Craig's Desk Intro - episode 21

Show Intro and Disclaimer
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Hello and welcome to Craig's Desk, a program from the State Library of North Carolina Accessible Books and Library Services, SLNC-ABLS. I'm your host Craig Hayward, the technology librarian at SLNC-ABLS.

This show is all about sharing and learning about the library's reading technology, online resources and some insider information and announcements from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, known as NLS.

I will say that over the course of creating and producing this show, that it has been fun to write the show scripts, but I also see the need to evolve the content offered. 

On this episode, I'm offering you, the listener, a live staff interview with our Collections Librarian, Josh Berkov. My hope is that you will learn a little more about one of the people on our staff, what they do and how they help you read more. Josh in particular is a good person to know since he is so involved in building the library's collection of books from NLS and locally recorded ones.

After that, see what's on my desk, Craig's Desk.

That desk is where I get my ideas for this show and where people like yourself offer up questions and feedback that are worthwhile to share. Some of the best questions we've had on the show have been from people posting on our social media accounts, like the library's Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts, at SLNC-ABLS, and day-to-day when you call in for support and help.

I take notes and remember things. I also learn things daily from the interactions with patrons. You teach me everyday. It's a gift I get to receive from you.

I'd also like to mention our email address is ABLS.Help@ncdcr.gov. ABLS for Accessible Books and Library Services, the name of our library and what we provide as a library. Help because that's the purpose of the email box. We want to help you. So ABLS.Help@ncdcr.gov is the place to send in your technology questions or other feedback. Keep that around and use it when you need it.

Whether it's to hear a technology question answered or some other bit of news and information about our library or NLS or for whatever reason you're listening, I'm thankful you're here, as is our library. We all want to serve you and help you.

I'll be your guide and help you navigate the changes in our service. I want to help you use the technology better, so you can enjoy more reading.

A final note before we start this program, sharing is caring. We'd like to get the word out and share this show so that we can help whoever wants help. If you have friends, family or anyone else that want to listen to the show, tell them to search Apple Podcasts or Spotify for Craig's Desk or go to the Craig's Desk podcast webpage on Podbean - https://nccraigsdesk.podbean.com/

Enough talk, let's get this episode of Craig's Desk started.

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Now another Staff Interview.

(Interview text copied from captions)

This is an interview with Josh Berkov
Collection Management Librarian.

So here's a staff interview.

Josh Berkov ABLS' Collection Management
Library is someone who I have worked with for several years now and who is deeply committed
to providing quality reading materials by building the best collection of reading, local recordings, descriptive video materials and all things related. you can have.

Josh also works on things
behind the scenes to help the entire NLS
network of libraries be every program
the best it can when it comes to reading.

Enough of that.
Let's hear things in Josh's words.

So Josh what brought you to the library
originally.

Why ABLS?

Well, the honest truth is,
I was looking for another job.

I was working at a community college
library and sounds familiar.

Yeah, you know, I. It was.
I mean, I liked working there,
but I was commuting, you know, an hour
and 15 minutes each way every day.

That was getting tiring. And I.
I knew someone who had worked here
at ABLS years ago, and he had gotten wind that

I was looking for a new job and he knew
that this position was open. Now,

ABLS staff
were actually really trying
to recruit him for it to come back,

but he had already
made plans to move away.

So he he mentioned the job opening to me
and happened to be

the very last day that the job position
was open for applications.

So I really rushed my application in
and got the interview.

I know my friend
who had worked here before, you know,

had put in a good word for me
and I got the job.

It was the easiest job search
I've ever had.

I got that first job I applied for.
That's great.

That's testament to that.
I had known of ABLS' existence,

but I didn't know that much about it
until I interviewed.

And actually, to be honest, I wasn't.
I don't know how much of this,
I should say,

even going into the interview, I wasn't
it wasn't really until the morning

of the interview that I started
getting excited about the possibility,

Yeah, I am okay.

But but the interview.

But the interview itself went well

and I, I just over the next few days,
you know, state government

takes a while
before you get the official offer.

