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January 31, 2006
School Librarians and Innovation
Last week I had a great day in Newark NY (Yes NY not NJ) at the BOCES Library Leaders Day. Afterwards two memes started on some blogs that have been very interesting.
The Wanderings... blog started a meme on:
Just some samples ...
I will blog because my students pay attention to blogs
I will blog because it helps me share ideas with my school community
I will blog because it helps me expand my ideas with ideas from other people in the cyberworld who are thinking about the same things that I am thinking about
I will blog because I want to model social networking behavior for my colleagues and students.
I will blog because I need to "reinvent" myself as a Library Media Specialist in a changing world . . . once again!
There's also a I will blog instead of . . . to talk about what needs to be given up. I love the idea that we have to think about sacrifice at the same time as we think about innovation.
She builds on this with another Wanderings meme:
I WILL as a school librarian . . .
Her challenge is fun - and she encourages you to add to her list:
Let’s have a little competition at our school library and get ready for the future. I will use a laptop, interactive Library/Web 2.0 tools, a library web page with access to subscription databases, plus unfiltered access to the Internet. You will use a desktop computer, no subscription databases, a filtered Internet connection, and no interactive technologies - not even email. Are you ready…?
Some samples here are really cool... click to the full list above...
I will access research databases with the full text of thousands of periodicals & reference articles - you will have the library's 30 periodical titles and a copier.
I will save my notes to a blog, wiki or other collaborative website so I can work on them from any computer, anywhere, anytime - you will save your notes to a disk or other portable storage media, and carry it with you from computer to computer.
I will work with my collaborative learning group to complete a school project any time, any place, using a blog, wiki or other web-based collaborative tools - you will meet with your group in the library whenever you have the same "free" period.
I will add podcasts, video clips and other multimedia to my presentation and post it to the web - you will share it with your teachers and students.
I will help my students develop the search and evaluation skills they need to survive in an enormous, unmoderated information environment - you will help children learn to use the Dewey Decimal System.
I will remain calm, even if a student's cell phone accidently rings. You can freak out like a buggywhip maker hearing a new fangled car horn.
I will play games because I know playing is just another word for learning that is fun. You will say "No Games in the Library" because your students have to be working, not enjoying being in the library.
I will remember that we have always had students just copying encyclopedia articles and turning them in. You will complain that with this new media students are just cutting and pasting rather than reading.
I will remember that technology isn't the point, that the point is to design projects that make kids think, rather than projects that show all the bells and whistles. You will stick with the same projects your kids have always done.
I will balance my "collection" - print, electronic and online - allocating resources to encompass all areas. You will focus on one area to the detriment of the other.
Interesting.
Then, over at the Infomancy blog, where Chris Harris has talked about School Library 2.0 and what needs to happen. Again, interesting.
This is a group of school library leaders having an open discussion about how to empower learners and make a difference. It's great to get to peer in on their learning and conversations.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:47 PM | Comments (2)
January 30, 2006
My Travel Schedule
I meant to do this more often since the last few times I did this it resulted in meeting a few nice colleagues and some old friends. So here's where I'll be in the coming months:
Feb. 2-4 Toronto ON
Ontario Library Association Super Conference
I have the honour of doing a few sessions (like Library Measurements, Tech Trends and the 8R's President's Committee) as well as the Keynote. This is a wonderful conference and a lot of fun and it's in my home town!
Feb. 8 Moorehead MN
I get to fly into Fargo ND to do a repeat session Library of the Libraries Future session for Minitex in Minnesota.
Feb. 12-14 Columbis OH
This is the eTech Ohio (formerly SchoolNet) 2006 State Technology Conference where I will keynote and do three other sessions on collaboration, millennials and personas. I am really looking forward to this one.
Feb. 20 Topeka KS
I'll do a staff day for Topeka and Shawnee Public Library. I had a great conversation with their director and they are really poised to excel. I think I'll learn a lot there.
Feb. 22 Virtual World
I'll be hosting a SirsiDynix Institute at 11 a.m. ET. This is an attempt at an additional format for the SirsiDynix Institute. I'll mderate a great panel of John Blyberg, Michael Stephens, and Michael Casey on the topic of Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and Librarian 2.0. Should be hot!
Feb. 26-28 Philadelphia PA
I'll be doing a session for the NFAIS conference as well as talkig about personas.
March 4-8 Nashville TN
This is the annual SirsiDynix Superconference. I am particularly happy with the program for the Executive Track. Any SirsiDynix client is welcome to register. I also hope to blog a whole lot of the seesions this year.
March 12-14 Fort Myers, FL
This is the ASIDIC conference where I will do a keynote. Florida, March - hmmmm.
March 15 Philadelphia, PA
I am looking forward to doing a staff day for Montgomery County Library District. I always learn a lot at these sessions.
March 22-24 Washington DC
The annual Computers in Libraries conference. This is one of my favourites. Ill be dong a few sessions including a cool panel on the School Rooms portal in Ohio for Internet @ Schools East.
March 26-28 Birmingham UK
The first stop on the SirsiDynix SuperConference world tour. We will travel to major sites around the world to talk about the future of libraries and technology.
March 30-31 Paris, France Stop 2
April 2-4 Shanghai, China Stop 3
April 6-7 Taipei, Taiwan Stop 4
(Some of us will also be hitting Australia!)
April 11 - Chicago IL
A visit to a very creative client, PALS, for their user conference.
April 12 - State College PA
A short visit to Bucknell University - a very pretty campus and innovative crew of academic librarians.
April 19 - Philadelphia, PA
Back to Philly for a speech to the Tri-State College Library Cooperative for their annal Spring forum. This is 45 libraries in colleges and universities throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware. Sounds like fun!
April 21-22 - Orlando, FL
Talking about 2.0 with the ASAE.
April 25-27 - Houston, TX
Here I get to keynote the Texas Library Association Conference as well as do a session on Millennials. After visiting Houston this month I am eager to go back - mmmm, seafood.
