Fantasy sports are incredibly popular. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, there are 59.3 million fantasy sports players in the United States and Canada this year. Currently, an estimated 21 percent of the U.S. population plays fantasy sports, including 34 percent of US teens.¹

Here is a quick introduction if you are part of the 79 percent who don’t play fantasy sports. You are the owner of a fantasy team, and you pick (“draft”) real players from various real-world teams in competition with other owners in your fantasy league. During the season, you decide who from your roster will play on your team (the “starters”) and who will sit on the bench. Players are awarded points on how well they play in the real world. For instance, if a starter on your fantasy team scores a touchdown in a real-world game, you will be awarded a certain amount of points. The fantasy team with the most points at the end of the season wins.

The National Forum on Information Literacy defines “information literacy” as “the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand.”² I interviewed Evan Silva and three librarians in my fantasy football league to illustrate the extraordinary level of information literacy skills needed to identify, locate, and evaluate information (and even to create fake news) to attempt to win a relatively meaningless but enjoyable game. You may not understand all the terms the interviewees are using, but that is secondary to discovering the significant amount of time and effort they dedicate to the game, along with the information literacy skills they utilize for it.

Interviews

• Richard Kong, SPL director, PLA board member, fantasy football player for
  over fifteen years.
• Shauna Anderson, SPL young adult supervisor, fantasy football player for about four years.
• Mike Gershbein, librarian and owner of the website Very Smart People (www.vspchicago.com). Fantasy football player for about six years.
• Evan Silva, senior football editor at Rotoworld (www.rotoworld.com/playernews/nfl/football-player-news), the most heavily trafficked source for fantasy football news on the Internet.

PL: Where do you get information to succeed?

RK: Who said anything about succeeding? I haven’t won our librarians’ fantasy football league yet, though I finished in second place one glorious year (Author’s Note: Second to me—thank you Cam Newton!). I find most of my information online through sports news sites, but I will also go old-school and pick up a fantasy football preview magazine on occasion.

ES: I get player news from NFL beat writers and do my own statistical breakdowns and keep records of things like tendencies of defenses to be exploited by offensive players in forthcoming matchups. I track target and touch data through box scores and use Pro Football Reference (www.pro-football-reference.com) to keep tabs on splits like home versus away and historical performance versus certain teams. I also use Pro Football Focus (www.profootballfocus.com) to assess how certain defensive players are performing and whether they might be attackable by offensive players.

MG: I crowdsource. You can ask the fantasy community whether you should start a certain player and you can see what percentage of people in the league are starting that player. It’s the fantasy equivalent of a Twitter political discussion. In fact, I’ll sometimes research on Twitter, though much of that ends up being people bemoaning their starter’s horrid performance or injury.

PL: How do you determine how much information you need?

SA: Depends on the situation. During my draft prep, I keep researching until I can go through a couple of mock-drafts without feeling stuck. If I get to a point where I don’t know who the obvious choice is, then I need to keep researching. After a few years of doing this, I feel like I have to research less and less each year—you end up knowing who the obvious choices are for the first few rounds and spend more time researching sleepers for later rounds.

MG: I read, digest, analyze, and ponder until a sense of zen washes over me and I realize that it really doesn’t matter who I start since they’ll probably have a horrible week once I start them.

PL: How do you evaluate the information?

ES: I evaluate the information by trying to focus on bigger sample sizes. Football is an inherently small-sample sport, however, with only 16 games, compared to a sport like baseball (162 games) or basketball (82 games). So I think we have to take all statistics with a bit of a grain of salt and use several data points to arrive at a final evaluation before we make a fantasy pick or a start-sit decision.

SA: Does it jive with my previous knowledge of fantasy sports? For example, my first few years, I only ever researched using the information linked directly from the website where my league was signed up. It felt official and realistic and easy. Now that I have been playing for a few years, I can tell that there are subtle, yet important differences in how players are evaluated across the web. I also look to see who else is using certain tools and how well their teams are doing.

RK: I go to some well-known, trusted sports news websites like ESPN or NFL.com. I will also look at when an article was posted to make sure I have current information. And then, sometimes, I will look at the writer to see if it’s someone I recognize and who has a decent track record of predicting success on the field.

PL: How do you use the evaluated information effectively to attempt to win?

