Recent Posts by Bloggers@CIL2010

Reuters Launches Social Pulse by

From Media Bistro : Reuters on Thursday released Social Pulse , a social media dashboard that shows what’s hot on social networks, with a focus on business news. The site is divided into multiple sections: A top articles section, a social sentiment section, a section showing the Klout scores of CEOs, [...]

Read more at: Reuters Launches Social Pulse
Posted: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:12:00 +0000

2012-02-04_14-26-52_892 [Flickr] by Travelin' Librarian

Travelin' Librarian posted a photo:

Read more at: 2012-02-04_14-26-52_892 [Flickr]
Posted: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:27:23 PST

LibDay8: Library Day in the Life Project by

This last week, I participated in the Library Day in the Life Project, which is coordinate by a Bobbi Newman. I tweeted what I did on several days and read the #libday8 tweets from others. I know...I don't work in a library, but I still felt that it would be worthwhile contributing what I do as a faculty member in a library and information science program.

So what did I do this past week?

I recorded a lecture for my "Creating, Managing and Preserving Digital Assets" class, which is taught online (asynchronous). I also answered emails from that class, read and contributed to the online discussion (this week about copyright), and loaned one student a copy of the textbook until hers arrives. By the way, those students are posting their first blog posts about digitization programs at http://jahurst.mysite.syr.edu/ist677s2010/. Feel free to read those posts and comment on them. (I believe this class now has 37 students in it!)
Barbara Stripling and I are co-teaching "Planning, Marketing and Assessing Library Services", a project-based class. This week, I had to take care of some administrative details with that class, because prepare the lecture. We have 46 students in this Thursday evening class!
I am on two search committees and they generated several meetings this week.
As the new director of the library and information service program at SU, I attended or ran a number of meetings that relate to the program.
I worked on the course schedule for next fall and am even thinking ahead to the schedule for spring 2013.
I met with current students and prospective students.
I received, read and responded to a lot of email, but didn't get through all of the messages waiting for me.

The first Little Free Library in Syracuse

I helped with the public launch of the Little Free Library Project here in Syracuse. We are following in the footsteps of Todd Bol and Rick Brooks in Wisconsin who see these as a way of sharing books and increasing literacy in a community. The project here has been a collaborative effort that initially included members of the Near Westside community, design students from Visual and Performing Arts at SU, library and information design students from SU's iSchool, and a core project team. Since our initial meeting in October, more collaborators have joined us, including the Onondaga County Public Library and ProLiteracy.

Last night at 5 p.m., we filled the first Little Free Library (located on Gifford St.) with more than two dozen books. Before 6 p.m, some of the books had already been borrowed! We are anxious to see how this Little Free Library is accepted in the community and hope that it is not only accepted, but also adopted! {This LFL does have a community member who will be its caretaker.} Once we see how this structure has survived in our weather, we will gear up to put more on the Near Westside. {A photo of our first LFL is above!}
Worked on a consulting project that has to do with digital literacy training that is given by public libraries. I'm working with a team of people and it is a very interesting experience. It is also a project that will make a difference across NYS. (More about it after it launches.)

If you are associated with a library of any type OR work in the profession, what did you do this past week? Take the time to let others know. People cannot support us if they don't know what we do.

Read more at: LibDay8: Library Day in the Life Project
Posted: 2012-02-04T14:35:00.003-05:00

Reference Question of the Week – 1/29/12 by Brian Herzog

I wasn't directly involved in this reference question, but my coworker who did handle it had to consult me because it was just so odd. Sometime in November, she was working the reference desk when a patron called to ask if we had a specific magazine article. We didn't, and our process for requesting articles [...]

Read more at: Reference Question of the Week – 1/29/12
Posted: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:35:49 +0000

Sylvester McCoy in black & white by Michael

I’m no photographic expert but I like shooting in black & white. Not shooting in color then post-processing the image into b&w but shooting directly in b&w. I didn’t take this photo but it’s photos like this one that show the power of a b&w picture. Photo credit: fragglehunter aka Sleepy G Sylvester McCoy played [...]

Read more at: Sylvester McCoy in black & white
Posted: Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:54:00 +0000

Why Most Facebook Users Get More Than They Give by

According to Pew Research : Most Facebook users receive more from their Facebook friends than they give, whether the measurement is the number of friend requests received, the use of the "like" button, the number of messages sent or tagging people in photos. The main factor driving this phenomenon is that [...]

Read more at: Why Most Facebook Users Get More Than They Give
Posted: Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:10:00 +0000

Bookmarks for February 2, 2012 by Nicole

Stack View Stack View from The Harvard Library Innovation Laboratory at Harvard Law School is a library browsing tool. It gives visual clues to the character of the holdings and their frequency of use. Digest powered by RSS Digest Related posts: Harvard Business School approves open-access policy Open Access Part Two Amazing Open Access Podcast Related posts:

Read more at: Bookmarks for February 2, 2012
Posted: Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:30:11 +0000

Lifehacker's best screencasting and screen capture apps by

Over the past several weeks, Lifehacker has listed what they believe to be the best screencasting and screen capture tools for both Windows and Mac. In each post they cover the tool's Features, Where it excels, Where it falls short, and The Competition. Here they are:

Best Screen capture tool for Windows (I had never heard of the winner, PicPick)
Best Screen capture tool for Mac OSX (I love Skitch, but wish it had just a few more presets and callouts) For some strange reason the Skitch website says the iOS version is "coming soon", but you can (and should) grab it for the iPad already.
Best Screencast tool for Windows (No surprise there - remember your educational pricing!)
Best Screencast tool for Mac OSX (also a solid win, though I was surprised Camtasia:Mac didn't even show up under the alternatives...)

Read more at: Lifehacker's best screencasting and screen capture apps
Posted: 2012-02-02T14:44:14-07:00

Canadian Learning Commons Conference - registration now open by

Looking for an excuse to come check out our awesome new library building? Why not register for the 6^th Canadian Learning Commons Conference, to be held here at the University of Calgary, May 7-9, 2012. The theme of the conference is New Media, New Fluencies and Life Skills Development: Preparing Learners for the 21st Century, and you'll find the list of sessions here. Oh, and just 'cause it says "Canadian" in the title doesn't mean you guys south of the border can't come - Calgary should be pretty nice in early May (but no promises).

Read more at: Canadian Learning Commons Conference - registration now open
Posted: 2012-02-02T14:22:00-07:00

#IamScience by

How could I not blog about this? Inspired from the #scio12 conference (Science Online), Kevin Zelnio started a meme [I know - one of those very online words - but read his blog post here #IamScience: Embracing Personal Experience on Our Rise Through Science] I was asked in my 2009 interview for the job I [...]

Read more at: #IamScience
Posted: Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:14:05 +0000

Building a Personal Learning Solution: 10 Steps to Control Information Overload and Take Back Your Life by Lori Reed

When you look at the statistics of how much training actually gets retained by learners and how much training actually transfers back to the workplace, you have to ask yourself two questions. Why are we doing training? What can we do better? The problem with most training is that it doesn’t fill an immediate need. [...]

Read more at: Building a Personal Learning Solution: 10 Steps to Control Information Overload and Take Back Your Life
Posted: Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:00:56 +0000

Oxford University Press Announces the Online Publication of Benezit Dictionary of Artists by

From the press release: Oxford University Press is delighted to announce the publication of the world renowned Benezit Dictionary of Artists online for the first time on Oxford Art Online. .. The defining feature of Benezit is its outstanding coverage of obscure artists, and the inclusion of more than 11,000 images [...]

Read more at: Oxford University Press Announces the Online Publication of Benezit Dictionary of Artists
Posted: Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:35:00 +0000

UWM Libraries Exhibit Showcases Burned Books by

From the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Library : A showcase of books that have been burned, from antiquity to present day, is now on display. Included are texts from famous historical cases as well as contemporary incidents, photographs, and other information about book burning. A website companion to the exhibit, [...]

Read more at: UWM Libraries Exhibit Showcases Burned Books
Posted: Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:19:00 +0000

Wall Street Journal Launches Video Channel for YouTube by

From the press release : The Wall Street Journal today launched a dedicated channel for YouTube, featuring on-demand content from the Journal's growing stable of video programming. In conjunction with the launch, the channel will showcase "Off Duty," a daily lifestyle show debuting today based on the eponymous section of WSJ Weekend [...]

Read more at: Wall Street Journal Launches Video Channel for YouTube
Posted: Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:55:00 +0000

LexisNexis Launches Social Media Visibility Service by

From the press release : LexisNexis , a leading provider of content and technology solutions, announced today at LegalTech New York, the launch of the LexisNexis Social Media Visibility service that enables solo practitioners and lawyers at smaller law firms to establish a solid, comprehensive, and manageable social media presence. The service [...]

Read more at: LexisNexis Launches Social Media Visibility Service
Posted: Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:57:00 +0000

UK Government Unveils New Website by

From the Financial Times : A new single government domain, at www.gov.uk , will replace Directgov , the portal which launched in 2004, before extending across Whitehall departments’ sites in the coming weeks. The “beta” gov.uk test site is the flagship project of the new Government Digital Services unit, which was [...]

Read more at: UK Government Unveils New Website
Posted: Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:19:00 +0000

Two Day 2 haiku for #libday8 by Jim DelRosso

Questions, answers, goals. Meeting for Leadership Group. Home, TheraFlu, bed. Short day, short blog post. Will tomorrow be better Or merely longer? ——- Apologies to Josh and Tom Clausen at Mann for stepping on their form. Filed under: Library day in the Life, Rambling, Work Tagged: libday8, library day in the life, librarydayinthelife

Read more at: Two Day 2 haiku for #libday8
Posted: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:22:26 +0000

Janet Riordan – Dog Lover by Mary Beth Sancomb-Moran

Jan is a dear friend of mine, and is a dog lover, as I am. (As we are, really; DH and I now have a pack of four.) One of Jan’s dogs is dying of cancer, and being the wonderful … Continue reading →

Read more at: Janet Riordan – Dog Lover
Posted: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:40:19 +0000

Designing an Academic Library Learning Commons: Students Have Their Say by Rebecca Jones

Designing an Academic Library Learning Commons: Students Have Their Say Sue Reynolds @ University of Toronto Scarborough Library

Come talk with Sue about their research study with students on Thursday February 2, 2012 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm, Lower Lobby of the MTCC

This research study is a user needs analysis of the views and comments of potential student users as to what should be included in a learning commons, how the space should be designed and what services should be provided. Focus groups conducted with undergraduate student users of the existing Informatics Commons at the University of Toronto Scarborough Library showed that students appreciated convenient access to desktop computers and to staff help. In a future learning commons, students need spaces for quiet individual computer use, collaborative group computer use, and social activities. Service needs include improved technical, research and writing support.

Read more at: Designing an Academic Library Learning Commons: Students Have Their Say
Posted: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:27:50 +0000

The First Rule of ALA Executive Board is You Don’t Talk About ALA Executive Board by Bobbi Newman

Ok not really. At least I don’t think so. Based on how many people I talked with at MidWinter who didn’t know about the election process or what Executive Board does it might be. Several people contacted me and asked me to elaborate on the Executive Board process and experience I mentioned in my MidWinter reflections post. It does seem odd to me that there isn’t more information out there about the process, especially from past candidates. No one said I couldn’t talk about it and since I have been very transparent over the years about most, if not all, of my professional endeavors I thought I would share what I know and reflect on the experience. And use this as an opportunity to encourage you to become (more) involved! What executive board (and ALA and Council) does and why it matters or Why You Should Pay Dues and VOTE! First some background on Executive Board and where it fits in ALA: The ALA president is the “chief administrative officer and legal head of the organization.” While many of the roles of an administrative leader are delegated or shared in policy (and practice) to the ALA executive director, some key roles have clearly and consistently [...]

Read more at: The First Rule of ALA Executive Board is You Don’t Talk About ALA Executive Board
Posted: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:26:21 +0000

CCC Announces Motion Picture License by

From the Copyright Clearance Center : Copyright Clearance Center, in partnership with the Motion Picture Licensing Corporation (MPLC), developed the Motion Picture License to meet the diverse needs of businesses and their employees and reduce the risk of unintended copyright infringement. The Motion Picture License allows you to show motion pictures [...]

Read more at: CCC Announces Motion Picture License
Posted: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:37:00 +0000

Study and Infographic Reveal Gender Gap over Social Media Privacy by

From thte uSamp blog : Most women using social media are just as willing to reveal personal information about their relationships, jobs, brand preferences and political and religious affiliations as men — but when it comes to details like phone numbers, location, and email or physical address that might put their personal [...]

Read more at: Study and Infographic Reveal Gender Gap over Social Media Privacy
Posted: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:00 +0000

Classic blunder #1 – Let’s just try it and see what happens! by Meredith Farkas

There are a lot of popular assumptions people make in this profession that lead us to make classic blunders. These can be assumptions about the change process, assumptions about our colleagues, and assumptions about our patrons. We can go into developing a new service or technology with the best of intentions and fail spectacularly because [...]

Read more at: Classic blunder #1 – Let’s just try it and see what happens!
Posted: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:06:20 +0000

Project MUSE Launches University Press Content Consortium by

From ProjectMUSE : The book collections offer thousands of peer-reviewed digital books from over 65 major university presses and scholarly publishers and allow books to be discovered and searched in an integrated environment with content from nearly 500 journals currently on MUSE. Full story >>

Read more at: Project MUSE Launches University Press Content Consortium
Posted: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:38:00 +0000

Goodreads Ends Amazon API Sourcing by

From paidContent : Saying Amazon’s API terms have become “more and more restrictive,” Goodreads is switching data providers and entering an agreement with book wholesaler Ingram—alarming some users who fear their reading records will be lost. The changes take place January 30. Goodreads’ new data source is book wholesaler Ingram. Goodreads [...]

Read more at: Goodreads Ends Amazon API Sourcing
Posted: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:18:00 +0000

UK Parliament Publishes Policy Briefing on Open Access by

From Parliament : In March 2011 the Minister for Universities and Science held a round table discussion to explore the issues. At this meeting the government committed to supporting efforts to expand access to both research publications and data as part of its wider "Transparency Agenda". OA is seen by many as [...]

Read more at: UK Parliament Publishes Policy Briefing on Open Access
Posted: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:11:00 +0000

Yahoo! Discontinues Finance and News Apps by

From the Yahoo! Search blog : Our plan is to keep moving, to keep innovating, and to continuously measure and scrutinize what’s working and what isn’t – so we can make room for great new products. In that spirit, we’re decommissioning several of our current mobile apps. We will be sending a [...]

Read more at: Yahoo! Discontinues Finance and News Apps
Posted: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:06:00 +0000

Credo Reference Introduces Literati by Credo by

From the press release : Literati by Credo is a collaborative research platform that promotes research effectiveness and information literacy by combining Credo's well-regarded content with innovative library-centric technology. Beyond the platform, Literati by Credo offers customized tools and services, so that libraries can brand and enhance their end-user experience. [...]

