Author Archives: Sam Shaw

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of connection and the path to the feeling of worthiness. If it doesn’t feel vulnerable, the sharing is probably not constructive.”

–Brene Brown

Recently, the Dude attended the Kaneko Information Exchange conference at Kaneko-UNO Library. It’s hard to describe the space there; it might be apt to say it’s a cross between a modern, technology infused library and a hip art gallery. At any rate, a lot of fresh ideas were exchanged at the conference, and the subject of today’s post is about the consumer health information resource service (chirs) offered by the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s McGoogan Library of Medicine. One of the panelists at the Information Exchange (Teri Hartman) was from McGoogan and talked about chirs.

But before we get to that specific part (and if you only care about the chirs service, skip to the last paragraph), here is a little filler material of the sort that Brene mentions in the quote above. A couple of years ago, the Dude found himself with a health issue that required attention. Middle age, evidenced not only by these sorts of health circumstances (it was a hernia) is now a reality but not necessarily a catalyst for an abnormally depressive state. The Dude has no intention of buying a sports car, bar hopping with women that are half his age, completing extreme sporting events (which may mean different things to different people), dyeing his hair, or trotting off to Burning Man. Middle age for the Dude means the replacement of long runs and bike rides with long walks and tai chi chuan sessions; early morning workouts replaced with early morning sleep and late night insomnia; and other assorted fortuitous activities such as growing tropical plants and fixing things. It also means other adjustments, such as the simple acknowledgement of how life experiences are now just a bit different, and that’s OK.

Now as far as health information goes, the Dude believes in the importance of a well-informed patient. Navigating these waters is often difficult; when the hernia diagnosis hit there was a lot of research and weeding through questionable sources of information online. You see, some camps surrounding the Dude were quite adamant about not having a surgical repair at all; others wanted the Dude to drive to a knife jockey at the earliest possibility. What the Dude really wanted (and didn’t get much of) was someone who would acknowledge and support his process of becoming (perhaps in a Kierkegaardian sense) health literate, and a medical professional that didn’t find a well informed patient  threatening. In the end, the Dude was fortunate enough to have an overall positive experience, and credits this to taking the time to become health literate and in finding such a patient and knowledgeable surgeon. For the record, if you want to know about things like Desarda or Bassini techniques, differences in brands and types of mesh typically used for repairs, and the journey to ultimately finding someone to fix the problem (the Dude had a good experience at Creighton Med. Center), let the Dude know. In the Dude’s case, being literate in the area of concern (that’s a runaround way of saying he wanted as much preferably unbiased information as possible about hernias) meant not only determining a course of treatment but also selecting a health care professional.

The point here is that two years ago, the chirs service was not on the radar and therefore it wasn’t utilized. In retrospect, the service could have been extremely helpful. At the Kaneko Information Exchange, Teri Hartman (Education and Research Services Librarian at UNMC’s McGoogan Library of Medicine) talked at length about the free service. And you should at least be aware of it, if not actively promoting it in your library. The chirs web page contains a summary of the service, links to sites containing health information, contact information, and the chirs online request form. You should also keep NebraskAccess in mind as a potential source of information. Finally, thanks to Teri Hartman and her contributions to the Kaneko Information Exchange. In case you didn’t catch it yet, the chirs service is free. Shaka, Teri.

Today’s Wednesday Watch will focus on a snippet (ok maybe a bit more than a snippet) of FX’s Sons of Anarchy (SOA), a show the Dude really wanted to like but abandoned in the middle of the final season (to be honest, it should have happened much earlier). After the SOA analysis, the post will then shift to a new show with high hopes that is thus far exceeding expectations, HBO’s Silicon Valley.

First: The bad. Sons of Anarchy (various seasons) are part of the holdings of approximately 5 or 6 Nebraska public libraries, depending on the season. If your library is considering it, the Dude recommends that you put your money toward something else gangster-related (such as the Sopranos or the Wire), and spend the rest on Silicon Valley (see below). Yes, SOA does have some high points, generally during the first two seasons, and often centered on the witty one liners coming from Katey Sagal (Gemma) or Ron Perlman (Clay). The acting on the show is solid; however the low point is the unravelling of the show’s writing over time into the abyss of absurdity. SOA creator and writer Kurt Sutter has a response to the Dude’s criticism, namely that all the other non-haters “get it”, and we simply don’t. Well, that may be the case, but our disappointment comes from the fact that we believe the show could have been much better, if the unbelievable, irrational parts were sufficiently cleaned up. And it had potential. Without giving away too much, let’s dive in a bit as to why SOA misses the mark. The Dude started watching the show at the urging of various individuals, including some motorcycle aficionados. Now for the record, the Dude isn’t particularly interested in cycles (except for the human powered kind), but certainly has nothing against them. Not quite mid-way through the final season, the Dude had enough, and didn’t even have the desire to see how the show ended.  Yes, it was that disappointing. Here are the reasons why.

