At its Fall 2013 meeting, hosted by the Center for Communication Programs, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, the APLIC Board explored potential topics for our 47th annual conference. Sessions focusing on social KM, collaborative tools, and other common interests were discussed, and we’ll keep you informed as the program develops.

If you have any suggestions about a topic or issue that is highly relevant to our work as information professionals in the population studies arena, please communicate with Debra Dickson.  I look forward to seeing you in Boston.

One thing I have noticed since I started hanging out with APLIC folks back in 2009 is that they know how to eat well. In 2010 it was Local, in Dallas; in 2011 it was Zaytinya, in Washington DC; in 2012 it was Osha Thai.

Happy diners at Osha Thai in San Francisco

Word is just in from our Conference banquet and tour team that this year’s banquet will be held at one of New Orleans’ signature dining spots, Mr. B’s Bistro. (Check out the review on CityEats.)

Mr. B’s Bistro
photo: CityEats

We’re beginning to get blurbs on the talks, too, so you may want to visit the Conference Program page and see how things are developing.

We come to learn things, of course. Still, it’s really all about the people.

APLIC members visit the Urban Institute in Washington DC, 2011

See you there.

Prior to attending the 2012 APLIC Conference, I was only partly aware of Brewster Kahle and his work with the Internet Archive Project (IAP). I knew that he was the person behind one of my favorite resources on the Web: the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. I’ve used this valuable tool for both work and leisure when seeking out historic website pages now missing from the Web. But while listening to his presentation at the conference, I soon realized that the Wayback Machine is just a tiny part of his vision.

What I wasn’t fully aware of is Brewster’s infectious passion for the idea of “universal access to all knowledge.” The no-frills Internet Archive website belies this passion. Don’t get me wrong; I understand why the website is text-heavy and light on design (quicker load-time and less distraction from the content). I just never took the time to poke around on the site and read more about the Archive’s mission, and I felt bad about that in retrospect. After hearing Brewster speak, though, I suspect he would care less about whether people know why the Internet Archive exists and more about if they know it exists at all. Certainly its underpinning philosophy drives the project, but end users don’t need to dwell on that to benefit. The important thing is that people know this amazing resource is available online and free of charge.

I think it’s safe to say that all librarians support the idea of facilitating access to information. That is essentially our job description in a nutshell. But Brewster’s take on it is different from the traditional librarian-as-intercessor model. Placing an entire library online, freely accessible to the public, minimizes this traditional role of a librarian. It gets at the heart of what seems to be a shift in the roles we as librarians play in modern information discovery. These days we are at a crossroads in librarianship: should we continue to provide access to print materials for on-site patrons or do we move toward shuttering our physical doors and fully embracing digital collections as the libraries of the future, opening them up online to the world?

In his presentation, Brewster made the case that the cost of digitizing a library’s collection is the same as the cost of constructing a building to house that collection. And yet a digital collection can be made available to an exponentially larger audience. To this end, Brewster is asking libraries to digitize their collections and send the files to be included in his digital library. The University of Toronto has already donated 250,000 scanned books! For books still under copyright, online patrons can check them out from the Ebook and Texts Archive on archive.org (a copyrighted book can only be checked out by one user at a time, just like in a traditional library). However, those books in the public domain don’t require a check-out process and can be enjoyed simultaneously by multiple users.

How each library decides to move through the crossroads will vary. Some libraries are indeed closing their doors and devoting all their attention to online services. Patron demand can dictate this in certain cases. However, I think that for the majority of libraries, a compromise is the more likely route. Traditional libraries can still keep their doors open to meet the needs of walk-in patrons, but they can also reach a wider global audience by turning over digital copies of their collections to the IAP. The Project will even loan out its state-of-the-art scanning equipment to help achieve this goal. Together we can help build the biggest online library in the world. It seems like a win-win situation, with everyone benefiting from increased access to information. Why shouldn’t we have the best of both print and digital worlds?

Lori Delaney points us to a New York Times article featuring the titanic vision of Brewster Kahle. One interesting quote : “A lot of libraries are doing some pretty drastic weeding. . . .”

