Andromeda Yelton

Today I can’t stop watching this TED talk by Sheryl Sandberg on women and leadership:

It’s the first piece of advice that keeps jackhammering my brain: sit at the table.

Yesterday I went to my first hackathon. And I was giddy about this from the second I got the invitation because it was hosted by a rock star and…and because I count. I’m cool enough to be invited to a hackathon? I know enough? It’s so easy to look at the world of code and see all these things you don’t know how to do (oh but I’ve only dabbled in a handful of languages, I don’t know Haskell or Ruby or C or or or…oh but I don’t know anything about scalability or performance optimization or deployment or testing…oh but I don’t know that tool that other person is using…) and not to see the things you can (it may be dabbling but I’ve coded in a half-dozen languages…I sped up a key page on our site by 42%…I’ve deployed our code to our site…I’ve debugged our tests…I’ve built real projects people use and my code is running on my company’s flagship…) Part of my brain says, there’s lots of stuff I don’t know because code is big. And part of my brain says, oh, but you’re just a web developer.

So I got invited to a hackathon and that was a pretty big deal for me. And everyone was unfailingly nice and welcoming. And as the twenty-five or so of us filled the room every one of the five women, except me, found a seat against the wall. I was the only one at the table.

Code culture, it measures you by how much you know about code. Status equals intellect and mastery and this was a big part of why, despite frankly excelling at (and liking) the required intro programming class in college, I had not one second’s interest in being a CS major: the cost of that was sleeping all day and staying up all night in a windowless basement room, mainlining Doritos and Mountain Dew while battling to prove your status by showing off your mastery of fine details of memory allocation in C, or what-have-you. And not only could I simply not play that game — not having spent my adolescence memorizing those details and not having the kind of brain that does fine detail recall anyway — I couldn’t see why I’d want to (all-nighters and Mountain Dew? really?!).

As I said, the people in that room were unfailingly nice and welcoming. Adult men are way more mature than 19-year-olds and there was not so much as a whisper of that sort of dick-measuring. Instead, we shut ourselves down. Every single other woman, sitting against the wall, said something that came across as, “oh, I’m not a developer. I’m not a participant. I don’t really count.” Women, mind you, who are doing crucial non-code things for the project! And as the introductions wound their way around the table — with some of the men apologizing for their perceived lack of code mastery, too — I wrote and rewrote mine in my head, fighting the temptation to say, oh, but I’m not really a developer either. I fight the temptation to say that right now, simply because I know that women tend to underrate their competency, and because the first step is owning that word. It doesn’t fit. I squirm putting it on myself. But I’m going to own it.

Because here’s the thing I’ve realized thinking about that room — wondering if I’m exhausted because I’m overcommitted and fighting off a cold and I’m a mom and a startup employee, or if I’m exhausted because I was implicitly carrying the entire weight of Women In Tech on my shoulders for a day — the bar for being a woman in tech is the ability to say “Fuck you.”

And I squirm writing that, too! I don’t swear. Not much. I’m too nice. I’m a librarian! Librarians are nice. We help people. We don’t tell them “fuck you”. (Squirm. Again.)

But we’ve got to be willing to look at whole cultures that are telling us — both from the troglodyte-misogynist and the feminist sides — that it’s uncomfortable being here, that we’re likely to feel some sort of stereotype threat or impostor syndrome that honestly I don’t recall ever feeling at 17 but have apparently picked up now in, and only in, relationship to open source development — and say to those whole cultures, “fuck you”.

And to ourselves, too. At those feelings. At our own — maybe very honest, maybe terribly lowball — assessments of our own skill levels. At our own impulse to softpedal the introduction, to sit against the wall, away from the table. Fuck you, self. You’re better than that.

It doesn’t come naturally. It did when I was 17 and oblivious and in a school which was 25% female — which is, by the way, worlds different from being the only female developer in the room.

But here I am, with a constant background obsession, now, of how to get more librarians involved (and involved more deeply) in tech, how to foster collaboration on library technology projects, which is inseparable from the problem of how to get more women involved more deeply and collaboratively in technology. So I can’t not look at that room and see how the status lines fracture, along code mastery but coincidentally also gender, written in the physical geography of the room, where I’m the only one sitting at the table. I can’t not wonder, how can I create spaces which redraw those lines.

