Latest / On the Same Page: A KCPL Podcast / Chapter 3, Part 1: A New Frontier - The Media Desk, Citizen Science, and the Weird West

Transcript

Chapter 3, Part 1: A New Frontier - The Media Desk, Citizen Science, and the Weird West · On the Same Page: A KCPL Podcast

• 0:01
  Good morning, good evening,
• 0:04
  good afternoon. Welcome back to another episode
• 0:08
  of On the Same Page, a KCPL podcast.
• 0:12
  I'm Evan and I'm Tanya, and we
• 0:16
  are your co-hosts on this brand new adventure.
• 0:20
  Uh, today, before we get started, before we dive into our topic, uh,
• 0:24
  the first thing I think we want to do is if you're
• 0:28
  listening right now or if you've listened to any of them, we want to say
• 0:31
  thank you. We want to thank our people out there who are listening and engaging
• 0:35
  with us in this new way. We're really glad you're giving us a chance and
• 0:39
  tuning in. Yeah, I'm so excited. We're on episode 4 now.
• 0:43
  Yeah, I know. And we were on the news for this.
• 0:47
  Yes, we were on the news. Yeah, which that
• 0:50
  should— we might put that out on social media here soon. I don't know when,
• 0:54
  but yeah, we were on the news for this. So like it's getting some
• 0:57
  publicity. There's been bookmarks at our branches. If you
• 1:01
  haven't found one of those, definitely check those out. Tanya has made some lovely
• 1:06
  bookmarks with QR codes that tell you where you can listen to the
• 1:11
  podcast. So definitely check those out. I went wild with
• 1:14
  the Jurassic Park theme. Oh, of course.
• 1:18
  Of course you have. Speaking of Jurassic Park, I want
• 1:22
  to say that Unfortunately,
• 1:26
  since our last episode, one of the cast members of Jurassic Park
• 1:29
  did indeed pass away, and I said
• 1:33
  we would mention that on our podcast because it's kind
• 1:38
  of, you know, all sorts of libraries across the country are celebrating dinosaurs
• 1:43
  this summer, and so it kind of, you know, hits a little bit different
• 1:47
  because we're so involved in that, you know,
• 1:50
  scene right now. Sam Neill. Sam Neill, Dr.
• 1:53
  Alan Grant. And as a horror lover,
• 1:57
  I also love the movie Possession, which he is in.
• 2:00
  Okay. And he is excellent in that movie. So yeah,
• 2:03
  we're sad, sad to hear about that. Yeah,
• 2:06
  we're also, you know, I mean, a little— I mean, we're always
• 2:10
  a little sad when this season ends, but, uh, Summer Library Club
• 2:14
  is is over. When this episode's released, it will
• 2:18
  be August 1st, so Summer Library Club season is
• 2:22
  in the books. And this was your first full-fledged
• 2:27
  Summer Library Club, so how was that being your first time
• 2:30
  being here for the whole thing? It's been really exciting to
• 2:34
  see all the events, and recently
• 2:37
  we had the Silly Safari event at the main branch.
• 2:41
  And I got to hold the fennec fox. Oh,
• 2:45
  that sounds incredible. And that is something I never thought I would get to do.
• 2:48
  So I was off the day that we had it here at St.
• 2:52
  Albans, so I did not get to hold any animals,
• 2:55
  but it looked like it was a blast. And just like all
• 2:59
  of our programs we do in the summer, like, it's a very
• 3:03
  busy time, but it's a time we do look forward to because it's
• 3:07
  important for kids to come out during the summer,
• 3:11
  and we really, we really love seeing all the people come out and visit
• 3:15
  us. So that's over, and now
• 3:19
  we're looking on to what we've got next. Before we
• 3:23
  talk about the main theme of this episode, I do have an update from
• 3:27
  the last episode. Last episode we
• 3:31
  did the segment History Doesn't Have to Be a Mystery, in which I talked a
• 3:34
  little bit about the Kanawha County Public Library and how it how
• 3:38
  it got started and some of the history surrounding that. And on
• 3:43
  that episode, I talked about who was the first registered borrower at the
• 3:47
  library. We, at that time, the only name we
• 3:50
  had was Miss Matheson.
