help to make the difference between a book that you will pick up again and a book that gathers dust on the shelves.  How many book reviews even talk about the table of contents of a book?  To be honest, I am not an avid reader of book reviews, but I have never seen a book review that talks about the table of contents of a book.

I guess I should mention that indexes are also quite important.  I am not sure that they add quite as much identity to a book though.  The table of contents shows where you are and where you are going (or where you could go).  That isn’t really the case with an index.  Still, both can be extremely useful navigational aids for researchers and librarians and really make a difference to what books I pick up when doing research and which ones I help people to select when answering reference questions.

I have come to the opinion that a table of contents is a navigational aid, but that it also gives a multi-page written work (book, magazine) an identity.  I found it quite interesting and I had never really paid attention on a large level to tables of contents.  There are so many ways to put together a table of contents and they may be organized in many different ways.  For example a law book will generally include tons of information and have a lengthy table of contents that mentions chapters, sections and subsections.  Fiction books generally may have short chapter titles listed with a page number beside.  Magazines and newspapers tend to separate out the regular columns and cover stories in the table of contents and do not organize everything in sequential order.  I take it that there must be something to that.  One table of contents does not fit every work out there.  Also TOCs are differentiated from one another by typeface, dot leaders, alignment and so much more.  I really need to think about what will work for my project.  If you have any ideas or thoughts about tables of contents please swing them my way.  Looking at tables of contents is really quite interesting and I had no idea that something so simple could be quite so complex.

I really am enjoying this design class.  Everyone is looking at something different.  One group of students is looking at designing pamphlets based on museum exhibit boards, another group is exploring cubism through photography, another is looking at what works for library design and one that I find quite interesting and in a way similar to what I am doing is a group who is looking at signs in TTC stations.  In my opinion, it’s really quite a fascinating class and it is helping me to take a more conscious notice of design.  I think this is something that libraries, archives and museums really need to notice and think about so I am glad have the opportunity to be taking this course.

From design literacy to design dilemma

I never realized there was such a thing as design literacy until I ran into Stephen Heller’s book “Design literacy: understanding graphic design” on the shelf at the library last week. I am finding it really fascinating to begin to understand some of the objects of graphic design. Heller explains things in an easy to understand way and looks at things from the popular to the lesser known. I have read about the peace symbol and about war time propaganda posters. I have flipped through the book and am looking forward to reading about a lot more including Seventeen Magazine – a magazine that I enjoyed perusing as a teen.

It is really funny that I never thought of design being a literacy though I have designed posters for adult programs at work. It is not easy to design things and it was quite fascinating reading the introduction since Heller explains that most designers don’t recognize the value in their older designs as they are not design literate about the history and value these objects have.

Speaking of design I just started a course on design at school today – one of the last few courses left towards completing my degree. The course sounds really fascinating but I have a real dilemma… next week we need to bring in a photo of ourselves with an object we have an affinity towards and I am having a ton of trouble deciding what to choose. I have thought about a photo of myself with the scar dedication in HP, but then when I think about it there are so many other better examples of typography and it seems a poor choice that I have an affinity towards that, but I really did like it when I first saw it. I am also considering my green hat. I love my green hat. But, if I were to bring it in then people may just think that I am too much of a girly-girl or something. Same goes for my little red purse (it may be small, but it is washable and fits nearly everything in it). Maybe I should go really simple and bring in my running shoes or even better – my inline skates – and more especially the new ball bearings just installed… but then people may just think I am a bit weird. Maybe I should bring a Lindt chocolate bar. I really do have an affinity for those… mmm mmm yummy! but then I’d have to share and with so many people in my class there wouldn’t be enough left to satisfy my affinity for it! Does anyone have any ideas or advice for me on this one?

Failure to Fail

I just read this in the Walrus Magazine.  I thought it was quite interesting – especially since I can’t think of a single person who failed out of university and I have been in university for 6 years now.  Still, some of the article I disagree with such as the fact that returning to school on a part time basis seems to be looked down upon in a way through the article and I have been a part time student by choice as I prefer to split my time between work and school.  Although I think it is the experience of learning, doing your own research in university that matters, not the actual grades, this article makes me really question the value of my university education.

Cheating or sharing: Facebook for Study Groups

I just saw this article in the Globe and Mail about Chris Avenir, a student who allegedly started a Facebook group to work on a university assignment.  Avenir is being charged with academic misconduct.  I thought this was interesting to read and see in light of all the talk about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 and how it is seen among academic institutions.    Apparently the case will be decided today at Ryerson University.

Digitization 101

Here is a post for anyone interested in what I have been up to in my first week on the job working on the digitization project.

Lately I have been spending as much time as I can touring libraries and archives locally to see what they have been doing for digitization projects.

If you ever get a chance I recommend visiting the City of Toronto Archives – it is free and absolutely worth the travel time to visit. They have exhibits to look at (mostly copies/reproductions), you can see the conservator in action and you can also check out the way they store their documents. They have a pretty neat online site with virtual exhibits too.It is really fascinating to see the digitization projects out there and to talk to the people working on them and designing them.

Tonight, while exploring one digitization project, I came across this document which made me really think about authority and be glad that we are not in a situation of war in our country.

On a more serious note, in beginning this project one of the main things I have been thinking about (and rather reluctantly I admit dreaming about) has been copyright. There are so many resources out there on copyright, but the best that I have found is this copyright information centre from the Canadian Library Association. It contains links to case law, legislation and regulations and leads you to secondary material to help make sense of it all.