Read more at: Credo Reference Introduces Literati by Credo
Posted: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:40:00 +0000

Google Maps Now Include Public Alerts by

From the Google blog : The Google Crisis Response team works on providing critical emergency information during crises. Our goal is to surface emergency information through the online tools you use everyday, when that information is relevant and useful. With today’s launch of Public Alerts on Google Maps, relevant weather, public safety, [...]

Read more at: Google Maps Now Include Public Alerts
Posted: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:14:00 +0000

Media 21 Student Shares Her Creative Approach to Mindmapping by The Unquiet Librarian

Earlier this week, I blogged about about first efforts in Media 21 to use mindmapping as a strategy for thinking and inquiry as well as a springboard for discussion in our Fishbowl groups. One of our creative mindmappers took a few minutes today to share her first two mindmaps that go outside some of the [...]

Read more at: Media 21 Student Shares Her Creative Approach to Mindmapping
Posted: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:34:53 +0000

New Digital Correspondence of Voltaire edition Published Online for the First Time by

From the press release: An ambitious project has been launched through Electronic Enlightenment – Theodore Besterman’s great print-edition of Voltaire’s complete correspondence is being updated and revised. Nicholas Cronk and fellow editors are collaborating with the Electronic Enlightenment Project at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for exclusive onlin e publication of this [...]

Read more at: New Digital Correspondence of Voltaire edition Published Online for the First Time
Posted: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:04:00 +0000

Promotion 101: Is blogging part of your plan? by Juanita

One of the marketing “P”s at which librarians excel is Promotion. One of the most popular promotional vehicles for many libraries is their blog. Many libraries, like many organizations, assume that “if we blog it, people will read it.” And rarely do libraries look at how the blog fits in their overall promotion or marketing plans. So, before you set up a new blog – or continue on your current blog, scope out the plan. Consider what you are trying to achieve with the blog, and how you plan to achieve that goal by answering the following questions:

Purpose: What is the goal of your blog? What do you want to communicate or promote? Be clear about this.

Description: What do you want your site to look like? Plan the physical description of the blog. Sketch out your vision so you can “see” it before you build it.

Schedule: How often will you be updating your blog? Set a publication frequency that’s reasonable.

Audience: Who are they? What’s the target market?

Cost: How much? Even electronic publications have a cost, including - and especially – the “cost” of your time!

Distribution: How are you going to ensure that you reach your audience? Where is the “Place” (another marketing “P”)?

Person(s): Where does the responsibility lie? During set-up, you may want to create a project plan to identify milestones – especially if you are relying upon outside expertise to deliver certain aspects of your site. After you are up and running,

Continue reading Promotion 101: Is blogging part of your plan?

Read more at: Promotion 101: Is blogging part of your plan?
Posted: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:29:22 +0000

SLA Leadership Summit: Notes on running an effective meeting via conference call/video conference by

These are notes from this morning's brainstorming session (not in order of importance):

Set a agenda with time limits for each item.
Establish rules for meetings.
Use Robert's rules or other agreed upon rules for running the meeting (be consistent).
To set a meeting time, use Timeanddate.com (international meeting planner) and/or Doodle.com.
Know which items you need a decision on.
Know who is supposed to be voting.
On the phone? Mute yourself.
Ask specific people on the "call" for their comments.
Don't just use last month's agenda.
Is there nothing to report? Take it off the agenda.
If your item isn't on the agenda,then it is not going to be discussed.
The Chair does have the prerogative to change the agenda at the last minute, but this should not be a normal activity.
Allow time for people to unmute themselves.
Can you collaboratively write the minutes? e.g., Google Docs, blog post, Box.com
In your minutes, capture actions and decisions, not the entire discussion.
If you're using a tool to disseminate the agenda that allows comments, ask people to comment before the meeting.
Know the purpose of the meeting. Is it a working meeting or a meeting for disseminating information?
How do you disseminate information from the meeting out to the membership? Blog posts, newsletter, brief highlights?
Assign action items to specific people and set deadlines.
Be ready to take some topics offline and then have a report given at the next meeting.
Start and end promptly.
Identify yourself when you speak.
Learn how to use the technology in advance.
Reports should be written ahead of time and disseminated.
Board members and meeting participants should read reports ahead of time.
Get notes out as quickly as possible.

Additional Resources:

Here are "9 Tips for Effective Online Meetings", http://www.productivity501.com/9-tips-for-effective-online-meetings/7468/
Conference Call Tips, http://www.tollfreeconferencing.com/conferencing-tips/

Read more at: SLA Leadership Summit: Notes on running an effective meeting via conference call/video conference
Posted: 2012-01-26T10:25:00.000-05:00

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries by

From the press release : The Association of Research Libraries, working with the Center for Social Media at American University , and the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property in American University’s Washington College of Law, is preparing a code of best practices in fair use for academic and research libraries. [...]

Read more at: Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries
Posted: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:25:00 +0000

Credo Reference Offers eBook Collections via SwetsWise by

From the press release : Swets is pleased to announce that Credo Reference ( www.credoreference.com ) has recently joined the SwetsWise eBook catalog with over 1,500 reference works from more than 80 of the world’s best reference publishers. Collections and titles are thoughtfully selected to offer broad coverage of subjects such as [...]

Read more at: Credo Reference Offers eBook Collections via SwetsWise
Posted: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:19:00 +0000

UK Dept. of Health Launches Online Healthcare Resource by

From the Department of Health : Providing a one-stop shop for all Department of Health public health campaign information and resources for anyone who works directly with the public, the online Campaign Resource Centre was launched. Each campaign section offers a summary of the public health campaign together with all the [...]

Read more at: UK Dept. of Health Launches Online Healthcare Resource
Posted: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:13:00 +0000

Ereader Ownership Doubles by

According to a Pew survey : The share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period. [...]

Read more at: Ereader Ownership Doubles
Posted: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:16:00 +0000

Going deep into the world of web development by

It’s been so long since I’ve blogged, I’m not even sure who’ll find & read this post! But it matters not. Half the time I think that I’m writing to better understand my own thoughts, so the process always yields something good.
For as long as I’ve been building out the library’s Drupal-based content management system, like for 2 years now, I’ve been struggling, caught between two worlds - the world of the library and the world of main-stream web design. I learn more from the latter. It’s harder facing the latter. I feel less expert and confident, but I really need to know how professionals get their work done. By professionals, sadly, I don’t mean folks with Library/Information Science degrees.
When I’m at DrupalCamps and DrupalCons - as I was yesterday (at DrupalCamp Western Mass.) - the presenters usually ask what your role with Drupal is. The choices are usually:

Drupal developer (concentrates on writing code, modules, structuring information, uber-geeky back-end stuff)
or a Drupal themer (someone who creates a design for the site, concentrating on the front-end look, feel, and usability. Though from the librarian’s perspective, this involves code work - in everything from CSS to basic php templating and jQuery (a javascript library) techniques.)

Sometimes, there’s a third category, for project managers or high-level managers who run web development shops.
Although a lot of folks who are free-lancers end up taking on all roles, they usually have a specialization that makes them identify themselves on one side of the spectrum or other.
So which are you, my library colleague - a front-end designer or a developer?
Or are you a project manager?
Did you learn how to do any of the above - I mean, really do them - in your Master’s degree program? I sure didn’t.
The web has leapt ahead while librarians weren’t looking. I’ve been trying to understand why. But in the meantime, I’ve had to expend most of my minimal resource of time on professional development that’s web-specific, rather than library-specific. So no, I’m not in Dallas at ALA Midwinter. Yes, I missed ALA, New Orleans in 2011. And yes, I miss the greater comfort I have with my colleagues in libraries - because I actually know them and where they’re coming from - it’s easier to interact and to feel confident. But in the past couple of years of web development learning, I’ve challenged myself more than I’ve ever done focusing on library-specific technology. Sorry to say.
It seems like the web world is something of a do-ocracy, but our world of professional librarianship is one of slow change, big theories, and a few baby steps forward at a time. It's structured, hierarchical, and slow moving. I don’t have time for that. I have to focus on learning how the pros do what they do so brilliantly & bring that back to my library. Let’s admit one thing - web developers been increasingly successful. We in libraries have not. Not that we aren’t great at what we’ve always done. Not that the people don’t need us. Not that there aren’t amazingly innovative libraries and people out there. But we just don’t have critical mass. There aren’t enough of us innovating and translating our high concepts about changing how we do business into reality.
A while back, I recognized that my library wasn’t going to get the money to hire its own web development firm every time we needed move forward, especially given the rate of change in technology and user expectations. It seemed to me that the closest thing we could come up with for a future-proof strategy was to understand, respect, and leverage the knowledge of professional web developers - basically, to become professional web developers ourselves. I wanted us to learn how to build and grow without needing to put in change orders every time we found usability issues in our online presence. We needed to close that feedback loop.
So that’s where I’ve been for the past year - going DEEP into the world of web development, rather than spreading myself around many technologies. And what I discovered - because I didn’t know how much I didn’t know - is that even in this technological area that librarians still lump together as being the realm of the "webmaster" or the "web librarian", practitioners have had to specialize in one aspect of the technology or another. There’s no way to do it all and do it in a way that allows us to evolve. The jack-of-many trades model isn’t scalable.
So why don't all libraries have teams with specialists in:

project management
content strategy / search engine optimization strategy
information architecture
development (code - functionality)
front-end design / user experience design / interaction design
system administration & architecture

Because make no mistake - ALL of what you're doing online is about the web these days. From the end users' perspective, your "online branch" is the website*. Although this branch gets far more use per year than your busiest bricks and mortar branch, your library is probably lucky to allocate as much as 1% of your staff resources to working on that branch.

(* From the end users' perspective, your catalog is your website and your website is your catalog. Same with digital collections. The main usability issues we'd identified at our library related to the lack of integration of those resources. Hence, the website is everything. It's where all of your resources need to come together. Users shouldn't have to know the difference in systems and staff responsibilities. The end result should all = the website, as it does in the users' minds.)

Read more at: Going deep into the world of web development
Posted: 2012-01-22T08:28:00.003-05:00

The importance of sweater vests and screencasting by

Over at Library Voice, Chad Boeninger pops out of hibernation with an excellent post titled How I make instructional library web videos and screencasts and how you can too. In this post Chad distills his six years of experience with screencasting by answering the following questions:

Why Web Video?
What type of content?
How much time does it take?
How much time is saved?
How long should my videos be?
Script or no script?
Which software for screencasting?
How do I record my voice?
Where do you record your videos?
Which resolution?
Why and How do you add the video of yourself in the videos?
To edit or not?
How do I know when my video is done?
Where should I upload?
But you don’t use just use YouTube, do you?
How do I promote my videos?
What else should I know?

Yes, it's a long post :-)

Read more at: The importance of sweater vests and screencasting
Posted: 2012-01-21T09:56:24-07:00

Tips for making mobile-friendly screencasts by

Over at The Screening Room, the blog to support the Mac-only screencasting product, ScreenFlow, you'll find a recent post with some guidelines for creating screencasts optimized for the iPhone and iPad. Note though that down in the comments you'll find some corrected information, so you should probably go with those figures.

While this post talks about ScreenFlow and iOS devices, the information obviously can be applied to other tools and other devices.

Read more at: Tips for making mobile-friendly screencasts
Posted: 2012-01-21T09:36:34-07:00

ebrary launches an iOS app by

Well I was gonna give a complete review, but got called away for the afternoon, but you should should go check out the new ebrary iOS app (links to the Cdn iTunes store, so YMMV). I can tell you that it works pretty well, though is a little light on the feature set. You'll need an Adobe Digital Editions account, and will need to have an existing ebrary account set up from the full platform website. Here's ebrary's brief introduction to the app.

I'll tell you what though, it's sure a lot easier than the initial download option :-)

Read more at: ebrary launches an iOS app
Posted: 2012-01-19T15:28:53-07:00

Mentoring a New Distance Education Librarian by

A newish book popped up for me on an ego alert, and I learned that Mentoring in Librarianship: Essays on Working with Adults and Students to Further the Profession contains a chapter specifically on Mentoring a New Distance Education Librarian (it's chapter 27, written by Annie Knight). It's also available on Amazon, where you can search inside the book to decide if it's right for you.

Read more at: Mentoring a New Distance Education Librarian
Posted: 2012-01-19T07:50:13-07:00

My January - July 2012 schedule (or at least how it looks now) by

Besides teaching graduate classes at Syracuse University (SU), I will be attending (and sometimes speaking at) these events during the first half of 2012:

SLA Leadership Summit, Jan. 25-28 (with SLA Board of Director meetings on Jan. 24-25), InterContinental Buckhead Hotel, Atlanta, GA

First Mondays / A Conversation with Jill Hurst-Wahl, Feb. 6, Solvay Public Library, Solvay, NY - I will be talking about careers, providing career advice, and discussing the book The Information and Knowledge Professionals Career Handbook. Participants are encouraged to bring questions.
Computers in Libraries 2012, Mar. 21-23, Washington Hilton, Washington, DC - I'll be moderating Track E - 21st Century Library Systems & Operations on Mar. 22.By the way, the SU iSchool will be exhibiting at CIL, so I'll likely spend some time in the booth.
SLA Annual Conference, July 15 -18, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL. I will be giving a Career Connection session entitled "Make the Most of a Difficult Situation: Solutions to Get You Through." (SLA Board of Director meetings will occur before the conference begins.)

Cafe au lait and Beignets at Cafe du Monde

I'd also like to make it to the next Olin Innovation Lab at Olin College, which I expect will be in April. (details on the last one) These are small,informative events focused on IT and engineering.

As always, if we happen to be at the same event - or even in the same vicinity - please reach out and say "hello". If possible, let's find time to meet for a cup of coffee!

Read more at: My January - July 2012 schedule (or at least how it looks now)
Posted: 2012-01-18T11:00:00.001-05:00

Everyone Should (Still) Be Concerned About Proposed Legislation (SOPA and PIPA) by

Image source: http://goo.gl/un3nB

With SOPA [Stop Online Piracy Act] (H.R.3261) and the PROTECT IP Act [Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011] (S.968), free and open communication via the Internet may be severely severed. The power to censor could be in the hands of the entertainment industry and from within our government if this legislation eventually passes. The proposed legislation gives the government the power to shut down unauthorized Web sites used for piracy even though most of these Web sites are outside U.S. jurisdiction. Going further, Web sites like Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook and any others with user-generated and shared content could be flagged and caught in this bill. This should be important to everyone especially if you value your intellectual freedom.

On January 18, 2012 Wikipedia and others will protest SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act by blacking out their Web sites. People visiting libraries that day will approach the reference desk asking why some of their favorite Web sites are gone and I think Librarians should be ready to provide unbiased information/commentary on this proposed legislation, so that our users can make wise decisions and realize that this is very important – not just for today, but well into o future.

Although piracy is clearly wrong, this proposed legislation will not stop people from doing it. Simply adding an IP address into a browser’s address field will allow pirates to still download materials illegally while legitimate links/commentary etc. may be considered copyright infringement and subsequently blocked while our freedom of expression dissolves into the ether!