SA: I look for tools and information that are easy to use/digest. If I find a source that is easy to search through and digest, and it aligns with my sensibilities towards the game, I will use that as a go-to source to help me patch my team.

MG: Well, I’ve finished in ninth place the last two years so I’m not sure about the “effectively” part of that question. Ultimately you can only do so much. You start the best players and maybe the [real-world] coach benches them because of their bad attitude. Or maybe they get injured in the first quarter. Or they just have a bad day. Or most frustrating of all, your fantasy team performs great this week but you play against a fantasy team that played even better. Hard as it is, it’s best to try to not take it all personally. The universe is a tough SOB.

PL: Do you create fake news to confuse opponents? If yes, how and does it ever work? If it worked, can you share the details?

RK: Especially during the pre-draft period, several of us will throw out false information/news about players. For instance, we’ll talk up a player’s awesome potential knowing full well that he just suffered an injury or was recently suspended. Mostly, it doesn’t end up working because the rest of the league is up to speed with their fantasy football news. Once, I suggested that another manager pick up a player whom I thought was going to be good that year, but he didn’t listen to me because he assumed I was trying to trick him. It turned out the player performed well, and I believe that manager later picked him up on the waiver wire.

MG: I’m not smart enough to fake out any of the wise people that I play. My son is constantly trying to make trades with me and while I’m sure he would never try to take advantage of his dad, I find it hard to trust that he has my best interests at heart. As the commissioner of my league, I find it important to operate with the highest level of integrity. With that in mind, my advice is to pick up QB Blaine Gabbert in the first couple of rounds. That guy is going to have a massive year.

Moving Forward
How can libraries capitalize on this unprecedented interest in information literacy as it relates to sports and other entertainment sources? Is it possible to position ourselves as fulcrums in this new world in which information literacy is important for social capital (fantasy football championships, Oscar pools, discovering music, gaming, etc.)? And, most importantly, are we able to teach how to transfer the skills honed through fantasy sports to other “less fun” literacies such as civic and health? It is evident our current path of information literacy education needs to be rethought. A good first step is broadening our scope of information literacy and building from our community’s strengths and interests–a “spoonful of sugar” approach.

References
1. Fantasy Sports Trade Association, “Industry Demographics: Actionable Insights & Insightful Data,” accessed Aug. 14, 2017, http://fsta.org/research/industry-demographics.
2. National Forum on Information Literacy, “What is the NFIL?” accessed May 3, 2017, http://infolit.org/about-the-nfil/what-is-the-nfil.

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Via coccinellevoyage.tumblr.com

2. While you do get some really unique reference questions, you also get the same questions over and over again.

Via gif-database.tumblr.com

3. People think your job is easy.

Via http://whatshouldbetchescallme.tumblr.com/post/38630823737/when-im-standing-outside-the-shower-waiting-for-the

4. The patron who always asks for you and makes you feel a little uncomfortable.

Via http://wifflegif.com/tags/164411-you-re-making-me-uncomfortable-gifs

5. Your patrons think you’re a computer expert because you know how to open an e-mail attachment.

Via atrl.net

6. When books get returned and they smell funny or are sticky.

Via http://www.reactiongifs.com/emma-stone-eww/

7. When your library is cold.

Via http://weheartit.com/entry/45589098

8. Tax season.

Via reddit.com

9. The never-ending fight against bed bugs.

Via alliwantisklaine.tumblr.com

10. When someone comes in looking for a book, but they have no idea what the book is called, who the author is, or what the book is about.

Via http://www.reactiongifs.com/britney-say/

Even though there are days when you can’t wait to go home and relax — when a patron comes up to you and lets you know how much they appreciate your help with the book recommendation, or the job search, or taxes, or using a computer, it reminds you of why it’s all worth it.  Want to see a whole bunch of amazing librarian problem gifs? Check this out.