• 3:55
  Jamie in our reference department, Jamie's title is
• 3:58
  the West Virginia Reference Librarian,
• 4:01
  was able to find the full name of the first registered borrower,
• 4:06
  and I'm happy to share with you her name was Miss Ella Temperance Oaks
• 4:11
  Matheson. She lived to be 90 years
• 4:14
  and 10 days old before she died of natural causes on September
• 4:19
  1st, 1947. Her usual occupation was listed
• 4:23
  as housewife. You know, housewife at that age,
• 4:25
  that time. She was the first registered borrower. It could
• 4:29
  be concluded that she probably made good use of the library
• 4:34
  during her time, so We do have her full name now,
• 4:37
  so that mystery has been solved as
• 4:40
  well. History definitely doesn't have to be a mystery when you've got a reference librarian
• 4:44
  on it. I'm glad we know her name, and thank you to Jamie for
• 4:48
  getting it for us. Yes. Last episode we talked about
• 4:52
  history. Today we're going to be talking a little bit about a blend of
• 4:56
  history and the future at the same time together.
• 4:59
  And so talking about things in the future and and things
• 5:03
  that are important now. Technology, as you all know,
• 5:07
  is continuing to grow and expand, and it's something that
• 5:11
  is part of our lives in a lot of different ways. And so today,
• 5:16
  our guest that we're going to be talking to today is our technology
• 5:19
  librarian, Kelsey Johnson.
• 5:23
  Hello, Kelsey. Hi, y'all. How's it going?
• 5:27
  Thanks for having me here. Oh, absolutely.
• 5:31
  We're glad you were able to make some time for us and get to
• 5:35
  chat with us. So tell us a little bit about what you— what your day-to-day
• 5:39
  role is like, or anything about yourself that you want to share, fun facts,
• 5:43
  anything like that. Just give our listeners a little preview
• 5:48
  of who is Kelsey. Awesome. Yeah. So like
• 5:53
  you said, my official title is technology librarian.
• 5:57
  I also refer to myself sometimes as the library's STEM
• 6:00
  librarian, or our makerspace librarian,
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  because day to day I wear a lot of different metaphorical
• 6:09
  hats. I run the Idea Lab, which is KCPL's
• 6:13
  makerspace at our main branch in downtown Charleston.
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  We have 3D printers here, we have sewing machines,
• 6:22
  a laser engraver, and right now I'm actually sitting
• 6:25
  inside one of our vocal recording booths where we have recording
• 6:29
  equipment and software that allows patrons
• 6:32
  to come in and they can do podcasts just like this,
• 6:36
  or music, audiobooks, any sort of recording like that.
• 6:41
  So that is one aspect of my day-to-day job, but I also do
• 6:45
  technology-related reference services. I help people research
• 6:49
  what technology is going to maybe best work for a given
• 6:53
  project for them, or if they have questions about
• 6:57
  emerging technologies. I get a lot questions lately about
• 7:00
  AI, and we're working on developing a list
• 7:04
  of AI reference resources that
• 7:08
  patrons can access when they have questions about that sort of thing.
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  So professionally, that's what I do. That's who Kelsey
• 7:15
  Johnson, technology librarian, is. Personally,
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  I do a lot of low-tech stuff. I like
• 7:23
  to embroider by hand. I like to do word
• 7:26
  searches. I like you know,
• 7:30
  a good adult coloring book where I can doodle.
• 7:35
  So that's how I find balance is in my personal life. I'm maybe not
• 7:40
  the most high-tech person, but then I
• 7:44
  come to work and I get to play with all sorts of fun informational technology
• 7:48
  here. Wow. So, I mean, that does sound like it's a pretty
• 7:52
  good balance between the two. I mean, you definitely do a lot of stuff with
• 7:55
  tech at work, so I can see the benefit
• 8:00
  of kind of, you know, stepping back away from that a little bit when you're
• 8:04
  not here. Definitely. It's all about balance. And that's
• 8:08
  what I recommend to coworkers and to patrons as well,
• 8:12
  is technology is good and it's our friend and it's, it's part
• 8:16
  of 21st century life. But it's important to have balance.
