Superfluous Commentary

Internet Librarian 2009: Wrap-Up

2009-11-03T20:11:00.001-07:00

This conference was a positive experience on a variety of levels. The first, of course was to go and gather a great deal of information about librarians involved with the technical/computer side of our profession. I have a lot of ideas and new ways of contributing to the strength of the library system, specifically from the standpoint of web development, learning opportunities, and, to some extent, the general method by which libraries can remain interesting and desirable places to visit in the coming years.

The second thing that IL2009 allowed me to do was to meet and find middle ground with librarians from, literally, all over the world. There were, of course, lots of librarians from them Mountain West and the Pacific Coast, but they also came from places like Harvard University, and even as far away as other countries. Through interacting with these new people, I was able to see both the differing changes that libraries of various types face, and the similarities of concerns that unite us.

I also found it useful to see some of the "big stars" in the library and IT world, such as Vint Cerf from Google and Paul Holdengraber from the New York Library. Both of these guys are seriously smart, and have many inspiring things to say.

Getting to know Josh Hanagarne, one of my co-workers, was also a big bonus. I think that, so often, we only know each other in a limited and somewhat one-dimensional way. It's important, I think, to go beyond that surface level of acquaintance. It builds a stronger library system. Each person who works here has many skills and interests, and few of them come out in the general pursuit of our daily tasks. Giving us the opportunity to find out more about each other, and be enriched by discussing topics we may never have done at work, is a valid and important goal.

Finally, I had never been to that part of California. Attending IL2009 let me see things like Fisherman's Wharf and the Monterey Aquarium on my lunch hours and after the conference finished. Anything work-related that allows you to watch sea lions chase gulls in the Pacific, during dinner no less, can't be considered a bad thing.

Good trip.
Pretty town.
Informative conference.
Good company.
Thanks for sending me, SLCPL!

Internet Librarian 2009--Thursday

2009-10-29T10:35:00.002-06:00

Hey, Folks,

This'll be the last of the "biggest blog posts in all the universe", and it'll cover Wednesday's program at IL2009. I'll have a few final thoughts, perhaps tonight or tomorrow, but that shouldn't be nearly as gigantic. In any case, here we go:

Keynote 3: Wednesday Morning

This was a wonderful keynote! Stephen Abram from Sirsi Dynix moderated a discussion where two high school students and a young college student from Monterey talked about their study, entertainment, and general life experiences. It was so heartening to hear their intelligent, sensible, and (gasp) totally understandable habits with regard to technology and learning. We were asked not to name the kids, since they're under legal age, and it wouldn't be nice to start giving them digital "tails" at that young age. Still, the thing to take away is that young people are not the mass of drooling barbarians that we sometimes think they might be. Far from it. These are canny creators and users of our most impressive technologies, aesthetic learners who also take pleasure from anachronistic pleasures like LP records and antique books. These are kids who might be smarter than we are, if perhaps in slightly different measures than we have been testing. To you teen-area librarians: you have some diamonds in the rough there. Never think you're not lucky.
*****
Library Mashups:

What are they:
-combinations of data from multiple sources that create something new

Terms:
--Web Services
-pass information between different programs/entities
--API
-application programming interface

Look at: programmableweb.com

Why use mashups?
-provide better servicds without high skill set or huge work load
-fill out a form
-copy and paste generated text into web page
-adds value to site
-your website becomes a one stop shop
-allows patrons to grab info and share it
-library "goes outward"

How to use mashups:
-ask vendors for APIs
-create mashups to mix library data with popular web services
-put your library "out there"
-post in one place, but have it syndicated to many
-no redundant labor
-create RSS feeds!

Mashup tools:
-Yahoo Pipes!
-pulls in data from multiple sources and "pipes" things together like a flow chart
-paste resulting code snippet into web page to create widget
-a little confusing at first, don't quit

Examples:
-thisweknow.org

Note:
-read terms of service for each vendor
-find more at programmableweb.com/popular

Mashups for libraries:
-map to branches
-a must
-uses google maps api
-collections on flickr
-upload, apply tags
-automatically creates dynamic image libraries
-do work once, then you're golden
-website mashup elements
-blogs
-wiki
-flickr
-google calendar
-delicious (online bookmarking)
-dynamic linking to bookmark sets that can be altered, edited
-again, cut and paste code
-drupal + yourlibrarysite.com
-opac mashups
-much harder
-proprietary apis not always available
-find others who have already done the work
-or hire a programmer who can do it

How to use them:
-put the library where the patrons are, like on facebook, with mashups and rss

Link: mashups.web2learning.net
*****
Project Drupal: UC Santa Barbara Library

Familiar story: bad, embarrassing website, but without the direction and surety to touch the old one

Then came Annie, who had some skills, but found the website pretty hard to work with.

Proposal: we should have a CMS!

This, to my dismay, is another case study. I was hoping that this would be more of a "nitty gritty" look at Drupal. Sigh.

The second speaker is, again, relating the dry details of what they did to create a better site than they'd had before. More sighing on my part. People near me are clearly disengaged. I think our brains are pretty full now, and it has to be pretty sparkly to get our attention. Ah, well.
*****
Pecha Kucha: Innovative Practices

This was a fast paced set of four presentations. Pecha Kucha is Japanese for the sound that conversation makes. The way it worked is that each presenter had about six and a half minutes to make their pitch. when time was up, they had to stop. No breaks.

I can't relate all the rapid-fire ideas, but it was exhilarating to watch. A neat idea. I think that we may want to, at some point in the future, try this. It may be that this would be a great idea to present our troubleshooting tips at SDD this year. No promises.
*****
Retooling Technical Services for the Digital Environment

I thought I'd drop in to see what was said here. Basically, this was a doom-and-gloom story about how we'd never have a staffing increase in support services, never get a new building built, and we'd face an ever-increasing, ever more varied and difficult work load. Fun stuff. This was the worst structure for a PowerPoint that I've seen in years. Three words: purple on blue. Still, there were a few things that we'll want to think of.

1) As tangible items give way to digital, ephemeral ones, we'll have to figure out how to catalog them, and how to best understand their part in the catalog of materials.

2) Budget cuts will probably play a part. Diversifying job skills to include many elements of support and public service will allow us to remain relevant.

3) Saying "this is all I do" is not really a reasonable response. If you're working in acquisitions, you may also have to do some work in serials, or cataloging. That's how it is.

4) As staffing levels are cut to the quick, redundant tasks will have to be abolished, and some elements of technical services may have to be folded together to make things work.

...and that was, as they say, the whole show!

Internet LIbrarian Update--Wednesday

2009-10-28T21:42:00.002-06:00

Keynote: Paul Holdengraber gets interviewed

In a "turnabout is fair play" move, the organizers had a filmmaker interview the famous interviewer, Paul Holdengraber, from New York Library. This guy is a really engaging speaker. He just picks up the whole audience and carries us with him. It's something else. The keynote is over way too fast, but the conversation, which I couldn't begin to summarize, leaves us with a tremendous level of enthusiasm. That, and the idea that our own institutions could use a mighty kick in the pants.

I'm sure that every library system has its share of smart, talented people, but I imagine that these people are rarely as worldly, outgoing, and charismatic as Mr. Holdengraber. Still, we can only hope there are a group of people at SLCPL that can do a small fraction of what he's done to bring the weighty institution in NYC into the new century, creating a place that is, as the keynote's title hints, a place of desire.
*****
Experience Design Makeover

Question: What is Experience Design?
-Making website visitors have a great experience by designing your site to make their progress easy and predictable.

Good designers plan for good experiences from the beginning.

--The speaker related his experiences with how his website redesign went, and all the ways his old website didn't work or was clunky. We were shown examples.

--They needed a Website Extreme Makeover

--The New Website
-Allows comments everywhere
-Has a better layout
-Uses RSS feeds to keep patrons up to date
-They have multiple blogs, all frequently updated
-They use many social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter
-With their new CMS, updates to content are easy
-The staff updates page and does other upkeep as part of their job
--So, they have lots of interaction possibilities with their patrons, and have lots of conversation areas, so that the "feel" of their site is very friendly.

----
Ok, great, but HOW?

--First, they asked what the staff, public, and managers what they wanted to see in the site.
-They also planned for some stuff that they didn't share (secret tech stuff).