April 28-29 - Toronto, ON
I am helping to organize one of the semi-annual meetings of the Information Futures Institute, to which I belong. It's a very interesting meeting but it's always no minutes, no talking. What's said at IFI stays in IFI.
May 4 - Hartford, CT
A chat at the Council of Librarians of the Connecticut Community Colleges Conference.
May 5-6 -Montreal, PQ
I get to do a keynote at the Quebec Library Association. Just a train ride away from home.
That's enough for now. I will of course be going to ALA (New Orleans), SLA (Baltimore) and CLA (Ottawa).
2006 will be a wild ride.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:58 PM | Comments (7)
January 28, 2006
Excellent Guidelines from Stanford
Well I am behind. I just discovered the Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility! They're here and are dated 2002.
They pose the question "How can you boost your web site's credibility?" and then they try to answer it. They have compiled 10 guidelines for building the credibility of a web site. These guidelines are based on three years of research that included over 4,500 people. They have more information and hints and they link to the research too!
Here are the big ten:
1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.
2. Show that there's a real organization behind your site.
3. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.
4. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.
5. Make it easy to contact you.
6. Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).
7. Make your site easy to use -- and useful.
8. Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently).
9. Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).
10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.
If we believe that library websites and library portals are credible, authentic and useful, then we really need to review or product with an eye to see how well we stand up to these guidelines. Indeed, it might be best done by use our outsider eyes. The inmates of our world may not see our weaknesses. I know it is not uncommon for it to be difficult to find a library's phone number or address, and it's actually rare to see libraries promoting the talents and expertise of their teams and staff. Imagine any other professionally-driven service organization hiding the names and talents of their best resource!
Linda Fair pointed me towards this article (From Community MX Newsletter, Jan 18, 2006):
"Content Is King... Or Maybe Not
Researchers in Canada have discovered that people are more apt to judge a website on its immediate aesthetic value rather than the content within the site. They say that their test subjects were able to show their like or dislike for a website in about 1/20th of a second, obviously not enough time to actually read anything within a website. They also discovered that this first impression lingered as people were given a longer time to view each website. For web developers, the message is clear: It is better to look good than to feel good about your content. More on this at TechNewsWorld.com. But don't blink, or you'll miss it."
Now this might be just some of the backlash against Malcolm Gladwell's book "Blink". There's a new book "Think" that urges people not to make snap decisions. I think they miss the point of the Gladwell hypothesis - that you can't do 'blink' well until you have experience and knowledge. Users are getting trained and experienced in the subtle clues that give them a satisfying experience with a website. We are warned.
Just a thought,
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:09 PM | Comments (2)
January 27, 2006
New Pew Study on the Ties that Bind
The latest report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project is a good one.
The Strength of Internet Ties: The internet and email aid users in maintaining their social networks and provide pathways to help when people face big decisions (January 25, 2006).
Here's a few quotes:
"This report confronts one of the great debates about the internet: What is it doing to the relationships and social capital that Americans have with friends, relatives, neighbors, and workmates? Those on one side of the debate extol the internet’s ability to expand relationships — socially and geographically. Those on the other side of the debate fear that the internet will alienate people from their richer, more authentic relations."
"The Strength of Internet Ties: Summary of Findings at a Glance
The internet helps build social capital.
The internet plays socially beneficial roles in a world moving towards “networked individualism.”
Email allows people to get help from their social networks and the web lets them gather information and find support and information as they face important decisions.
The internet supports social networks.
Email is more capable than in-person or phone communication of facilitating regular contact with large networks.
Email is a tool of “glocalization.” It connects distant friends and relatives, yet it also connects those who live nearby.
Email does not seduce people away from in-person and phone contact.
People use the internet to put their social networks into motion when they need help with important issues in their lives.
The internet’s role is important in explaining the greater likelihood of online users getting help as compared to non-users.
Americans’ use of a range of information technologies smooths their paths to getting help.
Those with many significant ties and access to people with a variety of different occupations are more likely to get help from their networks.
Internet users have somewhat larger social networks than non-users. The median size of an American’s network of core and significant ties is 35. For internet users, the median network size is 37; for non-users it is 30.
About 60 million Americans say the internet has played an important or crucial role in helping them deal with at least one major life decision in the past two years.
The number of Americans relying on the internet for major life decisions has increased by one-thirdsince 2002.
At major moments, some people say the internet helps them connect with other people and experts who help them make choices. Others say that the web helps them get information and compare options as they face decisions.
Few, maybe none of these statements, don't describe libraries' roles in their communities. (Can we strongly say that the word "internet' could be replaced in every statement with "Library"?) These summary findings do underline the transformational effect of the Internet on our strategies and engangement with our communities and definitely underline the role of web 2.0 and library 2.0 discussions in discovering some new strategies.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2006
Are Librarians Cool?
Worth a listen, a very entertaining and positive view of librarians. (Thanks Patricia)
Check out the MP3 file of January 18th segment of "Lin's Spin" http://www.wxrt.com/program/detail/linsbin.html
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:03 AM | Comments (1)
January 24, 2006
January 24th Fun (or not)
Dr. Kathleen Hall, Founder and President of The Stress Institute, and author of "A Life In Balance" (AMACOM 2006) has used a variety of emotional and stress factors, to proclaim that January 24th to be the most depressing day of the year. People feel as if there is a shadow over them; with low light levels creating Seasonal Affective Disorder, holiday bills hitting the mailbox, and New Year's resolutions already broken, depression is rampant. She notes that:
“While post holiday blues are common, stress expert Dr. Kathleen Hall, author of the new book "A Life In Balance", says there are many steps people can take to create happiness in their dreary lives during the darkest and coldest days of the year.
"People experienced sensory overload during the holidays: the lights, the smells of pine and peppermint, sounds of music, the aromas, sight and taste of foods, and the touch and connection with others. By January, they are now experiencing a flat, hollow, sad feeling," says Hall.