• 8:20
  So we wanted to talk a little bit about some
• 8:24
  other things that are going on in your department, the IDEA
• 8:27
  Lab, and some new things that you've got going on right now?
• 8:31
  I know you mentioned a lot of the vocal booth, the 3D printers,
• 8:35
  the laser engraver, but I think you have some new stuff that's coming
• 8:39
  out that, you know, from your department. Yes, we do have some
• 8:43
  exciting stuff coming up. One thing that we are currently
• 8:47
  launching kind of as we speak is we revamped
• 8:51
  some services that we already offered but really kind of brought it to the next
• 8:55
  level. I was really lucky to be able to work with our IT
• 8:59
  department automation and get what we're calling our multimedia
• 9:03
  desk. We have a shiny new computer with a nice big screen that
• 9:07
  has not only the same recording and mixing software
• 9:11
  that we have here in the vocal booth so that people can continue to work
• 9:15
  on their projects after they've recorded, but we also have professional-grade
• 9:19
  video and photo editing software there.
• 9:22
  Additionally, we got a new digitizer.
• 9:26
  Previously, we were able to only digitize VHS tapes,
• 9:30
  which is already an amazing service that I hope people continue
• 9:34
  to take advantage of, but now we're also able to digitize VHS-C
• 9:39
  tapes, which are smaller ones from old camcorders. We can digitize
• 9:44
  audio cassette tapes if you have an old favorite cassette.
• 9:48
  I know growing up my go-to was a Michael Jackson cassette
• 9:52
  tape. We can also scan old film negatives,
• 9:56
  and we also just have a high-quality photo scanner, so if you have any
• 9:59
  sort of old media that you're wanting to
• 10:03
  digitize and preserve, or if you have a new project that you're
• 10:06
  working on, come on in. It is still kind
• 10:10
  of, I want to say, in beta testing. So if you want to use the
• 10:14
  media desk, just contact me directly. My email
• 10:18
  address is listed on the Idea Lab page of
• 10:21
  the library's website. In the next few weeks, we're going to
• 10:24
  get it where you can sign up and do the training for that online,
• 10:28
  just like all of our other equipment. But for now, if you want
• 10:32
  to use it, and I hope you do, just reach out to me directly.
• 10:34
  So would they need to like schedule that ahead of time? Like, is that
• 10:38
  how that would work, or? Yeah, right now,
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  yes, because we— because like I said, it's something where I need
• 10:45
  to, to let people in and let people know what they
• 10:50
  can do with it. It is on a schedule basis. In the future,
• 10:53
  I'm hoping to be able to allow a little more flexibility
• 10:56
  with that. But for any of our equipment in the Idea Lab, we strongly
• 11:01
  recommend but don't necessarily require appointments. So it'll
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  operate on kind of that same basis. That makes sense.
• 11:08
  I have a question. Absolutely. So if I have like 35mm
• 11:12
  film camera film, I could bring that in and scan
• 11:15
  it and digitize it at the ID Lab? Absolutely.
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  And then we just save it onto— we ask you
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  to bring for our film digitizer either an SD card or a USB
• 11:26
  drive, and then you can walk out with all of that film scanned and saved.
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  I have a lot of 35mm film from my camera
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  that I used a lot in college. So love it.
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  Well, see, now you have it. You know about a service that they can offer
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  and, uh, something that hopefully our listeners are learning
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  too. Like, I mean, I knew we had the VHS one, but I didn't know
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  the, the full scope of everything else. And you've added these
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  new things. And so I think that's really cool that you're Even,
• 11:57
  even giving more options for people to digitize
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  things and save those older mediums
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  before they, you know, I know some of those things can degrade
• 12:09
  over time and there's, you know, that kind of risk. So this
• 12:13
  is a way to kind of help avoid that. And I think
• 12:17
  that's really cool that we're offering that to people. Yeah,
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  my, my background in library school
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  was actually in archives and special collections, and so I learned a lot about how
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  film especially just isn't stable for long-term storage.