--Tech manager's jobs:
-Know what's new and cool
-Parse the new and cool for what's relevant to their institution
-Find and hire staff with the right skill set
-Put the new and cool into practice
-Don't give up! You need to keep maintaining it to succeed

----
After the Upgrade:
-Hone all the new features
-Teach everyone what the features do, why they're there, and how to pitch in
-You may need to create guidelines to follow, like style guides and policies about posting and moderating

----
What about now?
-They're getting ready to redesign again. The process isn't an end, but a cycle. A "permanence revolution" (my term)

----
Makeover in 5 steps:

1) Write an Experience Brief
-This is a one page story written from the persona of an underserved marked member, illustrating the required experience that might get that person into the library
-You need to figure out how to build "that website" that will get this group to love the way it runs

--What goes into this process?
a) target audiences for growth
b) how can they use the site easily?
c) how can we offer tools and services to help?
d) how can we give them an unobtrusive but friendly atmosphere?
e) how can we place tools in the pivotal locations without clutter?

2) Take a touch-point journey
-Example: prospective patron wants to get a library card
-terminology matter
-"get a library card" is more friendly than "get an account"
-important services have to be inpirational
-make them big, bold, and strategically placed--patrons won't look around forever

3) Conversation is Experience
-are we providing places on website for conversation/interaction?
-Process: Twitter feed =>Facebook Update => Update feed on your website (tie everything together so you don't have to duplicate work)
-use mini-polls and surveys as conversation starters

4) Answer the "why" questions
-why are we doing this?
-why should the patrons care?
-why should I click on this link?
-"Sell" both staff and patrons on tools and services

5) Focus on the customer
-flip the design: it's for THEM not US
-think simple: make inwardly complex tasks look and feel easy to the end-user
-always say yes
-try it!
-a yes that results in a temporary solution is better than waiting forever for the "perfect" solution

--But how can we implement all of this?
-Establish a "digital branch"
-It's the responsibility of all staff members to pitch in and do their part
-You have two libraries, the physical and the virtual

--Plus (outside of class)
-check out Google Custom Search to tame the "big old links page of doom" problem" with a "search by topic" bar
*****
Designing for Content-Rich Websites:

Part One:
1) Redesign
-grab order from chaos
-use the old content, just reskin it
2) Re-architecture
-to help people, the Dean among them, to find stuff
-help it be easier to add info
-it's about the info, not location
-harness info with Vufind, LibGuides

Question: What did it cost?

-confusing and incomplete info given
-4 member web team
-2 web developers
-8 grand for student help
-9 grand for usability testing
-40 content creators
-no info about hardware costs

Part Two:
--Seeking Direction
-the usual stuff

--Drew info from:
Surveys, focus groups, advisory groups, staff group

--Drafting for:
Taxonomy, user interface, technology

Discussion of process
Points =>
-content inventories
-expunge orphaned or superfluous content
-migrate good, useful content

Part Three: Tools

-We love open source software
-building is better than buying
-if you have the skill to do it
-they use Drupal, VuFind, Solr
-but they also use commercial software
-metalib
-exproxy
-spx
-aleph ils

Other notes: look into federated search

Taxononmy: could we do "experts search" linked to staff members?
*****
SEO: Optimizing Library Web Resources for Enhanced Discovery

--Idea: Make library resources "findable" with something more than very narrow search terms in a search engine.

-Move things out of the "dark web" and into the view of search engines
-More exposure to "accidental" searchers
-Great collections aren't very well used if no one can find them

--Problems:

-Most digital content doesn't play well with search engines
-We need to follow the techniques that retail businesses

--Complications:

-We don't really know exactly how search engines rank pages, and they don't want us to
-They don't want to be scammed
-Trying to "trick" search engines can blow up in your face

--Cookbook

-Use analytics to establish benchmarks
-Develop content
-Create metadata
-Publish content
-Optimize content delivery
-Use sitemaps to facilitate indexing
-Fine tune

--Analytics

-Understand use patterns
-Benchmark
-Not just page views, but performance vis-a-vie finding specific goals

(stuff from an earlier gloss on Google Analytics)

--Optimization

-Get more traffic by following "the rules", thereby letting them harvest your stuff
-Clean structure, good content, strategic metadata

--Great Content

-Unique content is best
-We all have pretty much the same books
-Focus on resources that aren't available elsewhere

--Creat high-quality metadata

-Compact descriptions rich with meaningful keywords, terms, phrases
-Use appropriate database tags

--Implement a web based delivery environment

--Issues

-One unique page for each item
-Unique title for each object
-Great, short, informative data snippets

--Goal

-They find your objects, and their subjects are as-advertised

--Here, he starts to speak so quickly that I can't keep up. Ahhhh!

--Crunchy stuff

-sitemaps have a particular structure
-you can create a Perl script to inject and refresh the structure on all your sites
-you can put a cron job together to make it go at intervals to update

----
Part Two:

--Virtual Tachometer: gauging the value of virtual services:

--E-metrics are important for redesign, managing virtual services, establishing budgets

--There are a lot of e-metrics, some expensive and some free (like Google Analytics)

--Another discussion of Google Analytics

--Similar: Woopra
-does the same things, but the count may be slightly different, in terms of categorizing what a "page view" really is.

--And so, Google Analytics takes Woopra out in the back yard and kills it like a chicken (my terms), except for a few things, like live stats, which Woopra does well. Also, you can identify a visitor (like a radio collar, so you can watch where they're going and what they're doing over time.

--Splunk

-free form log processing
-takes a .csv or text file and mines for data to make sense of them
-can be installed on a client and set to pull down logs, proces them, and parse the data
-many plugins to allow you to analyze a variety of different types of serivices, like web servers, firewalls, etc.
-good as an addendum to another analytics program
-this product is highly processor and ram intensive, so don't use it on a server/computer that has other high-overhead processes that it needs to run. Use at least 4 gigs of ram and a quad core processor, if possible

--Here, the speaker tried to show a realtime example, but didn't really have any luck
*****
Experience Design Makeover

Question: What is Experience Design?
-Making website visitors have a great experience by designing your site to make their progress easy and predictable.

Good designers plan for good experiences from the beginning.

--The speaker related his experiences with how his website redesign went, and all the ways his old website didn't work or was clunky. We were shown examples.

--They needed a Website Extreme Makeover

--The New Website
-Allows comments everywhere
-Has a better layout
-Uses RSS feeds to keep patrons up to date
-They have multiple blogs, all frequently updated
-They use many socaial networks, such as Facebook and Twitter
-With their new CMS, updates to content are easy
-The staff updates page and does other upkeep as part of their job
--So, they have lots of interaction possibilities with their patrons, and have lots of conversation areas, so that the "feel" of their site is very friendly.

----
Ok, great, but HOW?

--First, they asked what the staff, public, and managers what they wanted to see in the site.
-They also planned for some stuff that they didn't sare (secret tech stuff).

--Tech manager's jobs:
-Know what's new and cool
-Parse the new and cool for what's relevant to their institution
-Find and hire staff with the right skill set
-Put the new and cool into practice
-Don't give up! You need to keep maintaining it to succeed

----
After the Upgrade:
-Hone all the new features
-Teach everyone what the features do, why they're there, and how to pitch in
-You may need to create guidelines to follow, like style guides and policies about posting and moderating

----
What about now?
-They're getting ready to redesign again. The process isn't an end, but a cycle. A "permanent revolution" (my term)

----
Makeover in 5 steps:

1) Write an Experience Brief
-This is a one page story written from the persona of an underserved marked member, illustrating the required experience that might get that person into the library
-You need to figure out how to build "that website" that will get this group to love the way it runs

--What goes into this process?
a) target audiences for growth
b) how can they use the site easily?
c) how can we offer tools and services to help?
d) how can we give them an unobtrusive but friendly atmosphere?
e) how can we place tools in the pivotal locations without clutter?

