B AY A REA L IBRARY

AND

I NFORMATION N ETWORK

B AY N ET N EWSLETTER
V OLUME 3, I SSUE 1

F ALL 2016

B RING D IGITAL L ITERACY TO Y OUR L IBRARY W ITH C ODING

Over the last few years the
library world has been buzzing
about programming in STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and coding,
the new digital literacy. For
many librarians like myself,
who come from a humanities
background and are used to
planning programming around
books and literature, this new
digital literacy can seem
daunting. Add in the fact that
many celebrated STEM and
coding programs are backed
by large budgets, multi-system
libraries, and lots of staff, the
idea of putting together a
meaningful program at your
own library can seem almost
impossible!
However, Im here to tell you
that you dont need a big
budget and oodles of staff to
bring computer science to your
community. You just
need Girls Who Code.

S PECIAL POINTS OF
INTEREST :

Who Are Girls Who Code?

Girls Who Code is a national
nonprofit aimed at closing the
gender gap in tech. As the
name Girls Who Code indicates, women are still vastly
underrepresented in the tech
industry just 18 percent of
computer science graduates
are women. Girls Who Code is
working to change this with
their free Clubs program that
teaches middle and high
school girls how to code after
school during the academic
year.
The organization partners
with volunteers, like libraries,
to host and facilitate the Club
curriculum all you need to
host your own Club is space,
computers, internet and leadership. The program goes
beyond just exposing young
people to the hard skills of
computer science, it also fos-

Bringing digital
literacy to the library with coding

Calendar of Library events

around the Bay

Photo courtesy of Techsoup for Libraries

Library service in
Guatemala

ters soft skills like public

speaking, networking, and
collaboration. Additionally,
the Girls Who Code network
includes a supportive and
active community of over
10,000 girls across the country.

Blast from the

past: Visit the
BayNet Website
20 years ago

Not a Coder? No Problem!

As a librarian without a technical background, the best
part about sponsoring a Girls
Who Code Club is that they

I NSIDE

THIS ISSUE :

B UILDING A C ULTURE OF T ECHNOLOGY AT Y OUR L IBRARY

L IBRARY C ODING

Librarian. Library Assistant.

Page. Information Specialist.
Cataloguer. These are just a
handful of some of the job
titles you'll find at a library.
But what about "Tech Worker"? Pam Saliba and Andrea
Cecchetto, branch managers
for the Markham Public Library, embarked on a mission
to change the way library staff
viewed technology and their
place in the technology world.

C ULTURE OF
T ECH

We invited Pam and Andrea to

our July webinar to share with
other libraries how they got

the Markham staff on-board

with technology. Andrea and
Pam opened up the webinar
by asking our attendees
whether they think of themselves as technology workers.
Interestingly, 67 percent responded that yes, they do see
themselves as tech workers.
A Cultural Shift Toward
Technology
Markham, located just north
of Toronto, is known as Canada's high-tech capital. It's the
home of 900 technology com-

panies and their employees. In

response to the booming technology industry, the Markham
Library started hosting maker
and coding events, launched a
digital media lab, and purchased 3D printers. But to get
the staff on-board with this
cultural shift toward technology, the Markham Library had
to do some work internally.
But First, a Little Mythbusting
Some of the staff members
Continued on pg. 4

E VENTS C ALEN- 2
DAR

SF G IANTS

Guatemala Li- 5
braries
Pokmon Go
Event

B AY N ET N EWSLETTER

P AGE 2

A NNUAL M EETING
provide the curriculum and a
technical instructor if you cant
find your own. This last school
year, my library hosted a Girls
Who Code Club for 13 girls. I
was responsible for the administration of setting up the Club:
advertising, holding information
sessions and signing up students for the program - all skills
that I use every day as a librarian. Additionally, I was responsible to set up presentation equipment for each Club meeting and
helped plan and arrange a graduation at the end of the academic year. It was a role that I was
not only well-equipped to do but
one that also felt extremely
rewarding!
My library doesnt have a separate computer lab, but we have
12 computers in our teen room.