Technically, it is illegal to share Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in any format and if SOPA, for example, passed then links to this amazing speech would be removed automatically. No one would be able to experience the speech unless they purchased it. EMI on behalf of The King Center has enforced their copyright and ordered its removal from YouTube. Their Web site says that they will sell you or your school a copy for $10 or you can buy the DVD at Amazon.com. Although there are current ways for corporations to take infringed copyright content down (e.g., Digital Millenium Copyright Act, PRO-IP Act, Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), the passing of bills like SOPA and PROTECT IP would undermine the basic structure of the Internet while it’s open/sharing/collaborative aspect would diminish and this is very unfortunate.

The White House recently said that it wouldn’t support any bill that would “inhibit innovation” and they vowed to protect “the openness of the Internet” and this is fantastic news, but everyone (not just librarians or technologists etc.) should be aware of this threatening legislation and stand up and be heard. The Electronic Frontier Foundation makes it easy to send a “Please oppose the Internet Blacklist Legislation (PROTECT IP and SOPA)” letter to your representatives. So, if you oppose this proposed legislation, then please let your voice be heard!

Any Google search (right now at least) for SOPA will provide well over 120,000,000 results, but here are a few worth checking out:

Senator Ron Wyden’s statement opposing SOPA

What do you need to know about SOPA PIPA? Begin here

List of SOPA Supporters

List of Those Expressing Concern With SOPA & PIPA

SOPA: The debate in plain English

Read more at: Everyone Should (Still) Be Concerned About Proposed Legislation (SOPA and PIPA)
Posted: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:17:55 PST

Event: DigCCurr Professional Institute: Curation Practices for the Digital Object Lifecycle by

As received in email.

Registration Now Open!

DigCCurr Professional Institute: Curation Practices for the Digital Object Lifecycle

Supported by IMLS Grant Award #RE-05-08-0060-08

and the School of Information and Library Science, UNC-Chapel Hill

May 20-25, 2012 & January 7-8, 2013 (One price for two sessions)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Visit http://ils.unc.edu/digccurr/institute.html for more information.

REGISTRATION LINK: http://cfx.research.unc.edu/res_classreg/browse_single.cfm?New=1&event=612E21BE7477F79D361921C40901D94BE49885E1

The Institute consists of one five-day session in May 2012 and a two-day follow-up session and a day-long symposium in January 2013. Each day of the summer session will include lectures, discussion and hands-on "lab" components. A course pack and a private, online discussion space will be provided to supplement learning and application of the material. An opening reception dinner on Sunday, Continental breakfast, break time snacks and coffee, and a dinner on Thursday will also be included.

This institute is designed to foster skills, knowledge and community-building among professionals responsible for the curation of digital materials.

Registration:

Regular registration : $950
Late registration (after April 15, 2012): $1,050
Summer Institute accommodations (includes 5 nights of a private room in a 4 room/2 bath dorm suite on the UNC campus, with kitchen, linens, and internet access): $300*

*We highly recommend that you choose the on-campus accommodations but many area hotels will be available. This fee covers accommodations for May 2012 only.

If you are a grant recipient working on a digital project, we recommend that you check with your program officer to request approval to use available grant funds to attend the institute.

Institute Instructors Include:

From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Dr. Cal Lee, Dr. Richard Marciano, Dr. Helen Tibbo.
Dr. Nancy McGovern, from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Seamus Ross, from the University of Toronto.
Dr. Carolyn Hank, McGill University.

Institute Components: (may be subject to some revisions and reorganization)

Overview of digital curation definition, scope and main functions
Where you see yourself in the digital curation landscape
Digital curation program development
Engendering Trust: Processes, Procedures and Forms of Evidence
LAB - DRAMBORA in action

Strategies for engaging data communities
Characterizing, analyzing and evaluating the producer information environment
Submission and transfer scenarios – push and pull (illustrative examples)
Defining submission agreements and policies
Strategies for writing policies that can be expressed as rules and rules that can automatically executed
LAB - Making requirements machine-actionable

Importance of infrastructure independence
Overview of digital preservation challenges and opportunities
Managing in response to technological change
Detaching Bits from their Physical Media: Considerations, Tools and Methods
LAB - Curation of Unidentified Files

Returning to First Principles: Core Professional Principles to Drive Digital Curation
Characterization of digital objects
LAB - Assessing File Format Robustness
Access and use considerations
Access and user interface examples
How and why to conduct research on digital collection needs
LAB - Analyzing server logs and developing strategies based on what you find

Overview and characterization of existing tools
LAB - Evaluating set of software options to support a given digital curation workflow
Formulating your six-month action plan - task for each individual, with instructors available to provide guidance
Summary of action plans
Clarifying roles and expectations for the next six months

January 7-8, 2013
Participants in the May event will return to Chapel Hill in Jan. 2013 to discuss their experiences in implementing what they have learned in their own work environments. Participants will compare experiences, lessons learned and strategies for continuing progress. Friday, January 4th will be a public symposium, free to the Institute participants. (Accommodations for January will be the responsibility of the attendee.)

Visit http://ils.unc.edu/digccurr/institute.html for more information.

For more information, contact Angela Murillo (amurillo@email.unc.edu) for Institute questions or Wakefield Harper (wharper@email.unc.edu) for payment or registration questions.

Read more at: Event: DigCCurr Professional Institute: Curation Practices for the Digital Object Lifecycle
Posted: 2012-01-17T10:55:00.000-05:00

Proposed U.S. Laws - SOPA and PIPA by

More is being written each day about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). In an effort to point you toward helpful information, I am providing the links below. (I have included a couple of pro-SOPA/PIPA pieces, so you can hear the "other side".) If you are in the U.S., please use these are a place to start educating yourself.

Why are people opposed to these proposal? While the bill names (or nicknames) sound like something that would be helpful, each could be used to stifle free speech. In addition, they would give the government new power and would make it difficult for people (web sites) to share information online. I'm sure there may be other reasons why these bills are "bad", but those are the three that come to my mind.

If you find yourself opposed to these proposed regulations, check the links under "Protests" and add your voice to one of the protest efforts.

If you have additional information or comments that you would like to share on SOPA and PIPA, please feel free to leave them on this blog post.

Proposed Legislation:

Additional Information:

Pinterest, PIPA, Parrot (podcast) - listen to the 1st six minutes for their take on PIPA.
T is for Training conversation between Maurice Coleman & Jill Hurst-Wahl primarily on SOPA (~60 min. podcast) [added 1/17/2012]
Obama Administration Responds to We the People Petitions on SOPA and Online Piracy
White House Will Not Support SOPA, PIPA
The Concerned Librarian’s Guide to the 2012 ALA Midwinter Exhibit Hall
Statement from Copyright Alliance Executive Director Sandra Aistars, RE: Introduction of H.R. 3699, the Research Works Act
Smith to Remove DNS Blocking from SOPA
Motion Picture Association of America Inc. (MPAA), Jan. 13 press release

Protests:

VETO the SOPA bill and any other future bills that threaten to diminish the free flow of information (Petition at WhiteHouse.gov)
Stop the E-PARASITE Act (Petition at WhiteHouse.gov)
Fight the Blacklist: A Toolkit for Anti-SOPA Activism
Boing Boing will go dark on Jan 18 to fight SOPA
Simple Stop Sopa - A WordPress plug-in that will take your site dark on Jan. 18 so you can join the protest.

Read more at: Proposed U.S. Laws - SOPA and PIPA
Posted: 2012-01-15T15:40:00.005-05:00

For New Yorkers: Notes from the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries, Jan. 12 by

These are my informal notes from today's conference call meeting of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries.

First, here is text that I wanted to share from the minutes of the December RAC meeting:

Update on Funding/Staffing for the State Library. The Cultural Education Fund, a special revenue fund which supports the Office of Cultural Education and the ongoing operations of the State Library, State Archives and State Museum is still in deficit - $12.7 million. Budget restrictions continue to be extremely tight. No staff positions have been filled or backfilled in the State Library since January 2009. The State Library has lost 65 FTE since the Great Recession began in December 2007 (a 36% reduction). The Acquisitions Budget has dropped from $4.27 million to $2.5 million.

2020Vision Process Action Plan and Next Steps - John Hammond

The 2020 Vision will be presented at the April's meeting of the Board of Regents. It is hoped that the Board will vote on them during that meeting. After that, the Council will work with the New York State Library on implementation.

The Council will seek to have time at the NYLA conference to update the library community on the 2020 Vision. The Council will also volunteer to talk to other groups about the plan.

Office of Cultural Education Update - Jeffrey Cannell

This covers four different program areas: The New York State Museum, State Library, State Archives, and the Office of Educational Television and Public Broadcasting.

The office has been looking at its strategic goals for the next three years. The themes for this time period are:

OCE as a Statewide Institution
Partnerships with other USNY institutions
Collections Stewardship and Research
Increase and expand public access to the collections and our programs

Relevant minutes: 12/11 Cultural Education Committee Meeting

News:

Nov. 29, 2011, Assembly Hearing on Funding Public Libraries

Notice: ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ON LIBRARIES AND EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY

Info from NYLA: Assembly held a day recently talking about library funding

Senator Farley Announces Establishment of Senate Library Committee

Heard brief updates on:

Joseph F. Shubert Award – Mary Muller, Chair (committee members)
LSTA Committee – Louise Sherby, Chair (committee members)

Read more at: For New Yorkers: Notes from the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries, Jan. 12
Posted: 2012-01-12T11:59:00.001-05:00

Art …of a good read! by

Baseball, literature and life make for a great story. I just love a good book and hated to put this one down. I’m still missing Henry and Schwartz.

Read more at: Art …of a good read!
Posted: Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:46:24 +0000

Book Review--"Friends With Boys" by

Friends With Boys
First Second
Faith Erin Hicks
February 2012

Maggie McKay is a bit lost at the moment. See she’s entering high school for the first time. Which would be bad enough, but Maggie has never been in a traditional school before. She’s only been home schooled with her older brothers by their mother...who by the way has left the family for pastures unknown. So now Maggie’s facing the real world for the first time, without her mom there for support, and to top it off her brothers seem to be busy with their own lives and forgetting about her! And oh yeah, there’s a silent ghost that follows her around. So Maggie has to face the real world for the first time, attempt to grow up a bit and find her own place in the world and in her family. Along the way perhaps she’ll make a new friend (one who isn’t an older brother) and solve the mystery of the quiet ghost who has followed Maggie her entire life.

I’ve been following the webcomic release of this book for some time now and I’ve really enjoyed it so far, in part because the author’s commentary provides such great insight. And...in some ways I really wish the book had the commentary because it describes so much of what the author is really thinking and it’s just nice to be able to read that part of the creative process. Alas the book does not have this, but I’m still excited to have this review copy. Faith accurately captures that feeling of confusion, of hopelessness when entering high school and does a fantastic job of making the characters feel real. You can easily identify them as someone that you may have come across in your own school and identify with that sense of confusion, of loss, of discovering who you are. It’s a good coming of age story and it’s nice to see how Maggie grows and changes during the pages of the book as she finds her place in the world at large. And in her family. And I love the other characters in the story, especially Lucy. She’s so energetic, so confident in who she is and what she is that I love seeing her on the pages of the story. What really stands out to me though is the fact that Maggie and Lucy are both strong female characters. They’re completely grounded in reality so they have their faults, but they don’t ever fall into that “woe is me, I’m a girl and can’t do anything mode.”

I really like the artwork in the book. Faith has a way of capturing the characters perfectly. They have a lot of depth to their expressions so that even without the words of the story you can tell what’s going on. I get lost looking at the expressions sometimes while reading, because it is just so pitch perfect. Faith also has a way of capturing the feelings and movements of being in high school. That sense of being crowded and all alone at the same time. And that sense of relief at finding someplace to be yourself. And I love the maps that Maggie draws to find her way around the school and identifying the places not to go, like the makeout corner.

It almost feels like maybe this is part of a series as there are a couple of questions left unanswered, such as where is Maggie’s mom and what’s the story with the ghosts? Even if there are no sequels this is a good coming of age tell with strong female characters and I give the book 4 out of 5 stars.

A review copy of this book was provided by Gina at FirstSecond

Read more at: Book Review--"Friends With Boys"
Posted: Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:27:00 +0000

Event: Ophan Works Symposium, April12-13, 2012 by

Oh, this sounds interesting!

Orphan Works Symposium

"Ophan Works & Mass Digitization: Obstacles and Opportunities"

Claremont Hotel, Berkeley CA
April 12-13, 2012

Sponsored by the Berkeley Law Center.

Agenda Outline:
Session 1: Who wants to make use of orphan works and why?

Session 2: Who is concerned about broader access to orphans and why?
Session 3: What is the best approach to addressing the orphan works problem?
Session 4: What role should registries play in averting orphan work problems? What mechanisms will facilitate information sharing about which works are public domain, orphan, or open access?
Session 5: Who wants to do mass digitization and why?
Session 6: Should data mining and other non-consumptive uses of in-copyright digital works be permissible, and why?

Full details and registration at http://www.law.berkeley.edu/orphanworks.htm

Read more at: Event: Ophan Works Symposium, April12-13, 2012
Posted: 2012-01-04T10:40:00.001-05:00

2011- my year in reading by

I started the first couple of weeks of 2011 on vacation, and was reading books on my iPhone at the time. I thought it'd be interesting to track how many books I read in 2011, something I'd never done before. I switched to reading on an iPad 2 when I got one in April, and did all my ereading either in the Kobo app, or the Overdrive app when borrowing books from Calgary Public Library. As I mentioned, I don't have numbers from any earlier years, but my strong sense is that I read more books this past year than any other in my adult life, in large part because of the ease of grabbing another title to read RIGHT NOW from an ebookstore, or CPL. Hope you find something interesting in here too. I'm not going to give you the actual titles read, most of which were some variant on SciFi or fantasy :-)

2011 by the numbers

Total number of books read: 33
Average number of books read per month: 2.75
Total number of pages: 17,738
Average number of pages per month: 1,478

http://db.tt/aBJl8agV

Incidentally, I'm composing this on the iPad with charts pasted in from the Numbers app. I'm not at all sure the images will actually go through, but we'll see in a moment...

Nope, they didn't, so here's take 2.

Read more at: 2011- my year in reading
Posted: 2012-01-03T20:51:32-07:00

Event & Call for Papers: IADIS International Conference e-Society 2012 by

See the announcement below that I received in email.

-- CALL FOR PAPERS - Deadline for submissions (last call): 27 January 2012 --

IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE E-SOCIETY 2012

March 10-13, 2012 – Berlin, Germany

(http://www.esociety-conf.org/)

* Keynote Speaker (confirmed):

Dr Conor Galvin, University Lecturer and Director MA Programme, UCD Dublin, Ireland

* Conference Background and Goals
The IADIS e-Society 2012 conference aims to address the main issues of concern within the Information Society. This conference covers both the technical as well as the non-technical aspects of the Information Society. Broad areas of interest are eSociety and Digital Divide, eBusiness / eCommerce, eLearning, New Media and E-Society, Digital Services in eESociety, eGovernment /eGovernance, eHealth, Information Systems, and Information Management. These broad areas are divided into more detailed areas (see below). However innovative contributes that don't fit into these areas will also be considered since they might be of benefit to conference attendees.