2) Take a touch-point journey
-Example: prospective patron wants to get a library card
-terminology matter
-"get a library card" is more friendly than "get an account"
-important services have to be inpirational
-make them big, bold, and strategically placed--patrons won't look around forever

3) Conversation is Experience
-are we providing places on website for conversation/interaction?
-Process: Twitter feed => Facebook Update => Update feed on your website (tie everything together so you don't have to duplicate work)
-use mini-polls and surveys as conversation starters

4) Answer the "why" questions
-why are we doing this?
-why should the patrons care?
-why should I click on this link?
-"Sell" both staff and patrons on tools and services

5) Focus on the customer
-flip the design: it's for THEM not US
-think simple: make inwardly complex tasks look and feel easy to the end-user
-always say yes
-try it!
-a yes that results in a temporary solution is better than waiting forever for the "perfect" solution

--But how can we implement all of this?
-Establish a "digital branch"
-It's the responsibility of all staff members to pitch in and do their part
-You have two libraries, the physical and the virtual

--Plus (outside of class)
-check out Google Custom Search to tame the "big old links page of doom" problem" with a "search by topic" bar

--As you can see, it was another big day at IL2009. For those of you who want to see the presentations, I have downloaded all of them for the sessions I attended, if they were available. I will think of ways to make them available to you upon my return.

Internet Librarian 2009--Monday

2009-10-27T21:21:00.002-06:00

Keynote Vint Cerf and Paul Holdengraber:

This was a great keynote, edgy and full of humor. Holdengraber, from New York Library, is a skillful, confrontational interviewer, and gets interesting, unexpected responses from his subjects. Although I couldn't go into all that was discussed, I think that the whole was inspiring and eye-opening.

One thing that Vint Cerf, internet legend and Google Guru, spoke of was the phenomenon of "bit rot", the idea that, as time passes, we become unable to support old information, because the infrastructure of hardware and software disappears. If we let this happen, a lot of our digitized data will soon become unreachable, the info lost. This is something that we really have to consider, and find ways around. In some cases, there is no clear "upgrade path" to be seen. I think that every archival institution will soon come to grips with this in one way or another.

This keynote was actually the best part of the day, and most of the other programs, though cool, had a hard time following this class-A act.
*****
E-Learning Trends and Tools

Part One: Frank Cervone

Is there a clear path? No

Work/life balance is out of sync for many

Speed and convenience is paramount

30% of customers want instant attention

Multitasking is everywhere

Alerting is the new searching
-Information comes to us
-RSS feeds, Friends Areas

Only 15% of world's population is wired

Many libraries don't even have a website

--

Stratification of Education
-worldwide decrease of higher education
-majority of students (70%) are non-traditional (age, work, etc.)
-graduation rates: now @ 6 yrs or more.
-graduating in 4 yrs shows skew for race, w/ white having highest percentage

--

Old measures don't cut it
-money spent on a program isn't relevant
-outcomes are the thing

Gaming changes expectations
-students want to be engaged
-from textual learners to kinesthetic learners

Then, there's the topic of funding
-we're all doing more with less

--

Where do we go?
-what do learners expect?
-task-based teaching is the norm
-however, more broadly applicable, long term learning is the best (teach them how to figure out the next problem without needing help).
-learning needs to be authentic and engaging

Measures:
-must stand up to rigorous scrutiny

--

Outsource what doesn't add value: don't do what doesn't help your core mission

Outsource to add value: co-opt outside skills and take advantage of pre-existing resources

--

Message: change is inevitable and occurs in ways we don't expect

We need to plan for the future, be aware of the trends, and be ready to respond to changes

*****

Lori Reed

Libraries and e-learning and zombies

Message: make courses be interactive, so that student don't disengage (become zombies).

Old e-learning model: watch the video, read the text, take the test (correspondence, no interation)

Problem: no interaction, no useful learning.

Even now: boring lecture webinars are just as bad or worse than the videos of old.

Ongoing problem: prior bad experiences of other staff will bias the against e-learning.

--

How to get buy-in?
-give users a good experience

Nugget:
9/11 gave birth to the corporate distance e-learning trend

--

All these sites and services are just tools, even the snazzy web 2.0 stuff
-tools are only as good as the person behind them. There are no magic bullets here

--

Smiling and laughing means you're succeeding, and that there's learning going on.

Transformations:

reading to sharing
prose to bullets
data to games
diagrams to interactions
one way to two ways
two ways to groups
busy work to applications

--

web tools:

http://delicious.com/lorireed/elearning

--a pretty good program, with the first part being a bit more impressive than the second, but the second having fairly important, wide considerations attached.
*****
Notes: Online Learning Objects 101

Julie Hannaford; Cristina Sewerin

Modules for elearning

Re:search
1) developing a topic
2) determining the type of info you need
3) understanding sources relevant to your topic
4) retriving info
5) evaluating info
6) integrating info into your research report

Five modules with three levels of complexity.

Re:search--

easy to populate
pre-determined templates
content can be tailored
modules are collaborative

--this is a pretty dry lecture, and I'm not totally getting it yet--

Okay, this is a show and tell about their e-learning product* (yawn)

Their product is neat, but it's not really applicable to anything we're doing at this moment.

The idea here is that it gives the students a series of progressively more complex challenges, with integral discussions on why things are they way they are. Here, they're learning how to find, evaluate, and categorize info relating to doing research papers.

--the theory

Good instruction is course-related and applicable

When creating courses, the tools have to be easy to use, and not require technical "heavy lifting" to make things work.

If content creators can adapt figures and cases from other courses, this speeds and broadens the courses in general.

--yep, this is still just a big show and tell, and I'm still finding it a yawner.

Part two: long yawner about usability testing of same product. Not very informative or broadly useful.
*****
Integrating library resources into course sites at Harvard University

Michael J. Hemment

Guess the tag cloud: students create tags to indicate various experiences.

Not great: library catalog

Easy, helpful: Google

Funny, Smart: John Stewart

The big challenge: connecting students with library resources, convincing them that they should try the library before going on to other knowledge sources.

Before redesign: 10 clicks to get where they were going

After: 1 click!

Most important: putting info at the point of need

They use the ISITES LMS

Discussion of good qualities

We could use course guides on new website. We may not need such complex management, since we're not a university, but still, having guides up, in some form, could be great. Same with story times, events, etc.

"Meet the Catalog"

Harvard has two catalogs, classic and new

Video--Like "I'm a Mac..."

Idea: we could have two stylesheets/UI models for our catalog, a simple, old fashioned one, and one that has much more graphical content, more like Amazon. Patron could use either one, or switch at will.

Discussion of how to assess the usability. Not so different as other models. They use Morae and Survey Monkey

What's next:

Michael discusses things they're planning, like auto-populating guides with preexisting assets.

Chad's video:

Incorporating free services

He uses angel CMS

IM availablility for professors

Mashups: google pipes

RSS feeds
-feed to 2JS to test
-put it in your CMS

Desktop sharing for hands-on help

Jing-screencasting

Twitter for discovery and sharing

Eembedded librarian answers IMs from students

For technophobes
-go a little at a time
-assure them that it's not that hard
-prove that it works
-use a team approach

For tech-starved students
-tech is a supplement, not core curriculum
-on campus labs
-desktop sharing for help
*****
LOL Cats guide to...by the librarian in black

Talking to Patrons:

Be awake when talking with patrons. Make sure they're awake.

Most of the web 2.0 stuff is cheap/free, and not that hard to implement

<>

Put chat windows where patrons are upset!

Interact with patrons:

Comments pages EVERYWHERE!

Discussion groups/book clubs.

Using Blogs for recommendations

--make it easy to do
--make it easy to categorize entries

Ann Arbor does this, and they're wicked cool
Madreads (madison public library)

Social Networking:

Ask users where they are

Children will be in different places

lots of tools...

Also, event sites are good

Eventful; upcoming.org; going.com; craigslist...

Cheap advertising on Facebook? ten bucks for 5,000

Use multimedia: photos; podcasts; videos

flickr photostreams, for instance

Image generators can be fun

generatorblog.blogspot.com
Imagegenerator.org
imagechef.com

Podcasting & Videocasting

equipment isn't too expensive
free software available, hardware isn't that steep

screencasting-wink, camstudio
class websites-wordpress, blogger
live office hours-freeconferencecall
live webcasts-ustream.tv

Offer treats!

People like shiny things

ask them what they want

give them stuff if you can

Staff Avatars?
E-Interviews?

Tap the Google wonderland!

Open source software:

typefaster typing tutor
gnucash

What do the patrons need? find service, give it.

Free books

project gutenburg
audiobooksforfree.com
escholarship
google books

Free databases:

Respect your customers!

If you're working online, bad responses last a long time. Be courteous.

Offer users choices @ communications, workflow.