I have been considering why we are doing this digitization project and who the end user will be.  This is crucial in how we make decisions about the future of the project including what subject headings to use when cataloging and what pictures to digitize first.

It is clear that digitization projects are expensive in terms of time and also require a log of bytes of space.  Fortunately, it seems disk space is getting cheaper.  Still, with budget being a concern I must consider cost effective ways to back up the project while also thinking about migration issues and future needs/expectations with respect to viewing of digitized images.

I have also been looking at ways to store the film negatives (black and white). I have been looking at safes but plan to also look at the cost of refrigerators and cold storage units since this is said to be the best way to store film. Currently we are keeping negatives in a safe off-site, but I will need the negatives on site for the duration of the project since I have learned that we will get a much better quality scan from the negatives than from the photographs themselves. However, this will also mean that I need to photoshop every single picture to turn it from a negative image into a positive image!

Speaking of Photoshop, one must be so careful with using photoshop under the Moral Rights provision of the Copyright Act to not alter the image in such a way that would damage the integrity of the artist or his/her work. A certain amount of change is requisite to change negatives into positives.

I haven’t even scratched the surface on how we should catalog the photographs and the format we should use for this. Really, there is so much to think about when getting started into a project of this nature, but I am really excited about it and am so lucky to have this opportunity.

The Importance of Clear Language

I don’t know about you, but I must say that at times I am guilty of not using clear language – though I try really hard to be clear! I think all the practice with drafting legal documents in a law firm and in a real estate office has obfuscated my writing to a degree and studying for a masters degree has got me speaking in the specialist academic jargon of my discipline.

There have definitely been moments while working at the reference desk where I find myself struggling to talk in concrete regular terms that non-specialists in library science can understand.

Guy Ewing, the professor of the adult literacy class I am taking through OISE mentioned to the class about CLAD (Clear Language and Design). On this website you’ll find a tool to test readability of your documents.

Now when I first read this post I thought to myself about the tool in MS Word about readability.  The CLAD tool is far better since it is clear about helping you to create a more readable document for your audience.

Clear Language and Design is something we should all learn about, and it is something even more important for specialists to learn and understand. Thank you to the East End Literacy Group for creating this free (useful and valuable) tool.

Children’s Literature in Museums!

According to this article mainstream museums and college art courses in the U.S.A. are taking children’s literature (and illustrators of children’s literature) seriously.  It validates the great work of these writers and illustrators and also the opinions of children – who can understand and relate to the illustrations and may even have more to say about them than most adults.   Thank you to the Kids Lit for sharing this article and validating my love for the writing and illustrations in Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, Ezra Jack Keats’s “The Snowy Day”, Maurice Sendak and Leo Lionni books too.

Red Carpet?

While reading feeds I came across this post on Tame the Web.  Basically the post is about an airline where premier customers get routed across a red carpet while regular customers do not.  The red carpet seems to be there more to make premier customers look special or different from the regular customers.  The post asks us to consider if we do this in libraries.  My thought is that library cards are like this.  People who have a home address and ID get to take the “red carpet” route and get a library card within the library whereas people who recently moved and don’t have updated ID, are living in a shelter, working or going to school or some other circumstance aside from home ownership in the area that qualifies them for the card have more trouble getting a library card.  Library cardholders where I work are entitled to 2 hours a day on the computers but non-cardholders get only a 1/2 hour a day.  That is probably harder to swallow than watching people walk across a red carpet.  Also access to interlibrary loan materials is only available to library cardholders.  One other thing is that library cardholders can access multimedia such as DVD, VHS films, but non-cardholders do not have access.  There is no viewing station in the library and they are unable to take these materials home.  One other thought on this is that I advertised a library program in the library and got enormous feedback and then the advertisement was placed in the newspaper and the program was filled the day it went in the paper.  Anybody who had not been in the library or had not visited our website was unable to register for this program – talk about red carpet treatment.  I wish there was an easier way to make the processes more equal and accessible to everyone.

Advertising – Lickable Ads

Stephen’s post on Library Stuff lead me to  this article (Marketers Salivate Over Lickable Ads: Magazines Try out a Tasty Strategy; Overcoming the ‘Ick” by Suzanne Vranica Feb. 13, 2008 edition of the Wallstreet Journal page B3).  I can’t help but wonder how quickly this ad will be tasted at our library – Ew! Disgusting! I think it is really gross to have advertisements like that in magazines that you can find in libraries and doctor’s offices.

Still, the idea of giving people a taste of a product or service through advertising is interesting.  I wonder how libraries could do this?  Do posters for library programs provide a taste of the program through visuals (pictures and words)?  What about library websites?  Definitely something to ponder.

Consolation by Michael Redhill

I never realized how much was out there about Consolation, a book by Michael Redhill.  This happens to be the best thing I have come across to date.  A map of the plans for the City of Toronto in 1858 with the places in Consolation marked on the map with yellow dots and real historical places marked with red dots.   You can zoom in and you could create your own tour of the city and the places discussed in the book!

Speaking of tours…  you could download this mp3 and go on a walking tour which begins at King and Jarvis and ends at the Air Canada Centre.  This walking tour is about 45 minutes long.

Toronto Public Library has a BookBuzz page with information on the novel and Michael Redhill has his own blog about the novel and another about his life in France over the past year.

I think this sounds like a really great book club.  I love the ideas and the creativity involved.  I had no idea that TPL ran online book clubs of this nature – I might just take part as I finish reading this book!