So I had about a month
of like building up myself the building

at the time of the interview
and the time of the job offer.

It really does. Yeah.

Yeah, I have some bumps.

I have some bumps and bruises
stories myself

from getting this job
with the state government.

So, yeah, I can totally relate.

Yeah. Yeah. So

I didn't
really plan to stay here for that long,

but it's been eight and a half years
now, so I, it, it must,

there must be some redeeming quality
for, for, for working here.

Sure.

Yeah. Anyway, so really why ABLS.

It was more of like,
yeah, I just need a new job.

And this is the first one that came along.
That's not a problem.

That's understood. Yeah. Okay.
So before you were at ABLS, where were you
before you were at ABLS, I guess
that's the next question I have for you.

What's your journey
been like getting here?

How far back do you want me to go?
You don't have to go terribly far back.

Just like maybe a couple things back
before you got here.

I don't know. Alright.
So I got my MLS at UNC-Chapel Hill and stayed on there for about a year and three months afterwards.

They hired me
full time on a couple of to manage
a couple of grant funded projects
in the library system there.

At the end of 2008.
So that was 2007-2008.

The grant projects that I was on
were coming to an end
and because the economy was crashing,

there were no new projects
in the pipeline.

So I had to leave.

Yeah, it's the the perils of working

on soft money source.
Yeah, soft money fun.

So I was literally a week away
from being unemployed
when a woman named Deborah Hooper,
who's the Director for Living Arts College in North Raleigh, hired me to be the Librarian there.

Living Arts College
was a very small private, for profit
arts college up in the Wakefield area
with, you know, 400 students total.
So I was the only librarian.

Yeah,
I worked there for almost four years. Wow.
Learned a lot. It was good experience.

I have no regrets,
but I was ready to get back into state
government and wanted the stability of state government, the benefits,
the pension plan, all that stuff.

So I managed to get the position
of Coordinator of Collections
and User Services at Pitt Community
College Library in Pitt County,
technically in Winterville.

I was there for 19 months. I
enjoyed the

job, enjoyed the students, the staff,
the faculty.

But the hour and 15 minute commute each way, every day, five days a week, was wearing on me.

Yeah and I.
I just got tired of spending two and a half hours of my day,
five days a week in the car.
Yeah, I can relate.

I needed something closer,
and that's what brought me here.

Oh, great.
Well, we're happy to have you.

We're glad you have stayed.

Kept it
beyond the initial couple of years.

Yeah, Like, yeah, I'm still here.
That's awesome.

Okay, so merging into this, what have been
some of your highlights being here?

What are some of the highlights,
some of the high points
since you've been here?
The work that I do
here is the most rewarding work that I've ever done as a librarian. Ok.

I came from academic libraries
where it was whether you're talking university
or private college or community college.

Well, patrons in those settings,
students, staff, faculty, you know,
are certainly in need of our services.

It's not the same
kind of need as our patrons here
have for our services.

I mean, so many of our patrons
have lost their sight
or are losing their sight later in life.

They never learned to read Braille.
Some live alone or in
other ways are isolated.

And we hear routinely from patrons
just how much our service means to them
that it really saves their sanity,
especially for those who are really isolated and alone and have very
little community support around them.

Knowing that the work that I do
literally helps
thousands of North Carolinians
across the state every single day

is more reward than I've gotten in
any of my previous jobs combined.

So that is an enduring highlight
for me in terms of my work here.

I would say in in other rewards
getting involved at the national level,
within the network of libraries for the blind,
but also at NLS proper, whether it was
the Collection Development Advisory Group
that I served on for four years at NLS
or the Subject Headings Working Group
that I chair now among a number of state libraries
and in cooperation with

with the Bibliographic Control Section
at NLS. NLS being the National Library
Service for the Blind Print Disabled,
which is a part of Library of Congress.

For those of you not aware.
So just the ability
to really sort of branch out and really develop and I think a pretty good reputation for myself

nationwide within this this program of
of network libraries for the blind.

That's awesome. That's great.
So now the counter to that,
what have been some of the challenges
with being in this job?