Good catalog

vufind
library thing
aquabrowser
bibliocommons
dndeca
worldcat local

Improving the catalog is BIG

Making changes is hard! Keep going, and keep pushing people in power to make changes (but smartly)

If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough.

Sarah Houghton-Jan was presenter.
*****
Evaluating and Justifying Web 2.0 for Libraries:

Discussion of Web 2.0 concerns...

Issue: internal vs. external

What level of approval?

What about money? Are you authorized?

Big thing: public vs. private info

Individuals shouldn't do certian things on library related entities

Evaluation of Web 2.0

Not so different from any other process.

Return on investment

Relevance

Hidden complexity

Who greenlights?

Considerations: Authenticity, Veracity, Ability to correct; Is it viral?

--Much of this is stuff I've heard before. Not bad, just stuff like I've heard often before.

No real time for questions or discussion. Certianly a big lecture, really more than what the time would allow in some ways. A whirlwind tour.
*****
Marketing your digital presence

Joy Marlow

digital collections, your catalog and beyond

What is your digital presence?

get down to basics
think like a marketer

why do we host digital collections?

--values of above?

three primary customer segmentations

not intersted
not aware
savvy

Not aware is the most important group

--create personas

those not interested--they just don't care. They can't be sold the idea of digital collections
not aware--key group--maybe they just bookmarked the catalog, and think that's your only page; habitual
savvy--don't forget 'em

Marketing phases

ideation
focus group research
solution scope
implementation
customize
promote
revise
build the community

-build the digital community
comments
tags
contributions
ratings

Benefits

educational
promotional
low cost

Measurements of success

what is success--you need to have a clear idea

Marketing through the catalog

seamless integration between catalog and digital collection
open up digital collection to new users
results should appear right in catalog results page
when you click...you don't ever leave the catalog search area
consistent experience is important

catalog terminals: a marketing opportunity
-special page like a mini homepage

Parteners in the community with web portals
-digitize elements of history in the community, host digital collections online
-parteners do marketing for you
-partener with local broadcasting station.

Marketing through open access
-harvest your metadata

--Then, life hits!
-budget cuts, for instance
-marketing for SURVIVAL
-"save our library" page
-emargency splash pages
-remember to use banners to inform those who only look at catalog

Marketing for the future of the library
-geotagging with google maps

public library of cincinatti
-old panorama
-how much has changed?
-google earth overlay
-3d representation of where things are/were

...a long day, don't you think?

Web Managers Acadamy: Redesign 2.0

2009-10-26T22:06:00.001-06:00

Here are my notes for Sunday's seminar at Internet Librarian 2009. Hope they give you a feel for the things that we talked about!

Why redesign for 2.0? Design thinking and evidence-based practice.

The User Experience

--Studies show that sometimes, it's more about the things users like, rather than what is absolutely useful. In polls, the well designed, pretty websites were rated higher, even if their work flow was modified to make them less easy to use. Design matters, big time.

Simplicity is a myth

--The idea that a simple site will satisfy the patrons is a badly flawed concept. The site should appear simple, but anyone will tell you that the art of getting things to look easy is the hardest thing to accomplish.

----
New Rules of Web Design
-Design is key
-Users judge your site in the blink of an eye
-Visual appeal is ranked higher than actual usability

Strategy:
-Find your few highest priorities, then emphasize those
-Emphasized priorities and tasks will provide a starting point for your overall architecture. Those always come first, everything else being secondary.
-Provide many ways to connect with your resources
-Provide many ways not to fail at common tasks

User's Expectations: NOT formed by looking at other library websites
-Instead, they compare you to popular sites and services they use every day, like Amazon and Google.

Considerations:
-Different audiences have different expectations and perceptions--they actually see pages differently.
-Different age groups interact with sites in different ways and have different needs.
-There are things no one likes, though, like small fonts, bad contrast choices, and unpredictable site behavior.

----
Web Services:

A discussion of web services followed, along with the suggestion that they be used for as many low-effort tools as is reasonable and useful for the site. Allowing off-site services to provide you with useful widgets via web services allows you to maximize your cost/benefit and time spent. Web services work by communication between disparate entities on the web, in some cases by reaching out into the "cloud" and grabbing fun tools.

----
CMS: Content Management Systems

News:
Drupal now used for Whitehouse.org website. Score one for open source!

Content management systems, like Drupal, Plone, and Joomla! are all simple ways for non technical staff to input data. They are often modular, and many of the good ones are also open source. Some, like MS Sharepoint, are expensive, though. Many libraries make very good sites out of CMS programs, and they are often able to sustain and enhance service as times go on.

Other software types:

Some other types of software can be used for websites. These include blogging engines and wikis. There are libraries who build their whole website out of such software types. Most popular are blog engines such as Wordpress, and wikis, like Mediawiki. We use Mediawiki for both the Computer Services wiki and the staff intranet page.

----
Measures:

Analytics help you understand the impact of changes you make. Without them, "better" is totally subjective.

Google Analytics:

Asks the following questions--
-How do they get to the website?
-What are they searching for?
-Who is coming?
-From where?
-Which pages are most important/most often searched?
-Are they getting lost and back-clicking?

Google Analytics process:
-Set Goals
-Find inital benchmarks
-Make changes
-Measure changes
-Evaluate the differences
-Hone changes
-Measure again...

Other things Google Analytics can measure:
-Where, geographically, are your users located?
-What browsers are they using?
-What operating systems are they running?

This all leads to:
-Getting familiar with the way the website is used
-Testing changes with provable results
-The ability to A/B test a change
-In the end, a better website, with great navigation schemes and tools where they will do the most good.

--This was a long, but worthwhile class. I have a lot of things that will be useful going forward with our web redesign. An especially timely workshop for our current issues.

Internet Librarian 2009: Saturday

2009-10-25T21:23:00.003-06:00

This year, the Salt Lake City Public Library saw fit to send me to the Internet Librarian 2009 conference in Monterey, California. Because this would essentially coincide with a vacation I had already planned to take in the region, I elected to drive from Salt Lake City to the destination in Monterey. That journey is outlined in my blog, "Well, I made it," which you could read, should the mood strike you. Suffice it to say that it was a long journey, but I was able to do the drive without any serious discomfort.

Initial impressions:

Upon first blush, Monterey is a scenic, old style town by the sea. It is certainly a great departure from anything in the nearby environs of Salt Lake. Most of my experience with coastal towns is centered on the northwest coast, so this is somewhat of a new experience for me.

It should be said that Monterey's street layout is, ahem, interesting. That is to say, it's a bit difficult to navigate without getting lost. At least for me. Many streets near the water are one-way, and may others travel a circuitous course. In some periods when I was fruitlessly searching for my hotel in the dark and fog of the night, it seemed that the whole town was created as a series of concentric rings. It should also be noted that there is no acre of flat ground anywhere nearby. Oh, and there are about six Best Westerns within about ten miles, each seemingly unaware of the next's existence.

I finally found the hotel, and the next day, though the convention hall was only around two miles from my hotel, I managed to get lost a few more times. Nevertheless, I had budgeted about an hour to go those two miles, and so I was fine. It turns out, if you memorize all the streets and features by rote, you'll have no difficulty finding your way around.

The Saturday Workshop: The Accidental Technology Trainer

This workshop's title perfectly describes my experience in learning to teach technology classes. It was an accident. Because no one at the City Library had ever run or worked in a computer lab before we started, we were left to create the whole entity in an organic, "let's see if this will work," fashion. Yes, we had some help and support from the Gates Foundation (as we still do), but we had to craft many elements of policy and training out of whole cloth. I was lucky enough to get in on the ground floor of this work, occupying one of the now-defunct "lab+computer services" positions.

Since then, I've become a full-timer in Computer Services, and I've helped Gwen Page, the lead trainer for the lab, to continue to diversify and deepen our classes. Now, as I'm deep in the soup of creating a large curriculum of classes for remote locations (and perhaps a mobile lab, in time), I find that I can use all the help around to make sure the classes are well structured and effective.

Hence, the workshop. Taught by Stephanie Gerding, an independent library consultant whose credentials include the luminaries of the tech-learning business, this class was designed to give us ideas and tips for making our classes better, more fun, and more widely applicable to a variety of learners.

The other attendees were from places as close as San Jose and as far away as, I believe, Zimbabwe. There was even someone else in the class from Salt Lake--a representative of the Bureau of Reclamation regional library. It was a fun, diverse, dynamic group, and we had a lot of fun with our discussions.