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  And so coming in here and seeing that we did already have that VHS
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  digitizer that has been well-loved by our community already, I wanted to
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  make sure we were expanding offerings, especially because I know there's a
• 12:43
  lot of really rich local history here. There's a lot of
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  people interested in genealogy and personal
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  record keeping, so I'm always looking for ways to make
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  things like that more accessible to our community. Wow,
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  that's awesome. Now, is there another thing
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  that's going to be circulating? Yes,
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  I'm very excited about this. It has been a long time coming.
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  Fingers crossed. My goal is to have these officially
• 13:12
  launching for back to school by the end of August,
• 13:16
  but I am putting together some citizen science
• 13:20
  kits that are going to be put into circulation. We were really privileged to
• 13:24
  be able to run a couple of citizen science programs here
• 13:28
  in April, which is, if you don't know, it's the Acts
• 13:32
  of Science Month, Citizen Science Month, and there's an organization
• 13:36
  called SciStarter that facilitates citizen
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  science programs throughout the year, but especially during that Acts of Science Challenge
• 13:45
  in April. So we worked with them in April, and based on that,
• 13:49
  I decided I wanted to make it something that patrons could continue
• 13:53
  coming into the library for but also take home. So we're
• 13:57
  going to start with 2 kinds of kits, and then if we see success with
• 14:01
  those, we're going to expand our offerings. But the first 2 types of kits,
• 14:05
  one of them is called our Observing Pollinators Kit.
• 14:09
  So it's going to have binoculars in it. It's going to
• 14:12
  have brochures that show different types of not
• 14:16
  only flowers and plants that we have here in West Virginia, but what
• 14:20
  some types of pollinators here are. So butterflies, bees,
• 14:23
  and then it has instructions for how to track what pollinators
• 14:27
  you're seeing and where you're seeing them, and then how to upload that data
• 14:31
  so that real scientists doing real ongoing research can use
• 14:36
  that to track pollinator statistics over time, which tells
• 14:40
  us lots of really important information about the environment,
• 14:43
  the climate, and how it varies across geographic regions.
• 14:47
  So that's one I'm really excited about. And then our other one is
• 14:51
  the Observing Biodiversity Kit, and that again has
• 14:55
  binoculars, binoculars, it has informational brochures. That one also has
• 14:59
  a little camera lens kit that you can clip onto your smartphone
• 15:03
  to take high-quality pictures, and then it has instructions for how
• 15:07
  to upload those pictures to an app called iNaturalist,
• 15:11
  which again, scientists then pull data from that app based
• 15:15
  on what animals are being seen in what regions, and they're able to
• 15:19
  track migratory patterns over time. So this
• 15:22
  is a way that anybody, even somebody who doesn't think of themselves
• 15:26
  as a scientist, maybe can contribute to really important research.
• 15:30
  But it's also just fun. I don't know about you, but I love going
• 15:34
  out into nature. And even if I just spend 15 minutes counting
• 15:38
  how many bumblebees I see in my garden,
• 15:41
  that's almost a meditative experience. It's something
• 15:45
  I can do with my kids. And then to know that it's also going
• 15:49
  to be able to help our community and our scientists and our country and
• 15:53
  honestly around around the world, that makes it even more meaningful.
• 15:57
  So I'm really excited that our patrons are going to be able to check these
• 16:00
  kits out, take them home, and do science. And I hope that
• 16:04
  if you do check out one of these kits and you do use it,
• 16:06
  come back and tell me about it. I want to hear how you used it
• 16:09
  and how that goes for you. In the app, does it show you in
• 16:14
  your area if people have already uploaded photos or things
• 16:18
  that have been seen in your area? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, you're able to look and
• 16:22
  see what other citizen scientists in the area have been observing.
• 16:26
  I like to go on there and see what
• 16:31
  sorts of animals. For instance, I found, when I had
• 16:35
  first moved to the West Virginia area, I live kind
• 16:39
  of up on a cliff, and I found a box turtle in my yard one
• 16:42
  day, and I was like, how did it even get here? So that was just
• 16:46
  something that I didn't realize those were native to
• 16:50
  our area as someone who moved from the West Coast. So even just seeing things
• 16:54
  like that and then going onto the app and seeing, oh, actually people are seeing
• 16:57
  box turtles around here all the time, was just really fun. It was a way
• 17:00
  for me to get to know the area. I don't know, I love it.
