Brian over at the Ubiquitous Librarian has an excellent summary of a talk by Vinton Cerf given at Georgia Tech. A lot of bullet points there to stimulate your thinking about what might be ahead for this world when it comes to technology.

At one point there’s a mention of illegal downloading of movies that briefly hints at the supplementary, bonus material found on DVD. Cerf suggests rather than having the material sit on a DVD to place it on the Web.

The first thought that came to my mind - and nothing original here - was the relationship between archival materials and much of that DVD bonus material, which are essentially documentaries.

Again, it raises the question that I often ponder when it comes to digital libraries: how do our digital collections support the development, the remixing (if you will), into new digital content?

A librarian I once supervised is now heading the systems and digital services department at a mid-size academic library. I’ve recently been e-mailing him some suggestions and things to keep in mind for managing technology in an academic library.

Over a ten year period of managing library technology, I learned some of these the hard way. Some are rudimentary, some are more subtle. I thought that I would share these items (not necessarily listed in any order) for others to take or leave, as they find useful:

1. Hire good people and stay out of their way.
2. Hire for aptitude, the ability to learn new skills and not just based on a person’s current capabilities.
3. Don’t expect every person to work the same way that you work.
4. Don’t make assumptions (remember the first three letters of that word).
5. Encourage systems staff to learn a new skill every 6 months.
6. Ensure that learning time is built into everyone’s work schedule.
7. Have a white board by the department door that staff can use to indicate if they’re out of the office, at a meeting, working on the 2nd floor, or at lunch.
8. Everything a person needs to know about technology can be found through reading a book or on the Internet.
9. No one is born knowing everything about technology.
10. A Unix wizard (or any other kind of techno wizard) is not someone who knows everything there is to know but someone who knows how to find what she needs to know when needed.
11. Make sure there is a backup plan for servers and desktops.
12. Backups of servers should be stored off-site, preferably with a data storage service and not in someone’s bedroom. Test the backups to make sure that files actually can be recovered and loaded onto the system again.
13. Desktop support is a critical function that must receive higher priority than any digital project.
14. Have a multiyear plan for upgrading, replacing computers throughout the library. Not planning this in advance is a huge oversight.
15. Providing the best desktop support will help gain support from others in the library for more exciting digital projects.
16. Occasionally, you may have to remind people that the library is not a hospital; lives will not be lost if a system crashes. But, if the OPAC or Web site goes down, make it a priority over everything else.
17. Follow the lead of the campus IT division.
18. Become friends and supporters of campus IT and not their adversary
19. Let campus IT handle the core functions, such as security and networking.
20. Encourage your staff to meet regularly with their counterparts in campus IT.
21. If campus IT has a standard configuration for desktops, then use it unless the library has extraordinary desktop support staff of its own.
22. But even if you use the campus IT desktop configuration, have your own dedicated desktop support staff who can respond immediately to problems within the library.
23. Use the campus e-mail system rather than an e-mail server managed entirely by the library. (Is any academic library still going it alone with their e-mail?)
24. If the campus has a centralized file storage service, then use it rather than having the library manage its own Windows/Novell file servers.
25. Consolidating certain services with campus IT then allows library systems staff to focus on technologies specific to the library.
26. Work hard to build collaborations with whatever academic technology center exists on campus.
27. Many academic departments will have a negative opinion of campus IT; the library can be a bridge between those two areas, liked and respected by both.
28. Remember that you are not in a competition. You are not competing with other computing groups on campus or with other libraries in the country. You’re just trying to provide the best library services to the faculty and students at your institution.
29. There are always new users.
30. The systems department exists to support the needs of the library, providing a support function to other library departments.
31. Develop a staff training plan for each person.
32. Find projects where staff can incrementally develop their skills.
33. Setup a developmental server, a sandbox.
34. At conferences spend more time in the exhibit hall speaking to vendors and other librarians than sitting in a dark room listening to a presentation that you can download from the Internet.
35. Invest in your own development, including using some of your own funds for travel so that you can attend more events. (Priceline is really useful for hotels).
36. Don’t always stay at the conference hotel; enjoy walking a few blocks from your hotel to the conference hotel so that you have a bit of time to appreciate the town you’re visiting.
37. Learn about project management but don’t obsess over project management tools.
38. Process is important but don’t let a process get in the way.
39. Old but faithful: Treat people the way you want to be treated.
40. Be prepared for your library director to have questions and new ideas whenever she returns from a conference.
41. Don’t ever let anyone tell you there is not money; there is always funding if you know how to ask for it.
42. Learn to say no.
43. The library director doesn’t want to see more than a 1 page report. Learn to summarize, write in bullet points, outlines that can be scanned quickly.
44. Don’t bring problems to the director, bring solutions.