CONT .

As many of our regular students

like to use the computers after
school to play games and do
homework, we set our Club
meeting time to 9:15 a.m. on
Saturday mornings. The biggest
struggle I had with starting the
Club was surprisingly not our
early meeting time but managing the student demand. We had
over 40 interested students and
not enough computers! I was
floored that there were so many
girls determined to wake up
early every Saturday morning to
learn to code. Thats no easy feat
for teenagers!

one of the most popular programs at our library and Im

excited for the Club to launch
again this fall.
If your library has space and
computers to host a Girls Who
Code Club, I highly recommend
that you bring one to your library! To learn more and apply,
go towww.girlswhocode.com/
Clubs!
By Anna Tschetter, Teen and
Reference Librarian north of
Boston

Through sponsoring a Girls Who

Code Club, Ive not only been
able to bring digital literacy to
my community, Ive been able to
have a hand in shaping future
technology. The Club has been

L IBRARY E VENTS A ROUND T HE B AY

October 20

San Francisco Librarian Meet-Up!

Expand your network and meet fellow SF Librarians
https://www.meetup.com/SF-Librarian-Meetup/

October 26

BayNet Tour of Richmond Tool Lending Library

Learn how this library gets free tools to those who need them most.
Keep an eye on http://www.baynetlibs.org for details!

October 29

GLBT Historical Society Celebrates LGBT History Month

2:00pm at the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco
Learn how the archives work, why they are important and how to access them!

November 17

San Francisco Librarian Meet-Up!

Expand your network and meet fellow SF Librarians
https://www.meetup.com/SF-Librarian-Meetup/

December 15

San Francisco Librarian Meet-Up!

Expand your network and meet fellow SF Librarians
https://www.meetup.com/SF-Librarian-Meetup/

Photo courtesy of Techsoup for Libraries

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 1

P AGE 3

B AY N ET T HIRSTY T HURSDAY E VENT

C ONTACT

On July 21st, BayNet hosted its

first--though hopefully not last-Thirsty Thursday event at The
Pink Elephant Alibi in San
Francisco. Fifteen librarians
attended and enjoyed happy
hour together. As Thirsty Thursday was cross-posted to the SF
Librarian Meetup website, it led
to many librarians coming for
their first BayNet event. It was
exciting to talk with so many
new colleagues and members of

the SF Librarian Meetup were

enthusiastic about the potential
for joint meetups in the future.
Our first Thirsty Thursday provided a social, friendly introduction to BayNet for many who we
hope to see at future events.
If you missed the first Thirsty
Thursday, never fear! BayNet
hopes to host more in the future.
If you have suggestions on locations for meetups, please let the

Newsletter Editor know and

he'll share your ideas at the next
BayNet Board meeting. We look
forward to seeing you at a
BayNet event soon!
Contact the Newsletter Editor
at collin.thormoto@gmail.com
By Diana Wakimoto, Associate
Librarian and Archivist at California State University, East
Bay

THE
B AY N ET
N EWS
E DITOR
WITH ANY
IDEAS YOU
HAVE FOR
A GREAT
EVENT !

S AN F RANCISCO G IANTS 30 TH A NNIVERSARY

The San Francisco Giants were
celebrating the 30th anniversary
of their 1986 team this summer.
They called us at Digital
Revolution to see if we
could digitize thirty four
Umatic video tapes in
two days. They wanted to
edit the footage into
short videos that they
would play on the big
screen at the park as
well as bumpers on TV
during the game. We got
Photo courtesy of Paul
started right away.

Grippaldi

In 1986 the Giants were still

at Candlestick Park and had
no player earning over a million
dollars a year even with the
likes of Vida Blue, Will Clark
and Mike Krukow on the team.
It was the year that new manager Roger Craig coined the
phrase Humm-baby. That would
be their marketing slogan for
the next seven years.
Their file format of choice was
QuickTime DV50. So, I baked all
of the tapes, which is our stand-

ard procedure for Umatic.