Though it's impossible to go over all of the neat stuff that we talked about, one of the topics we covered were the "rules" of teaching tech classes to adults that we learned (some from the instructor and some from each other). Here they are:

1) Don't be afraid to make mistakes. This goes for both the students and the instructor. A mistake is just a teaching opportunity. What did you do? How do you get back where you need to be? Why didn't your strategy work?
2) Ask all your "stupid" questions. Don't let pride, fear, or being shy keep you from really understanding the topic when you walk out of the room.
3) It's okay to "cheat" with other students--collaborative learning and asking for help and clarification is GOOD.
4) A class outline is there to be IGNORED. It's just a basis from which you spring. Never cling to the outline if the class needs you go go in a different direction. Every class will go in a slightly different way. Embrace the spontaneity!

We went over a heck of a lot more than that. Learning styles, skill assessment, challenges to learning, necessary qualities for great trainers, and more. One of the great things we did as a class exercise was what the instructor, Stephanie, called a "snowball fight". When we were given a chance to respond with some of our observations about a few topics that came up, we wrote our nuggets of wisdom on our notepads, balled them up, and proceeded to wing these "snowballs" at each other for a few minutes. At the end of the "fight" we were to pick up one of the "snowballs" and straighten it up. When we discussed what had been written, we each had someone else's paper. That way, we could talk candidly about either what the other person had written, or what we had. No one knew one from the other. I'm told that this allows the reluctant participators to get in there and raise their voice without the supposed fear of repercussions. I don't know about that, one way or another. Throwing balls of paper at other adults, though...that's fun.

I had a pretty good grasp on many of the concepts we went over, and felt good about the structure of many of our classes, but I did pick up some great tips, as well. They'll pay dividends as we create and renovate classes in the future. It was a great, laid-back beginning to the conference. I'm jazzed to be here. Thanks, SLCPL!

ZOHO does the smart thing, we benefit

2008-05-14T11:06:00.002-06:00

So, I read the news toda fro CNet, and it said that Zoho had decided to accept passwords from Google and Yahoo for their logins. That, my friends, was the one thing that had held me back from adopting their service. There's a limit to the number of accounts that any one human being can stand, without collapsing in on himself like a red giant star. To avoid such a fate, I had taken a "pass" on ZOHO. Now, since I can just bop in with the Google account, I can use their service.

ZOHO is a more feature-rich suite than Google Docs--this is a known thing. I've loved Google Docs, and I may well continue to use them, since all I need is to be able to have a non-location-specific word processor. That said, ZOHO has a lot to commend it. It's a slick, AJAX based program with offline capabilities, sharing, blogging, etc. Not bad, for free.

Now that I don't have to create yet another account, it's within my reach. Bravo, ZOHO. You've made the hard, but correct choice.

Wikinating!

2008-03-20T11:27:00.003-06:00

I just put the LEO info onto the staff wiki. I'd been working with Mediawiki before this, so I remembered how to do a few things. It'll be nice to have the info there, where it can be easily updated without Byzantine methods. That's what a wiki is all about. Fluid, retained info. I like it!

This is sort of post-mortem to the Library 2.o thing for me, since I finished all the rest some time ago, but hey, I figured that I should go back and complete the exercise. Now, here it is. Laters, all!

What Now?

2008-02-25T19:13:00.002-07:00

Here's where I'm supposed to suggest that one thing that the program didn't cover. Well, sure, I could do that, but here's my feeling about where we should go from here, instead.

I think the important thing to look at here is that this is just a taste. The web is so much bigger than what we've seen here, and the avenues of inquiry are too vast to easily quantify. What I'd stress to anyone who finishes this program is that they have to take the next step. They have to take what they've been exposed to here and move outward with it. Also, they'll have to move inward, considering what they've seen and figuring out how each of the tools in the program fits into their scheme of doing library work. There's a lot to consider. How can we put these things into practice to make our library better? How can we rennovate our own understanding of libraries, so that we'll be able to move into the future and still be important and vital.

So, my advice would be to KEEP GOING. If you stop here, you'll gradually forget what you learned, and slip back into your daily routine. That's the reality of life. You remember and utilize skills that are at the forefront of your mind. Knowledge unused and untested is soon lost. Stay out there on the web, using these tools, finding new, great sites and services, keeping abreast of what's going on. That's what I'll be doing.

Peace out.

On Report

2008-02-25T18:30:00.002-07:00

No, it's not Double-Secret Probation (I got off of that last week!). I'm talking about debreifing after my experience with this program.

Coming in, I figured that I'd better dig in and work through the list of tasks, so that I could help anyone else on staff if they came to me with a question. Also, I figured that it would be an easy way to get free stuff (and I'm a total bottom feeder, I'll take the swag every time). I figured that I would have done most of the things listed already, and I'd just have to jump through a few hoops to get my free merch.

And, to some extent, that was true. I had been running blogs for a while, had a Myspace account, and was otherwise pretty clued in on many of the basics that make up Web 2.0. That said, there were all sorts of sites that I encountered as a result of this program that I would not have known about otherwise. They just lay outside my normal areas of interest, and I would have been ignorant of them without being pushed to go and see.

The web is a big place, and it's always a mistake to think that you really know your way around. That said, I think this is a good course, even for people who are fairly savvy. For the staffers who don't get as much time to noodle around with computers, I'm sure the course will be a bit more challenging, but they'll also be learning at a higher curve, since much of this information will be new to them.

I think that it's a great learning experience, and I hope that it is as positive for others as it has been for me. The little prizes are a great incentive, and I think the money spent on them will prove to be well-spent.

And those are my thoughts at this hour.

The Most Important Part of Web 2.0

2008-02-22T12:34:00.003-07:00

Which, is, of course, to have fun while broadening your horizons. I say this why? Well, the temptation is there to just "make the rounds" on the internet, not finding new things, not looking in on new sites, generally doing the same old thing. I think that, in the end, the Web is only as valuable to us as we let it be. If we're clever, we will make those bills we pay to our internet service provider be worthwhile. If you have something that you like-a hobby, a pastime, anything, you can feed the need on the 'net.

For instance, I've been getting back into playing guitar, after a few years of not really doing much more than plinking here and there. I wanted to get a chart of chords, so I could practice. Boom! There they are. With Google and a dream, anything's possible.

That's really not apropos to anything. I just wanted to have some pretext to post this blog, so that I could paste this picture from the lolcats site. Anway...

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

Singing the praises of swag

2008-02-20T11:44:00.002-07:00

For all of you laboring to complete all the difficult exercises in the Learning Library 2.0 program, let me just hearten you by talking about the cool stuff you'll get as you progress through the lessons.

Now, after finishing the fourth week, you'll get a USB drive with 1gb of capacity. Pretty nice. I used mine to back up my personal data last week when I thought I might have to rebuild my computer. I didn't end up having to do that, but if I had, it would have been pretty straightforward to do so. Unless you're carrying around lots of video, audio, or high quality photos, 1 gigabyte is a lot of capacity. To give you an idea, you're talking about something like 670 floppy disks. That's a lot of school papers! Anyway, a nice gift. If you don't have a USB drive in this day and age, you're probably in need of one.

Now, the completion of the ninth week of the program brings you another, perhaps even neater door prize. The Sansa Clip music player, I have to say, is tres snazzy. If any of you have ever used the IPod shuffle, we're talking about a player of that ilk here. While the Sansa is a bit bigger than the Shuffle, it features a small but legible LED screen, far more capabilities, and doesn't require that you have any specific software installed on your computer. You want to load it with music? You just plug it in and drop files into the "music" folder. For someone like me, who uses Linux on his machine, this is really a boon.

The Sansa also acts as a voice recorder and an FM reciever, two capabilities that aren't always available on little mp3 players. I haven't tried the voice recorder, but the tuner works just fine (provided that you aren't in the basement of the library, beneath many tons of concrete and steel).

In any case, it's a great little unit, and I'm impressed. I see myself using it when next I go on an airplane journey. Combined with noise-isolating headphones, these little music players really help you avoid "jet ear". Now, if I could only find an inexpensive device to make the seats human-sized...

Netlibrary

2008-02-19T19:29:00.003-07:00

Ah, Netlibrary. How do I love thee? Let me...no, wait, it won't actually take me long to count the ways.