Dr. Hall offers these tips to create happiness and energy:
1. Food: Try new foods that haven't been eaten before. Get the family to choose a cuisine and everyone can cook it together. Try mango salad or black bean lasagna.
2. Color: Add color. Purchase an inexpensive tablecloth with happy bright colors, maybe orange or yellow. Keep bright flowers on the kitchen table. Find some inexpensive bright colored pillows to throw on the couch. Accessorize with a bright scarf or shoes.
3. Have Fun: Schedule one or two nights a week to turn off the television and have game night. Play board games, cards, or watch a funny movie (research shows this will get the endorphins going).
4. Introspection Time: Have each family member choose a word to describe 2005 and what their word is for the coming year, 2006, and explain why he or she chose each word.
5. Time Alone: Each family member takes ten minutes, Monday, Wednesday and Friday (pick any three days of the week) to take a bath, read, paint, or take a nap to help recharge in these draining times.
"A Life In Balance: Nourishing the Four Roots of True Happiness" (Amacom Publishing, January 2006)
And here I thought it was just Monday's Canadian election!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 5:05 PM | Comments (1)
January 23, 2006
Emerging National Digital Libraries in the European Union
European project TEL-ME-MOR has just released its first press release focusing on a survey conducted among the 10 national libraries of the European Union New Member States.
This research reveals significant gaps in digital research and development programs of those national libraries. It shows what makes it difficult or impossible for national libraries to be actively involved in research and development programs. The issues range from intellectual, financial and organizational to the management experience of digitized and born-digital content, the size of digital collections, application and adoption of international standards and technological infrastructure.
Full text of this press release can be viewed online here.
Full text of the analysis of the survey can be downloaded as a PDF file here.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 5:03 PM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2006
SirsiDynix Building Better Communities Awards for Libraries
I have a little cool project that I am participating in at SirsiDynix. You might have already seen the cover wrapper on this month’s Library Journal. The best parts of this project are that I:
- Get to work with a cool committee of leading librarians
- Get to see many, many examples of library innovation
- AND we get to award $50,000.00 U.S. in prizes.
The normal press release has gone out already here but here is some information about the project (just in case you want to nominate some library (or your own library):
Maybe it’s a city or county library… or a library in campus setting . . . or a library within a government or business organization. Regardless of the environment, today’s visionary and assertive libraries — and the library professionals whose ideas and ingenuity give them life — are making a real difference in the user communities they serve. This is most evident in how libraries are using today’s exciting technologies.
Maybe it’s promoting literacy and life-long learning… leading the way in campus-wide portal initiatives. . . innovating new approaches that help professionals in advancing their research efforts . . . preserving local, regional, or national heritage… delivering resources to businesses or other collaborative organizations… or any of the other important initiatives being undertaken today. Forward-thinking SirsiDynix libraries are positioning themselves as indispensable in their communities and creating better places to live, work, and learn.
Now, it’s time to recognize these leaders. That’s why SirsiDynix is creating the Building Better Communities Awards for Libraries.
Please tell us about that outstanding library or librarian you know. Simply go to www.sirsidynix.com and make your nominations. It is a simple online for right here. Please nominate any type of library organization that exemplifies innovative technology leadership through initiatives they have recently undertaken. Please make your online nominations by Friday, April 14, 2006.
Who is eligible? Any North American SirsiDynix library whose technology leadership has distinguished them in service to their user communities.
Five (5) library organizations each will be awarded US$10,000 for their leadership and achievements.
Winners of the awards will be announced at the American Library Association Annual Conference in June 2006. Winners will be selected by a panel of library leaders. I have the honor of chairing this committee of the following esteemed library leaders from all sectors of librarianship:
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:57 PM | Comments (0)
2006 Intranet Trends
Dave Hook at the Industrial Librarian has a good commentary on the CIO Magazine article from CIO.com: “Intranet Trends to Watch For in 2006.” What Dave has done is list their 7 trends for 2006 (below) and has added comments of his own.
1. The Intranet grows up and makes new friends
2. Intranet ROI will be pushed to the back burner
3. Expect Intranets to become even more pervasive
4. The user experience matters at last
5. The Ajax revolution hits the intranet
6. Blogs come and go but RSS will remain
7. Wikis gain prominence and get integrated.
Take a look here for the original CIO piece.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:54 PM | Comments (0)
Comparing U.S and Canadian Libraries
My colleague, Bob Molyneux, has done a new comparison of Canadian and U.S. libraries. It’s just a first pass but A First Comparison of Canadian and U.S. Public Libraries finds some interesting insights.
"Visitors to public libraries in Canada and the United States have no trouble knowing they are in a library. There are books and other materials, staff, and computer terminals, and you can check items out. However, a preliminary comparison of comparable data from the two countries’ libraries shows differences in how each country provisions library service and how the citizens of each use their libraries."
Worth a look in the latest SirsiDynix OneSource Newsletter.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:51 PM | Comments (0)
More on Retail Inspirations for Libraries
Judith Siess, Publisher and Editor of The One-Person Library: A Newsletter for was reading last month's OneSource article "The Shop Window and Your Portal" and told me about John Stanley's and Fiona Embry's work in Australia about bringing retail ideas to libraries. You can find their site here and subscribe to their their free newsletter for libraries.
It reminds me of the stuff Paco Underhill has talked about at ALA too.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:42 PM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2006
Finding Canadian and U.S. Libraries
I noticed this one on a few blogs. It’s a mashup of public maps, library locations, etc. You can use Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps. I think that this is the first one I’ve seen that has included Canadian libraries. You can find it here at Libraries411.com.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:39 PM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2006
Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Librarian 2.0 Part Two
I also think the discussion about Library 2.0 so far has been very educational for everyone with the following cautions:
1. I don't see that there's anything to be gained in criticizing the label of the discussion. There have been plenty of postings and comments that some folks dislike the name. So what. It's a shallow contribution beng needlessly repeated. There are people who write book reviews and it's rarely a major component of the review that the reviewer hates the title of the book. I am discouraged at this portion of the discussion. Kudos to those who are trying to keep the discussion at the level of the things that can be tried, piloted, experimented with, etc. Kudos too to those who've had some personal criticism leveled at them for putting their thoughts out there.