I know a little bit. I know that we can be more explicit and celebratory of the non-coding skills that are equally necessary for successful technology projects — design, usability, documentation, testing, metadata, advocacy. I know we can look for ways to put people with all of those skills together doing shared work on shared projects — yes, at the same table. I know we can be intentional about valuing people, not for what they can show off, but what they can contribute — something the library world has done very well, in my experience. (The hackathon, too.) I know we can look for partners who are solving these same problems. But it’s all whispers, not enough yet.

I want to hear what you know about this problem, too.

Because here’s another thing I know: I have unusual self-confidence. I am more comfortable than most women being in a male-dominated environment, and attacking technology, and believing in my skills. And right now that is the minimum for being a woman in tech. And it’s a minimum that cuts against things we know about women — that they tend to underrate their skills, to be less confident than men even when more capable. And if that’s the minimum, we are excluding a hell of a lot of people who have more than enough aptitude to do amazing things.

The minimum shouldn’t be, well, balls — it should be interest, aptitude (not even skill!), drive to contribute. Not the ability to say — even, if necessary, to yourself — and always to multiple cultures — and even when people are being as pleasant and welcoming as possible — “fuck you”.

So I coded some stuff. I mashed up the Knight Foundation’s beautiful timeline and DPLA API results to create a multimedia view of keyword searches over time. Rough around the edges and not deployed in a place you can see it in action, but you’re welcome to deploy (and fork, and improve) it yourself; the code’s on github.

In fact, please do. Please. Sit at the table.

I was on a panel of vendors at Computers in Libraries last week, talking about the future of ebooks. It was streamed by the fine folks at This Week in Libraries (I got to have lunch with Erik and Jaap! yay!), and my talk is at the beginning of that stream but the first minute or two is cut off — they may be putting up an HD version and I’ll tell you if that happens. (ETA: here you go!)

I also have an export of me rehearsing this in Keynote you can have a look at (as it’s a preliminary version please forgive the minor errors). (ETA: now, embedded! Thanks, Vimeo.)

There’s also a final version of the slides [pdf]; they’re CC BY-NC-ND and I’m happy to provide other formats if that’s more useful to you.

I admit: I’m quite proud of this talk. I hope you enjoy it, and I invite debate.

OK, y’all. Voting opens tomorrow in the ALA elections. Presidential candidates Cindi Trainor and Aaron Dobbs, and Board of Directors candidates Rachel Vacek, Brett Bonfield, and Cody Hanson have given you lots of information you can use to make your decision, collected at the lita_election_2012 tag. (The director election has 4 candidates, of whom you may choose 2; I hope to also post information from the 4th candidate, Mark Dehmlow, but I don’t have that yet, and I wanted to get this up before voting opens.)

Quite frankly I don’t think we can go wrong with any of these candidates and I am going to find it very challenging to decide on my votes. Time to go reread all the interviews…

With the help of some great LITA member input, I’ve put together a list of interview questions for the LITA President candidates in the upcoming ALA Election, March 19-April 27. I’ve asked the Director candidates to respond to these same questions. This is Brett Bonfield’s interview; you can find the rest of the candidates’ answers at the lita_election_2012 tag. I hope this helps you make an informed decision among these outstanding candidates.

What is LITA?

LITA is the technology division of “the oldest, largest, and most influential library association in the world.” Structurally, this is what sets LITA apart from all of the other organizations, communities, and conferences that serve those of us who are committed to libraries and to efficient and innovative uses of technology. LITA’s status within ALA means we are in a unique position, and have a unique responsibility, to encourage libraries and ALA to make wise decisions about technology and to use technology wisely when making non-technical decisions.

LITA is also an impressive assembly of people who work in and in behalf of libraries. Meeting many of you in person and following many others’ work online, as well as learning more about the people we have elected to LITA’s board, has made me eager to participate in its governance.

LITA has the best members anywhere, but it’s struggled with retention. How will you make the members feel supported by, and connected to, LITA?