* Format of the Conference
The conference will comprise of invited talks and oral presentations. The proceedings of the conference will be published in the form of a book and CD-ROM with ISBN, and will be available also in the IADIS Digital Library (online accessible).

Some of the best papers will be eligible to be extended and enhanced as book chapters for inclusion in a book to be published by IGI Global. There will be a special issue with extended versions of best papers published by the International Journal of Interactive Technology and Smart Education (ITSE) and also best paper authors will be invited to publish extended versions of their papers in the IADIS Journal on WWW/Internet (ISSN: 1645-7641).

The conference proceedings will be submitted for indexing to INSPEC, EI Compendex, Thomson ISI, ISTP and other indexing services.

* Types of submissions
Full and Short Papers, Reflection Papers, Posters/Demonstrations, Tutorials, Panels and Doctoral Consortium. All submissions are subject to a blind refereeing process.

* Topics related to the Information Society are of interest. The extended list of topics - including digitization - can be seen at http://www.esociety-conf.org/topics.asp. Topics are in the areas of:

eSociety and Digital Divide
eBusiness / eCommerce
eLearning
New Media and E-Society
Digital Services in E-Society
eGovernment /eGovernance
eHealth
Information Systems
Information Management

* Important Dates:
- Submission deadline (last call): 27 January 2012

- Notification to Authors (last call): 15 February 2012

- Final Camera-Ready Submission and Early Registration (last call): Until 24 February 2012

- Late Registration (last call): After 24 February 2012

- Conference: Berlin, Germany, 10 to 13 March 2012

* Conference Location

The conference will be held in Berlin, Germany.

* Secretariat

IADIS Secretariat - IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE E-SOCIETY 2012

Rua Sao Sebastiao da Pedreira, 100, 3

1050-209 Lisbon, Portugal

E-mail: secretariat@esociety-conf.org/

Web site: http://www.esociety-conf.org/

* Program Committee
Program Chair

Piet Kommers, University of Twente, The Netherlands

Conference Chair

Pedro Isaías, Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University), Portugal

Committee Members:*

* for committee list please refer to http://www.esociety-conf.org/committees.asp

* Co-located events

Please also check the co-located events:

Information Systems 2012 (http://www.is-conf.org/) - 10-12 March 2012

Mobile Learning 2012 (http://www.mlearning-conf.org/) - 11-13 March 2012

* Registered participants in the e-Society conference may attend Information Systems and Mobile Learning conferences’ sessions free of charge.

Read more at: Event & Call for Papers: IADIS International Conference e-Society 2012
Posted: 2012-01-03T09:15:00.000-05:00

Hopeful New Year ?! by

Another hard year has come and gone. Let’s just let 2011 die. I hate to feel this way. When I had a chance to read this small part of the longer In Memoriam by Lord Alfred Tennyson I was comforted and inspired to be more hopeful. 2011… The year is going, let him go; Ring [...]

Read more at: Hopeful New Year ?!
Posted: Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:30:48 +0000

Wayback Wednesday: Looking back over 2011 by

I cannot let the last Wednesday in 2011 go by without looking backwards over the last 12 months. What stands out amid the growing din of the "news"?

Google

Google shut down its newspaper digitization program. (post) This was one of many things that Google did away with in 2011, in an effort to rid itself of those products and services that have not had the desired impact. (article) Of course, after its long shopping spree, something was bound to be let go. (post)
Google's amended Book Search settlement was rejected. (post) This was, of course, a surprise to no one.

HathiTrust

In 2011, the Authors Guild turned its attention to the digitization work that the HathiTrust had been engaged in. (post) The trial is scheduled to begin in November 2012. (article)

Georgia State

I keep thinking that the copyright lawsuit against members of the George State University administration should be settled by now. The judge was expected to release his decision in early fall. I've searched for any recent news and found none. Because so many colleges and universities are using digital course reserves, this will have far reaching implications. (related blog post)

And...yes...those all (above) have to do with copyright.

Kenneth Crews (post), Clifford Lynch (post) and Henrik de Gyor

I am always amazed by the people I get to talk to...from Henrik de Gyor (Another DAM Podcast), who is a fellow blogger, to people like Clifford Lynch and Kenny Crews. While these weren't news highlights for you, they were for me!

Martin King III and Ambassador Andrew Young

In April, I was invited to a meeting with Ambassador Andrew Young and Martin King III. The photo on the right was taken on my iPhone and you can see Ambassador Young checking his iPhone!
Is this digitization related? Yes. JPMorgan Chase has been working with the King Center to digitization over one million documents. (article) This fall, Syracuse University's library announced plans to digitize audio and video materials in the King Center archive. (article) The idea for SU to get involved with digitizing materials at the King Center was born at this meeting.
There were other digitization-related ideas that came out of this meeting, and I hope they come to fruition.
The lesson...you never know who is interested in digitization! The project of your dreams may be waiting for you in the next meeting that you attend.

Amazing Digitization Programs

There are many amazing digitization programs going on now and they people involved aren't always who you would imagine. For example, it's JPMorgan Chase that is working with the King Center on its digitization efforts. JPMC didn't hand the project off to someone else, instead they learned what needed to be done, how to do it, and then got to work.
Among the programs that I should be following more closely is the Digital Public Library of America. This sounds like an effort that more people and organizations need to know about and get involved in.
The need to handle "big data" - which can be created through digitization - is growing, and so some of the "projects" people need to get involved in are around analysis, open access, preservation, etc. These projects may not be glamorous, but they are definitely necessary.
We have so much born digital content now that comes to us in a variety of way, that digitization doesn't have that "oh wow" affect on people. People are concerned about ebooks, new apps, tablet computers, smartphones, etc. Digitization remains important when people look for something from the non-computer era, but that isn't something that people do every day. Does this mean that we should digitize less? No. But it does mean that we need to continue to educate people about why it is important.

On a Personal Note

I wrote more than 130 blog posts this year in Digitization 101. While that will sounds like a lot to some people, actually my blogging has slowed down...and my focus has shifted. I find myself drawn more to copyright concerns these days, even though the topic of digitization is important to me (and my teaching). In 2012, look for a continued stream of posts on digitization, digital libraries, copyright, etc., but don't be surprised if you see a greater proportion of blog posts on copyright.
Teaching at Syracuse University has kept me quite busy. (Sometimes too busy!) Yet this was a prolific year for me in terms of publications. In March, The Information and Knowledge Professional's Career Handbook written by Ulla de Stricker and I was released and has received positive reviews. In April, The Atlas of New Librarianship, which was written and edited by David Lankes, was released. It includes a section on "special librarians" written by Ruth Kneale and I. And finally, Academic Entrepreneurship and Community Engagement: Scholarship in Action and the Syracuse Miracle which contains a chapter that I wrote.
I've done my best to enjoy every day! I hope you've done the same.

Read more at: Wayback Wednesday: Looking back over 2011
Posted: 2011-12-28T20:00:00.000-05:00

Events: Upcoming conferences that may be of interest to you by

I have not been posting regularly about upcoming conferences that may be of interest to you. My apologies. Here are a few that have recently appeared in my mail.

Born of Disruption: An Emerging New Normal for the Information Landscape
NFAIS Annual Conference
Feb. 26-8, 2012
Philadelphia, PA
http://www.nfais.org

Future Perfect 2012: Digital Preservation by Design
March 26-27, 2012
Wellington, NZ
http://futureperfect.org.nz

DIGITAL DIRECTIONS: New Foundations: Creation - Curation - Use
Sponsored by The Northeast Document Conservation Center
June 13-15, 2012
Boston, MA
http://nedcc.org/dd2012/

Read more at: Events: Upcoming conferences that may be of interest to you
Posted: 2011-12-27T10:03:00.014-05:00

Blog Posts: Digital formats by

Carl Fleischhauer, a Digital Initiatives Project Manager in NDIIPP, has written two excellent blog posts on digital formats:

These are not blog posts to be read quickly, so take your time and follow the links in them.

Read more at: Blog Posts: Digital formats
Posted: 2011-12-27T09:48:00.001-05:00

Blog Post: Supporting Open Source Tools for Digital Preservation and Access by

As Bill LeFurgy writes:

Cultural heritage organizations and others from around the world have developed a host of means to facilitate work during each phase of the digital content life cycle. Many of these tools are open source, which permits broad community sharing. A search for “digital preservation” on SourceForge, for example, currently yields over 30 programs.

Read the full blog post to see what the Library of Congress has contributed to this effort.

Read more at: Blog Post: Supporting Open Source Tools for Digital Preservation and Access
Posted: 2011-12-26T09:46:00.000-05:00

OverDrive Posts Public Comment Apparently in Response to Librarian in Black Post by

A quick followup to my post earlier this month noting Sarah Houghton-Jan's (LiB) rant about Overdrive's different catalogues. TeleRead point out that OverDrive has in fact clarified their position, but without making any mention of Sarah's post, which is likely the cause of theirs. It'd be great to hear a debate between these two parties :-)

Read more at: OverDrive Posts Public Comment Apparently in Response to Librarian in Black Post
Posted: 2011-12-24T12:46:35-07:00

May the holidays bring you joy, peace and love by

No matter which holiday you celebrate during this December, may it bring you joy, peace, love, good health, and hope for the future!

Macy's holiday windows on 6th Ave. (NYC), 2007

One of the Macy holiday windows from 2007.

Read more at: May the holidays bring you joy, peace and love
Posted: 2011-12-24T09:00:00.001-05:00

The words "library" and "librarian" by

Carnegie Library Building in downtown Syracuse

Over the past several years, I have been involved in conversations about the respect that the words "library" and "librarian" receive. Tell someone that you are going to a "library" and that person will instantly have an image of what the place might look like and what its services might be. The word conjures familiar images, and often those images do not fit our current reality. Libraries rely heavily on technology, contain cafes, might contain studios where people can work on creative endeavors, and can be quite noisy - which all fly in the face of that traditional image we all have.

The same is true of the word "librarian". Thousands of people around the word are professional librarians (with a masters degree), and they serve their users/patrons/customers/members/owners in a variety of different ways. Often these people are not in physical libraries and they may not have the title of "librarian", yet they are part of the "library" profession. Saying that they are a librarian communicates something about their skills and knowledge, as well as their values. However, the word "librarian" can also put that person in a box that limits what people believe they can do. Would you seek out a librarian to help you handle, organize, and analyze massive data sets? Would you turn to a librarian for help in bringing an invention to life? Would you put a librarian on the front lines in your operation, knowing that the person could access and analyze information quickly, and thus ensure that the front line team had the information it needed to make quick, accurate decisions?

Research conducted on behalf of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) during 2007-2009 showed that (and these are my interpretation of the results):

Many members did not hold the title of "librarian". In fact, there were thousands of different job titles among the SLA members.
Although many didn't have the job title of librarian, a vocal segment of the membership did value the word and saw themselves as being librarians.
Those that hire "librarians" value their skills and knowledge. If fact, it is the skill and knowledge that is most important, not that the person is a "librarian".
What we call ourselves - as librarians - may not be in agreement with the image that our employers have of us. The word "librarian" may conjure the wrong image in their heads. An image that is limited and limiting.

Which brings me to a question that was asked of Dave Lankes this fall:

so which is more important, the name ‘librarian’ or what librarians could accomplish...?

I must admit that this question made me stand still and think. I have called myself a consultant, analyst, supervisor, manager, and professor...but have always considered myself at the core to be a librarian. What if I totally stopped using that word; would their be a negative impact? Could I use words that are more descriptive? Could I use words that resonate better with the communities where I'll be talking about what my [library and information science] students can do for them?

And what if people said, "gee...that kinda sounds like a librarian?" I could acknowledge it and then point out that what we do now is so much more than the image that comes to mind.

We are the analysts and information organizers that people have been seeking.
We're the information and digital literacy trainers for the community.
We are the researchers and advisors for innovators and entrepreneurs that are bringing jobs back to economically stressed regions.
We are the people skilled in handling big data as well as ferreting out hidden details.

Finally, when you go into a doctor's office, the person has his degree on the wall. The fact that the person has a degree gives you some level of confidence. This isn't just someone who was hired off the street to provide medical services. This is someone who was trained and vetted. The person was selected by the medical group because of the knowledge that person had acquired starting in medical school. In the same way, our employers need to look for people to handle their data who have the right degree for that activity. Too often organizations think that anyone can do it, but we know that is not true. They need to seek out the people who have studied that activity and who are intent on making it their life's mission (just like our doctors).

I know...the words "library" and "librarian" are just words and how they are used or interpreted should not matter. Sadly, however, it does matter and maybe not to you, but to a colleague that is job searching, a student that is graduating, or an organization that needs a skill and isn't sure where to find it. In those and other situations, the words may hindering what is truly possible.

Read more at: The words "library" and "librarian"
Posted: 2011-12-24T08:30:00.001-05:00

Book review--"The Silence of Our Friends" by

The Silence of Our Friends
First Second
January 2012
Mark Long, Jim Demonakos, Nate Powell

Every so often a book will come along that will challenge you, that will make you think, and that will hopefully leave you a bit better after you’ve read it. And this is just one such book. And yes some people are probably thinking that’s high praise for a graphic novel, but the story will give you chills within the first three pages and suck you in and not let you go until the very end of the story.

It’s 1968 in Houston, Texas and the fight for civil rights is heating up. Young Mark Long’s father, Jack Long, is the local TV station's race reporter and he’s embedded into the third ward, one of the poorest parts of the town. Jack is attempting to cover the events occurring in town, such as the expulsion of the the SNCC (student nonviolent coordinating committee) from Texas State University, and do justice to the people that he’s covering. He’s saved at one event by Larry Thompson, a local black leader, and the two become friends and their lives intertwine. One white family from a notoriously racist neighborhood in the burbs and one black family from the poorest ward in Houston, come together and find common ground in a conflict that threatens to tear the city apart. But before the end it may all come crashing down with the arrest of the TSU five. Which will be the loudest before the end, the words of hate or the silence of friends? This semi-autobiographical tale is based upon true events of Mark Long’s father.

One of the problem that I normally see with autobiographical stories, like this one, is that they often try to give the reader to much information about the story and invariably the reader gets lost or there are moment that leave us wondering why we’re supposed to care about the story. But this book...this book doesn’t have that issue. The authors have focused the story upon specific events of the race issues affecting the town in a given time period and give you enough information that you understand where the characters are coming from, but it never lets you wander away from what the focus of the story is. And more importantly you don’t ever feel like you’re missing out on something.

My favorite part of the storytelling though is how we get to see the story from two different perspectives--a white family from a racist neighborhood and a black family from one of poorest areas of Houston. Living in many ways on opposite sides of the world and yet we get to see the overlap and the differences between the two families clearly. And while that may sound like a cheesey way or stereotypical way of telling the story, Mark Long and Jim Demonakos tell the story in such a deft manner that you don’t really see it being told that way. You see the characters as real people. You get to understand a bit of what they went through, the troubles that each family faced for the actions they took and didn’t take, and that you want to know them in real life--just so that you could learn more from them. One last thought about the story--the title of the book comes from a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. "In the end, We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” And this book does justice to those words.