2. I am also disappointed that some people have dismissed some of the ideas discussed under this rubric by pointing out that "libraries have always done this stuff". Really? In my travels I see a lot of innovation in libraries and many libraries are evolving to address the changes in our environment. However, too many haven't moved into the next generation strategies. Many fail to recognize that the majority of their use is often coming in virtually and they haven't rebalanced their strategic efforts. Too many haven't put the librarian and personal services into their virtual environments. Too many haven't integrated the new tools that make the users tasks easier. Many feel the OPAC and the interface is done despite the fact that many of their users start with Amazon! There are tons of places for us to expend our creative energy for the good of libraries. Believing that we can rest on our laurels because libraries have always done this stuff is not in our users' best interests. This discussion is about building on our great past, not replacing it.
Anyway, maybe I am ranting a bit. Maybe listening to the change resistance wrapped up as commentary is just pointng to the work we need to do to evolve. The Web 2.0 conversation is happening globally. Library 2.0 is just a part of a larger conversation as the web evolves. Libraries are not an island.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:57 AM | Comments (4)
January 18, 2006
Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Librarian 2.0
I wrote this in December but my contribution to the ongoing discussion about Web 2.0 and Libraries is available here in the SirsiDynix OneSource newsletter.
I think there's lots of room for discussion about how libraries plan to evolve and adapt to the current and future environment.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:53 AM | Comments (1)
January 17, 2006
Off to SLA Winter Meeting
Well I am off to Houston today for the SLA Winter Meeting of the leadership of SLA. This includes chapter and division leaders as well as some committees and caucuses in addition to the international Board of Directors. I am really looking forward to it. It's always a great learning experience and being involved in the progress of my main international professional association is invigorating. This year I am running for President-elect of SLA. The big speech to the combined leadership group is at lunch on Friday.
Wish me luck!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:59 AM | Comments (0)
January 15, 2006
Bill Gates on Text Books
Well - is this going to go as one of the worst or best predictions of all time?
"Within four or five years, instead of spending money on textbooks," Mr Gates said recently about students, "they'll spend a mere $400 or so buying that tablet device and the material they hook up to will all be on the wireless internet with animations, timelines and links to deep information. But they'll be spending less than they would have on textbooks and have a dramatically better experience."
Quoted, Jan. 14, 2006 in the The Age (Australia).
5 Years - I think not.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:31 AM | Comments (1)
January 13, 2006
ARL Trends: 2003-2004
If you're a data junkie, ARL has just released ARL Library Trends by Martha Kyrillidou and Mark Young.
It's a neat small set of charts, pie charts and data from about 1986 to 2004 in the ARL members. It covers service trends, monograph and serials costs, supply and demand trends, expediture trends, electronic resources and expenditures per student - all useful analytical measures. It's also got a useful bibliography.
"ARL Statistics 2003-04 is the latest in a series of annual publications that describe collections, staffing, expenditures, and service activities for the 123 members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Of these, 113 are university libraries and 10 are public, governmental, and nonprofit research libraries. ARL member libraries are the largest research libraries in North America, representing 16 Canadian and 107 U.S. research institutions. The academic libraries, which comprise about 92% of the membership, include 14 Canadian and 99 U.S. libraries.
ARL libraries are a relatively small subset of libraries in North America, but they do account for a large portion of academic library resources in terms of assets, budgets, and the number of users they serve. The total library expenditures of all 123 member libraries in 2003-04 was more than $3.4 billion; from that, almost $2.6 billion was spent by the 113 university libraries and more than $800 million by the nonuniversity libraries."
It's always good to see what the trends are. I found the tables on resources per student and electronic resources educational.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)
Web 2.0 Idea Source
Here's an interesting place to look for ideas. It's the Web 2.0 Mashup Center. I've talked about mashups before but this is a huge list of API's and combinations that do cool tricks. It has a lot of Google Maps mashups but there are plenty of Flickr, search, Amazon, eBay, Del.icio.us, IM and blogging mashups. The sorting function is interesting too with both matrix and tag cloud options. You can subscribe through RSS.
Worth a look to see how far this stuff is evolving.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:12 AM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2006
Congratulations NSCU
Andrew Pace at North Carolina State University just sent me a note announcing his long promised improvements to the SirsiDynix OPAC there.
And it's pretty cool! Steven Bell summarized some of the neat features:
"* Complex relevency ranking
* Spell correction
* Did you mean…. recommendations
* Refinements based on subfielded LCSH
* LC Classification browsing and refinement
* Sort by most circulated (”Most popular”)
* Links from full record display (currently still SirsiDynix Web2) back to Endeca via “More by this author” and “More titles like this”
* Refinement breadcrumbs that allow you to trace search and delete unwanted refinements."
You can see some of it here.
Here's their press release.
Here's a few reviews already, here and here and here and here.
Kudos to Andrew Pace, Susan Nutter, Emily Lynema and the rest of the NCSU team.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)
The Post Literate Society
Here's a great article that's a thoroughly interesting read. It's called:
Why Johnny And Janey Can't Read, And Why Mr. And Ms. Smith Can't Teach: The challenge of multiple media literacies in a tumultuous time
It was written by Mark Federman, Chief Strategist at the University of Toronto's McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology (Yep, that McLuhan)
You can download it here.
In 11 pages Dr. Federman teaches, enlightens and challeges. He delves into what society was like before writing and publishing (pre-literacy but not stupid or ignorant) and what changes were wrought by the change to a literate society - winners and losers. He then shows what is possibly happening now and what might become of the literate. Very interesting.
If you're looking for something intellectually engaging and stimulating for a staff brown bag lunch, here it is.