Well, I guess I'm going to say
what I'm going to say
is sort of both a blessing and a curse.

Okay.
When I started here,
we were getting from NLS about in probably a little under

3000 titles
each year added into the collection.

It'd be probably
I think it was about 2100 Braille or audio titles and 5 or 600 Braille titles somewhere around there.

So we're looking at probably about 2700
to 2800 titles total coming from NLS.

And just keep in mind
that part of my duties here is to code
all of these incoming books with
our local subject headings.

Compare that or contrast 2800
to nearly 10,000
that we're dealing with now.

And most of those are coming from NLS,
although some from the network libraries,

also the locally produced books
including our own.
So the the workload has increased fourfold

since I've started
well or almost fourfold.

That is the biggest challenge that is.
It's a curse, but it's also a blessing
for our patrons because that means
four times the number of new titles
available to them to read every year.

Yeah, that's that's an awesome
piece of that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We've got, you know, our longtime readers
who you've read everything in their preferred genres, are getting more new titles
in those preferred genres
each year than they were before. So.

Okay, excellent.
So now let's talk a little bit.
What are your hopes and dreams and
aspirations for the future and even here?

But what what are some of your hopes?
What are some of the things you dream
about doing beyond this?

Oh, maybe
world domination. Okay.

It sounds like.
You know, I beyond this place.

Sure.
So I also

I'm also a writer in my spare time.
I write books, novels.

We've got a couple in the collection
that I've been able to to donate the files
for or we're recording.

I would like.
One of my goals is to have one of my books
turned into a movie.

I'd love to see one of my books
on the big screen or

or at least in a Netflix type service. So
maybe it's a little bit of a pipe dream,

but that's that's one of my goals
for the future.

And just to keep writing books
and making people laugh,
because most of my books
have a fair amount of humor in them.

What are what are a couple of title
samplers to get people going, eliciting?

Well, one
that's in our collection in audio
right now is Adulting at the Moto-Lodge.

Moto dash Lodge.
Another book which
we, have in braille,
is The Enlightenment of Angeline.

A N G E L I N E and we're
currently recording that one as well.

In the future
there will be another book called
The Enlightenment of Iris that I'm having
commercially recorded, and I'll be able
to donate those files to the library.

It's not that not quite ready yet.
Those are a couple of titles.

That's great.
Okay, so now you're a writer yourself
and you're also a collections guy.

What are some of your favorite authors
or books that you've read?

Ooh, um,
I've read so
much, it's hard to pinpoint
like a particular favorite.

But one one of my favorites
in the last say, five years
that I just absolutely adored

was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.
It's a it's an epic family saga, uh, fiction,
historical fiction, World War two era and into the actually, it takes place over a number of decades starting earlier in the 20th century, going up, you know, to towards the end of the 20th century.

It takes place in Korea and Japan.
And it's really a family saga
of a couple of generations of this Korean family that instant finding itself in Japan after the war.

And it's if you liked the Joy Luck Club,
you'll love this.

Okay.
I think that's that's the best analogy
that I can make.

Other books try to think what
what others really sort of jump out at me.

Um, I will say this
rather than naming other specific books, my favorite writing style is first person narrative.

I just fell in love with it when I started
reading Sue Grafton's Alphabet

Mysteries in the Kinsey
Milhone Mysteries, as well as Sarah Paretsky's V.
I Warshawski books.

Yeah, And also the mystery,
the Andy Ross Miss Julia books.

They all have that beautifully written
first person narrative

where you actually feel like
you're in the room with the characters.
And so in my own writing,
I've tried to emulate that.

All of my writing is done
in first person narrative, and my readers have commented that they indeed feel like they're
living the stories with the characters
as they're reading the books.

Wow That's those are some and that's
that's good for me to remember, too.

Some of that stuff too.
Yeah. I like books like that. As well.

So one of the book
I absolutely loved reading, Takahashi

Coates'.I didn't not pronounce that correctly.

Ta-Nehishi Coates'
first debut novel,
a couple of years ago, The Water Dancer.