Nate Powell’s artwork is absolutely gorgeous. It’s done in his typical grace/style of capturing the human form oh so perfectly and it seems like this time he’s gone even further in his use of shading to give us the beauty of all different types of skin tones, each character’s is unqiue. His artwork is perfectly suited for this story capturing the range and intensity of emotions--the sorrow, the joy, and the fear that sends chills down your spine. That intensity, that feeling of life that he captures in their faces really makes them come alive. And the last pages of the books are some of the most powerful of the book. It seems like a rather basic layout of people walking in the street, with a closeup so that you can see the people’s skin tones--both black and white, and you can see their faces. But then he starts pulling back and all you can see are forms of people all different sizes, both genders, and all muted gray. No race and no color to divide them, just one people.

You can’t help but feel moved by this story and you can’t walk away unchanged. The combination of story and art works perfectly in capturing this event and this time period. I’m predicting this book will be one of the best graphic novels of the year, perhaps even one of the best books of the year.

A review copy of this book was provided by Gina at FirstSecond

Read more at: Book review--"The Silence of Our Friends"
Posted: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 01:40:00 +0000

Kindle Fire Follow up by

So I wrote about my initial impression of the Kindle Fire almost a month ago and I thought I'd offer an update on my thoughts on the device. What I'm going to do is address some of the complaints/issues I've seen others have with the device and offer my input. And then give my current impression on the device.

OK first off:
This is not an iPad. It's not supposed to be one. Every tech writer/blogger/news person that ran their mouth and kept asking/saying that the Kindle Fire was an iPad killer should be forced to pay a fine for making crap up (yes I know they do it anyway, but still.) The Fire was never going to be an iPad killer. It wasn't meant to be. It is meant to be the next generation of the Kindle and be a media tablet, which I think it does well. If you want a comparison of what it is like...think of it kinda like a larger iPod touch.

OK onto the issues:

Control responsiveness:
This is one of the most talked about issues with the device, I even mentioned it in my review. Yes the controls are a bit buggy and sometimes it takes a few pokes to make it do what ya tell it to do. Is it the biggest issue in the world? For me it's a bit of an annoyance because it takes a few extra seconds to get to where I want it to go, but it's not a huge turnoff (as it is for other people.) It still works and I can get it to do what I need it to. Supposedly a big fix is coming out in a week or two to help with this issue, which would be nice.

Location of the power button:
This has been the second biggest complaint that I've seen, especially recently, that it's too easy to turn off the device. And that's not exactly true. They make it sound like it shuts down completely and you have to wait for the thing to start back up, but it doesn't do that (at least not on mine.) What it does do is go into screen saver mode. You press the button again and boom you're back in. To completely shut it down you have to hold the button and then it asks you if you're sure if you want to shut it down. To me the location of the power button isn't an issue, especially since I have it on one of the sides so I can watch a movie, surf the web, or play Angry Birds.

Volume control:
Lately folks have been complaining that there isn't an external volume control. And I'll be honest that just doesn't make much sense to me. I find it much easier to have access to it on the screen itself and much easier to make sure I get the volume I like (and not accidentally hit a slider or something that changes it.) For me it's the same as on my desktop computer at work, I change the volume via the control panel.

Weight:
Some people have complained about the weight of the Kindle Fire saying it's too heavy, you can't hold it in one hand, etc. And my response is 1) why would you want to hold it one hand? and 2) It's like a solid paperback book (think any of the Game of Thrones books by George RR Martin or one of the Codex Alera books by Jim Butcher.) You have to use two hands to hold one of those books comfortably or lean it up against your lap and that's what I do with the Kindle. It's a nice solid feel to it so that you don't worry that you're going to break it by poking at it to hard or carrying it around.

Browser Slowness:
When Amazon announced the Kindle Fire they hyped the Silk Browser and how fast it would be. How fast it would be compared to what I don't remember and can't lay my hands on the information, but people have been complaining about it being slower than what they expected. And for me what I notice is that it is a second or so slower than my desktop/laptop computer. But it still loads pretty quickly and I can always get to what I need so it's not an issue for me. (I have seen from tech sites that there is apparently some setting that maybe the cause of the slowness and if you turn it off it speeds it up a bit.)

Lack of Storage space:
OK I know this is one of the other biggest complaints/worries of folks, since the Fire only has about 6.25GB's of storage space on it. And it is a bit disconcerting, but Amazon chose to use this as a chance to push their storage and other services. So as long as you have WiFi and store your music in the Amazon cloud and stream videos it's really not that much of a problem.
         And what if you travel? Well you can download movies (at least from Amazon) and download a few CD's onto your device and it won't use up all of the space and keep you (or others) entertained for a while. You can then always delete and reload new ones once you get someplace with WiFi access. Is it a hassle to do that? A bit. And if you don't want to do that then it might be better to go with another device.
          For me I like using Amazon's storage and the streaming so I don't need the storage and I'm generally some place where I have WiFi. And yep I've downloaded stuff a couple of times to keep myself entertained on trips.
           a) one other possibility (and I haven't tried this yet so I have no idea if it works) is to try a portable HD to carry stuff around. Still a bit of a pain, but it does have more space.)

The "fat finger" problem:
I've seen a few people complain about the size of the device/keyboard and how hard it is to type on it. And to be honest that's the problem I had with devices like the iPod touch/iPhone. Those devices was too small and my fingers feel fat against the keyboard (heck I thought the same thing about the Blackberry keyboard.) But with the Fire I just flip it on the side and the keyboard is big enough for me to work with. It still might be an issue for others, but I think they would have the same issue with other devices.

Carousel customization:
To me this is my biggest issue outside of the buggy controls. The carousel is what you see when you start up and shows everything that you've looked at recently/used/downloaded. And you can't edit it. You can't get rid of the stuff that you've deleted or you just don't want on the front page. For me I'd rather not have the carousel, but instead just have a bookshelf like screen (which appears below the carousel) where I can add favorites or just navigate otherwise.
          Supposedly this is one of the issues they might be fixing in the update, but I can't find any firm confirmation on it. Would I let this stop me from recommending the device? No. But if you're going to share the device with others you might want to be careful about what you download/use (yes there were complaints from people they didn't want their significant others to know what they were looking at.)

Netflix App:
Yes I've seen a few people complain about it. Here's my simple response: Netflix built the app. Go complain to them.

Selection on Amazon Prime Videos:
Again I've seen a few people complain about this and honestly it makes no sense to me at all. They complain that it doesn't have all of the episodes of a season and it doesn't have much as Netflix and I think there are two different issues here.

One is if you purchased the Kindle Fire you got a free month of Amazon Prime and my thinking is that there maybe restrictions on what you can see as far as videos go (perhaps due to license agreements) that would make you not see all of the episodes of a season. I can't test this theory, but I can assure you that they didn't put up any partial seasons of shows and all of the episodes are on there.
The second issue is the comparison to Netflix and my response is this: Netflix has been in the streaming game since 1997...Amazon since February of 2011. And trust me their selection is better than it was when they started and they do have a good bit of content for streaming. There's plenty of stuff to keep you entrained if you get a Prime account and want to stream movies.

I've seen other complaints ranging from privacy/parental controls--such as if you give the device to a kid they can buy stuff with one click that you don't want them too. And for me I'm just going to say that I think these are personal preferences that you have to take into account when looking at the device. If you have a kid you might not want to give them the device to play with (or let them play in the store.)

What the Fire does well is act as a media tablet, with the caveat to get the full use out of it you need WiFi and that you like the Amazon cloud for storing your music. If you don't want something you need WiFi for and you don't like using Amazon for everything then this isn't the device for you. But for me I do like Amazon. I like the cloud storage they have, I already had Prime and loved it, and bottom line this device is exactly what I was looking for. Something that was a combination of an iPod touch/Kindle reader that I could use to entrain myself while I traveled and still surf a bit on the web and not have to carry my laptop everywhere with me (at least as much as I can avoid it.)

Bottom line I'd recommend this device (I already have to a few people.) I think it works well for what it is, but you need to take into account what you want out of it and who you're buying it for. You may also want to wait till the 2nd generation since they're sure to improve things a bit with that one (it's supposedly coming next year.)

Read more at: Kindle Fire Follow up
Posted: Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:34:00 +0000

Rolling? by

I have to laugh! My dad used to tell me to “roll with the punches.” Now, every morning, I am greeted by this sign as I exit my train platform to walk to my Metro platform. It’s a good sentiment until you feel like a punching bag. You know the kind I mean. The full [...]

Read more at: Rolling?
Posted: Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:55:19 +0000

Podcast: Copyright & Commerce: Orphan Works & Fair Use in a Digital Age by

From the Beyond the Book web site:

From the perspective of copyright, 2011 has been a year like so many others in the Digital Age. Suits and counter-suits over copyrighted text, music, film and video continue to fly in and out of court. The long-standing “Google Books” case is, for now, scheduled for trial in 2012, while the HathiTrust — a consortium of university libraries — has drawn a new lawsuit from authors for announcing plans to post online copyrighted texts that may or may not be “orphan works.”

A panel of IP experts and commentators offered their answers and insights into these compelling issues ... at the Newseum in Washington, DC. Maria A. Pallante: The 12th Register of Copyrights and Director of the United States Copyright Office; Cecilia Kang: National technology reporter for the Washington Post; and Victor Perlman: General Counsel, American Society of Media Photographers spoke with CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

The podcast is 77 minutes in length. (mp3)

Read more at: Podcast: Copyright & Commerce: Orphan Works & Fair Use in a Digital Age
Posted: 2011-12-13T08:30:00.003-05:00

Wayback Wednesday: Is every librarian a digital librarian? by

In September 2010, I wrote a Wayback Wednesday on digital libraries. Now I want to write another post on the topic, but with a different focus.

We have this concept of a digital library. If you follow the links below, you will see that there are many definitions of what a digital library is. (more here) Very very simply put, a digital library is some manner of online resources. There are graduate students who study digital libraries with a goal to become a digital librarian. What the students learn how to do is to be a librarian whose tool set include the application of normal library ideas to a digital realm. Indeed, because most libraries now contain electronic/digital resources, every librarian is involved in a "digital library".

I interact daily with students that are interested in digital libraries and who want to take classes in the subject. Yet, I look at courses such as "reference" and see the amount of digital content in them. Reference is not a course related to the area of digital libraries, yet many digital libraries are used in reference services. Reference librarian are involved with contract negotiation, discussing the installation of digital resources, etc. They need to understand a bit about how those digital resources are constructed, in order to teach how to use them. Does that make a reference librarian a digital librarian?

A cataloguer (or metadata librarian) may not have studied digital libraries, yet the person's work is vital for the creation of digital collections and digital libraries. Are those workers digital librarians?

I see students learning the latest technologies and delving into database construction, etc., but who do not take digital library specific courses. Yet when they graduate can they call themselves digital librarians?

Or perhaps as hinted in the title of this post, the phrase "digital librarian" has outlived its usefulness. Maybe it is time to admit that every librarian is a digital librarian.

What do you think?

Previous blog posts:

Read more at: Wayback Wednesday: Is every librarian a digital librarian?
Posted: 2011-12-07T08:24:00.008-05:00

Neoteny, Leadership & Innovation by Jane Dysart

Years ago I got really excited about “neoteny” when I read Warren Bennis’ book, Geeks & Geezers: How Eras, Values & Defining Moments Shape Leaders (2002). I love the word and the concept, and so does Joichi Ito, the director of the M.I.T. Media Lab, according to this article on innovation in the New York Times. He says, “Neoteny, one of my favorite words, means the retention of childlike attributes in adulthood: idealism, experimentation and wonder. In this new world, not only must we behave more like children, we also must teach the next generation to retain those attributes that will allow them to be world-changing, innovative adults who will help us reinvent the future.” Also, “education is [not] about centralized instruction anymore; rather, it is the process establishing oneself as a node in a broad network of distributed creativity.” Ito is also the general partner of Neoteny Labs.

I have given several talks on why libraries fail, and published an article on the topic, and one of the things I include in developing leaders is “the ability to retain youthful qualities as adults — curiosity, playfulness, eagerness, fearlessness, warmth, energy. Certainly this is the season for it, so strengthen your neoteny!

Read more at: Neoteny, Leadership & Innovation
Posted: Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:31 +0000

“A New Hope for Books” by

I couldn’t find an online version of this article, but Clive Thompson begins with a question that many of us have been asking for a long time and that is “will the e-book kill off the print book?” Well, the paperless office still doesn’t exist and it probably won’t; so, could this fact help answer the above question with a simple and emphatic NO!? Books will live on well into the future; however, they probably won’t flourish and we are already seeing a decline in print materials thanks to all this e-stuff floating around within the “clouds.” I shouldn’t be using that word because it makes me feel silly, but I digress. So, do you think that the above question and the multitude of prophetic answers even matters anymore? Does it create a moral panic? Even Marshall McLuhan predicted the end of print in the 1960’s and we still have print. We still have vinyl records! Hmmm …

Thompson states that print-on-demand will do the same thing to books as the explosion of paper use did for the paperless office. The print-on-demand trend is allowing people to self-publish and this is creating an “intergalactically long tail.” Thompson compares traditional publishing, where the number of new titles increased 5%, to print-on-demand and self-publishing, which is growing 169% -- albeit not all good content, but that is another post. So, imagine what the book market will be like when the average computer user can print out paperbacks at home using more affordable print-on-demand technologies. I can’t wait to read “The Myth of the Paperless Book” someday. ;)

Check out “The Myth of the Paperless Office” by Abigail J. Sellen and Richard Harper.

Read more at: “A New Hope for Books”
Posted: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:00:02 PST

The future of information access, part 2 by

In an earlier post today, I wrote about the future of information access. Here are the resources that I used for that guest lecture.

7 things you should know about haptics, http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7029.pdf
How Haptics Will Change the Way We Interact With Machines, http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/4253368
The International Society for Haptics, http://www.isfh.org/
Fabian Hemmert: The shape-shifting future of the mobile phone (video), http://www.ted.com/talks/fabian_hemmert_the_shape_shifting_future_of_the_mobile_phone.html
Jan Chipchase on our mobile phones (video), http://www.ted.com/talks/jan_chipchase_on_our_mobile_phones.html
Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense (video), http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html
The Future of Gaming, http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2008/06/the-future-of-gaming/
The Future of Libraries, http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2006/11/the-future-of-libraries/ - This is not just about libraries.
Look out: The 10 rising tech trends of 2012, http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/look-out-the-10-rising-tech-trends-of-2012/9470
MIT Media Lab: Information Ecology, http://www.media.mit.edu/research/groups/information-ecology

Read more at: The future of information access, part 2
Posted: 2011-11-28T09:30:00.007-05:00

The future of information access, part 1 by

Earlier this month, Sean Branagan, who is the director of the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, asked that I guest lecture in his class on the topic of the future of information access. The class is seeking input from a wide variety of industries on what the future may hold and its impact on communications (e.g., news). In my 1.5 hour lecture, I spoke about the following ideas, some of which are evident in today's environment:

Game-like interfaces - more digital controls are taking on the look and feel of game-like interfaces. In some cases, the impact may be subtle. Why is this happening? Considering the number of people that play computer games, these have been test grounds for what works and what doesn't, in terms of interface design. A good game needs to be quickly understood by the player, which is the same thing that we want from our other digital technology.