Warning - interesting content that's opinionated and controversial. Not for those who seek pap.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
Stressed!
Gee - I wonder how many copies of this BBC Story hit the boss's or trustee's desk next week? Maybe even more than all those Value of Libraries reports!
Librarians 'suffer most stress'
"Working in libraries has been commonly thought a stress-free job. Fighting fires may sound taxing, chasing criminals demanding, but a new study says that working in library is the most stressful job of all."
I am not too sure that I agree with the findings. Stress is sometimes a good thing. And, I've also read that job satisfaction scores for librarians tend to be higher than most other professions too. That's some compensation.
I also read recently that male librarians are among the highest at risk for melanoma. Maybe sitting on the beach doesn't work that well to deal with the stress!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2006
Podzinger
Here's a useful and interesting new tool. Podzinger searches podcasts - through the spoken word!
"When you type in a word or terms, PODZINGER not only finds the relevant podcasts, but also highlights the segment of the audio in which they occurred. By clicking anywhere on the results, the audio will begin to play just where you clicked.
PODZINGER, powered by 30 years of speech recognition research from BBN
Technologies, Cambridge, Massachusetts, transforms the audio into words, unlocking the information inside podcasts. Using PODZINGER you open up a previously untapped source of content via a simple web search."
I searched the phrase "Public Libraries" and came up with 31 podcasts bin 2 seconds. The search is called "ZING IT!"
We call it fulltext searching when it's in the written word. Do we call this freespeech searching?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 3:02 PM | Comments (2)
Is Print Doomed
Love this article from Fast Company. It is a quick read it here.
"A blogger and a magazine exec square off. Is paper too one-way in an interactive world, or will the Web actually beathe new life into dead trees?" It's Jeff Jarvis and John Griffin.
Tidbits:
"Print is not dead. Print is where words go to die."
"Actually print is where words go to live--we're still reading the ancient Greeks. On the other hand, I question the life span of blogs."
"Break free of the shackles of media and ask: What are you, really?"
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 2:44 PM | Comments (1)
Maybe they can add this feature to my credit card flash memory?
From Gizmodo - "Royal Vista will be releasing their EZVue USB flash drive. It is actually innovative and new because it features a small LCD display that scrolls the contents of the flash drive with the push of a button. This USB flash drive will range from 128MB to 1GB and prices will begin at $50 for the 128MB version."
No more plugging in the memory to remember or find out what's on it!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:51 AM | Comments (0)
I love my USB drive but this one looks cooler
OK - I know stuff is getting smaller, but here's a flash memory stick that's not a stick!
It's produced by Walletex Microelectronics. Check them out for details but it is very thin and waterproof and heat resistant. It can hold up to 2 GB (64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB). All the size of a credit card. Wow. Prices run from $29-$280.
I don't really like carrying a thumbdrive on my keychain or wearing a necklace one. Digging into the bottom of my PC bag is a pain too. For me, in my wallet makes it very convenient.
When I see stuff like this I worry about all those computer commons in libraries where the USB port is on the back of the CPU. Too much crawling under desk - or worse finding it disabled. How frustrating. A little extension port solves legacy problems. With thumb drives becoming so ubiquitous we need to make sure we're adapting.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:38 AM | Comments (1)
January 9, 2006
Academic Libraries - Nip and Tuck Edition
Stephen Bell has an interesting (and radical) entry on ACRLog about makeovers for academic libraries. You can find it here.
Based on Business Week's Jan. 9th column (Jon Fine’s “The Daily Paper of Tomorrow” - no longer free online) that reimagines another information service under competitive stress - the daily newspaper. Stephen uses the six insight areas from the column to spark a discussion on libraries with some thougtful comments too.
1. Steal From Google
2. Bifurcate
3. Redeploy Mercilessly
4. Increase Local Coverage
5. Redesign Your Premium Product
6. Use Your Readers
I love his conclusion:
"This has been a challenging exercise, and I suspect it holds up better in certain places than others. Clearly there are some ideas and practices that academic librarians should be comtemplating as we look at how different industries respond to a future where there are constant challenges from Internet competitors."
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 2:37 PM | Comments (0)
School Library 2.0
Infomancy has two good posting on School Library 2.0. You can find one here and other here.
Christopher Harris of Infomancy promises to spend this week as School Library 2.0 Week. From the blog:
"This week, I will be exploring my vision for the future of school libraries as related to the idea of Library 2.0 (L2). To start, I will be embarking on my own review of writings about L2 (Sorry Walt, not to predetermine the bandwagon, approach but it is a bit shorter to type). After that, I will spend the rest of the week addressing some of the questions that have been running through my head: What does a School Library 2.0 (SL2) look like? How is this idea different from where we have been and are now? How can we enact the necessary changes? and Why should we care about this anyway?"
Promises to be good too.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 2:05 PM | Comments (0)
Walt Crawford on Library 2.0
For your reading pleasure here.
Walt's Cites & Insights 6:2 is a special issue. Midwinter 2006 is now available for downloading. This is a special issue, 32 pages long in PDF form, consisting of one essay: Library 2.0 and “Library 2.0″. "Included are quotes and comments from some three dozen sources, some of them new to the discussion."
I commend it to you. My own article "Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Librarian 2.0" will be released this week in SirsiDnix OneSource and I'll point to it from this blog.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 2:01 PM | Comments (1)
January 8, 2006
Bookmobiles
I should have blogged this earlier but it make me proud when we do stuff like this:
SirsiDynix Outfits Bookmobile for Hurricane-Ravaged Hancock County Library System
Mississippi library restores services to its community with help from SirsiDynix and other libraries
HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—December 15, 2005—SirsiDynix announced today a cooperative effort with libraries in Maryland to donate a fully equipped bookmobile to Hancock County Library System, a Mississippi library hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina. The donated bookmobile will serve as a temporary replacement for Hancock County's Pearlington branch, which served both an elementary school and the general public. To outfit the bookmobile technologically and integrate it with the library system's existing software, SirsiDynix donated hardware and software. The bookmobile will open its doors on Dec. 19 with a celebratory ceremony at its new Pearlington location.