• 17:03
  As somebody who did not think of myself as a scientist growing up,
• 17:07
  I was very much the literature nerd.
• 17:10
  To be able to now recognize ways that I can be involved
• 17:14
  on a personal level and at a community level in scientific research is really
• 17:19
  cool. I love to take pictures, so I'm already intrigued by that idea.
• 17:24
  Yeah, you can be first in line to check that kit out.
• 17:30
  So the kits will circulate to other branches as well?
• 17:33
  Like if they put it on hold, they can pick it up at other locations,
• 17:36
  or is that something they do at Main, or how's that aspect
• 17:40
  going to work? Absolutely. So we are starting out, there will be 10
• 17:45
  copies of the observing pollinators kit throughout the system. So we'll keep
• 17:49
  2 here at Main, but there will be some all already at the smaller branches.
• 17:53
  The biodiversity kits, we're starting out with only 2 of those
• 17:57
  just because the equipment for the camera lens is a little more expensive,
• 18:01
  but anybody anywhere in the system can put those on hold and then you can
• 18:05
  pick it up from your branch. We'll make sure it gets to you. Oh,
• 18:08
  that's awesome. I think, you know, this would be something that
• 18:11
  definitely a lot of different like homeschooling groups,
• 18:15
  I think, could really definitely take advantage of this.
• 18:19
  And I mean, just anyone who has a kid
• 18:22
  interested in science, like, I think this is good for kids but also adults.
• 18:27
  Like, if the citizen science thing is, you know,
• 18:30
  for anyone. So I think it's
• 18:34
  really cool. A way to get outside. Definitely a way to get
• 18:37
  outside, a way to make science fun. Like you said,
• 18:41
  Tanya, sometimes if the only thing you know about
• 18:44
  it is, well, hey, I like taking pictures, that's something I can do. It's good
• 18:48
  for families with kids. Like you said, Evan, I hope our homeschooling community
• 18:52
  takes advantage of these kits. It's great for families, but it's also great for,
• 18:56
  for anyone. If a teen who loves photography wants to get
• 19:00
  involved, that's perfect. It's something that's great for our seniors. I know
• 19:03
  we have a lot of seniors who are active in nature
• 19:07
  and going out hiking or gardening. This is great for them as well.
• 19:11
  Absolutely. Can I ask where you're from? What state you're from?
• 19:15
  I'm actually from all over the place. Most recently, before coming to
• 19:18
  West Virginia, I was in California. Before that, I was
• 19:22
  in Utah, and I grew up in the Midwest as well. So,
• 19:25
  okay, I was just curious because you said the West Coast. Yeah,
• 19:28
  yeah, I was in, I was in SoCal before this. I was in California,
• 19:32
  so lots of biodiversity there as well, very different
• 19:36
  than what we see here in the Appalachian Mountains. I love both, and this place
• 19:40
  has become close to my heart since living in West Virginia. Now we're going
• 19:44
  to jump into kind of combining 2 things together
• 19:48
  because we have Kelsey on, our technology librarian,
• 19:53
  and the theme for America 250 for August is the
• 19:57
  Wild West, kind of looking at the new frontier and the new
• 20:01
  things, but also looking at the, the old things. I jotted down
• 20:05
  2 different books that I want to shout out really quick. The first one
• 20:10
  It is called Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian.
• 20:15
  Tanya, I think you might like it because it does have some kind of like
• 20:18
  folksy horror elements to it. Love it. Love it.
• 20:22
  Very nice. And it is about a group. They must
• 20:26
  track down a witch through the Wild West. So they're
• 20:30
  hunting a witch in the Wild West. There's, there's a bounty on the
• 20:34
  main character, Sadie Grace. And there's this group that's
• 20:38
  hunting her because she's a witch. And there's a witch
• 20:42
  hunter named Old Tom and his mysterious mute ward,
• 20:45
  Rabbit. It's a kind of Old West mixed with
• 20:49
  sci-fi elements, some, you know, paranormal. There's some
• 20:53
  ghosts involved in it too. It's kind of got that little bit of horror,
• 20:56
  but it's set in the Old West time period. So like
• 21:01
  late 1800s? Yes. That sounds
• 21:04
  very cool. Yeah, read that. There's,
• 21:07
  there's a whole genre out there that is this— it's called Weird
• 21:12
  West, and it's, you know, the Old West blended with other sorts of things
• 21:16
  in them. So that's a recommendation.