Gamification – the use of game design techniques and mechanics to engage an audience - Gamification is happening everywhere, including in education (and that's not a bad thing). If engagement is the goal, then we need to use whatever design principles that work.

Virtual reality - It wasn't surprising to me that only a few students had heard of Second Life, which was the darling of virtual reality. Virtual reality has not caught on as it was hoped, due to a number of factors including hardware requirements. It is has caught on in gaming and has influenced augmented reality.

Augmented reality - Overlaying a virtual environment on top of a real environment is being done in some games and smartphone apps (e.g., Yelp). This allows for information to be displayed or overlayed on what a person is seeing, based on what the person is seeing. This could even be information that has been digitized from a local history collection that is displayed - using a smartphone app - when the user look at a specific street using the camera on the phone. The camera (and GPS) would know what the user was viewing and then would use the app to also display additional information about the area.

Personal, unique experiences – sixth-sense technology – Rather than trying to explain what I mean, watch this 9 minute video and imagine that you could interact with information in this (or other) ways. Yes, this is the ability to literally interact with information.

Access in your hands – mobile devices –According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 83% of all Americans own some type of cell phone. Increasingly, access to information is happening in people's hands and not on other devices. Results of the Pew survey show that people are being impacted by the ability to have information literally at their fingertips. Pew also notes that 35% of adults have a smartphone, and that number is growing.

Technology provides an expression or experience of the information – e.g., the weight-shifting and/or shape-changing mobile - A picture is worth a thousand words, so watch this video in order to understand the concept:

Interesting, huh?! I'm not sure how this would really be implemented, but I can see some benefits to the idea.

Tactile (haptics) – “Haptics technologies provide force feedback to users about the physical properties and movements of virtual objects represented by a computer.” - Educause. For example, "Medical students can use haptic devices to develop a sense of what it feels like to give an epidural injection, perform laparoscopic surgical procedures, use dental or orthopedic drills, or any number of other highly tactile techniques. Such simulators give users the opportunity to develop a tactile sense of the structures, organs, and tissues of the body."

Technology helping to aggregate information from friends - We see this already in Facebook and Google+, for example, but I wish it worked better. I want technology to understand really what I want to see and know, and to be able to refine that selection criteria based on what I click on or ignore.

Information as entertainment - Stephen Cobert and Jon Stewart have already proven that serious information can be delivered as entertainment. And it is clear that people respond to receiving information in this way. May of us may remember a teacher that taught history (or some other topic) in an entertaining way, and how it helped us learn. Can we do more of this? Should we?

Who you know, not what you know - Because more people are using Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc. as their news sources, who you know is important. Who you know will influence what news or information that you see. It will likely bias what you are exposed to, unless you work to include people (friends) who have opposing viewpoints from you. Even if you visit a news site, it is likely that what you see will be impacted by what your friends (contacts) have "liked". This will make it harder for some news to get in front of your eyes and it could make you world smaller, not larger.

I know that this topic raised several questions in the classroom and so I wonder what questions (or comments) that you have? Do you see these trends? Are there others that should be mentioned? Leave a comment and let me know.

Thanks to Christopher (Toph) Lawton for his help in researching this topic.

Read more at: The future of information access, part 1
Posted: 2011-11-28T08:30:00.168-05:00

Book Review--Head First jQuery by

Head First jQuery
Ryan Benedetti & Ronan Cranley
O’Reilly

O’Reilly Publishing provided me access to an electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

A basic introduction to jQuery and scripting

jQuery is fast becoming one of the most useful and popular JavaScript frameworks being used and being developed for future markets with jQuery mobile (see book review/blog post here.) One of the best features of jQuery, in my opinion, is that it allows you to learn and use a scripting language that doesn't depend upon the browser develops to update their JavaScript libraries with each release of the browser---which often means that some of the selectors don't work right with all of the browsers (IE in particular.) Instead jQuery is file that lives on a server somewhere that the webpage calls upon, much like how PHP works. It's still a client side scripting language, but in some ways acts like a server side. In this massive book (over 450 pages) and over 11 chapters the reader will learn how to download and setup jQuery and introduce the basics of jQuery. The later chapters briefly introduce AJAX, PHP, MySQL, JSON, and XML and how they work with jQuery to build a more interactive webpage. There also a couple of apendecies to help you get a test environment set up on your local computer. One thing to note about this book is that you do need experience with webdesign and it does help to have some experience with scripting languages.

One of the first things that stands out about this book (and the Head First series in general) is the bright, colorful, and plentiful images used to help illustrate concepts and how jQuery works. They also provide illustrations on how to walk through the specific problem at hand, which is often nice to see in a visual format...even if it is just notes on a pad of paper. The other highlight of the Head First series (and this book is no exception) is that it's written in a clear easy to understand language, it's written for the novice programmer--one that's still learning how programming works and for someone that's looking for an overview of the language. In this book the authors give you a specific situation--a client wants work done on their website-- walk you through how to solve the problem step by step, and with illustrations to help you solve the problem. This method can be a very helpful way to introduce aspects of jQuery as it walks through problems that you might encounter when building/developing your website and ways that jQuery can over come that problem.

But like every "Head First" title the illustrations won't work for everyone. I find it helps if you're coming from a nontraditional background or from a more creative bent (left brain.) And even then sometimes the images and graphics can be overwhelming, which is a problem that I find sometimes in this book. I found that thT images, while helpful in the beginning, often start to become overwhelming as you get more and more into the problem being solved and make it a bit difficult at times to concentrate on following the step by step instructions.

Overall this is a fairly good introduction book and easy to read if you're coming from a nontraditional programming background (and are left brain) then this might just be the book for you to learn more about scripting languages. If you're more right brain then you might want to look for a more traditional book on jQuery, such as "Learning jQuery, Third Edition" from Pact.

I review for the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program

Read more at: Book Review--Head First jQuery
Posted: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:27:00 +0000

Interview with Kenneth Crews (audio, 17 min.) by

Here is an audio interview with Kenneth D. Crews on copyright conducted on Oct. 22, 2011 (17 minutes) for my class, Copyright for Information Professionals. (Kenny Crews gave his permission for it to be shared with a wider audience.) Crews is currently the director of the Copyright Advisory Office (CAO) at Columbia University. He has served as a faculty member for the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center since its inception in 2003.

For over twenty years, Crews has has focused much of his research, policymaking, and teaching on copyright issues. He has been instrumental in helping library and information professionals understand the impact of the law on libraries.

Kenny Crews hold a J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, and an M.L.S. and Ph.D. from UCLA’s School of Library and Information Science.

Read more at: Interview with Kenneth Crews (audio, 17 min.)
Posted: 2011-11-25T08:30:00.003-05:00

Wayback Wednesday: Copyright lawsuits by

In the copyright class that I teach (Copyright for Information Professionals), we have been discussing lawsuits that involved copyright. While Google came to everyone's mind, we discussed Texaco and Legg Mason, too.

This blog has always contained posts about copyright, including a number on the Google Book Project. I've mentioned some of the other "famous" lawsuits in passing. Allow me now to provide more information about those that seem to come to my mind whenever I think of copyright and the courts. The links below lead to a number of sites (noted in parentheses).

Cambridge University Press et al v. Patton et al (Justia) - also known as the Georgia State case, which deals with course reserves. (ongoing)
Research Guide on Georgia State University Course Management System and E-Reserves Lawsuit (Rutgers)
Georgia State Copyright Case: Resources (Educause)
The Authors Guild, Inc. et al v. Hathitrust et al - Litigation over the making, storing, and providing access to scans of digital books. (Hathitrust) (ongoing)
The Authors Guild, Inc. et al v. Hathitrust et al (Justia) (ongoing)
Google Books (Charles Bailey Jr.) (ongoing)
Audio recordings on the Google Book Settlement (Copyright Clearance Center) - I have mentioned a number of these in individual blog posts over the years. In addition, this post provides links to many of them and to several transcripts.
Field v. Google, Inc. - "Google did not infringe on Field's copyright by indexing and caching his online story. Website owners can use meta tags or robots.txt files to keep a search engine from indexing a particular page. Also Google's use of the materials in their database was fair use." (from the Stanford Copyright & Fair Use site) (2006)
Perfect 10 v. Google, Inc. - "Google's creation and public display of 'thumbnails' likely do directly infringe P10's copyrights as part of a preliminary injunction decision." (from the Stanford Copyright & Fair Use site) (2006)
Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. "Rural's white pages are not entitled to copyright, and therefore Feist's use of them does not constitute infringement." (Justia) (1991)
American Geophysical Union v. Texaco - "A corporate researcher who made copies of journal articles for his files could be infringing copyright, and should license the articles instead." (from the Stanford Copyright & Fair Use site) (1995)
Tasini v. New York Times (Justia) - dealt with the rights of freelance authors. (2001)
Tasini v. New York Times: With the Freelance Settlement Rejected, What's Next? (from Digitization 101) (2011)
Lowry's Reports v. Legg Mason (Outsell) - Litigation over systematic illegal photocopying within an organization. The two sides reached an undisclosed settlement after the verdict. (2004)

This list contains those that I find myself mentioning and it is not exhaustive. (more here)

As I told my students, as a corporate librarian, the Texaco case got me more interested in copyright. That case affected what I did (and didn't do). It had a definite impact and would have had a bigger impact if it had gone to the Supreme Court. I also point to that case as an example of how long a court case can take until it is truly finished. That one lasted 10 years.

What copyright litigation has caught your eye and made you delve deeper into the law? Leave a comment and tell me. I and my students would be interested to know!

Read more at: Wayback Wednesday: Copyright lawsuits
Posted: 2011-11-23T08:30:00.008-05:00

Initial Kindle Fire impressions by

I've had my Kindle Fire for just about a day now and thought I'd offer my initial impressions.

First, as so many others have said, if you're looking for a replacement for a laptop...don't. This isn't meant to be that or an iPad killer (whatever that's supposed to mean.) What it is meant to be is a solid little tablet that you can read, listen to music, watch videos, and surf the web a bit and it does this really well.

First off books: I've only played with other ereaders before, but I really like how they display on the Fire. The screen is easy to read on no matter where I've been (office/home/a bit outdoors) and it's easy to navigate through the pages. I really enjoy how easy it is to find specific titles of new books and they offer some nice lists of top free books (mostly things out of copyright so a lot of classics) that are easy to get to. I've also tested briefly and been able to access the books without wifi, even though they don't seem to be actually stored on the device (don't ask me how I'm not sure...)

One thing that I have been curious about is how comics/graphic novels would show up on an ereader, since so many of them weren't designed with the ereader in mind. And I've tested it briefly and it isn't bad, but it's still not as good as having the actual book. You have to double tap on images to get them to expand and then they're a bit blurry. Not the fault of Amazon, just how the publisher encoded the books. So for me, reading comics is still a bit of hit or miss on this device.

Movies: This was one of the features that intrigued me was being able to watch movies on the device and it works really well. Clear, crisp colors, it displays well on the screen and it's easy to navigate through the Amazon library. I've also tested the Netflix app (which is a bit buggy) but it worked well also. The sound came out perfectly clear on this as well. I can imagine using this feature anywhere where I can access wifi just to entertain myself for a bit. I've not tried extensively with streaming sites, such as Hulu or the History channel, but brief test with free Hulu doesn't work on this device (not the fault of Amazon though...)

Music is easy to use and I love that it connects to the Amazon cloud. It's easy to store all of your CD's there and purchase new ones and have access through one device instead of putting it on multiple. If you're going somewhere without wifi though you'd have to download it to the device and that uses up storage so it's a bit of a mix there. The sound quality for some of the songs that I listened to came out a bit tinny. I'm not sure why it was different than the shows, but just something that I noticed.

The one thing that does bother me a bit is that there isn't much actual storage space on the device, especially if you want to download movies/music to use while you don't have wifi. It's only about 6.5 gbs of free space which isn't a lot. But the nice thing about the Fire is that as long as you have wifi you have access to the cloud so everything is there, which I actually like a lot since wifi is becoming more and more prevalent in the places that I visit. Would it be nice if it had 3g? Yes, but then we wouldn't have gotten the price that we did.

I found it fairly easy to browse and surf the web and the speed was decent enough for what I was looking at. I wasn't waiting more than 15 to 20 seconds for most pages to load and it was easy enough to make the page a bit bigger to look at the ext.

Since I'm a librarian I have to take a moment and look at it from a librarian perspective. And for my two cents this is a great little device for a librarian to have handy (as long as your building has wifi.) It's easy to browse and surf the web and would be a great little device to have handy while helping patrons in the stacks. Not only that it's a nice device just to show people how ebooks work, what it's like to stream a movie or music from the cloud. For my money it's a good device for a library to ease into the tablet market without spending too much.

My one issue is that the controls are a bit buggy sometimes. I've having to press the button three or four times for it to actually go back, go home, or switch to a different menu. I'm not sure why this happens, but judging from some of the other reviews and comments I've seen online I'm not the only one. Perhaps this can just be a software fix somewhere along the way, but I wouldn't let that stop me from recommending this to someone.

This is a great product at a great price. I had been looking at getting a Kindle or an ipod touch and this device is a good merger of the two. Other than the somewhat buggy controls it works well, easy to handle, easy to navigate and fits my needs perfectly.

Read more at: Initial Kindle Fire impressions
Posted: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:37:00 +0000

8bitlibrary.com is now located at 8bitlibrary.com by JP

Read more at: 8bitlibrary.com is now located at 8bitlibrary.com
Posted: Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:16:09 +0000

Podcasts on developing a professional portfolio by

This is quite off-topic for this blog. These are podcasts on professional portfolios that I developed for my library and information science students. I'm placing them here so that others can access them easily. Each is under 5 minutes in length.

About Portfolios #1: who needs one? (mp3)

About Portfolios #2: what goes into a portfolio? (mp3)

About Portfolios #3: where can you house your portfolio? (mp3)

About Portfolios #4: when can you use your portfolio? (mp3)

About Portfolios #5: final words of wisdom (mp3)

Read more at: Podcasts on developing a professional portfolio
Posted: 2011-11-08T14:21:00.001-05:00

Talk About a Library day by

A couple weeks ago I posted about how libraries need to get better about not standing on the sidelines. So to put my foot where my mouth is or whatever phrase you want to use here's my idea: National (or International) talk about a library day. We pick a day, say Wednesday January 18 2012, and spread the word. So what is this National Talk about a library day? Read on.

Now I know what you’re thinking that this is like National Library week or something like that, but it isn’t. This isn’t where librarians and libraries talk about themselves. Nope this is where our users, our patrons, the press, anyone that we can get ahold of will talk about libraries. Even if it’s just for five minutes or ten minutes or all day, they’ll tell their audience/the world/space aliens/whomever what makes libraries shine for them. Why do they use us? What special memory do they have about the library? Whatever they want to say. This is the day that our users will talk about us to let the rest of the world know why they should care about us.