45. Three of the most important people in the library: the director’s secretary, the business officer, and the person who orders equipment, software, supplies.
46. Learn the names of the senior university officials and what they look like.
47. Develop plans for strategic accomplishments, think in terms of 18 - 24 months.
48. Have an excellent understanding of the university’s budget cycle.
49. Know in which month the library director makes her case to the university administration for the following fiscal year’s budget. (Usually in January or February).
50. June and July is too late to be thinking up ideas for new initiatives in the upcoming academic year. (Prepare those proposals before the budget requests are due).
51. But, sometimes new ideas come along: it’s easier to get funding very early in the fiscal year, but don’t wait too long.
52. Around March always be prepared for the availability of end-of-yearing funding for one-time purchases.
53. In the 2nd half of the fiscal year recognize that the budget is tighter, so don’t make many unexpected requests. The administration will like you more for that.
54. Understand the difference between one-time and recurring costs.
55. Understand personnel costs, including the fringe percentage that is added to salary (often between 24% – 30%).
56. Prepare for budget presentations to the library management.
57. Present realistic budget requests but include “throw aways” since administrators always want to cut something from the budget. (Just don’t be extravagant and overload the request with things that are clearly not needed).
58. Be ready to explain the purpose of every item on a budget request.
59. Realize that your budget requests are not the only concerns of the library; you have to share the funding with other library departments.
60. The objectives and goals of the systems department follows those of the library, which follows those of the university.
61. Get a copy of the university’s strategic plan.
62. Try to get involved in the university’s strategic planning process.
63. Become a leader in the library’s planning process.
64. Meet regularly one-on-one (formally or informally) with every department head within the library.
65. Learn to bounce ideas off other department heads and managers before approaching the director (or assistant director).
66. Never make a proposal to the library management group before you already have acquired the support of two other department heads.
67. Old but useful: carefully choose which battles you want to fight.
68. Leadership comes from a person’s quality to inspire and motivate, not from one’s position.
69. Practice “leadership from behind.”
70. Don’t lead by intimidation.
71. Don’t refer to people who work for you as “my staff.” (They have names).
72. Don’t ever refer to yourself as someone’s boss, especially not in front of that person.
73. On the first day of work for a new employee on your staff, take him or her for lunch to a nice place that is off-campus. You pay.
74. On an employee’s first day, give him or her a tour of the library and introduce each person by name.
75. Listening is a very important skill.
76. Ensure that your staff have a good workspace, good chairs, furniture, and that there are always plenty of office supplies.
77. Reference is the most important department within the library; work to keep the head of reference on your side, regardless of your personal opinion of him.
78. No library can do everything. Carefully decide which services and technologies that you want to pursue and make those decisions in collaboration with other stakeholders in the library.
79. It only takes a couple of good people for a library to do remarkable things with technology.
80. Encourage the library to develop professional positions that takes the technologists out of the systems office and into other parts of the library.
81. Your authority has nothing to do with the number of people you supervise.
82. Foster awareness of digital technologies through regular seminars, presentations, or discussions to everyone working in the library.
83. Plan for redundant responsibilities among staff (the “in case someone gets hit by a bus” scenario).
84. Learn to let go, especially if you delegated a task to someone.
85. Not everyone will do a task the way you will have done it, but they will usually do a good job.
86. Some people just need more structured supervision than others and that’s okay.
87. Sometimes, talented employees need more structured supervision on some assignments than others, particularly if the tasks are in an area that is entirely new to the person. (Don’t fault him for that).
88. For some people, working in the library will simply be a job and not a career. Learn to accept that.
89. Help your colleagues understand the possibilities of technologies for developing new library services but also keep their expectations close to what can be accomplished.
90. Look for best practices at other institutions.
91. Work yourself out of a job. You know you’ve been successful when you’re no longer needed.
92. Don’t stress over organizational conflict.
93. Most organizational problems stem from miscommunications.
94. Staff sometimes will need to meet with you in order to vent, express their frustrations with a co-worker. That’s necessary but also encourage the person to think about the work at hand, the objectives and not personality issues.
95. Never make a decision or take an action based on hearsay; second-hand information is the most dangerous element in an organization.
96. We all are always learning how to do our jobs, even library directors and assistant directors. Don’t agonize over every word spoken by a library director. Sometimes, he is just thinking aloud.
97. Likewise, your staff will pay attention to every utterance you make and may at times misconstrue an innocent remark.
98. When socializing with your staff, remember that they never forget that you are their supervisor. So socialize but don’t expect them to be your buddy.
99. Read the Path of Least Resistance. Read it twice.
100. As a librarian you’re making a wonderful contribution to the world, but remember to find time for enjoying your own life.

There are a few interesting discussions about Apple’s iTunes U initiative are worth reading.