When you’re given an opportunity to do work that matters and results in something tangible, you develop a sense of ownership and loyalty toward the entity that provided you with that opportunity. You also make the world a marginally better place, and you’re happier for it.

The board’s responsibility is to help LITA allocate its resources effectively, and its members’ energy and expertise are unquestionably its most valuable. There are innumerable ways in which each of us has the capacity to change libraries for the better. The more of that LITA helps us do, the more likely we’ll be to renew our memberships and recruit additional members to join us.

If you could focus on one effort during your time as LITA Director, what would that be? What one thing most needs your attention?

Two words, but it’s one effort: simplicity and transparency. That’s what makes anything more accessible, and LITA is no exception.

I think two of the most famous maxims about simplicity apply: We need to focus on making LITA as simple as possible (though no simpler), and we need to focus on explaining LITA simply (because if we can’t, it means we don’t really understand it). We also need to be willing to provide that simple explanation to anyone who’s interested in hearing it.

Given the current financial conditions, many LITA members are unable to travel to conferences. What are your views on the use of technology to enable virtual attendance to various LITA meetings and functions?

Short answer: I’m 100% in favor of enabling virtual attendance.

Real answer: I think our individual financial resources and our interest in virtual participation are separate issues, and I think it’s important to see it that way. For one thing, if you conflate these ideas then it’s almost impossible not to create a tiered membership that views virtual attendance as a sort of adjunct to “real” participation. As a librarian, I’m committed to obviating this kind of tiering, and as a technologist I love finding ways to help people get the most out of every mode of communication, including online and face-to-face.

What new collaborative opportunities between LITA and other divisions or round tables would you like to see happen?

What I would most like is for LITA to provide more opportunities for collaborative opportunities, for LITA to become the library world equivalent of Silicon Valley. We have an enormous capacity and inclination for collaborating effectively in unexpected ways. My goal is for LITA to provide the freedom and the resources that nurture the kind of activities I mentioned above, those intersections of librarianship and technology that ultimately help to make the world a better place.

For more about Brett, see his LITA election page.

With the help of some great LITA member input, I’ve put together a list of interview questions for the LITA President candidates in the upcoming ALA Election, March 19-April 27. I’ve asked the Director candidates to respond to these same questions. This is Cody Hanson’s interview; you can find the rest of the candidates’ answers at the lita_election_2012 tag. I hope this helps you make an informed decision among these outstanding candidates.

What is LITA?

LITA is a community of library and information professionals of all stripes working together to explore the ways technology can enhance the services we provide.

LITA has the best members anywhere, but it’s struggled with
retention. How will you make the members feel supported by, and connected to, LITA?

This is a tough question. LITA is an organization both for and by its members. You get out of LITA what you put into it, and each member ought to be as responsible as the next for communication, and for embodying the supportive, welcoming, productive ethos that we love about LITA.

That said, “Ask not what LITA can do for you” isn’t probably the most effective sales pitch when membership renewal time comes around. When I look at the value that I get out of ITaL (especially now that it’s OA!), LITA-L, conference sessions, IG meetings, and (dead serious here) LITA happy hours, my membership dollars feel very well spent. Which segues nicely into numbers 3 and 4…

If you could focus on one effort during your time as LITA Director, what would that be? What one thing most needs your attention?

I’d be interested in exploring a concerted member-driven marketing and communications effort. LITA staff do a terrific job of promoting the association and our events, but by necessity speak with an official voice. I’d like to see a communications committee that could take responsibility for LITA’s blog, Twitter account, etc. and begin pulling together all of the fantastic work of the association and its members. I think that a coherent and ongoing voice documenting the day-to-day accomplishments and concerns of our members would provide a powerful illustration of the value and vitality of the organization.

Given the current financial conditions, many LITA members are unable to travel to conferences. What are your views on the use of technology to enable virtual attendance to various LITA meetings and functions?

Another softball, eh?

I feel that all appropriate measures should be taken to ensure that open meetings are as open as possible, and to ensure that LITA membership has value even when members aren’t able to travel to meetings.