I know that many of our patrons to talk about us anyway, but what about one day where the stories spread like wildfire. How cool would it be to hear Jon Stewart share a story about libraries? Or see TechCrunch splash up a story about us on the main page? Or the Mythbusters talk about us? Or you local postal carrier?

So who should you tell about International Talk About a Library Day? Everyone. Seriously.
Think local: newspaper, TV station, school newspaper, local bloggers
Think big: send it to national TV shows (Daily Show anyone?), blogs like Lifehacker, Techcrunch, the Pioneer woman, to twitter, to anywhere and everywhere that you can think of.

Librarians can talk all day about how great and awesome we are. Librarians can say all kinds of things to the administration to politicians, we can share numbers and statistics to the hills run with them, but the power of the voice is even better. What we need though is our users, our patrons, the people that we serve every day to talk about us.

So what do y'all think? Can we make it happen?

Possible release to send out about

National Talk About a Library Day
Wednesday January 18, 2012.

Dear x (fill in with name group, whatever you like just be nice),

I know, I know y’all probably get emails like this all day long. And nope this won’t require any money, just a few minutes of your time so please read through (trust me it will be worth your while.)

I’m writing about "National Talk About a Library Day.” That’s right, talk about a library. I know, I know you’re probably thinking it doesn’t fit your blog/tv show/whatever, but here’s the thing...it does. Libraries are a universal place. You go anywhere and you’ll find one, even if it’s a burro carrying around a sack of books. Think about the impact that your local library had on you. On your family. On your children. I don’t need to remind you about it, because its already jumped into your head.

And this is what National Talk About a Library Day is all about. A chance for you to share with your audience your favorite memory about libraries or what you like about them or the impact they’ve had in your life. Whatever you choose. Even if all you can spare is 5 minutes or one tweet or one blog post, tell your audience. Tell the world.

Read more at: Talk About a Library day
Posted: Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:45:00 +0000

NYLA11: QR codes in libraries by

Meredith Farkas did a presentation at the New York Library Association Annual Conference on QR codes. As a person who has been incorporating QR codes in student assignments, I was pleased to see someone promoting QR codes to the library community. Here is her presentation:

QR Codes Rock the Library on Your Phone

In order to demonstrate a unique QR code application, Meredith showed this video:

I received a couple of questions via Twitter during the session from people who have not seen QR codes catching on in their community. I believe that QR codes need a champion as well as training. In other words, if you believe that they are useful, then you need to use them and teach others about them. You should point out where they are appearing in advertisements and marketing material, for example, so that people know that they are all around us.

Others have done presentation on QR codes including these by Renata Curty:

Qr codes & libraries

Brown bag bird_library_march282011

And this one from Joe Murphy and David Lee King:

Qr codes workshop il2011

I've also written about QR codes, including:

If you need more on QR codes, search Slideshare for additional presentations on the topic.

Read more at: NYLA11: QR codes in libraries
Posted: 2011-11-04T21:00:00.002-04:00

NYLA11: Preliminary Recommendations for the 2020 Vision and Plan for Library Service in New York State by

Today at the New York Library Association (NYLA) Annual Conference, people gave comments on the draft report entitled Creating the Future: A 2020 Vision and Plan for Library Service in New York State. The comments were received, without any discussion, by Regent Roger Tillis (Chair of the NYS Board of Regents Cultural Education Committee) and Deputy Commissioner of Education Jeffrey Cannell as well as two members of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries (John Hammond and Jerry Nichols). Besides the received verbal comments, everyone was encouraged to provide comments in writing. In addition, comments may be submitted by members of the public, library staff, library students, and others via email to NYSLRegComments@mail.nysed.gov by November 15, 2011. After that, members of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries will revise the 2020 Vision based on the input reserved. The goal is to give the completed document to the Regents in the spring (April/May) and ask them to act on the recommendations. Some of the recommendations may require legislative action.

For additional information on this document and process, go to this web site.

Read more at: NYLA11: Preliminary Recommendations for the 2020 Vision and Plan for Library Service in New York State
Posted: 2011-11-04T20:34:00.002-04:00

Google Reader's A-Changin' by

Google recently announced that they are soon to relaunch Google Reader with a new design and are "going to bring Reader and Google+ closer together, so you can share the best of your feeds with just the right circles." Although I am not a huge fan of Google+ (Aside from the coolness of Hangouts, I haven't seen a reason to convert from Twitter and Facebook; my social circles don't see to be active in Google+), one of the things that has griped me about Reader is that there has been no way to share RSS items with my Plus circles. If nothing else, that will soon change. Something else that will change is that the Google Reader API (an unofficial, undocumented, and formally unsupported API) will at some point be phased out. This doesn't make a difference to users of the Google Reader web site, but does matter for anyone who has been using Google Reader to track what has been read in applications like FeedDemon and others. If you want to get your data from Google, they will continue to offer an OPML download of your feeds, but will be augmenting the list of subscribed feeds with your other personal data, including your shared items, friends, likes, and starred items. What you do with them then is your business.

Read more at: Google Reader's A-Changin'
Posted: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:55:48 -0500

Thank you, SLA Upstate NY Chapter! by

On October 15, the Upstate New York Chapter of the Special Libraries Association honored me with this Chapter Merit Award. Me? Wow! Thank you to Elaine Lasda Bergman for her kind words at the event and for giving me this on behalf of the Chapter.

I joined SLA in 1990 and went to my first SLA conference in 1992. According to my records, I began volunteering at the Chapter level in 1995 and been active ever since somewhere in the Association. Over the years, those in SLA have been important to me - even helping me find consulting clients - and, in return, I have given of my time to the Association (where we all met).

Thank you to those who were active in the Chapter in the early 1990s! Some of you inspired many of us to get involved and stay involved. And thanks to those elsewhere in the Association who were informal mentors over the years, and who also pushed and pulled me into various activities and committees. A piece of this award belongs to all of you!

Read more at: Thank you, SLA Upstate NY Chapter!
Posted: 2011-10-24T15:30:00.000-04:00

Dear digitization company, are you meeting the needs of potential clients? by

Earlier this week, I spoke with someone who has overseen a rather large digitization program this year, which digitized a variety of materials. The person said that they had not planned on building their own digitization facility for this program, but ended up having to. They had thought that they would be able to find a company that could handle all of the work, including digitizing a variety of material types. Unfortunately, companies that convert materials specialize in specific types of materials. In addition, companies that do conversion may not create metadata or load items into the asset management software. However, that isn't what all organizations want. Some organizations want to work with a company that can do it all and do it well.

If you are a digitization vendor and someone came to you to do it all, could you? Would you? Or would you let a prime opportunity (and income) walk away?

Read more at: Dear digitization company, are you meeting the needs of potential clients?
Posted: 2011-10-22T08:45:00.000-04:00

An open letter by

October 6, 2011
Online world

Dear Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Harper Collins, Ebrary, EBSCO, and any other publisher/vendor dealing in ebooks (which is probably a good number of y'all),

I'm sure by now you all are tired of hearing from libraries and librarians about ebooks. I mean I don't even really need to list what's been said about y'all do I? But I want to take a bit of a different tact so please do keep reading.

First of all let's just go ahead and agree that both sides--publishers/vendors and libraries/librarians--need to work together on this, because neither of us can live without the other. And yes I said that you need us. Because let's go ahead and be honest when someone gets confused about how their ereader works, how to get library ebooks on it, how to use the thing...who do they really come to? That's right, they very often come and visit their local library. They know (or figure) that we should know how the thing works and also be able to recommend more great books to them. And where would these folks find out about more books without us? But we need y'all as well. Ebooks, whether people like it or not, are a big part of the future of library world and y'all make them. So we need to work together on this.

So what now? Well how about we come up with a couple of compromises for both sides here.

I'll start with the library side first.
1)Getting paid and how often:
OK I'll admit HarperCollins had a good point a while back about ebooks not wearing out like regular books and the desire to get paid again, just as if a replacement copy had been ordered. I'll also state that the checkout limitation was completely and utterly ludicrous. So why not come up with something different?

How about an annual charge for the books. And no I don't mean the full cost or limitations on how many times it can be checked out. Let's just talk strictly about books that are in the $8-$25 range, which are popular books, best sellers, stuff that a large number of people are likely to read. What about an annual fee (after the first year) per book of .50-$2.00 depending upon the retail price of the book? That way a library has it for a year, they get a chance to look at the circulation of it and decide whether or not they want to keep it, kinda of like we do now. If they do keep it they pay a small charge and it goes to you.

Now granted we get a lot of things through packages through vendors so things might need to change there as well (with vendors offering the chance to switch out books perhaps,) but that can be a conversation down the line.

2) Data
Let's just go ahead and be honest we all know that you collect data (some of you a bit more than others.) And libraries are loathe to get up lots of data, because we try to protect our patrons. But what if we compromise a bit? Let's strip out the patron name and the street address out of the data. That way you can't associate it with one person and if the government decides to go crazy, you don't have that information to give them. You still get some info that's useful to you and we make sure that we continue to protect our patrons privacy.

What you need to change:
1) Format, and this is the big one:
This idea that you'll only provide ebooks in one format or your ebook reader will only read one format it's ludicrous. Y'all are acting like this is the battle between Beta player and VHS instead of what it really is, a battle between Sony and Samsung players.

Look the format is already out there, epub, just go ahead and use it. Let people read their books on whatever device they have and not trying to force them into having only your device and no other. DVD's companies don't do this. I mean seriously can you imagine the chaos if you had to have 10 different DVD players to enjoy your favorite movie?

I get it, really I do. You want to get people to buy your device. But why not get them to buy your device based upon what it offers, not that they have to buy their books just from you. And for their books? Let them come to you because they know what service that you offer and the price that you can offer on ebooks. Because come on now, they're buying their ebooks based on that anyway.

1a)Vendors and ebook readers:
This is a subset of the first conversation, but y'all seriously? You're going to let us buy ebooks and then say "sorry you can only read it on the computer." That kind of defeats the purpose of an ebook, you know that right? So let's start making it so that we can read ebooks on ebook readers without having to download a piece of software that doesn't work on every ebook read (looking at one of you in particular here.) We can find a way to make it work. You know it. I know it. So let's make it happen.

2) Talk to us:
And yes I mean really go out there and talk to us. And no the librarians that are on you staff don't count. Nothing against them, but once they start working for you doesn't that kinda of limit their experience with interacting with patrons on a daily basis? Form a group. Include people that you know are pissed off at you, but are reasonable (yes there are some out there.) Get our input. Include the input of your customer base. Share it.

We can't exist in a bubble and it's time we both stopped living in aspects of them.

Now I'm only one librarian and I can't speak for them all so this is just me talking. But let's just keep talking and see where it goes? What do you say?

Read more at: An open letter
Posted: Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:26:00 +0000

Killing Librarianship - Inspiration from the New England Library Association Conference by

I’ve spent the past couple days at the New England Library Association (NELA) conference in lovely Burlington, VT. The conference began with a rousing keynote from R. David Lankes, entitled “Killing Librarianship”. He spoke much more eloquently than I can summarize, so I encourage you to follow him on Twitter @rdlankes, read his work, and view his presentations - see http://quartz.syr.edu/rdlankes/ (to actually experience the keynote, go to http://quartz.syr.edu/rdlankes/blog/?p=1258).
For those who just want a summary, I’ll do my best.
Lankes explained that what threatens librarianship most is not Google, Amazon, or ebooks, but a lack of imagination. The new role of librarians is to support innovation, participation, and democracy, addressing some of our society’s most pressing needs. He summarized today’s librarianship in this formula:

Innovation + Participation + Democracy = Librarianship

He spoke about the death of innovation and big ideas in America (referencing Neal Gabler’s essay in the August New York Times - “The Elusive Big Idea)”. Lankes told us that the librarian’s role today (regardless of what it was yesterday and regardless of why a librarian may have entered the field in the first place) is to innovate and to support innovation. He also made it clear that this is every librarian’s responsibility. Referencing Gabler, he pointed out that innovative ideas are being destroyed by the commercial marketplace which too often requires innovators to find the fastest route to profit and extinguishes many great ideas in their early stages as a result. A prime example of this is the seed accelerator/venture capital model, wherein investors require internet startups to “pivot” to a new idea the moment the original concept is under threat of delay or profit estimates suddenly drop off. (You can imagine what would’ve happened had such a marketplace tried to invent the original internet.)
The public library invests in the marketplace -- not the marketplace of capital -- but the marketplace of ideas. The library allows its members (note the use of the term “members”, rather than “users” or “patrons”) to grow in their knowledge and understanding. This support allows people to bring the most important ideas -- not just the most immediately profitable ones -- to light.
Lankes also reminded us what a big idea our profession is. The public library is - in fact - one of the pillars of our democracy. To the extent that our public libraries are under threat of being cut or closed, our American democracy is threatened.

There is not such a cradle of

democracy upon the earth as the

Free Public Library, this republic of

letters, where neither rank, ofﬁce, nor

wealth receives the slightest

consideration.

- Andrew Carnegie

The public library allows our citizens to govern themselves more effectively by providing equal access to the information they need to support their decision-making. Those of us working in public libraries burdened by budget cuts, staff cuts, threats of closure, and members’ increasing needs (note that I use the term “members”, not “users”, or “patrons”, per Lankes), know that these cuts and closures cost our society dearly in the long run.
A session I attended on Net Neutrality on Monday underscored the current threats to the free exchange of information online and how we, as librarians, need to be actively involved in the fight to ensure that as many sources of information as possible are equally and freely available to all. A final session by Jessamyn West on Tuesday provided a checklist of how we can ready ourselves to help lagging community members bridge the Digital Divide(s) (there are several - economic, usability, and empowerment) that plague our nation.
To quote Lankes, “the Mission of Librarians is to Improve Society Through Facilitating Knowledge
Creation in Their Communities”.
This is indeed a big idea.
(So it sounds like I’d better get back to work - there’s a lot to do!)

Read more at: Killing Librarianship - Inspiration from the New England Library Association Conference
Posted: 2011-10-05T09:31:00.000-04:00

Book Review--HTML5: The Missing Manual by

A basic introduction to HTML5

HTML5: The Missing Manual
Matthew MacDonald
O’Reilly

O’Reilly Publishing provided me access to an electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

When I start looking at books on programming languages, such as HTML5, I look for a few different things. 1) Easy to read and understand language
2) Clear cut, easy to follow (and correct) examples of code
3) Good additional resources to look at
4) Layout and organization of chapters and subtopics flows well
5) And depending upon the language, an in-depth look at how it works.
While this book doesn't offer an in-depth look at every aspect of HTML5 (it is meant for beginners) it does meet the first three criteria that I look for and mostly meets the clear organizational path.

This book doesn't give an in-depth look at HTML5 because what Matthew is trying to do is provide a basic introduction to the various tools and components of HTML5 and how you might be able to use them in your day-to-day work. And this is where the book excels. Matthew breaks down the book into three broad themes (meet the new language, creating modern webpages, building web apps with desktop smarts) and further broken down into 12 chapters on each of these broader themes. Plus he includes a great 4th section with appendices and other additional resources and real world examples of code in use.