It also reminds us that bookmobiles are keeping up with the times too.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:14 PM | Comments (0)
January 7, 2006
Social Search for Music
From Patrick's Information Managment Now blog.
"Who said that web 2.0 stuff needs to be dry and boring and... and...?
See this: Pandora, created by the Music Genome Project. Pandora answers the question "Can you help me discover more music that I'll like?"
By entering a song or artiste directly on the web page, Pandora automatically creates a radio station filled with similar music. Let the station run and work away! It's free. Each added song to one station brings in approximately 100 similar songs, so if you want to adjust the kind of music on any given custom station (you can create up to 100 stations), add songs progressively. By giving a thumb up or thumbs down to any song being played, the selection will improve over time..."
I searched Bette Midler and it started playing a Midler song (Ths Ole House) to confirm my selection. It then offered up some Sarah Vaughn followed by more. Pretty accurate for my tastes.
I searched Weezer and discovered another song Summertime by Renee Olstead or Trampoline by Francine. Hmmm?
You can e-mail and share your radio station too.
This one is fun because I can have new stuff playing the background while I create documents and PowerPoints.
I'm having fun with non-traditional search this week.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:20 AM | Comments (2)
January 6, 2006
Social Software
Libraries are part of society (root word is something like social). Duh! So we should be very interested in anything that claims to be socially driven. Here's list of the most popular social sites:
1. MySpace
2. Blogger
3. Xanga
4. Hi5
5. Orkut
6. Facebook
7. Friendster
8. Flickr
9. LiveJournal
10. Photobucket
11. Del.icio.us
12. Plaxo
13. LinkedIn
14. Ryze Business Networking
15. Wikis and Wikipedia
16. Recommender Systems (article with links)
17. List of Social Software at Wikipedia
18. iKarma
There seem to be a few social categories - blogs, instant messaging,
Internet forums, Internet Relay Chat, Massively Multiplayer Online Games, Media sharing (like photos, video, and MP3's), Personals,
Social Shopping, Social bookmarking, Social citations, Social networks and Wikis. They all use the power of collaborating in large numbers to build community and knowledge. In terms of sheer power it seems ready made to serve the traditional library mandate as it evolves with techology and society. (Can you say Library 2.0?)
Key questions:
1. What are they doing right?
2. What can we learn from then?
3. What can we copy?
4. What are the best features, functions, etc.
Hmmm.
I'm no expert but the answers have to be somewhere in:
- How they link people of like interests.
- How they link people and content.
- How the users define their own social networks and the purpose for them.
- How one might manage this so that it doesn't become 'just dating'.
- How they manage profiles.
- How they manage 'reputation'.
- How they manage user-driven privacy level management.
Are there some cool current library applications? I can imagine ones like this:
Book Clubs
One City One Book networks
Homework Circles
Charitable clubs for foundations
Local history clubs
Genealogy clubs
Antiquers
Birders
Old Car buffs
Mystery lovers
(Auto)Biography lovers
Self-help
Skateboarders or exteme sports fan clubs
Gaming
Philately
Numismatics
There are likely items in our collections to support most of these groups (sometimes users come in groups!). I actually like the idea of groups since it helps build community bonds and stave off loneliness for some. Either way it connects to the human need to connect with information, entertainment, learning and people
It's interesing and sure provides the opportunity for us to extend our reach (and our collections' relevance) beyond the meeting rooms and the service desks. It also seems like it would be easy to pilot with a small targeted group to learn cheaply and cheerfully.
This is a bandwagon that sure provides a lovely sandbox for us (and for free on the web).
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:47 PM | Comments (0)
Understanding Numbers
I was reading a blog entry today that reminds me to be cautious with simple numbers-based statements to drive strategies. Discussions based on such numbers about "a community which has computers in only slightly more than half of the households" is too simple. This drove speculation about completely disenfranchising those who are on the wrong side of the Digital Divide by using too many digital strategies. Household penetration is a different concept than actual 'available' Internet access. Most research studies and censuses combine the numbers for home and work access to determine the base lines for participation in the web-based world. Indeed some studies show that a significant portion of web access is through work computers (banking, homework, vacation arrangements, e-mail, etc).
(Employers may worry about the productivity aspects of this but community qualit of life increases and there are loads of positive unintended consequences to this access when it doesn't spiral out of control (which is another issue altogether). I once worked for a company that didn't allow any personal phone calls so productivity plummetted when school let out as every mother worried until she got the call that the kid as home. In the pre-cel world, everyone took a break and headed for the pay phone. Foolish policy!)
You then also need to add to that those numbers the web-literate people who use other options - boys and girls clubs, social clubs, friend's PCs, shared PC's in group homes, co-ops and apartments, hotels, government offices, hospitals, and indeed, libraries. Other e-mail devices that are not PCs need to be included too (Treos, Blackberries, gaming devices, etc.)
The availability of web access goes beyond home access and lack of home access is not completely disenfranchising. Indeed there is some competition for libraries in this space - just imagine what the availability of a sub $250.00 laptop would do - Can you say Starbucks - More than WiFi? We need to be careful. If we feel comfortable that the digital divide will protect a core group of digitally disenfranchised library users - the number might be far smaller than we think.
Anyway, the long and short of it is to be careful with statistics. I once heard that less than 50% of people worldwide have ever used a phone - should we stall progress and wait for them to catch up?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:16 AM | Comments (3)
January 5, 2006
Does this cloud have a silver lining?
I am really beginning to like using tag clouds as another way to look at large, emerging social or current collections of news, pictures, bookmarks, etc.
If you haven't played with these yet, try the following links:
Newzingo: Your map to Google news
Compare this one to Newsmap as another non-tag cloud option.
Interesting.