Number one:  The overuse of the musical montage. Works occasionally, but too much of even a good thing is well, a bad thing. Some of the music comes across as just plain tacky (e.g. changing the lyrics in “House of the Rising Sun” from “New Orleans” to “Charming Town” – the fictional town where SOA takes place) and at other times it’s just plain clichéd. As the series goes on, the musical montage gets more and more used and thus more and more annoying.

Number two: The prison scenes started out just OK, but became completely unbelievable over time. Well, it should be noted that they held a period of believability on a sensationalized, Hollywood version of what occurs behind bars. Even if we accept the fact that some of this stuff is a bit overblown, what writer Kurt Sutter’s character (Otto Delaney) is able to accomplish in prison is pretty comical when you think about it. All of it could never happen that way. The difficult part to swallow is that Sutter seems to have no problem serving it up on a platter with the manner of Anthony Hopkins in the Remains of the Day. The truth of the matter is that for most people who are either in prison or work there it is a mundane, repetitive, smelly, depressing, argumentative, limiting environment with small amounts of possessions and privacy that zaps one’s daily energy (inmates and staff). Admittedly, it is in fact an environment charged with violence, testosterone, manipulation, and sexuality, but to a much lesser degree than portrayed by Sutter.

Number three: The level of trust demonstrated by certain rival gang members that ultimately leads to their murder is off base. Some of these characters are hyped up as “major playas”, yet when they have a sit down with another gang and they roll in with only 2 or 3 of their crew and when they sometimes turn their backs on potential rivals, it ultimately leads to their predictable demise. It happens more than once, and it seems that guys of this caliber (if you believe the hype from the accompanying dialogue) would roll in on 3-4 tinted window Escalades or Suburbans, after setting up a few guys on the perimeter ahead of time, and toting no less than a few machine guns. And never, ever, turn their backs on anyone or exhibit any degree of trust. Furthermore, some of the alliances formed among the various thugs (under the circumstances) seem a bit perplexing or preposterous.

Number four:  The kill count. Basically, the crew consists of about 8-9 guys, give or take throughout the series. True, the club has numerous other “charters” in different towns or cities, but the core group, SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original – the main charter) is generally around or less than 10 guys. The kill count for just the members over the 7 seasons is a whopping 144 (see chart). By comparison, the total deaths (including those not directly caused by Tony’s crew) in the Sopranos was 92. Some of these SOA kills are of the persuasion that they would most likely draw significant attention from not just local but national law enforcement.

Number five: The continuity errors. This is a minor complaint, but part of a larger criticism related to editing as a whole. Every show has these types of errors and they sometimes are noticeable, sometimes not. On SOA, they seemed to be noticeable and distracting, and for a show of this caliber, it was unexpected. These include blood and tattoos that either disappear or change places from scene to scene, cars that change make and model from scene to scene, actors that have or wear items then don’t have them, etc. It’s a minor complaint, but a complaint nonetheless. Details matter.

Now on to Silicon Valley. According to WorldCat, season 1 is held by just 2 Nebraska public libraries. The show follows main character Richard Hendriks (Thomas Middleditch) and his friends or colleagues (however you might see it) who all live together under one roof in a startup incubator in or near Palo Alto. Erlich Bachmann (played brilliantly by TJ Miller, and adequately filling the no-nonsense sharp witted gap left by the departure of Roger Sterling) lets Richard and his friends stay in his house rent free in exchange for a 10% stake in the projects they invent while living in the incubator. Richard develops a powerful search algorithm (Pied Piper) and the show follows the path from Pied Piper’s inception to startup, as well as the rest of the Silicon Valley world. Now, before someone mentions that there is a certain degree of unbelievability in Silicon Valley (see SOA criticism above), the difference is that Silicon Valley isn’t pretending to pass everything off this way (as SOA is with a straight face).