You’ll have the opportunity to hear Mr. Kahle and ask questions pertinent to your own operations at the APLIC 45th Annual Conference.

See you in SF !

The conference registration form is now up and available for download.

Early-bird rate for registration ends on March 30. That may seem like a long way off, but remember that hotel and air rates may change as the date gets closer.

We’ll post some profiles about our speakers as well as updates in the weeks to come . . . stay tuned.

Photo: Franco Folini

The APLIC conference is always a great time to catch up with old friends and learn what colleagues are up to, and the sessions help to keep perspective on substantive issues as well as questions about our craft as information specialists.
Ok – you know the drill.
This year, however, we also get to have all of this in one of the world’s most beautiful cities : San Francisco, California.
Personally, I’ll take a couple extra days to enjoy the SF night life in Chinatown, say hello to Coit Tower, revisit memories in Golden Gate Park, and just enjoy a city that never stops posing for a perfect photo.
As we get closer to April 30, May 1-2, we’ll post items about interesting activities, sightseeing, and entertainment opportunities in and around this great town.
What would you like to do or see while you’re visiting San Francisco ? – let us know in the comments.

These images come from a superb Flickr stream of California images by Franco Folini, who shows himself to have a wonderful, sensitive eye.

By Jean Sack

The 44th Annual Conference included 13 speakers in 8 sessions. Jean Sack offers notes about some of the speakers. -Ed.

Keynote

Kristen Purcell’s Keynote “Information 2.0 and Beyond” (kpurcell@pewinternet.org) began with a description of the Pew Internet Project as a “fact tank” in collecting communications information about American Adults 18+ and USA teens 12-17, using cell phone surveys. Her presentation was extraordinarily fluent and fun! The 2011 Pew surveys revealed that 85 percent of American own cell phones with 25 percent of their homes functioning without landlines.  Some 74 percent of adults use Internet and 93 percent of teens with 65 percent using the web via broadband.  Only half of people with disabilities use the web, however, but African-American adults are the most active mobile Internet users with 40 percent of Hispanics using the web now. Because on-line access via mobile phones has sharply declined in price, low income populations use phones for web. About 61 percent of online adults use social networks with elders (above 50 years) rising in use of Facebook and other networks. Only 8 percent of on-line adults use Twitter (especially 14-17 year old girls) but many more use apps as a form of information highway bypass to pull in information, including getting geo-locations, games, social networks, news / weather, and games. Who is evaluating information when 70 percent of adults feel overwhelmed by free news vs. broad information overload? Who is teaching digital literacy and judging depth of user satisfaction with Google searches? Kristen ended her review of the past Pew Internet Surveys with a salute to the essential role of librarians as human information filters because they are trusted experts and good storytellers who can explain and customize how information relates and is relevant to the seekers.

1. Curators who use portals to aggregate links and recommend sources for “deep dives”
2. Become a living node in a network to make information open and available
3. Community builders in connecting people and forming free focus groups around facts
4. Lifesavers in providing timely information
5. Tour guides into worlds of knowledge (like museums) and data (Census and beyond)

International Datasets

Peter D. Johnson of the US Census Bureau used a screen capture PowerPoint slide show to review the International Database (IDB) and International Data Resources available on line, including some survey follow-ups such as Mozambique’s sample of deaths with verbal autopsies. Although there were no IDB handouts, Census Bureau folders with US 2010 timetables were brought in later, by Louisa Miller, on Wednesday afternoon.

Ivana Bjelic’s (ibjelic@unicef.org) careful review of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) generated by UNICEF was quite stimulating. Three MICS survey sets with 200 surveys taken in 100 countries have followed the original 1990s household surveys done for the World Summit for Children in 1995. The MICS4 given from 2009-2011 is in 43 countries whose governments select the menu modules that they desire in order to fill in gaps in their health and economic data for policy decisions. Each county implements the survey packages with funding from UNFPA, UNDP, USAID, Global Fund and UNICEF supplying technical and training help. Eighty-five percent of funding flows through the UNICEF local country offices although several countries have self-funded with average past costs of $300,000 per country. Governments form MICS teams who are trained in regional workshops in data processing & analysis as well as administration of the surveys and dissemination of results. Reviews of all questionnaires and standard methods result in each country customizing their MICS surveys and contracting with local country survey agencies for capacity building. UNICEF technical advisors return to the country at critical times during the surveys. DHS added household income survey questions from MICS to determine child well-being. Each survey takes a household sample, face to face interviews with individuals, women, children and men (new module for males). Only female interviewers can survey women and they also survey men. Follow up health checkups are given.