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The awards include:

• Allie Beth Martin Award, honoring a public librarian who has demonstrated extraordinary range and depth of knowledge about books or other library materials and has the distinguished ability to share that knowledge. Sponsored by Baker & Taylor.
• Baker & Taylor Entertainment Audio Music/Video Product Award, promoting the development of a circulating audio music/video collection in a public library.
• Charlie Robinson Award, honoring a public library director who, over a period of seven years, has been a risk taker, an innovator and/or a change agent in a public library. Sponsored by Baker & Taylor.
• DEMCO New Leaders Travel Grant, enhancing the professional development of new public librarians by making possible their attendance at major professional development activities.
• EBSCO Excellence in Small and/or Rural Library Service Award, honoring a public library serving a population of 10,000 or less that demonstrates excellence of service to its community.
• Gordon M. Conable Award, honoring a public library staff member, library trustee or public library that has demonstrated a commitment to intellectual freedom and the Library Bill of Rights. Sponsored by Library Systems & Services LLC.
• John Iliff Award, honoring a library worker, librarian or library that has used technology as a tool to improve services. Sponsored by Innovative.
• Romance Writers of America Library Grant, providing a public library the opportunity to build or expand its romance fiction collection and/or host romance fiction programming.
• Upstart Innovation Award, recognizing a public library’s innovative and creative service program to the community.

The PLA Award Nomination Form is open from now until 11:59 p.m. CT on Dec. 1, 2014. An award jury appointed by the PLA President will review each nomination. Winners will be announced in February 2015, and awards will be presented at 2015 ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. For more information, contact the PLA office, (800) 545-2433, ext. 5PLA or by email pla@ala.org.

PLA is a division of the American Library Association. PLA’s core purpose is to strengthen public libraries and their contribution to the communities they serve, and its mission is to enhance the development and effectiveness of public library staff and public library services.

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Developed in collaboration with the International City and County Managers Association (ICMA), and supported by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the PLA Leadership Academy offers a groundbreaking focus on developing the skills needed to work with municipal officials and other community stakeholders to enhance the position of the library within the community and improve the overall effectiveness of library services and programs.

The PLA Leadership Academy offers:

• a three and a half day, in-person educational /networking event;
• a professional coach program with experienced public library leaders and city managers;
• development of real-world projects to implement at attendees’ libraries.

For this selective program, registration fees (valued at $2,500) are waived and all meals will be provided; however participants will be required to cover travel costs and lodging at the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston, S.C. Interested participants must complete an application, submit two letters of recommendation, and be accepted to participate in the PLA Leadership Academy. Applicants must be PLA members and MLS/MLIS librarians with at least five years of increasingly responsible experience. The application deadline is Sept. 30, 2014, and applicants will be notified of their acceptance status by Nov. 21. Attendance is selective and will be limited to thirty-two (32).

The PLA Leadership Academy: Navigating Change · Building Community was developed with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services grant. The curriculum is designed by the PLA Leadership Development Committee with the assistance of ICMA and Adam Goodman, director of the Center for Leadership, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., and builds on PLA’s previous leadership training initiatives.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact PLA at pla@ala.org or 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752).

About the Public Library Association
PLA is a division of the American Library Association. PLA’s core purpose is to strengthen public libraries and their contribution to the communities they serve. Its mission is to enhance the development and effectiveness of public library staff and public library services. For more information about PLA, contact the PLA office at (800) 545-2433, ext. 5PLA, or visit PLA’s website at www.pla.org.

About the International City/County Management Association
ICMA, the International City/County Management Association, advances professional local government worldwide. The organization’s mission is to create excellence in local governance by developing and fostering professional management to build sustainable communities that improve people’s lives. ICMA provides member support; publications; data and information; peer and results-oriented assistance; and training and professional development to 9,500 appointed city, town, and county leaders and other individuals and organizations throughout the world.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums. Our mission is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement. Our grant making, policy development, and research help libraries and museums deliver valuable services that make it possible for communities and individuals to thrive. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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If you are a winner, please e-mail Lian Sze at lsze@ala.org with your contact information so that we can send you your poster.

If you would like to purchase a poster, they are available for sale. The 12x 18 posters feature feature the March/April 2013 cover, an unique illustration created by artist Jim Lange from Evanston, Ill. Two versions are available—with the Public Libraries masthead and without. The cost is $9.99 + $4.00 for shipping and handling.