The show’s creator, Mike Judge (Beavis and butt-head, Office Space, King of the Hill) has previously worked at a Silicon Valley startup, and does a pretty good job of satirizing the culture. Although some, such as Elon Musk, are not quite as amused. Now for the record, the Dude is a Musk (and Tesla and Solar City) fan, although his frequently quoted response to Silicon Valley actually does more to prove that the HBO series hits, rather than misses the mark. Musk is quoted as saying:

“I really feel like Mike Judge has never been to Burning Man, which is Silicon Valley. If you haven’t been, you just don’t get it. You could take the craziest L.A. party and multiply it by a thousand, and it doesn’t even get … close to what’s in Silicon Valley. The show didn’t have any of that.” Judge didn’t bite when he responded to Musk’s comment, merely stating that: “I mean, he’s Elon Musk and he knows more about the tech world than I do, so I would never argue with that. But we’re doing a comedy. This isn’t a documentary.” In a way, Musk’s comment seems self-satirizing (read it again a few times and it will become more apparent). TJ Miller also had an apt response: “Yeah, but, and I’m not gonna name names, but if the billionaire power players don’t get the joke, it’s because they’re not comfortable being satirized, … And they don’t remember that to be a target of humor is an honor — you have to be venerated to be satirized. Like, I’m sorry, but you could tell everything was true. You guys do have bike meetings …”

For the record, perhaps Judge will think of a way to work Musk’s thoughts into a future episode, and I could go on about Burning Man and Silicon Valley, but it would be hard to beat this Burning Man spoof (complete with a great Petyr Baelish imitation). Shaka.

The Dude was knee deep in working on a rant, er, rather, an informative post, about pie charts when he came down sick with a nasty head cold and allergy attack. It seems like the kind that a few expired Allegra poppers might not immediately eradicate, so it’s on to Plan B, which for this week is remote desktop access courtesy of the NLC CompTeam (thanks, CompTeam) and a short tidbit on broadband (now defined by the FCC as 25 Mbps downstream) and underserved areas. As a part of this report, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said: “We can do audacious things if we set big goals, and I think our new threshold, frankly, should be 100Mbps.” Good progressive thinking, Jessica.

While it is axiomatic that libraries play a huge role in bridging the underserved gap (especially in smaller communities), how does Nebraska rate as far as underserved areas (and infrastructure grants)? Well, you could try to decipher the massive bar chart above, or look at this simple graphic I created (you might have to click to enlarge):

Shaka.

Before the Dude explores this week’s Wednesday Watch, a shout goes out to Pete Kostelnick, a Lincolnite who won this year’s Badwater 135 Ultramarathon. The Dude has previously written about Badwater, and wants to acknowledge Pete’s accomplishment. The running world is yours, Pete. The rest of us just live in it.

Now today let’s take a look at two TV series offerings (available on DVD from your local library). The first, Orphan Black, is from BBC America (via the Canadian Space Channel), and the other, Black Mirror, is from British Channel 4. Orphan Black came highly recommended by a number of individuals, and the Dude was hyped up after a few episodes. Toward the end of season 1, his buzz was decimated. And thus, unfortunately, Orphan Black cannot be recommended. There are, however, some positives, but they don’t really outweigh the negatives. According to WorldCat, 5 public libraries have season 1 of Orphan Black. The premise of Orphan Black is this: A woman named Sarah sees another woman (Beth) commit suicide by jumping in front of a train. Just before the act, Sarah eerily notices that Beth looks identical to her. Immediately after the suicide, Sarah steals Beth’s identity and eventually discovers that not only are she and Beth clones, identical in appearance and genetic material, but there are numerous other clones in addition to the two of them. At first, the notion seemed intriguing, and this appeared to be a fresh new go-to show, but the feeling didn’t last. In fact, the Dude had placed a hold on the season 2 DVD’s, but returned them unwatched. Yes, it was that disappointing. Tatiana Maslany, the actress who plays the clones, does do an excellent job. The problem, however, has to do with what would be considered unrealistic script writing, introducing characters that otherwise appear quite reasonable and placing them in situations where they act quite unreasonable. The Dude found it not so much believable. But wait! Perhaps it is somewhat due to budget restraints. The same feeling of un-believability occurred when watching FX’s Sons of Anarchy. The show was intriguing, or a little above meh, but that’s about it. On the sci-fi front, because it seems like that is the theme here this week, the Dude is anxiously awaiting and has high hopes for HBO’s upcoming Westworld.