The Good:

You can download new audiobooks and listen to them.

The Bad:

Well, first of all, Netlibrary decided that it would be best to have just one file, no matter how long the book was. So, if you have a 25 hour book, it'll be a single file that's--yep, 25 hours long! Yeah! This means that you have your hands full trying to keep track of where you are as you stop and start. And that, as we know, is super fun. It's hard to download a single file that large without losing file integrity, especially if the download goes slowly (as it often does).

Second, Netlibrary elected to use the .wma format, with DRM encryption. This means that you can't use their files with ITunes, IPods, I-Anything. You can't use them on the Mac, or Linux, or...

What they're saying is that you have to use Windows, with Windows Media Player, and a small group of portable players that are compatible with .wma/DRM. It should be noted, however, that this doesn't include the Zune (how's that for irony?).

Finally, you can't do anything convenient with the audiobooks when you get them. No putting them on a CD-Rom, nothing like that. I understand that they're trying to protect copyright, but man, this is a real drag. I used this service when it first became available, but really, it could be much, much slicker.

Last Christmas ('06), I bought a DVD set of 600 audiobooks for $100 from Freeaudiobooks.com. The money is for the packaging, but the package gives you all the old school audiobooks you can imagine. Or, you could check out a Playaway, or an audiobook on CDs, or you could gouge your eyes out. All of these options are more straightforward than Netlibrary.com.

All apologies for my rant. I've wanted to do that for a long, long time.

Podcasting

2008-02-19T19:19:00.002-07:00

I've listened to podcasts in the past. Some of them are pretty fun. The place I often go to listen is npr.com. They always have audio clips to listen to. All of their articles are available in audio clips, which is sweet. I've considered podcasting now and then, but I never like the sound of my voice when it's been recorded. Something about sounding like a dork...

I tend to not listen to that many podcasts, since I'm usually into listening to music when I'm at the computer. That, and I'm often writing, which is harder to do when you're listening to someone else gab, since the words create non-elastic collisions within my cortex, and I lose consciousness. Which is bad.

Not all podcasts are just talking. Some of them contain music. For instance, Century Media, a small record label that features music that makes little kids cry and old people go into cardiac arrest, has a podcast that talks about their new releases and plays songs. It's basically like a radio show, straight from the label.

As to the place (amongst the options in the learn/lib/2.0 site), I liked best, I liked podcast.net. It seemed to have the best way to find stuff. Merrh?

I'm acutally listening to a podcast.com deal now. It's about geek stuff, which means I'm right at home.

And...we're out.

Oh, Yeah, P.S.

2008-02-19T18:55:00.002-07:00

Stuff I forgot to say includes:

Myspace has a video area, too. You can watch TV shows (cut up into parts), and a variety of other videos. I know a guy who does this all the time, since his family won't let him watch certain FOX cartoon shows in the house.

Fancast.com is a pretty neat site, too. You can watch full television shows with only minimal commercial interruption. Basically, if a show would stop for commercials, just one 30 second commercial runs. It's pretty cool. Shows range from old stuff, like Twilight Zone and Dragnet, to shows from the last few years. In general, they have somewhere between a handful and a season's worth of shows. So if you get an urge to see Miami Vice (the TV show), you can feed the jones.

You Want More? More???

2008-02-19T18:45:00.002-07:00

As I've said in the past, YouTube oughta be against the law. It's sooo addictive. You find one video, then another, then another. You keep thinking about other interesting things that you might find, and you search for them. Whole days, nights, and weekends can be frittered away with this method.

The tagging on the videos generally works well, and I've always found that where there's one video that you want to see, there's another neat one linked to it. Whether you like to see Kimbo Slice beating up poor suckers in the backyard, or Jascha Heifetz playing Bach, YouTube has you covered.

Downside: it's bandwidth-intensive. Read: if you have a dial-up connection, you may as well forget it. Or, if you happen to use a public computer somewhere that they're only running on a T1 line, or something of that sort. In reality, it's sites like YouTube that have caused so much difficulty for a lot of organizations, SLCPL included. The internet has become far more saturated with video, audio streams, high quality pictures, and active content, like Java and Flash, than it was a few years ago. When you're transmitting only text, there's no bandwidth problem. If one or two kids are playing online games or watching YouTube videos, suddenly, everything slows to a snail's pace. I don't know if the communication infrastructure can ever hope to stay ahead of the appetite for bandwidth, but it's clear that infrastructural changes will be required, if we're to really realize this whole Web 2.0/3.0 dream. Only those with fiber-optic connections need apply.

YouTube video

2008-02-19T18:38:00.002-07:00

I've already talked a bit about YouTube here on S/C, but here's another assignment, so I 'll talk more. Hey, that's what we're all about, right?

Anyway, the assignment is to embed a YouTube video into a blog post, and so I'm doing that. This one's a drum solo by Buddy Rich. He's one of the all-time great drummers. The things he can do have rarely been equaled. It's amazing that his drum kit was so minimal--most rock drummers now have so much gear you can't even see them back there. They could be on the lamb from gangsters or in the witness protection program, for all we know. Not back then. This is part of a drum solo from 1970, and if you've ever held a set of sticks and tried to play, you'll probably get a kick out of this:

Did you check it out? I hope you did. Think about that the next time you go to a rock show and hear the "wicked solo".

Peace.

Web 2.0 Winners

2008-02-08T14:51:00.001-07:00

Boy, this is a big category, but I dug in and found some very groovy stuff.

First, the stuff on the winners list that I'd already used: Google Docs, Google Maps, and Youtube. We've already talked about my Google happiness, so I'll mention Youtube. Now, yes, this site does feature all of the movie trailers, amateur video of people hitting themselves in the groin with framing hammers, and bad covers of Pat Benatar, but it also has all sorts of great stuff that you saw once, and figured was lost forever. Things like a Buddy Rich/Gene Krupa drum battle, or Victor Wooten playing "Norweigan Wood" on the bass, or...yeah, you get the idea. If you come across the "You are a pirate" song, and it gets hopelessly stuck in your head...not my fault. Youtube is addictive, and the way it tags things, you keep finding more interesting stuff to watch. You could be up all night.

Now: Looked at Wetpaint wiki. If I didn't have so many sites already, it looks fun. I've considered creating a wiki just for my own knowledge retention (aka, to keep myself from forgetting stuff). Didn't do it, but hey...

Goowy: This is an interesting idea: a "desktop" that's delivered to you over the web. Again, it replacates a lot of stuff I have covered already, but it's a cool idea. Takes the Google Docs/Google Apps a few steps further. If you're a real digital nomad, or a patron who doesn't have a computer of his own, this could be ultra-neato. So, there's your useful bit. If someone's always here, using our computers, and needs some online repository to call his/her own, maybe something like Goowy would be great for that person.

Arcaplay: It's a site that has a bunch of Flash-based mini games. Fun, but not so much different from other, similar sites. Yahoo and others have a think like this in their "games" section. My favorite is miniclip.com, personally. Though, of course, I would never stoop to game playing...

Pandora: Now, this is cool. You put in an artist or song, and it creats an active audio stream where it gives you things that are similar to that artist or song. You put in "The Supremes", it's going to find songs by that group, as well as other early 60's Motown. Wicked, wicked cool. If you know one song, or one artist, you can use this to get clued in to a whole musical genre. Great for librarians in the AV area, to get targeted research done. Also, great for teen librarians, who need to keep abreast of the stuff that the kids are listening to. Another example of how tagging can allow great service over the internet. I'm stoked (again!)

In the Lab-oratory

2008-02-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

Google Labs products are just beta versions of the products they'll one day put "in the public eye". In my experience, though Labs services may still be in a formative stage comparative to other services, they still work pretty well. I've been using Google Page Creator for over a year, and I've been very happy with it. It lets you set up a free website and populate it with a simple methodology. I'm lazy by nature, so if I can do stuff without learning a lot of new mumbo-jumbo (as opposed to the old mumbo-jumbo, that I sort of still remember), I'll do it. I'm more of a "content" guy, really. I'd rather spend most of my time populating a website, rather than tweaking and fiddling under the hood.

I started a newer website recently, but since there are things that I can do with the Google Page Creator that the new site doesn't provide for, some of my secondary pages are still hosted through my old web site. It works out fine, linking from one site to another. Things are good. Plus, upolading files to the Google site is much more straightforward than with my new one. Really, unless you need to represent yourself professionally, the Google Page Creator product should be more than sufficient to your purpose. I recommend it.