This is a very thorny problem, and not just for the legal reasons addressed at the recent LITA board meeting (see Andromeda’s post for her analysis). Here’s a no doubt incomplete list of issues as I see them:

1. Technology – Yes, it is 2012. Yes, we still cannot rely on sufficient reliable bandwidth to stream meetings and sessions from our conference locations. The vagaries of convention center bandwidth mean that we often won’t know what’s possible until we fire up a webcam at the start of a meeting. Under these conditions, we can’t responsibly give our members the expectation that they can reliably attend our sessions virtually. If you had stayed home from this past Midwinter under the assumption that you’d be able to view and interact with meetings in real-time, you would have been sorely disappointed, but not for lack of trying by LITA members on-site.
2. Privacy – There is a big difference between asking someone to volunteer on a committee and asking someone to do that committee work in a video live-streamed to the entire Internet and archived on a third-party for-profit video service. Yes, the work of our board and committees should be transparent to our membership, but many people have legitimate reasons why they may not want their voice or likeness broadcast willy-nilly, and I would never want these concerns to keep someone from volunteering for LITA.
3. Revenue – LITA relies on income from event attendance. Yes, almost all of LITA’s meetings are open meetings, but historically they have been open to paid conference attendees, with minutes available to the membership at large. When we make the decision to stream everything, we no longer give members as much incentive to attend in person. Again, I say this as a strong supporter of enabling virtual attendance. But for the association to remain strong, we’ll have to find new sources of revenue to replace event income, or figure out how to make LITA function as a leaner organization than it already is.
4. Quality – UStream+Twitter≠Being there. We can and should investigate tools to help make virtual attendance at LITA events as robust as in-person attendance. But at least for right now, it isn’t the same. If we can’t bring you the hallway conversations and happy hour virtually, you’re missing out.

These are problems that we need to solve. And these are areas where I think it’s LITA’s duty to ALA and to the profession to lead the way. Perhaps we turn the problem on its head by making everything virtual first and then porting it back to the in-person events. Find ways to provide appropriate access for members, and look for reasonable opportunities to monetize quality virtual offerings. But we will have to solve these problems deliberately and systematically, because they bear directly on the health and future of the association. I would urge LITA members to engage with the full range of issues implicated here, and to resist the temptation to mistake the absence of an immediate solution for a lack of commitment to transparency.

What new collaborative opportunities between LITA and other divisions or round tables would you like to see happen?

I’ve been really impressed with the recent work of LITA’s Program Planning Committee. Abigail Goben and company have an incredible number of sessions coming up at Annual that LITA is co-sponsoring with other divisions and round tables. I’d like to see this trend continue, for LITA to position itself as a resource for the rest of ALA on tech topics.

This does get tricky though, and I wouldn’t want to sugar-coat it. At present, LITA’s operation is dependent on revenues not just from membership, but from events. In both of these areas, we’re often in effect competing with other divisions and professional organizations for the same shrinking pool of revenue. The most important issue we need to collaborate on with our peer organizations is growing that pool, and bringing greater coherence to the slate of organizations and professional development opportunities we offer.

Heck, I’d really like to see LITA collaborating with Code4Lib.

For more about Cody, see his LITA election page.

With the help of some great LITA member input, I’ve put together a list of interview questions for the LITA President candidates in the upcoming ALA Election, March 19-April 27. I’ve asked the Director candidates to respond to these same questions. This is Rachel Vacek’s interview; you can find the rest of the candidates’ answers at the lita_election_2012 tag. I hope this helps you make an informed decision among these outstanding candidates.

What is LITA?

To me, LITA is a community of innovators, leaders, technologists and liaisons to one another and those outside of the community. LITA is also an association, which means that people voluntarily come together with similar purposes to share an interest or activity. I believe that people join LITA because they want to learn something, help their colleagues and improve the library profession as a whole. They know that together they can make a difference and have greater impact than if they worked alone.

LITA has the best members anywhere, but it’s struggled with
retention. How will you make the members feel supported by, and connected to, LITA?