Jon Udell stresses the limited accessibility of podcasts to non iPod/iTunes users. More importantly, he talks about the importance of doing more with the course feeds than just listening: linking, tagging, blogging, playlisting….That is the kind of intellectual activity that Stanford wants to encourage, isn’t it?.

CogDog is skeptical of iTunes U also but points out the reality of many institutions:

On the other hand, our community college has NO infrastructure in place for every day mortal faculty to put rich media online. We have no streaming servers, no podcast publishing platform available for all of Maricopa. We are not Michigan, Stanford, MIT. And we are considered more advanced with technology for community colleges. The current strategy is dumping video and audio files on the web server (and at some of our colleges they have small disk quotas). So the option that Apple may host stuff, a lot of stuff, for free, and more than just lectures, but student work, digital video, is tantalizing. I cannot fully ignore it. Yet.

Gardner Campbell critically examines the perceived merits of iTunes U: “wouldn’t be nearly so concerned about iTunes U if I were more confident that folks in higher education saw it for what it is, and if Apple’s iTunes U campaign weren’t so much of a piece with its larger campaign to make truth, virtue, individualism, and innovation into corporate brands.”

D’Arcy Norman writes a very pragmatic posting that the alternatives to iTunes U, at this time, are not so simple.

Tama’s eLearning Blog points out that iTunes U could be a useful service but shouldn’t be the only hosted service. Tama also picks up on Udell’s concerns:

iTunes U is thus somewhat at odds with the ease that a lot of social software provides when having conversations across posts, podcasts and other digital flotsam. Sure, that might be a good thing for some people (I know that locking podcasted lectures behind a university-specific interface will ease the concerns of many academics about the intellectual property), but it’s also important for any university podcast system to be linkable and accessible for content that they want to make publicly available (also an important part of good university PR). iTunes U doesn’t cover all our needs, but it can be part of the podcasting solutions. Just not the only part. And, as always, we should be working toward finding/thinking/creating the next step…

In a postscript to iTunes U Gardner asks and answers, “Will institutions, especially starved-for-cash public schools, be willing to fund home-grown open alternatives when they can make money on a home-branded, outsourced, turn-key operation like Apple’s? I doubt it.” In a comment to this posting, Brian Alexander asks a legitimate question: “how come academia hasn’t come up with this on our own?”

Coming from a totally different direction, Mills Kelly at edwired writes about the increasing number of history courses being podcasted and the concerns of some teachers:

When I talk to colleagues about podcasting and ideas like iTunesU, some are intrigued, but most worry that podcasting a class will lead to significant declines in classroom attendance. After all, if a student can listen to/watch class without attending, why would he (or she)?

This anxiety is important, but not for the reason given by those feeling anxious. What’s really at stake here is a bigger problem…if students will choose to skip class and just listen/watch, then isn’t there something wrong with the class? If our classes are so dull that a student might just as well access them while on the treadmill or the bus, then I submit it’s time to teach differently.

Technology planning
I have my doubts as to whether iTunes U is the right platform for universities to adopt in their long-term use of digital media. (Indeed, that’s an understatement). iTunes U is both the beneficiary and result of technology planning (or the lack of it) in higher education.

In many cases, the decision to use iTunes U will come from a senior administrator who had a persuasive visit from Apple reps. (I’m reminded of being at an institution when a VP in computing made the decision that the university would use the IBM Digital Library Software to create a digital library; no input from the library, the decision was just based on good sales tactics by IBM).

Yet, many of us also have been on year-long technological task forces and planning groups in universities that didn’t result in anything. Universities have the bad tendency to overly examine a topic, developing the best conceptual solution, writing a grant to develop the grandest standards-based technical solution, and - five years later - still be no further ahead.

Technology planning is largely about deciding where an institution needs to focus its resources. If anything, iTunes U can get an institution kick-started down the path of distributing digital audio content.

The danger of iTunes U is that university administrators might become complacent and assume that Apple will solve all of higher ed’s issues with digital media. Universities, especially those adopting iTunes U, should be actively examining the long-term future that digital media will play in teaching, learning, and research. Yep, that sounds like one of those infamous technology planning task forces. But the discussion needs to be taking place within our institutions. And that discussion needs go beyond just podcasting course lectures, that’s only the beginning. There’s all sorts of content, both audio and video, that universities should be developing. There are all sorts of uses of that content that universities should be exploring.

As Udell asked, there needs to be more discussions about the types of intellectual activity that can be facilitated through digital media; more specifications as to what technological capabilities are needed to realize those activities. Maybe iTunes U will evolve, maybe Apple will eventually abandon it. Regardless, the distribution of digital media content created within higher education and the use, linking, and re-mixing of that content is not solved solely through iTunes U.