It should be noted that most of the established products, like Google Docs and Spreadsheets and the new version of Blogger, started life in the Google Labs segment. Many of them are already mature enough technologies to allow you enjoy them, even though they're not hyped to the wider audience. For those of you who have been following along, I like Google and all they do, pretty much.

Google Docs

2008-02-08T13:59:00.000-07:00

I first tried Google Docs quite some time ago, back when it was still in beta. Since then, it's become more and more well-realized. As of now, it's pretty slick. For me, it's not a replacement of the installed program paradigm, but rather a flexible option and alternative.

Google Docs, and other web-based programs like Zoho (which I read about--it sounds snazzy, but is redundant if you already have access to the Google programs) offer you the option to work on your documents at any web-capable station you find. This is great. If I have an idea, or want to share the authorship with someone else with a Google login, I can do that seamlessly.

For instance, if I'm using a computer somewhere in town, and have a few minutes to chip away at a project that I have on Google Docs, I can just pop it open and write. No "if I only had the document" or "I wish I had my laptop" or "I wonder if this is the current version". You can skip all that.

Now, if your project requires advanced tools or formatting, you'll have to export it to a "real" word processor or spreadsheet program (I use Openoffice.org most of the time, these days). The feature set that can be delivered over a browser is going to be far less than with an installed program. That being said, I don't think anyone's doing final layout for their novel manuscript from Google Docs.

Great tool, great addition to the "software as a service" segment of the internet, but not a straight across replacement for productivity software as we know it. More and more, these web-based services tell you that your productivity is not localized. To steal the tagline for one of the recent movies, "Anywhere is possible." Except, of course, if you don't have an internet connection. Then, you'll need to work "the old fashioned way", with saved files you carry around.

The Stuff I Was Supposed To Say

2008-02-07T16:51:00.000-07:00

So, yeah. Metasearch engines. That's what those dudes in the exercise are, for the most part. I've used Dogpile, Clusty, Vivismo, and a few others, and really, I'd rather use a "real" search engine. Why? Because you can use advanced search techniques like Boolean operators and other devices, where most of your metasearch engines can't do that, since they're searching through different databases, where there's no unifying set of rules that can be applied. That being said, I've done the research, taught the classes, and know what's what. Most of the first-page hits are pretty much the same. The order can be different, and some search engines will give you a few different results than the others. The big skewing point is probably the inclusion of "sponsered searches", where your paid listings will muddy the waters. For me, as I said in the previous post, it's all about Google. You know how to use Google, it can be a rapier or a mallet. It can pull the weight, so long as you're adept at the tricks.

For someone trying to cast the widest net, though, and who had not been clued in on all the secret magic of Advanced Searching, maybe using Dogpile or Clusty would be the very thing. I suppose, just like your taste in cars or guitars, it's all subjective and open to interpretation.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...

2008-02-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

So, I read all the Library 2.0 articles, and it seems as if what we're trying to do here is to involve the patrons in our process, in our evaluation of items, and in our thought process. We want to allow people to get information where they want, when they want, and in a way that doesn't require that they learn complex procedures and jargon. We want them to be able to learn and grow without any hand-holding on our part. We want to grow and change constantly, so that libraries remain important and relavent in the digital world.

And I'm down with that. There's a point in the OCLC article about staying away from icebergs that mentions that we don't adopt technology simply because it's the NEW HOTNESS(tm), or because we want to keep up with some other organization. Simply throwing money at problems is unwise. Having a technology is one thing--being able to bring it to bear is something altogether different. We need to change our viewpoint as a library staff. This is probably more important than any single technical innovation. If we have the ability to approach our jobs, and the whole idea of libraries, in a different, open way, we'll be able to adopt the new technologies when they appear.

For me, the idea that I come back to is this: there's no reason to simply "not know". There's so much knowledge out there on the web. Some tech-savvy people are already aware of this, but here's my take on the situation: With a web browser and a dream, you can get almost anywhere. Using Search tools such as Ask.com, Google.com, and so on, you can come across so many interesting ideas that you may be "down the rabbit hole" for hours. The patrons are beginning to realize this, as well. We're no longer the gatekeepers to information. We need to be poised to help patrons with the information that's harder to find, the stuff that isn't in common circulation and on the first page of web hits. We need to know how to unleash the awesome and terrible power of the web--better than the patrons do. If we don't, I think that, in some way, we become obsolete.

It's the idea of the Long Tail--that you can succeed in the information world by collecting the rare, the unusual--all that stuff that isn't covered so well by the mainstream. There are always going to be points of interest that don't get well covered on the web, because not enough people are involved. I'm not saying books are a thing of the past--no, the written (or typed) word is still a great method of communication. There's probably more typing going on, per capita, right now, than any time in history. Still, we need to keep up with the times, and devise delivery methods that will allow us to cater to the "everything, all the time, any way I want it" generation of digital natives.

As for browsers: I have yet to find one that, day in and day out, can hang with Google. They're all interesting, and most of them have great features, but Google is the daddy-mac. If you have to be stuck on a desert browser with only one search tool, choose it. Plus--you could literally spend all your waking hours without exhausting all the neat, whiz-bang doo-dads that Google has invented.

...and I'm spent. Oh, and check the .gif on the top of the blog. It's all graphical-like in its representation of the Library 2.0 concept.

Map of Visited States, Baby!

2008-02-05T20:12:00.001-07:00

The rest of the generators, all safe in their beds.

2008-02-05T19:59:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's me. Embossed. I created this one with the help of Cooltext. Pretty neat, no? I also created a great mock-motivational poster, but I can't put it up here, because they'll send me back to sensitivity training for the twelfth time this year, and they said that this time, if I didn't shape up, I'd be given the nose-in-the-book treatment again. Sheesh. Like they never put anything horribly inappropriate up on a blog that the rest of the staff might see. What do they know? Anyway, suffice it to say that the motivational poster was awesome, but you'll have to come see me if you want to have a look, because, well, what I said before, darn it.

Smurf-Mojo Wee Heavy

2008-02-05T19:29:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's the name of my fictitious beer, from the Random Beer Name Generator. Want another one? Here goes: Black Viscious Barley Pale Ale. I can see the add campaign now: How can it be black and viscious, yet pale? Hey, we're professionals, that's how! When you're going to drink yourself insensible, accept no substitute!

And I just found another super-groovy generator at the Generator Blog: one to create backgrounds/desktops for your computer. Check the snazzy pic!

Much more to do, but the fun seems to have overflowed, and I'll need to start another post for the rest!

Finding things, the agony of it all!

2008-02-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

Feedster, for one, straight-up bonked when I tried to load it. If a site can't respond within twenty seconds, I have absolutely no use for it. Those sites can go kill themselves in some quiet place in the internet, just behind the old tax forms and the predictions of sporting events that were, in the end, cancelled. They can also moulder and begin to stink, leading, eventually, to a server room being taken off line for cleaning.

Topix: I found this one unfriendly, such that I could find the article/blog/whatever headline, but getting to the article itself was like picking yourself up by your own belt. If I were O'Sullivan, and able to do that, I'd smite Topix with my shilleagh (sp) and put it to rights with pure Irish old school magic. Then, "Jump Around" would play, and we'd all drink heavily and throw each other through windows. After the emergency room visit and the stitches, we'd play darts and cry, and we'd wake up with an awful headache the next day.

Syndic8: The UI (user interface) on this site blew. Reminded me of Yahoo, circa '98. Not cool. Besides, it found absolutely jack squat. Every term I put in was greeted with the old (0). I don't need cosistent empty spirals from my search tools. Those tools are thrown down poisoned wells and bricked over, just like I'll be doing to Syndic8. No bookmark for you!

Technorati: At last, something reasonably easy to use, and even pseudo-competent! Technorati wins in a landslide. Still and all, too many screens between the headline and the post/article/whatever.