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Team Ten is a set of plush toys in the shape of numbers zero through nine created by NumbersAlive! to encourage a child’s interaction with numbers. The colorful toys come in multiple colors and sizes, and each number has a back story. The team of ten numbers is lead by their team leader, Zero the Hero, who is the most powerful number because of his ability to combine with other numbers to create a higher value. Created by the Numbers Lady, a.k.a. Rebecca Klemm, who has a PhD in statistics, the plush toys can be combined with books also based on the characters, making math both fun and entertaining through stories and adventures. NumbersAlive! hopes that this will lure more students to move towards STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), a part of education that many students tend not to like. For more information, please visit numbersalive.org.

Story Bayou’s Brush of Truth Book App Gets Tweens Reading

In an attempt to increase literacy among children ages eight to twelve, Story Bayou has teamed up with writer and mom Julie Landry Laviolette to produce this app that allows kids to choose their own path in the story that they are reading. The story has a total of 125 pages, with sixty-five decision points and twenty final endings, taking the reader through an adventure where they act as the main character. In order to be compatible with Common Core State Standards, lesson plans are provided. This app, compatible with both Mac and Android platforms, is like an interactive “choose your own adventure” book, combining the virtues of a videogame with a book to transform the reading experience for the digitally savvy tween.

Rainbow Sentences Turns Reconstructing Sentences into a Fun Game

There are a lot of reading apps out there, but Rainbow Sentences takes reading to the next level by teaching children how to rearrange words and create their own sentences. By color-coding each part of the sentence, children are asked to match the words to the color. The sentence is also accompanied by a picture that represents the sentence. The child has the option of listening to the app read the sentence, as well as record sentences that are correct for future review. When a child gets the answer incorrect twice, a short lesson will come up to teach the child why the sentence was incorrect. There are many levels to the game, with the sentences becoming increasingly more difficult with each level.

Money Habitudes Cards Makes Financial Literacy Easy to Understand

Getting people to talk about finances is always difficult, but Money Habitudes cards make the process a lot easier. Money Habitudes cards contain conversation starters that trainers can use in a variety of games to get a better sense of a person’s financial status. The person playing answers a variety of questions based on how they relate to a statement, and at the end the cards are sorted out into a Money Habitude category: planning, carefree, security, giving, status, and spontaneous. This helps a person see the different categories of spending habits they belong to and the tasks they can do to improve their financial status. Because this game is about a person’s attitude towards money, there are no right or wrong answers to the questions. The cards are available for adults, young adults (ages eighteen to twentyfive), teens, and in Spanish and have been updated in 2012. Order by March 29, 2013, use the code PLA13 (all caps), and receive free shipping.

Big Start—Free Financial Literacy App for Children

With many children becoming so familiar with the iPad, an easy way to teach financial literacy is via an app. The Big Start app includes many fun games, such as What is Money? and Save, Share, and Spend. The games teach children how to identify money, how to save, what things cost, and even shows them what kind of careers they can look forward to. The app, developed by Upromise Investments, Inc., can be downloaded for Mac  or Android.

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DPLA will collect metadata on materials that have already been digitized and categorize it in one place that will be freely available. They will also add original content from orphan works and out-of-print materials. The content that DPLA hopes to collect include photos, manuscripts, books, newspapers, oral histories, videos, audio and more in digital format.

Beginning with the Digital Hubs Project that was launched in Sept. 2012, DPLA has chosen seven Service Hubs from which metadata can be collected from libraries, museums and archives. Each Service Hub will have the ability to help these organizations if they need help with digitization, standardizing metadata, storage problems, or reaching out to their community for additional materials for digitization. The seven Service Hubs will be organizations that are currently doing digitization projects.  They are the Mountain West Digital Library, Digital Commonwealth, Digital Library of Georgia, Kentucky Digital Library, Minnesota Digital Library, South Carolina Digital Library, and the Oregon Digital Library.

The Service Hubs will be able to collect content from many state and local organizations, but DPLA will also work with Content Hubs, current digital libraries that will provide DPLA with additional metadata of their digital content. The only Content Hub that is confirmed right now is Harvard, but DPLA is in talks with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), NYPL, ARTstor and the Smithsonian.

For the launch in April, Service Hubs are expected to host an exhibition of digital objects, such as an exhibition on prohibition at the Kentucky Digital Library and an exhibition on activism and civil rights at the Digital Library of Georgia. DPLA is working with iFactory to build a website for anyone to access DPLA, but the API is available for those who would like to build their own applications. They hope to have 3 million records by the time of the launch.