The MICS4 pilot was done in Mombasa, Kenya in Feb. 2009. The Early Childhood Development Index is targeted for PreS literacy, numeracy, physical / social / emotional and learning within the household. Medical screening follows for children in sample and a disability survey. Attitude questions are being added to MICS, including standard questions about child discipline and domestic violence.  It is possible to compare certain modules of MICS between rounds and countries. A module on Child Health contains questions about immunization coverage, ORT, and care-seeking for pneumonia. The Household questions are given to women 15-49, mothers of children under 5, and men 15-59 collecting demographics, identifying orphans, education, water / sanitation, dwelling information places family in wealth quintiles, malaria queries include collecting statistics on use of ITN bed nets or spraying, and includes questions about child labor, hand washing, and food (salt iodization test is made). The women’s module includes questions on literacy, fertility, age at marriage, access to mass media, birth histories (child mortality), illnesses in children, contraceptive use, postnatal checks, female genital cutting, life satisfaction, maternal mortality, use of tobacco / alcohol. The newest module for men is similar to that for women but includes male circumcision, contraceptive usage and sex behaviors as well as questions about HIV / stigma and shame. The median number of household visits per country is 7,000 but can be up to 62,000.

Collected MICS data are disseminated in-country in preliminary reports, a final report is issued and a country action plan developed. Most data is mounted on the MICS website for public use. The State of the World’s Children utilizes data from MICS as do the UNICEF Countdown reports, Millennium Development reports, and the Global Poverty Index. Datasets are downloadable and free from www.childinfo.org and via www.micscompiler.org with tables, graphs, maps. Only a few countries have participated in each MICS round (Serbia and Gambia), since many governments rotate between with DHS (Ghana & Sierra Leone). Mali is participating for the first time in MICS4 while many of the African countries are now nearly finished with MICS4 data collections.

Ivana handled many questions very adroitly during her PowerPoint presentation. MICS information was distributed on UNICEF CDs to APLIC members in addition to spiral notebooks, fact-sheets, postcards, opaque rulers and mouse pads.

Note : Jean sent these notes to us in a very timely fashion in April; the editorial team will try in future to be more responsive.

APLIC members gathered in Washington DC in late March for three eventful days of presentations, special events, and catching up with old friends. The nation’s capital provided some wonderful moments outside the session rooms.

Enjoy a brief slide show . . . .

One of Washington’s best-kept secrets, The Brewmaster’s Castle  is the most intact late-Victorian home in the country, and a Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1892-1894 of poured concrete and reinforced steel by German immigrant, local brewer and philanthropist, Christian Heurich, it is also the city’s first fireproof home. Heurich was Washington’s second largest landowner, the largest private employer in the nation’s capital, and as the world’s oldest brewer, ran his brewery until his death at 102.

It is maintained by a private foundation and a dedicated director lives on site. The house is large, but the tours have an ‘initmate’ feel.  You can schedule a private tour on a Wednesday or walk-in at their scheduled times Thursday, Friday or Saturday (11:30 and 1 each day, with an added 2:30 tour on Saturday).

For years I drove past this mansion (located at the intersection of 20th and New Hampshire in northwest DC) on the way to my hotel in Georgetown and never knew what it was. Finally this summer I planned a visit.  It is within easy walking distance of Dupont Circle.  If you enjoy historic homes, this is a real treat. The history is fascinating, including romance and tragedy. The local DC brewery was located at the site of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts  (another gem, but not hidden).  A blog post on the brewery has some interesting anecdotes.  And a little bit about the beer can be found at Foggy Bottom.com .