Here's a constantly updated 'weighted' tag cloud for Flickr's pictures.
Here's a constantly updated tag cloud for bookmarks on Del.icio.us.
You can use tag clouds to generate insights into Ads through Adzooks.
Wanna tag cloud what's happening in the blogosphere through Technorati?
How about tracking trends in music through a tag cloud at Last.fm?
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) uses tag clouds in its genre search. Check out one here. I searched Brokeback Mountain and clicked 'more' under genre and looked at the tag cloud generated under the keyword "secret love". You can see it here. It's certainly another way to explore a difficult medium to catalogue, index and classify for entertainment discovery - such a personal preference oriented action.
Tag clouds are an extension of the trend to end-user (along with a few professional) tagging and folksonomies, largely the popular culture space. Pretty neat stuff and bestsellers, DVD's, music and hobbies are pretty popular culture services of libraries.
Is this a trendy option for user discovery and exploration or is there something here that's a foundation for community based success?
There have been some interesting blog postings on tag clouds in OPACs here, here, here , here, here, and here. Obviously the innovations by SirsiDynix clients are particularly interesting to me. In many ways this brings additional value to the work of generations of cataloguers.
Maybe I like tag clouds because they combine my natural librarian's comfort with text-based links with visual and sizing cues that help lead me to more quickly to understand the content domain. They're also faster for emerging topics. Just a theory but there has to be a bridge technology between textheads and nextheads somewhere.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)
Retrievr
If you're looking for something that's lots of fun to play with, try Retrievr.
There are no instructions. Does anyone ever read the manual anymore? Surely if it needs a manual it's too hard. Anyway, you can easily figure ths one out.
Draw a picture in the box. You can do it in colour too.
I drew a decorated Christmas tree (it's not the 12th of Christmas (Epiphany) day until Friday) - - a simple green triangle with a brown stump and red and yellow dots all over it for decorations. I pushed 'Retrievr Search' and, lo and behold, my drawing (I assume it somehow formed a visual search statement) pulled up many Flickr pictures that matched! It's not always spot on but it's really pretty impressive for a free beta.
Cool. I have seen a glimpse of the future of search. And my imagine is going wild about uses for this for those huge photo collections that libraries have ...
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:35 PM | Comments (0)
e-Ink Machines
OK- here's the picture.
An English-language FAQ says this is Jinke Electronics’ V8, mainly aimed at the Chinese market, which is planned for release later in January. It's priced at about $299 US retail. It can display English-language characters but can't read PDF's.
The Linux-based V2, selling for $349 US retail, will read PDF's directly and is planned for release this May (just in time to pass it around ALA, SLA and Canadian LA - hmmmm). It can also deal with txt, htm, DOC, Excel, PPT, Images, and MP3.
Wow!
Maybe 2006 will have e-paper readers as the ubergeeks cool toy of the year?
Of course between DRM and Sony, there's still room to dampen this innovation for the short term.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:26 PM | Comments (0)
January 4, 2006
What do teens want?
Ah the neverending quandary! How to develop a site or service for teens without looking like you're pandering or uncool or worse...
Joyce Valenza's Neverending Search blog has a good posting.
Here's most of the posting below but I recommend that you subscribe to the blog since she promises more quality postings like this one!
"The most interesting question I looked at this past week asked the students how their librarian could improve the site. Their responses fell into the following categories and I include the most representative of their quotes. What is most meaningful here is that these students are not merely complaining. They know their websites and appear sincere in their desire for their growth and improvement. They value such things as: access to databases, teacher/librarian-recommended links, documentation advice, and readers’ advisory.
Organization/Navigation (The most responses related to organization): “Some of the links don’t make sense to me.” “Make it easier to get to from home.”"It’s too complex.” “Too busy, too much stuff.”
Accessibility: “The website address should be shorter.” “Access to email and AIM.” Teach people how to use it.”
Descriptions/Annotations (Frequently requested!): “Maybe have a synopsis beneath each category to show what it is used for in case we forget.” “Describe what each search tool is best for.” “Clearer labeling.”
Documentation (Clearly an area students needed and cared about): “Make the bibliographic information clearer.” “Easier access to information on citing sources.” “Information about internal citations.”
Images/Aesthetics/Fun/Teen Relevance (Heavy response in this area!): “Make the site more appealing.” “Make it cooler looking.” “It’s boring.” “Jazz it up.” ”Better interface.” “More graphics, more color.” Change the theme more frequently.” “Educational games.” “Flash intro, background music, links to cool bands.” “More sports stuff.” “Cosmo and Jet.” “Don’t make it all work related.” “I want it to say, ‘Welcome [student’s name here] on the opening page.” “Let us sign in and get to GPAs and schedules like colleges do.”
Teacher/Project Links (They get our connections and partnerships): “Direct links to teachers’ sites.” “More of what the teachers go over in class to make sure we understand.”
Passwords (Clearly the students are unhappy with password situations!): “Easier access from home.” “An easier way to find the passwords.” “Find some way to post passwords to subscription services so we can actually use them from home.” “Easier passwords.”
Missing Content: Students wanted the following and much more: world news/current events, more booklists, more details for English and social studies, easy links to online reference, college stuff, career stuff, government and economics, more support for research papers. “Since I am hispanic, I would like there to be some hispanic history in all of this.”
Databases (They valued these!): “Greater variety of databases.” “More programs like Gale.” “More contemporary databases.” Databases with scanned in books.” “More subscriptions.”
Book stuff (A surprising number of responses requested more resources relating to books.): “Include the reading suggestion lists in the library on the page.” “Organized book lists by genre or author.” Link to the OPAC.” “Book of the month, trivia on books?”