Compared to Orphan Black, the British Channel 4 series Black Mirror presents an entirely different level of exoticity. The Dude was disappointed to discover that no Nebraska libraries have season 1 of Black Mirror, and just 20 libraries in the world have it, according to WorldCat. Black Mirror would be a great choice to add to your library’s DVD collection. How to describe Black Mirror? Well, it’s often been said it’s like an updated, technologically marinated version of the Twilight Zone. That would be a fair assessment, along with the fact that it is often just plain creepy. Like, look over your shoulder if you are watching it late at night or Twin Peaks-y bad dreams after you watch it type creepy. Like that. And the Dude doesn’t generally like creepy things, because, well, they often result in the Dude feeling creepy, and the Dude doesn’t like that. The series creator, Charlie Brooker, asks the question: “If technology is a drug – and it does feel like a drug – then what, precisely, are the side-effects?” Black Mirror explores this premise, in the disconnected, dirty, and often hopeless way that technology sometimes leaves us feeling. Like the Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents, each episode stands on its own, with different characters in different situations.

One side effect of the show is that it does provoke thought about technology, its use, and its application, and (the Dude won’t sugar coat it), it often isn’t good. To a certain extent fear, loneliness, and disconnection married to technology breed a pessimistic cocktail indeed. At least technology has that potential; to feed the worst parts of our souls. OK, enough with the philosophical pessimism (the Dude has been reading Schopenhauer on and off this month), let’s tie this into libraries somehow.

The defining factor is that both the library of the 21^st Century and even the critic of the 21^st Century library often rely too much on technology as a solution to societal problems or even societal wants. While technology does play an important role (the Dude won’t argue that point), the library of the future should transcend it. It’s not an either/or proposition (as many see it), but rather a Ken Wilber-esque integral type of theory. We need not double-down on technology, but rather walk away from the casino with some real life human connection. In the age of what Brooker aptly refers to as the Black Mirror, we are often left with a numbness or certain icky-ness feeling that seems more like an infinite means to an end rather than the technology and human ends in themselves. Libraries may be able to help alleviate those feelings, but it has just as much (or more) to do with us than the library as a modern day institution, facilitator, place, or technology salesman. Outside of the running world (which belongs to Pete), it’s our world (and also the world of the hummingbird, butterfly, flower, sun dried tomato, and other such niceties and even not so niceties), and we all live in it. Shaka.

In keeping with the theme of announcing new questions or changes to the annual public library survey, today will focus on what we call the virtual library visit. But first, the Dude must retract what has been previously written about the -1. While the -1 is code for “not collected” on your surveys when the data is submitted to IMLS/Census, a recent conversation with the Bibliostat people indicated that they prefer that you enter N/A if data is not collected. If the survey question is not coded to accept letters (only numbers), then enter a 0. They will then change the field to -1 when they compile the data. Sorry for the confusion.

OK, on to the virtual library visit. Some of the reasons for collecting library statistics from the annual public library survey include identifying trends and demonstrating the value of public libraries. The chart to the right shows the number of annual visits to Nebraska libraries from 2010 – 2014, and while it looks like there is a huge drop between FY2013 and FY2014, keep in mind that this is in millions, so the actual change isn’t really that drastic. But physical visits to Nebraska libraries have been declining. The question then is what about people who use library services remotely or who are “virtual visitors”. One example might be the person who wants to read a book but doesn’t feel like driving all the way to the library. They might download an eBook. What about the guy who streams a video from Hoopla from his home with the help of his library card? These are examples of a library providing a service without the person ever visiting the physical space. Another example might be the person who browses the library catalog from home, places a hold on an item, and then picks the item up. Before the availability of the virtual library visit, this person would need to go to the physical library, search the catalog, and if the item was not available place the hold from the library for a later pick up. Score: 2 physical visits in the old day, 1 physical visit in the new day. But the new day is equalized if we count the person’s website visit as a “virtual visit”, which is the idea behind capturing this data.

Many states are already collecting this data. Our question definition is modeled after theirs. It seems that the most difficult question (where states differ) is whether or not to count virtual visits from within the library (e.g. staff and computer lab hits). Our question doesn’t specifically say to exclude them.  Mostly, the reason for this is that from a technological standpoint, it may be much harder to exclude them, especially for smaller libraries with limited IT departments. For those Nebraska libraries that are hosted by the Commission, our comp. team intends to prefill this data for you. Again, if you don’t collect the data or an estimate is not available, feel free to enter N/A (not -1). Here is the definition as it will appear on the survey:

6.18. Total Annual Number of Virtual Visits to Library’s Website: Virtual visits is the number of inferred individual people as determined by IP address (filtered for spiders and robots), within the reporting timeframe, with activity consisting of one or more visits to the library’s website. The number of unique visitors to the library’s website may be calculated by summing the number of unique visitors for each month to obtain an annual figure. A visit ends when someone closes their browser or stops loading web pages on a website for a period of time (typically when more than 30 minutes elapses between page views).

Shaka.