I believe that there are many additional things that can be done to support potential and current LITA members:

1. Involve enthusiastic, active members who have already embraced
   LITA’s mission and values in making new members feel welcome. They
   are knowledgeable, involved and committed to LITA. Active members
   can serve as role models for new members as well as those who have
   watched from the sidelines. There could be a buddy system, a new
   member mentoring program, or even a phone call or simple letter of
   welcome from an active member to a new member. Making new members
   feel important at the onset of their joining LITA is critical.
2. Recognize more frequently the outstanding contributions of LITA
   members, whether or not that work is directly associated with LITA. This recognition doesn’t have to be through formal award processes, but I’d like to see new models of sharing and appreciating the outstanding things we do for our profession and one another.

3. Emphasize that a benefit to joining LITA is about expanding your network and circle of influence, and even having some fun while doing it. The LITA Happy Hour is a great example, and I’d like to see more programs that encourage networking, engaging others and having fun with like-minded individuals.
4. Ask current and potential members their goals. I think the best way to get LITA members to commit is to get them to participate in activities that will further their goals and those of the profession. If we don’t know their goals, we can’t easily create additional meaningful and relevant training opportunities or events.

I believe that if current and future LITA members feel that they have learned both practical and innovative new things, if they are able to participate in workshops or events that meet their goals, if they have expanded their network, and if they feel connected to LITA more by engaging with active members, those LITA members will feel inspired to participate in new ways, will renew their membership and encourage others to join.

If you could focus on one effort during your time as LITA Director, what would that be? What one thing most needs your attention?

If I have to choose one area, I would like to focus my effort in moving forward online programming and the communication about such opportunities. Since member retention is a challenge for LITA, providing more opportunities for member participation is key. LITA members could share their knowledge and experience in teaching a greater variety of workshops, webinars and other types of online programming than what is currently being offered. With additional online programs, pricing can also be more flexible for those in libraries with differing financial situations.

Given the current financial conditions, many LITA members are unable to travel to conferences. What are your views on the use of technology to enable virtual attendance to various LITA meetings and functions?

I think that utilizing technology to enable virtual attendance is both fantastic and crucial to LITA’s future. In order for people to feel engaged and connected with LITA, providing options for participation is essential whether face-to-face or virtual. I applaud LITA’s recent efforts to stream meetings, capture video and audio whenever possible and encourage participation. I’d like to see LITA become the leader and a role model in this area for other divisions within ALA.

What new collaborative opportunities between LITA and other divisions or round tables would you like to see happen?

Every division within ALA could benefit from collaborating with LITA on technology standards, best practices, and other technology recommendations. I would like to see LITA implement some sort of liaison program to each of the divisions and many of the committees and groups within those divisions as well as many of the ALA offices. One mutually beneficial partner could be the Learning Round Table which promotes continuing education, helps people network with other continuing education providers for the exchange of ideas, concerns and solutions, serves as a source and advocates for the continuation of education. For example, I’d like to see LITA participate in their annual/training-showcase/">Annual Training Showcase.

You can learn more about Rachel at her LITA election page.

With the help of some great LITA member input, I’ve put together a list of interview questions for the LITA President candidates in the upcoming ALA Election, March 19-April 27. Here are Cindi Trainor’s answers; please see also Aaron Dobbs’. I hope this helps you make an informed decision between these outstanding candidates.

1) What is LITA?

This question seems like it should have an obvious answer, but it can be elusive. LITA is a professional organization. LITA is a home for anyone who considers herself an advocate of technology in libraries. LITA is … what? At its heart, LITA is its members–all its members: people who are linked by an interest in or passion for technology in libraries, however they define it. This array of definitions is exactly what makes LITA hard to define. The bottom line is: as reflected in our long and shifting list of Interest Groupss, LITA is what we–the members–make it.

2) LITA has the best members anywhere, but it’s struggled with retention. How will you make the members feel supported by, and connected to, LITA?

Our membership data indicates that many ALA members join LITA but don’t stay. That says to me that we either piqued their interest with programming and lost them somewhere along the way, or LITA fell prey to “second division syndrome.” Last year’s data indicate that some 76% of LITA members are members of another ALA division. In tight economic times, we have to prove our value to members outside programming and publications that are open to all ALA members by being an engaging community centered around the technologies we use in our libraries. LITA’s Interest Group structure is a wonderful tool for this; as we say in LITA 201, “Don’t see it? Make it!”