Oh. Incredibly beautifully written.
The language, the descriptions.

I felt like I was transformed
into the book.

Wow. Or transported into the book,
I should say.

That's great.
Wow. So any other little closing things
you'd like to add or, you know, anything else you like to do when you're not working here?

When you're not doing work here,
what else do you like to do
here, on your off hours?

Besides writing, anything else?

Besides writing and working?
I mean. Yeah, I'm
certainly an avid reader.

But I also
I mean, I've got two beautiful cats

who are the center of my world,
the heart of my heart, you know.

I am definitely a devoted
cat dad, a crazy cat person.

I'm sure when I'm old
and well I'm already gray,

but I was going to say,
when I'm old and gray and living in the house
by myself, I'll have 13 cats. But

I also would also like to do?
Yeah.

I also love games.
I mean, I love games
like I play games on my iPad all the time.

Card games, board games, you name it.
I'll play it.

Cool. Okay.
So that's all I have for you today.

Josh, in this interview.
So listeners out there now,
you know a little bit more about one of the people and their voice 
of who is helping you out at the library.

And Josh has a really kind of central role
here.
Anything else you want to add, Josh?

Yes, since you've talked about my book.
Go ahead.

Put in a little plug for a future book
that we're adding to the collection.

By all means.
It's called Step It Up and Go:
the Story of Popular Music in North Carolina, and,
your truly, will be narrating the book.

Nice.

Don't have a release date yet,
but sometime in the spring.

Oh, fantastic. We'll look forward to that.
Well, we'll get that. We'll get that.

No doubt.
Actually, once that's a once that's available,
even on the show or anywhere else we can.

Yeah.

So I appreciate your time.
Josh,
thanks so much for taking a few minutes out of your day to talk to me and help our listeners learn a little bit more about you and our staff.

Thanks a lot. You're welcome.

Thank you for the opportunity.

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Your Technology Questions

How to find the add to Wish List button in the new version of BARD Mobile for Apple IOS.

Recently BARD Mobile on Apple Mobile devices went through a major update that now allows you to directly download books and magazines instead of having to add them first to your BARD wishlist and then download them after that. This was put in because searching in BARD Mobile really has meant going from the app to the BARD website and then searching there to find books or magazines. The wishlist has been the bridge between the 2 places. This is why you have had to add items to the wishlist. This is so that BARD Mobile can see them to download them to your device.

This move away from having to use the wishlist to download books and magazines in BARD Mobile has been a welcomed change by many users. Many had wondered when you would no longer have to go to the website through the app and then have to go back to the Mobile app to download afterwards.

But it also has led to us having some questions about why it was removed because there are some patrons who really like doing things by adding items to the wishlist first. It is just how they know to download things in BARD Mobile. It is comforting for many.

Note, that eventually NLS plans to do the same thing to the Android version of the BARD Mobile app. For now it remains as is and you still have to use the wishlist to download to the BARD Mobile app for Android.

To answer this question from patrons the add to wishlist option has not been removed from BARD Mobile. It has just changed where it is seen, because searching is now done from the Mobile app itself and not the website anymore. To accommodate this change NLS moved where the add to wishlist button is located for a book or magazine after you find it.

Now when you find a books or magazine in the search results, you find what you want by title and then after you read the title, author and total time  information you have a download button. So at this point you can download the book right now to your bookshelf in BARD Mobile and play it right after you download it. This is a change in how BARD Mobile is set up.

But what if you don't want to download it right then, but you like what you found and want to save this for later? This is now where the wishlist comes in handy as somewhere else that you can easily put it there and find it later in BARD Mobile. To add it to the wishlist you now will find the title and just next to it or after it is a more information button. This button takes you to the more information about the book or magazine, like who narrated it, an annotation and even the book number or issue number. It's a place that tells you more about the item you've chosen. Once get through the details of the book or magazine are 2 buttons. The first one is add to wish list and the second button will let you download directly.

By using the add to wishlist button you will then add it to your wishlist. The nice thing about the wishlist is that you can see it in BARD Mobile and on the BARD website. This could come in handy if say you get a new mobile device and want to put a book or magazine on your new device instead of the older one.