Filters and Blocking (They had a lot to say here!): “Let us check email.” (Email was the biggest issue!) ”Make sure information isn’t blocked by big brother; we can actually learn without the censors.” “Have less banned websites because it makes it agrivating when you think you’ve found a good website for research and then you can’t read it because its blocked.” “Stop blocking picture searches because students need all sorts of pictures for different projects and it is hard to get them if all of the sites and searches are blocked.” “Too many restrictions as to which sites can be visited and such. Stop blocking all the sites!” I notice that when anything like, horoscopes, modern practice of magic, or homosexualtiy is being researched, there are limited resources, but that is only because our school system is biased. Let us search for fun things.”"
Cool stuff, eh?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:16 PM | Comments (0)
January 3, 2006
More than just Wikipedia
I must not have been paying attention! I use Wikipedia a lot and was heartened by the Nature comparison that showed that Wikipedia fared pretty well against Encyclopedia Britannica.
What I missed was all the other stuff at the Wikimedia Foundation Inc. which is the parent organization of Wikipedia (it's a non-profit corporation based in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, and organized under the laws of Florida. Its existence was officially announced by Wikia CEO and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on June 20, 2003).
Anyway, what surprised me was all these product extensions at Wikimedia:
Wiktionary
Wikiquote
Wikibooks (including Wikijunior and Wikiversity)
Wikisource
In Memoriam 9/11
Wikimedia Commons
Wikispecies
Wikinews
So, have any libraries out there created Wikipedia content about their library, their community, local history and figures? This seems ideally suited to collaboration and social networking within our communities. Anyway, for those of you doing something creative on your websites with wikis tell everyone in the comments or post it at the Library Success wiki.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:11 PM | Comments (4)
January 2, 2006
Free and Innovative
There is a ton of free innovatve software that you can implement in your portal. I wonder how many cool applications are out there in libraries of all kinds using the following:
1. Blogger (or other blogging services)and RSS
2. Bloglines to aggregate your blog and RSS subscriptions
4. Facebook to see the next generation of social networkingin colleges and high schools
5. Flickr to post digital photos online and to tag and annotate them.
6. LibraryThing to catalogue small personal collections.
7. MSN Photo Album to build an album to share with colleagues.
8. Myspace and see how this service has become so huge globally.
9. Custom bookmarklets
10. PubSub to start searching the future.
11. Experiment with some sound and picture search engines like Podscope.
12. Links to different, non-mainstream web search engines like Exalead, Wink, Gravee, Clusty, Mooter, Kartoo, etc. or others we can find at Search Engine Watch’s list.
13. Visual display tools like Grokker.
14. Google Base to see what the fuss is all about.
15. Del.icio.us to share bookmarks and to play with social bookmarking and tags.
16. Google Picasa account to post pictures and edit them
17. Do intersting things with MP3 files a la iTunes, LimeWire, Kazaa, and/or eDonkey. Look for something that’s not music too.
18. Podcasting local, teen and/or library issues.
19. Use Google Maps on your library website.
20. Use Copernic and extend your searching.
This isn't a comprehensive list - just a bunch of stuff that's almost or is ready for primetime. The barrier isn't cost here since they're mostly free. The hurdle is basically just our imaginations and energy. Either way it would be great to collect the efforts of all libraries in building small innovative applications in their websites and portals.
Any suggestions for other cool opportunities?
I'd love to hear about innovation in your library portals using all kinds of applications that improve the user experience. Use the blog comments link or send me an e-mail at stephen.abram@sirsidynix.com. Another place to look and post is the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:25 PM | Comments (4)
January 1, 2006
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
For many of us we're endowed with spanking new budgets. Some of us have to wait a while.
Either way this always feels to me like a chance at renewal and renaissance (better words than 'change'). It's a good time of the year to review our goals, reaffirm our resolve, and upgrade to attitude 3.0 ... a good outlook does wonders to make the day go well.
Peace,
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)
Mars and Venus and the Internet
One of the new Pew Internet and American Life reports is called ">How Women and Men Use the Internet. It notes that women are catching up to men in most measures of online life. It observes that men like the Internet for the experiences it offers, while women like it for the human connections it promotes.
"The percentage of women using the Internet still lags slightly behind the percentage of men. Women under 30 and black women outpace their male peers. However, older women trail dramatically behind older men.
- 68% of men are internet users, compared with 66% of women. Because they make up more of the population, the total number of women online is now slightly larger than the number of men.
- 86% of women ages 18-29 are online, compared with 80% of men that age.
- 34% of men age 65 and older are online, compared with 21% of women that age.
- 60% of black women are online, compared with 50% of black men.
- Men are slightly more intense Internet users than women. Men log on more often, spend more time online, and are more likely to be broadband users.
- On a typical day, 67% of online men use the Internet, compared with 64% of women.
- 52% of men have broadband connections at home, compared with 48% of women.
- In most categories of Internet activity, more men than women are participants, but women are catching up.
- Compared with women, online men are more likely to: check the weather, get news, get do-it-yourself information, check for sports information, get political information, get financial information, do job-related research, download software, listen to music, rate a product/person/service through an online reputation system, download music files, use a webcam, take a class.
- Compared with men, online women are more likely to: use email, get maps and directions, look for health and medical information, use web sites to get support for health or personal problems, get religious information.
- For many online activities, the growth rate for women's participation is greater than the growth rate for men's, including: using government web sites, getting religious information, watching video clips or listening to audio clips, getting news, researching products."
Anyway, that all interesting but I am always uncomfortable discussing gender differences in behavior. I guess it's my 60's upbringing.
Either way I seem to recall that public libraryland is at it's most successful serving women and their children. Are there some insights that can be mined from this report about how we might better serve men? Is there something in this that would help us retain male users after they leave their educational institutions? Is the conversation an easy one? Probably not. There are however some insights in this report about the kinds of content and services that might atract and retain a wider demographic of users.
Either way, with our primary use mode migrating to web based users, we would be wise to know if this population of users is different than our 'traditional' mindset of users. Of course, we would then need to make sure we're building the right environment for them, tesing it with the right folks and displaying the right content.
I don't know the right answer but Hmmmm, it seems like a good question.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:24 PM | Comments (0)