3) If you could focus on one effort during your time as LITA President, what would that be? What one thing most needs your attention?

I want to continue to close the gap between LITA governance and membership by making all Board activities visible to members and by working toward systematic leadership training. Leadership skills learned in LITA translate directly into the workplace, and systematic transfer of these skills from our veteran leaders to our members-at-large has not happened. When we welcome members into leadership roles in our organization, we do not have the luxury of time to give them a year to learn the ropes. People stepping into leadership roles should be given clear guidelines and expectations for getting their (clearly defined) work accomplished. Concomitantly, members stepping into Committee and IG roles should also have clear expectations and should be able to see the path from Committee/IG member to chair to Board member, should they have an interest.

4) Given the current financial conditions, many LITA members are unable to travel to conferences. What are your views on the use of technology to enable virtual attendance to various LITA meetings and functions?

The reasons most often given for not offering virtual components to programming are economic. LITA is a small division, and as such doesn’t have extra funds available to contract with a company outside ALA, as other divisions have done. That said, there are myriad tools available, inside ALA and freely available on the Internet, that can be harnessed to do this. The key, again, is planning for this in a systematic and continual way, not the seat-of-our-pants way it’s been done in the past. Although LITA’s seat-of-our-pants nature is something I’m very proud of!

5) What new collaborative opportunities between LITA and other divisions or round tables would you like to see happen?

Collaborative opportunities abound, and I look forward to encouraging and pursuing them as LITA President. Technology is pervasive in our profession, and integral to getting our work done; partnerships could be made with most any division or round table. Joint Interest Groups are a great member-driven way to connect two Divisions and give these groups resources for meetings and programming at conferences. ALA Connect spaces for Joint IGs or for more informal Communities afford us the opportunity to collaborate between conferences. LITA members have played integral roles in ALA-level task forces, committees and work groups. Closing the gap between members and the board and providing members with systematic leadership training will insure that LITA members will continue to be the go-to tech people for ALA as well as its Divisions and Round Tables.

For more information on Cindi, check out her LITA Election page.

With the help of some great LITA member input, I’ve put together a list of interview questions for the LITA President candidates in the upcoming ALA Election, March 19-April 27. Here are Aaron Dobbs’ answers; please see also Cindi Trainor’s. I hope this helps you make an informed decision between these outstanding candidates.

1) What is LITA?

LITA is my Tribe. We are Librarians Innovating Technology
Awesomesauce. Well, so much for glib answers

More seriously, LITA is LITA members. We are all doing nifty things with technology.

As an Association, our IGs put on a boatload of conference programming, including:

• “here’s cool stuff to try”
• “attend this pre-conference and walk out with something implemented for your library”
• “here’s the direction we see technology in libraries is heading”

Our committees manage the programs and focus efforts to produce worthwhile educational events and content. We coordinate or co-present a bunch of awards and scholarships and we are about educating and improving libraries and library services through technology.

–What is LITA?

LITA is where the technology users, super users, administrators, and creators mingle, keep tabs on each other, and throw around ideas for improving the library experience.

Long story short: LITA is you and the awesome stuff you do.

2) LITA has the best members anywhere, but it’s struggled with retention. How will you make the members feel supported by, and connected to, LITA?

LITA has had its share of organizational challenges and we are making strides to present our efforts in a more modern wrapper; but that is not enough.

I want to radically open internal communications and push the bounds of ALA policy (which constrains and encompasses LITA policy). I will encourage interested-member participation in any conversation within LITA by pushing for posts which do not touch on issues of personal privacy (which is the main constraint applied by ALA policy) to be publicly available and pledge to follow up on discussion points raised but not satisfactorily addressed. I feel the membership *has* spoken, everything I have done on LITA Board has been informed by what I have heard from members.

When the membership speaks, LITA must listen and take appropriate action.

I invite all LITA members – past, present, and future – to let me know what you feel LITA can do for you. I will work to make it happen and I will get you into a space where you can work toward that goal with me.

3) If you could focus on one effor