This is good to know for future reference. Many thanks to the patron who asked about where the add to wishlist button had gone. You helped make this show what it is and you probably helped someone else learn how to use this feature in BARD Mobile.

If you have any other comments or other questions related to BARD Mobile, BARD itself, using our online catalog or any other kind of reading tech, email them to ABLS.Help@ncdcr.gov.

One other quick note, a patron asked about getting podcasts on their home computer of laptop. They wanted to know about accessible podcatchers to help them get podcasts. I plan to cover this topic on the next show. So be ready then. I hope you'll keep listening. 

Thanks again

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NLS News 

Some quick notes from the NLS publication called NLS on the Move.

NLS now has a very helpful way that we libraries get to learn about all kinds of things happening around NLS. This is called NLS on the Move. This most recent edition had some highlights from 2022 and what lies ahead. As we record this show we are at the end of 2022 and moving into 2023. From this newsletter, the "what lies ahead" part caught my attention when I saw it on my desk. Craig's Desk.

For New Technology and initiatives some wonderful news for many of you out there, on one of the most often asked questions to me offer the last 5 years. NLS has begun field testing a smart speaker app. This will allow users to use voice commands to connect to BARD, search the collection and most importantly stream books using a smart speaker device. This means you speak, ask your device to play a book and it starts playing, all by your voice. No details on when this will be an actual offering, but NLS is getting closer. More details in a future show.

Also if you know a veteran out there who wants to be part of the service, there has been a major project for them to streamline signing up for the program and getting a BARD account at the same time. We at the library have been happy to see so many veteran's applications coming our way as the service expands. What this means for the future is eventually expanding this type of quick signup for all new patrons. Which is what we all want. The ability to sign up and start reading any way you choose without the need for a separate application to give you access to downloading books and magazines yourself. There are no specifics for this expansion, but it is part of a vision for the future of the service, as it shifts to more of a BARD or download first option type of service for your reading materials. This doesn't mean you won't still be able to get books from the library directly, but will be a shift in service to match more of what newer patrons want in a reading service.

Another great offering from NLS has been the Braille On Demand Books Project, becoming a program now. The initial project allowed for any braille reading patron to ask for one braille book per month to see what things looked like and how well NLS could meet demand. The project was a success and NLS has expanded the offering so that you can now get up to 5 braille books a month embossed on demand to keep. The braille is high quality and the offerings are whatever you can find in the NLS catalog.

This all some great news on the NLS front.

Here's another tip and new offering form NLS on this topic. If you'd like to get these kinds of announcements for patron things, sign up for the NLS Patron Announcements email list. Send an email with your name and email address to NLS-PES AT LOC.GOV.

This way anytime NLS has something new to share with patrons you'll be one of the first to know directly from them.

As always, if you have comments about things like this or you maybe can't find something you are after on the website, you are welcome to email me at the email address ABLS.Help@ncdcr.gov.

Thanks so much again for listening.

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Closing

That's the end of this episode of Craig's Desk. If you have any questions about the library's technology, how to do something or would like to give some feedback, send an email to ABLS.Help@ncdcr.gov (spell out).

Craig's Desk is a production of The State Library of North Carolina Accessible Books and Library Services, a section of the State Library of North Carolina, part of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. This episode was produced onsite, in the studios of SLNC-ABLS. Many thanks to the other person helping on the other side of the glass to produce this show, Clint Exum our Outreach Specialist and jack of all trades around our studios. As it has been from the beginning, this show is a production of EMC-squared productions.

Intro music is "One Fine Day" and closing music is "Step To The Beat" and are offered royalty free from the website Keep Calm and Podcast. Segment Transitions starring nature are from Zapsplat.com

If you like what you have heard or are just curious about upcoming episodes please subscribe to this podcast. There are links from our website for Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our podcast platform called Podbean and even an RSS feed to listen to it on your own podcatcher app. Whenever we put up a new episode you'll be the first to know.

Thanks for listening