• 21:21
  And the other one that I have, it's called Doc
• 21:25
  by Mary Doria Russell.
• 21:28
  Doc is about Doc Holliday. Who was
• 21:32
  kind of a friend or involved with Wyatt Earp
• 21:36
  in the Old West. This is about his friendship with Wyatt Earp,
• 21:39
  some of the gunfights that were famous during that time. It's just
• 21:44
  a good old Western historical fiction that
• 21:49
  might be outside— because I know a lot of people who are into Westerns,
• 21:52
  they have the big heavy authors like Louis L'Amour and like, you know,
• 21:57
  I tried to find something that was kind of not so
• 22:01
  well known, and I know Doc Holliday is,
• 22:04
  is well known. This is just a historical fiction version
• 22:09
  of that story, and we have both of those books in our system.
• 22:13
  So I found some that looked really cool that we did not have,
• 22:16
  so I did not bring those today because maybe we
• 22:21
  can get them, but maybe we can't. You'll have to make a request. I know.
• 22:24
  Yes. Our request system, which patrons can also
• 22:28
  log into their accounts and make requests. So make use of that.
• 22:32
  I just wanted to give those 2 shoutouts for books because,
• 22:36
  you know, last month we talked about America 250. And when this month, when we
• 22:39
  were looking at planning, we knew we were having you on, it was like,
• 22:44
  well, how about blending the Old West with the
• 22:48
  New Frontier and together? And there's
• 22:54
  There is one thing I do want to mention, that we do have the movie.
• 22:56
  We do not have the book because the book is no longer
• 22:59
  in publication. It was actually just a novelization of the movie.
• 23:03
  It happens to be by Michael Crichton. Oh, okay. Who wrote Jurassic
• 23:07
  Park, which we talked about last month. And it's a— the basis for
• 23:11
  a sci-fi TV series that you might have heard of called Westworld.
• 23:16
  Oh yes. Yeah, Michael Crichton was behind
• 23:20
  that. It blends the 2 worlds together.
• 23:23
  It's got these like AI robots,
• 23:26
  these androids, lifelike androids who run a park where they
• 23:30
  have different sections of the park, and one is the Old West.
• 23:35
  I, I didn't know it was by Michael Crichton. Knowing that,
• 23:39
  it's really interesting that this is another park. Yeah,
• 23:43
  another park setting, you know, uh, they have the Old West, the medieval
• 23:47
  And then the Roman world. They have those 3 worlds in their
• 23:52
  park. It's just kind of interesting. But the book was only
• 23:57
  a novelization of the movie. So if
• 24:01
  you— if that sounds interesting or intriguing, check that movie
• 24:05
  out. Check out the TV series. I know we have that as well, which kind
• 24:09
  of— again, this is very common themes here.
• 24:13
  The TV series takes and expands upon the
• 24:17
  idea from the movie and the book, just like the Jurassic Park movies take those
• 24:21
  books and expand upon them and have made, you know, a lot more from
• 24:25
  that. That seems to be something very common with his works.
• 24:28
  They take it and then they run with it and make it its
• 24:33
  own thing. So that's another
• 24:38
  option there if you're not wanting to get in the Old West as far
• 24:42
  as reading goes, maybe check this out, Blending this artificial
• 24:46
  intelligence with the Old West together.
• 24:51
  So very— I've heard Westworld is a good show,
• 24:54
  but I have never seen it. So, well,
• 24:58
  now you might have a reason to check that out because I know you told
• 25:01
  me you already read the second Jurassic Park. So you're keeping that, you know,
• 25:05
  Michael Crichton, like you're, you're going on that. Maybe,
• 25:08
  uh, this might be because the movie came out in 1973.
• 25:11
  It's an older movie too. Wow. It's— yeah,
• 25:15
  yeah, it's, uh, it had a kid,
• 25:18
  uh, James Brolin. Wow. Or not a kid, but like
• 25:22
  a young James Brolin at that point. That might
• 25:26
  be something you wanna check out and see.