Thirty year old tapes need to be
handled with care. I cleaned the
dust from decomposition off of
the entire length of the recorded
side of each tape. We use Sony
BVU 950 SP Umatic machines for playback. They were
the top of the Sony line for this
format. SP stands for superior
performance. A nice feature
that they have is the ability to
adjust the output level of the
audio. This allows two important things: 1: to digitize the
tape with proper sound levels 2:
to transfer audio without the
added noise of a limiter. Another
helpful feature is manual tracking and skew functions. This
allows the operator to adjust the
tension and the horizontal shift
in the tape for getting the best
playback results.
Our assessment was that about
a third of the tapes needed to be
put into new shells for optimum
playback. Old tape shells can
have dried out parts that make
for uneven playback or even

tape jamming. There were two

tapes of special note. They were
of iconic Hall of Fame player
Willie Mays giving batting and
hitting instruction to the camera. Now those and 33 of the
other tapes are preserved for
sports history. Unfortunately,
one tape from a local TV station
recorded on an off-brand of tape
was not playable. It had decomposed to the point of not functioning and there were no other
copies of it. This illustrates the
danger of aging magnetic tape.
Fittingly, the anniversary celebration was planned for a Giants match up with their old
rivals the Dodgers. We were at
the game and it was a thrill to
see our work up on the big
screen at the stadium. Also, the
Giants won the game in the last
inning. It was satisfying to be a
part of the celebration.
By Paul Grippaldi, CEO of Digital Revolution

N EWSLETTER T ITLE

P AGE 4

C ULTURE T ECH CONT

were excited about the new
technology at the library, but
others were reluctant to embrace it. To figure out the abilities and tech comfort level of the
staff, the librarians created a
self-assessment. From the results, they determined that
there were three underlying
myths among staff when it came
to technology:

Techmythbusting
by Ginny Mies

T HE

FIRST

THING THE
LIBRARIANS DID
WAS SET UP A
CURATED
ONLINE SPACE
WHERE STAFF
COULD FIND
RELEVANT
ARTICLES ,
VIDEOS AND
OTHER
TRAINING
RESOURCES
AROUND
TECHNOLOGY

1.

It's scary

2.

It's difficult

3.

It's not my job

So Andrea and Pam set out with

the goal to bust these myths.
They realized that what the
staff needed was technology
training as well as some opportunities to engage with technology.
Creating Opportunities to
Learn
The first thing the librarians did
was set up a curated online
space where staff could find
relevant articles, videos, and
other training resources around
technology. They
chosePinterest as the platform
because it's fun, easy to use, and
popular. But not all staff knew
how to use Pinterest, so they
had to do training for their
training platform.
They also organized technology
"lunch and learn" sessions
where staff members could listen to presentations delivered
by their peers. Some of the topics included how maker technologies work, how to use technology for learning, and how the
library's internal systems work.
Organizing a TEDx Confer-

ence on How Tech Affects

Careers
But the coolest, most creative
thing the Markham Library
staffers did (in my opinion at
least) was hold a TEDx conference. They actually had to apply
to get a license to be aTEDx
organizer.
After you get approved, the
TEDx sends you guidelines for
organizing your conference. The
Markham team chose "Spark"
as the theme and chose speakers with diverse backgrounds to
talk about how technology affects their career from scientists to samba dancers. While it
was geared toward staff, it was
open to the public as well.
The library also held a staff-only
tech conference over the course
of three days. Staff members
had a chance to listen to presentations regarding the library's
strategic initiatives around
technology. There was also the
opportunity to get "hands on"
with the technology and use
some of the library's recent purchases. Pam and Andrea wanted
to emphasize how fun technology could be through these hands
-on adventures it isn't scary,
it isn't boring, and all staff can
try it out!
A Digital Artist in Residence
One idea that really stood out
from Pam and Andrea's presentation was having a Digital
Artist in Residence at the library. Some libraries have hosted writers in residence, but
Markham wanted to see what it
would be like to host a digital
artist at the library.
They recruited an artist, Stephanie Wu, who pitched
a project that explored the concept of "escape" and the process
of being present. As a part of
a workshop, patrons and staff
members took a picture or video
of themselves at the library, and
then drew a background of
where they want to go to, such
as the beach or a forest (see
image). These images were
incorporated into looped anima-