As for the time being, they have been working with Europeana Data Model (EDM) to work on ways to make all the complex data operate in a cohesive way in a linked open data environment. They hope to release more information about their new metadata model recommendations soon. They have also just received confirmation that they will have a fellow from the American Council of Learned Societies Public Fellows Program to work with them on the project.

Please contact Emily Gore or Amy Rudersdorf if your library would like to contribute to the project or visit http://dp.la/.

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Libraries in Singapore have gone through an extreme level of transformation in the recent years, with a vision to create “readers for life, learning communities, and a knowledgeable nation.” Two members of the National Library Board in Singapore, Katharina Lee, the executive director of Cybrarian Ventures Private Limited, and Lee Kee Siang, the CIO and Director of Tech & Innovation at the NLB presented at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle about the state of libraries in Singapore. Unlike libraries in the United States, all libraries in Singapore are governed by the NLB, which is part of the government. The NLB oversees the National Library of Singapore, public libraries in Singapore, the National Archives of Singapore, and 16 government, school and academic libraries, to a total of 41 libraries. Because of the success of their libraries, they have also started a library consulting company called Cybrarian Ventures Private Limited that have helped in the creation and improvement of libraries in China, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Thailand, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the US.

One of the things that the NLB started in order to increase the usage of public libraries in Singapore is mall libraries, smaller branches of the public library that are located in a mall. Because many in Singapore enjoy shopping, the NLB thought it would be wise to bring the library to these shoppers. The mall libraries have been met with success, with 11 locations throughout Singapore currently.

Another innovation is to automate the whole check out process so that a person can self check-out and return library materials without needing the help of a staff member. If they do need help, they can go to a self-help kiosk. Keeping up with the digital era, the NLB has greatly increased the amount of materials that people can read or use directly online, so that if they cannot come to the physical library they can still use materials from the library. There is now an archive for Singapore newspapers, one for pictures of Singapore and another for music from Singapore.

A big emphasis from the NLB has been to increase the knowledge of its citizens about Singapore and to give their citizens a chance to record their own histories. One initiative in this goal has been the Singapore Infopedia, an electronic encyclopedia written by the NLB on the history and culture of Singapore. Another initiative is the Singapore Memory Portal, where Singaporeans can submit their memories of Singapore through the site, through an app, or through various social media outlets.

The NLB has many plans for the future of its libraries, one of which is to let people check out books by using their mobile phones. Another project that they are working on is to use the data that they received from their patrons through check-outs and searches to do customized reader’s recommendation, as well as a map to show what reader’s preferences are across the country. All this will be possible with the help of text analytics and linked open data, and the information will be immensely helpful to the NLB in their collection development. By recognizing that the world has changed, the NLB has made changes in its libraries that have made them a significant part of Singaporean’s lives, and libraries all over the world have a lot to learn from them.

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When they entered a room full of chairs set up in small circles, many attendees were confused by the arrangement of the room. However, the arrangement was all part of Peter Block’s presentation to encourage community engagement. During the session, Block had the audience break into small groups in order to get to know one another and start building community during the session. He gave them questions to ask each other that went beyond the usual “What do you do?” and took it to the next level as he push the attendees to ask each other about who they are and what their passions were.

Block hailed the library as the most trusted organization in a community. Even though the library has been assaulted on all fronts, it still remains standing, which amazes Block. He then continued to talk about the importance of communities, and how as a society people have become very isolated. Libraries are places where people are not only bridge together by race, but also through socio-economic classes. Few places bring people together from different socio-economic classes like the library. Through its programs, the library encourages gathering.

As a consumerist culture, we are programmed to want to buy more in order to become “enough”. However, Block encourages us to not judge ourselves and others on what we are missing in our lives, but to concentrate on what we have. An example he gave was how we called the homeless “homeless”, but those of us who have a home are not called “housed”. When we focus on the gifts of what those in our community have, then the library truly becomes a “center of abundance”.

By focusing on the skills that people have, we can learn from each other, and the library can become a learning environment. The academic system often only values one set of skills suited to the system, and many people have their talents ignored by the system. Block hopes that the library can be the place to promote community, to let people know that they are enough and their skills are enough. Instead of waiting for the magical leader figure to come into the community, start with your own community and begin the transformation!

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