The Hemi Cuda RSS

2008-02-04T18:21:00.000-07:00

So, I've been aware but unimpressed with RSS for a while. I have used an RSS aggregator before, but wasn't that keen on it, since the view of the posts that I got would be sans the site-specific look and feel (not to mention tools and pics). I checked out Google Reader, loading it up with several of the packages that you can choose when you get started. I suddenly had way, way too much, but I liked it. I'll probably use Google Reader from time to time, but as it stands, I have whole groups of websites bookmarked in my Firefox, and I just open them all in tabs when I start the workday. Plus, I use IGoogle, which works in a somewhat similar way, with headlines and so forth coming up whenever I launch it. The problem, as I see it, is that you develop a proven workflow method, and though other, newer technologies arise, it sometimes takes a while to figure out how best to integrate them into your ongoing strategy.

I came to the conclusion that, for RSS to be a viable and important part of our SLCPL website, we'll have to get to the point when we actually post updates frequently. As of now, most of our pages are pretty static. Web .07, I suppose. Until we're seeing active content, the ability for staff to quickly update the public website, and so on, having RSS will be like having a camera constantly monitoring a statue.

Flikr Color Picker!

2008-02-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

I tried Flickr Color picker for this exercise. I'm pretty stoked about it, if I can go so far as to say "stoked" in my blog here. I didn't understand exactly what it was all about at first, but her's the deal--you get a color pallette, and when you pick a hue, it brings up a cloud of pictures that matches that color. You don't know what you're going to get! I find that, with huge collections like flickr or other sites, it's very hard to just browse. Where do you start? If you don't have something in particular in mind, you can just sit there looking at the search bar. With this color picker, you can just choose a color. If you find a photo you like, you can look at the rest of the photos that the same person has put up, or use the tags that are attached to that picture to broaden your search. Not vital to the survival of mankind, but fun.

The picture above is one that I found using color picker.

Cheers.

Disambiguation of the previous post

2008-02-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

Just to be clear, I set up a Flickr account, uploaded a photo to flickr, set up a blogging tool location, and wrote my blog from flickr, which is sweet. I only have the one photo at this moment, but I'm going to put another photo on this post, so there!

About the picture: Yes, that's my hand, and yes, that's a wild sparrow. I used my Man Mountain Dean skills to pick it up and take a photo. Don't you wish you had Man Mountain Dean skills?

southern_utah_trip

2008-02-04T14:35:00.001-07:00

southern_utah_trip
Originally uploaded by thorwulfx

I "blogged this" from flickr. This picture is from a trip I took a few years ago. I thought that the picture turned out pretty well, and it's also featured on my website. It's neat that flickr can contact your blog directly, though I'm never been one to feature lots of pictures in my blogs. I suppose I'm mostly a "texty" person.

And that's all the superfluous commentary I have for the moment...

Library Thing, and other stories.

2008-02-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

Library thing is pretty cool. I like Goodreads, too. I put some books up there, for anyone who's interested. A little "real literature" and then my fun stuff.

Link:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/thorwulfx

In any case, the assignment's done. Peace.

Technorati: Sweet!

2008-02-01T11:57:00.001-07:00

I do like Technorati. It seems like it would help draw attention to your blog(s), and I think I'll go and get listed. With the number of blogs I have, I may as well. The search criteria seem like they work. If you're into reading blogs, this seems to be a great tool.

And yes, this one is a short commentary, by my standards.

More off-gassing about social bookmarking, and a slight revision of thought.

2008-02-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

So, upon further review, it's pretty cool. If I hadn't already found ways to do the same thing, I probably would love this sort of service better than I do. As it stands, I put all the really cool websites I want to go to in a page on my website, and I can always reach that. Probably not as efficient, but there you go. I can, grudgingly, see the point here. I'm just hesitant to sign up for too many more products. My web enterprises already swing around like a dinosaur's tail behind me, and it's hard to keep track of everything. I'll need a personal blogging assistant before long. Meh...

Del.ice.ous, or maybe just, well, okay.

2008-02-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Frankly, I'm stricken with not caring about some of the social bookmarking sites. I'm sort of intrigued with Stumble upon, since the idea of just seeing "watever's next" on the internet dial is kind of fun. I think that the primary problem with the web is that there's a finite amount of time to work on it each day, and if you're trying to be goal-directed and get through your favorite sites, it takes quite a while, without mucking about in a whole bunch more.

For me, I've got an IGoogle page set up that aggregates my GMail, my "to do" list, news, pics of the day, famous quotes, etc.. In addition I have all my sites that I normally use set up in Firefox so that I just launch them all at startup and tab back and forth between them. Finally, my website has a page of all my favorite links, allowing me to just bop into all my friends' sites and blogs as I see fit. I suppose that reading Slashdot theoretically is quite similar to reading Digg, just more focused on nerdy stuff, so I guess I'm already working with a "social news" site.

Anyway, that's my take on things.

Librarys using Myspace: an opinion

2008-01-31T13:49:00.000-07:00

I think that, in many cases, diving into the troubled waters of Myspace is a difficult decision to make. Myspace is rife with lewd pictures, pyramid schemes, and sites that create nothing but troublesome advertisements. Still and all, it's possible to do some good work there. I can attest to the fact that there are, indeed, some good people on Myspace still. I have found a few opportunities for my own ventures (in the writing field) there.

If a library is to make a valuable impression on its patrons with a Myspace page, there are a few rules, as I see it:

1) The responsibility for updating the site and posting blog entries should fall on a few motivated employees. Without timely updates and interesting information, a Myspace page serves little purpose. In general, the people who will do the best job creating a Myspace page for a library will be young, tech-savvy, and creative. Handing the job over to an already-overworked and possibly tech-averse staffer of high rank will only serve to annoy that staff member and yeild a Myspace that seems, well, forced.

2) Comments on the blog ABSOLUTELY MUST be moderated. If you let people comment and "friend" you without caution, you'll end up with a lot of questionable, of not outright grotesque comments on the library-sponsored page. This is to be avoided.

3) The Myspace must be targeted at the people who will actually use it. A Seniors-only Myspace page will avail you nothing. You'll want to target the youth audience. Both children's service departments and teen service departments are the best people to use these pages. In addition to catering to the right audience, these departments are the most likely to have people who actually WANT to keep a Myspace page up.

That's my two cents. Peace.

You want I should talk about Wikis?

2008-01-31T13:10:00.000-07:00

Well, then. I will. I had to do a fairly extensive amount of research on wikis when we (the Computer Services department) were getting ready to create our own. From the back end, wikis are written in a few of the popular programming languages of the day. PHP, PERL, Ruby on Rails, etc. In many cases, they use a database back-end, such as MySQL, to keep track of their information. In essence, wikis are created to be shared repositories of information. They can be very helpful to keep facts, details, and processes clear. For many businesses, information retention can be a problem. Say Jill is your head of some technical aspect of the business. She leaves for a better job, and all you have to go on in regards to training the next person is a big file folder of hastily-written notes, most of which only tell half the story. The business has to, in many cases, re-invent the position and figure out a whole new set of processes.

Not with a wiki, they don't! If Jill writes down, in detail, the processes required to do her job, the next person can just sit down and read her articles. Sure, there will always be parts that don't make it in, but for the most part, the new person will "get it" at the end of the day. When processes change, the new person in the position can simply update the articles with the new info.

I think it'll be great for the library when we are able to field a wiki for the staff. It'll allow us to retain and codify so much more information. Besides, with the ability to search by keyword, we'll be able to find info much faster than wading through big binders. I hope that we are able to embed the Employee's Handbook and the Policies and Procedures manual into the wiki. I see that as a reason to create one, even outside of all the other benefits.

By the way, the CS wiki has helped a great deal. When we have a procedure that's outlined in the wiki (and remember to look), we don't have to wait for other staffers to come in before we dig into a project. It used to be, "Well, so and so knows, but he won't be back until Thursday." In general, if we keep up our documentation, that doesn't happen as much now. We use MediaWiki, the same engine that powers Wikipedia. It's pretty friendly, and has vast powers we have hardly touched yet.

That's the superfluous info for now.

Blogging Destroyed My Life!

2008-01-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, here's another blog. As if I didn't have enough all ready. In order to participate in the Learning Library 2.0 program, I was directed to create a blog, then talk about the things we're doing in the program on that blog. Here I am, doing that exact thing.

At last count, I had five blogs, two websites, three email accounts, and so forth. Now, I'll have even more. Thanks, Learning Library 2.0. I needed that.

There wasn't much involoved in creating a blog, since I just had to add another one to my list on Blogspot. In the same vein, I already had a GMail account. The dishes are done, man.

See you with the next post.