tions, which will be turned into

a collaborative community mural that will be projected at all
of the Markham Public library
locations. This project was not
only a way to get staff interested in technology, but to engage
the community in a collaborative digital project as well.
Fail Camp for E-Books
Another cool idea that would be
very easy to replicate is holding
a "Fail Camp" for your staff.
This was to help quell some of
the anxiety around e-books that
staff had reported in that initial
tech assessment. The training
was required for all information
services staff members, regardless of their comfort level or
experience with e-books.
The training was framed around
troubleshooting e-book readers
and tablets. Staff members were
taught that troubleshooting tech
is like conducting the typical
reference interview: you ask a
lot of open-ended questions to
help the customer as much as
you can. The staff broke up into
groups to share tips, experiences, and resources around assisting patrons with e-book devices.
The "fail" aspect of these trainings was an opportunity for staff
to be candid about any failure
they had with e-books. Why
embrace failure? Pam shared:
"Celebrate the fail for what it is
a solid attempt at making an
improvement."
These are just a handful of the
ideas for incorporating technology into your library's culture.
All of the ideas Pam and Andrea
shared can be easily replicated,
no matter the size or staff of
your library!
By Ginny Mies from Techsoup
for Libraries

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 1

P AGE 5

G UATEMALAN V OLUNTEERING E XPERIENCE : A PUBLIC

LIBRARY SERVING A COMMUNITY WITH LIMITED RESOURCES

Photo courtesy of
Sirous Monajami

Photo courtesy of
Sirous Monajami

This summer I had the opportunity to work as a volunteer at

the municipal library in Panajachel, a small Mayan city in Guatemala, on the shores of the
Lake Atitln. The city of Panajachel is located 65 miles from
the Pacific Ocean, and about 185
miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
The lake itself is located in the
mountains above 5,200 feet
altitude. From the shore one
can see three volcanoes rise high
above the city. The beauty of
Panajachel attracts more and
more tourists and westerners
who some have made this lake
city their permanent home.
The current municipal library of
Panajachel was founded in 1980
by the Municipal Corporation
giving it the name of Biblioteca
Popular de Panajachel. The new
library, which opened in 2002, is
located in a busy downtown
neighborhood near a Mayan
market. The facility is heavily
used, more often as a community center than as a library.
Every day during my working

hours, a different non-library

related event occurred inside the
library. There was no special
room for the events. The events
usually took place in front of
other patrons who were reading
or studying in the library.

me to attend different workshops and meetings outside of

the library, such as a workshop
on recycling and another on how
to help kids who go to school in
rural areas but dont have
books.

For example, one day there was

a union meeting and another
day a group of women taking
sign language lessons. The library also has a corner for children, in Spanish called Rincn
Infantil. In that section, one
would always see children playing and laughing loudly. With
only two computer, automation
seems a faraway wish. The
library collection contains
25,000 titles. The staff are not
librarians but individuals who
are trained to help others in all
kinds of community programs.

Guatemala is a poor Central

American country. Working in a
library in a small town was an
eye opening experience for me.
Amazingly, I saw the energy
and desire of learning among
young Guatemalans in a country
with extremely limited library
resources. Mayan culture is
peaceful and has survived outside invasions for centuries.
With assistance from dedicated
staff and volunteers, the children of Panajachel have a
chance to survive and thrive in
the face of the educational challenges of the new global world.

My daily task in the library

consisted of collecting articles on
Mayan culture and civilization.
As a sign of appreciation for my
daily help, the library director
Ms. Evelina Montufar invited

Sirous Monajami, M.L.I.S,

Ph.D., is librarian at City College of San Francisco
smonajam@ccsf.edu.

Photo courtesy of
Sirous Monajami

P OKEMON G O M EETUP F UN !
BayNet hosted its first Pokmon
GO Meetup in Downtown Hayward on August 20th. While the
trainers (aka attendees) were
few in number, they had a fun
time catching Pokmon together. While some people had been
playing Pokmon GO since its
release, others started playing
during the meetup with help
from their fellow trainers.
BayNet member, Monica Ruck,
brought along crocheted Pokmon characters she made for
yarnbombing. They were adora-

ble and apparently others

thought so, too, as all of the ones
left at various Pokstops around
town were taken by the end of
the day bringing new meaning
to catching Pokmon in real life!
While it was fun to bond over
finding and catching Pokmon,
the attendees also discussed
how to use Pokmon GO as part
of their library programming
and other ideas for meetups. If
you missed this meetup, don't
worry as BayNet is looking to
host more events and meetups

in the coming year. And while

you're waiting to hear about the
next BayNet event, good luck in
catching them all!
If you have any ideas for future
BayNet events or would be interested in leading a workshop,
please let us know! You can
contact the newsletter editor
who will pass on your idea to the
rest of the board.
By Diana Wakimoto

Photo courtesy of
Diana Wakimoto

B AY A REA L IBRARY AND

I NFORMATION N ETWORK

As a multi-type library association, BayNet represents librarians

and information professionals from all varieties of organizations.
Our mission is to strengthen connections among all types of San
Francisco Bay Area Libraries and Information Centers, and to
promote communication, professional development, cooperation,
and innovative resource sharing.
If you would like to know more about what we do, contact us via
email at baynetlibs@gmail.com

J OIN BAYNET ONLINE:

WWW. BAYNETLIBS. ORG

BUSINESSES
Want to advertise in the BayNet Newsletter? Contact Collin
Thormoto at collin.thormoto@gmail.com for rates and details.

SUBMIT A STORY:
HTTP://BAYNETLIBS.ORG/NEWS/
SUBMISSION-GUIDELINES/

F ROM

THE

A RCHIVES : V ISIT

The BayNet World Wide Web

Site (http://
www.exploratorium.com/
baynet) is growing all the time
as an exciting source of local
library-related information.
New features include:

Interlibrary Loan/
Resource Sharing Interest
Group: goals, minutes of
meetings and an electronic
directory of BayNet members interlibrary loan
policies;
Continuing Education:
Fall course schedules for
U.C.

Berkeley Extensions Libraries

and Information Studies Program and Diablo Valley Colleges Library Information
Technology Department;

Job announcements from

BayNet Member Libraries;

A link to EBSCOs Library

Reference Center;

THE

B AY N ET W EB S ITE !

Updated links to local

library OPACs available
through the Internet;

A list of vendors and suppliers offering discounts or

who have given presentations of their products to
the

ILL/Resource Sharing
Group;

People with slow Internet connections can improve their

speed of access by turning off
the Web images. If you are
using Netscape, look under
Options and turn off AUTO
LOAD IMAGES. You could also
access our pages through Lynx,
a text-only browser. To be able
to use Lynx, it has to be installed on your Internet server.
Get to your UNIX prompt (it
usually has a percent sign
showing it) and type lynx
http://www.exploratorium.edu/
baynet
Please remember, if you want

information posted on our Web

pages or have suggestions or
corrections, please send them in
ASCII text via email to our
Webmaster, Janet Cronbach,
jcronbach@aol.com. Your library must be a current
BayNet member to post a job
announcement.
By Rose Falanga, originally
written in 1996 for the BayNet
Newsletter

Computing in the 1970s

Courtesy of Tyne and
Wear Archives and
Museum