In the first section Matthew does a great job of explaining how HTML5 came into being versus the continuation of XHTML and how W3C works to approve code. This is important to understand in the context of this book as not every standard developed by the committee or shown in this book works with every browser at this time (there is at least one that only works with one browser thus far.) Matthew does a good job of letting the reader know which standard will work with which browsers and when, if ever, the standard might be widely adapted. He also does a good job of breaking down the various standards that have the most real world use in building webpages, such as the discussion on semantic tags in Chapter 2. Matthew provides clear cut examples of code and explains how you might be able to use them.

This book is helpful to have handy just to see some of the features and capabilities of what can be accomplished with HTML5. It is just meant as a basic introduction so if you don't have previous experience with designing webpages or understand HTML, CSS, or JavaScript (all of which Matthew says you need to understand his book) then check out a basic book on building a webpage. If you need more in-depth knowledge of HTML5, want greater understanding of the language, or just examples of how specific sections of HTML5 work you may want to check the webbased documentation. Overall this is a nice book to have handy to see the different types of things that you can do, examples provided, and other references that Matthew lists.

Read more at: Book Review--HTML5: The Missing Manual
Posted: Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:43:00 +0000

Why do we fall? by

I love "Batman Begins". Not just because it brought Batman back to life in the movies, but because of a line that Alfred Peenyworth says to Bruce Wayne: "Why do we fall sir? So we might learn to pick ourselves up."

I mean seriously, just how awesome is that line? Ole Alfred isn't talking about the physical fall, but the mental fall as well. And boy do I need to remember that line a lot these days. I keep falling over broken promises, perceived slights from others, and goals that I set for myself. I keep letting myself be overcome by the stupid and worrying over the things that I can't change. And I've got to remember, to pick myself back up, dust off my clothes, and go back to being the kick ass person I know I am, both professionally and personally.

Read more at: Why do we fall?
Posted: Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:24:00 +0000

Where do we go from here? by

I've seen quite a few things recently about the future of libraries...ok almost everything I see is about the future of libraries and how we're either in competition with Amazon, Google is going to kill libraries, Amazon is destroying us, or some unknown alien race is going to show up and displace libraries and librarians with their galactic encyclopedia. And all of this is interesting...but why do we keep worrying about who or what we're in competition with? Yes there are a lot of different places that offer some of the same services that we do, but there's nothing that offers everything that we do. We keep talking about how libraries aren't just the brick and mortar buildings, that we're the resources, we're the digital, and most importantly we're the people who can help our users find what they need. That we're all of these different things that work together to become an integral part of the community. That we know the people that come in our library by name. That we know what resources they need.

Well can Amazon offer that? Can Google offer it? No they can't. They can make recommendations via computer algorithms, but they can't be everything that a library can be. They don't have people there to ask them how they're doing or how their pet is. Or know their homework assignment because they talked to the professor or teacher last week. These businesses, these companies, these aliens, these whatever can only do part of what we do. We can do so much more.

Can we learn from these companies though? Sure. 1st lesson: Apple, Amazon, Google and the others didn't get to where they were by coming out in public and wailing that the next company over was going to put them out of business. They looked at the world around them and said "f'it. we can do better than that" (not a direct quote by the way) and went out and made it better. So what do we do? We go out and make it better (which we have been doing.) We've just got to start following the 2nd lesson which is...

2nd lesson: Amazon, Apple, and Google didn't stand on the sidelines and mumble about how they did it better. They shouted it from the rooftops and didn't let themselves be pushed out of the way. So let's stop spending our energy on worrying how x is going to put us out of business and start focusing on learning from them and improving what they can offer. So that we can better serve our community. Our users. Those people that we know by name (even if we sometimes wish we didn't.)

3rd lesson: Stop letting other people take credit for the things that we've done and show our users, show the people that fund us just how great we really are. Talk to the press, tell them what we're doing, what we've done and how we've influenced the world. We've got to stop doing things the same way and go out there and promote ourselves.

It's a new age and we're not going anywhere. Let's show the world that.

Read more at: Where do we go from here?
Posted: Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:06:00 +0000

Is Instantaneous Access to Information Good? by

Find the needle in this haystack.

I was driving my “almost five” year old daughter (her words) to school the other day and she asked me to play “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen. My first reaction was my daughter is pretty cool. My second reaction was absolutely – I can do this for you because I have instant access to most everything. So, I was able to find and play that song on my phone thanks to Spotify and this is a great luxury, right? It probably is. Well, I started to think more about what happened and remembered a time, not that long ago, when I had to wait until an album was officially released before I could get my hands on it. The bike ride to the record store was exhilarating! I miss that anticipation today. Now, I can listen to albums BEFORE they are even officially released thanks to leaks and so forth. For the record, I usually don’t listen to leaked albums from artists I highly respect because I want to listen to it on their terms. Again, that eager anticipation is a strong feeling for me and I wonder if that feeling will be lost with our growing expectancies to have instant access to music, books, film, and other content. If so, does it matter?

We all know that finding a needle in a haystack can be challenging. In fact, it is probably unlikely that you’ll find the needle unless you have a strong magnet or some special needle-finding tool. Today, it seems that we have very strong magnets to help us, but we are finding thousands of needles. So, I wonder if we have too much content (i.e., music, books, film etc.) instantly accessible to us. Will we become less interested in discovering new content if everything we find isn’t extraordinary? Will the ordinary stuff be ignored? Plus, our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, so we may want to throw that magnet away. Should you throw away your magnet?

Just recently, Tzadik’s collection was removed from Spotify. My instantaneous access to this incredible music catalog is now lost and I need to search for it and acquire it again. For this week at least, MOG has the Tzadik collection and I can rebuild it from scratch. I hope MOG doesn’t lose this collection, but I’ll have to wait and see. So, I have a great collection started at Spotify and I don’t really want to start over, but I probably will. I own close to 2,000 CDs, but they aren’t convenient for me anymore. I’ve slowly started to digitize the ones that won’t be in Spotify and/or within other music services and have donated the others because I can stream any one of them instantly to any device whenever I feel the urge to do so. I am spoiled and get upset when I don’t have instant access to everything. Is this okay?

Most content that we have instant access to never sees the light of day, so is it important to even try to provide consumers with all this stuff? As Bob Lefsetz says regarding music, “it's so hard to find greatness amidst the cacophony” and I can see libraries suffering from this too unless we help to curate our content and give our users multiple opportunities to create something useful with it.

My daughter will grow up not having to wait for anything – digital at least. Sure, if she needs quick medical or safety information and can get it within seconds then that is a good thing, but is it good for everything else? I think it is wonderful that technology is providing us with this luxury, but I wonder if it will cheapen the value of the content and/or if we’ll get so spoiled and lazy that much of this content will get lost amidst the cacophony. I hope not. I hope humanity becomes more intelligent because of the torrent of information instantly accessible to us. We’ll see. What do you think? Does it matter?

Read more at: Is Instantaneous Access to Information Good?
Posted: Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:37:20 PDT

Will Amazon Offer Purchasing and/or Donation Options for Library-Owed E-Books? by

It may already have happened, but if not, I am wondering how long it will take Amazon to offer a purchasing and/or donation option for library “owed” e-book titles. For a while, OverDrive’s LibraryBIN (“Buy It Now”) program has allowed patrons “to buy popular and best-selling e-books and audiobooks with most of the LibraryBIN profits going back to libraries.” This is pretty cool, but will Amazon do it? I’d think that publishers would be happy because they could gain some revenue from it. A win-win, right?

Undoubtedly, library e-book collections will gain more visibility and with more visibility comes more demand, which many libraries may not be able to handle. Although I am fairly confident that libraries can handle it, it is probably too early to tell. Anyway, I would welcome the idea of Amazon adding a purchasing option for high-demand library e-book titles as long as a portion (even a very small portion) of Amazon’s profits go to library funds AND if library users could then donate their used e-books to their library’s digital collections to give others the opportunity to read them.

On another note, Gary Price from InfoDocket, wrote a thought-provoking post on “eBooks, Privacy, and the Library” and he asks some very important questions that everyone, not just librarians, should be trying to answer.

What do you think?

Read more at: Will Amazon Offer Purchasing and/or Donation Options for Library-Owed E-Books?
Posted: Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:07:19 PDT

Book Review--Book of Ruby by

The Book of Ruby: A Hands-On Guide for the Adventurous
by Huw Collingbourne
No Starch Press 2011

O’Reilly Publishing provided me access to an electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Thanks to Ruby on Rails, the Ruby programming language is one of the most popular languages at the moment to learn. But according to the author you can't just jump into Rails without first learning a bit of Ruby and thus this book was born. This book was written and developed for the novice to learn the basics of how Ruby works and what some of it's pitfalls are. The author points out in the introduction that although Ruby may look deceptively simple to learn, it really isn't and it is his hope to help people navigate and learn this complex language. This massive book (over 400 pages) is broken down into 20 chapters each on specific topic of Ruby (such as strings and ranges) and then further broken down into subtopics on the main topic, with screenshots and examples of the language scattered throughout to better help the reader place into context what the code should look like.

First I should say I'm not an experienced programmer (I've been learning the languages but don't have a chance to use them as often as I'd like.) So what I'm looking for and got out of this book may be different than what others are for. I'm looking at this book as a way to pick up some of the basics of Ruby to get started with, how it compares with other languages, and what the biggest headaches are about it--so I can't speak to whether or not there are better (or perhaps more standard) ways of preforming the same function/example that others maybe able to. What I can say is that, at least the beginning of the book, gave me a good feel for some of the things that the language can do and what the code might look like in the real world (or at least how to recognize that the code I'm looking at is Ruby.) Huw's writing style is written to be more non-technical than some other programming books so it's relatively easy for the novice to understand and follow along. The later chapters however, didn't give as much information on a topic as I would have liked, such as the chapter on debugging. I get that Huw was just trying to give an introduction to the concept, but I think it deserved longer treatment, especially since it's a book for the novice and this seems like an important part of getting Ruby working correctly.

The other thing that really bothers me about the book is how comments are done in the coding examples in the book. They are written just like you would find them in real world code, but for me it was confusing at times and just added to the jumble especially when they came on each line. I just wanted to be able to focus on walking through the Ruby code and not figure out the annotations at that moment. Perhaps if it had been a different color it would have helped or if it was explained beneath the example (as other programming books have done), but as is some of the coding examples were less than helpful. So while the beginning of the book provided a somewhat useful introduction on Ruby and what it could do, I know that I can get the same information and examples that are more beneficial to my learning style through some online tutorials and in other books.

If you do well with having a printed book next to you to help you learn a new language then at least the first part of the book might be useful to you. If you're already an experienced programmer or have a bit of Ruby knowledge then you might get better value at looking at online tutorials/schools or other more in depth books. I will say for me that if I hadn't been provided a review copy of the book I wouldn't have picked the book up and I won't be buying it for my library as I think that are books better suited for my students learning style (and with more information) than this one.

Read more at: Book Review--Book of Ruby
Posted: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:28:00 +0000

Chad Mairn, CTO of Novare, publishes a chapter on Mobile-Optimized Library Resources and Services by

Chad Mairn, Chief Technology Officer at Novare Library Services and St. Petersburg College Librarian, wrote a chapter titled ‘Acquiring, Promoting, and Using Mobile-Optimized Library Resources and Services,’ which will be published this month in “E-Reference Context and Discoverability in Libraries: Issues and Concepts” edited by Sue Polanka. You can take advantage of IGI Global’s pre-publication pricing today or read a summarized version of Chad’s chapter from Advances in Library Information Science’s newsletter here. You can also read the first few pages of the chapter here.

Here is the abstract:

Although the reasons vary, it is apparent that the majority of library users prefer electronic reference content primarily because information provided in that format is easier to find and use; plus, much of this content is accessed via mobile devices. This chapter will discuss best practices for acquiring, promoting, and using mobile-optimized library resources and services including reference content -- although most Ready Reference print collections have disappeared because of the ease of finding factual information thanks to Google, Wikipedia, and others. A report on mobile library surveys and vendor usage statistics regarding the use and future aspects of mobile-optimized library reference resources and services will also be discussed in order to provide a snapshot of what is working in this emerging technology that is impacting most everyone today. The chapter also will attempt to answer questions to determine if promoting mobile-optimized content is helping users discover oftentimes hidden library reference content while they are on the go.

Read more at: Chad Mairn, CTO of Novare, publishes a chapter on Mobile-Optimized Library Resources and Services
Posted: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:34:05 PDT

The Link to This Post Has a Half Life Measured in Hours by

A recent research report by Hillary Mason of Bit.ly explores the lifespan of a link shared through social media. Her findings are that links shared via Twitter, Facebook, etc., have remarkably short life spans. She measured the half-life of shared links (the amount of time it took for a link to receive half as many clicks as in the previous time period) and learned that, for most links, the half life is two-three hours. (The outlier exception is links shared from YouTube, where the half life of a shared link is a whopping 7.4 hours.) Graphs and the full report are available on the bitly blog. Of course, this post is immortal, because as we all know, blog posts never die. Right?

Read more at: The Link to This Post Has a Half Life Measured in Hours
Posted: Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:17:40 -0500

Magnitude by

How do you measure – life, job, relationship? Do you measure by happiness, by satisfaction, by goodness? I’ve blogged about this before, maybe too often? [F2F Inspiration, N+1 or N-1, By the Numbers, Embracing Complexity] I have a new, scary, perspective after a “magnitude” event like the earthquake last week, and the “category” hurricane last [...]

Read more at: Magnitude
Posted: Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:09:30 +0000

What have I been up to? by (almost) Bald Trainer

Glad you asked. Since my last post to this blog at #ALA11, which was incredible by the way. I have: * Been appointed to the Board of the ALA Learning Round Table. I may take a stab at running for … Continue reading →

Read more at: What have I been up to?
Posted: Thu, 25 Aug 2011 06:51:24 +0000

Thinking Time & Space by

Give the man his thinking space. Late August, and people must be talking about the President’s vacation. I was lucky enough to have a vacation this summer – first one in two years – and I feel better. Rested and refreshed in body and, more importantly, in mind. So, give the President a break and [...]

Read more at: Thinking Time & Space
Posted: Sun, 21 Aug 2011 22:58:14 +0000

Book Review--jQuery Mobile by

jQuery Mobile
by Jon Reid
O’Reilly 2011

O’Reilly Publishing provided me access to an electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Mobile technology is developing at a rapid pace. Where once people accessed content via mobile webpages they now want to access content via mobile appls. And for designers this poses a major problem. How do you design an app that works on all platforms? Do you pick one and hope for the best? Or do you design for them all? Thankfully a new option is being developed. jQuery Mobile, based upon the popular jQuery library, is a package currently being developed that will work on all platforms with no extra programming knowledge needed. And I for one am really impressed with how easy and simple it is to develop with the current package of jQuery Mobile. It’s clear that the programmers have put a lot of thought into making it as easy as possible to use, especially since it comes with a CSS style sheet and icons built into the package.

This jQuery Mobile guide may seem short at a 130 pages, but packs a lot of useful content. The jQuery Mobile package is currently in beta 1 (the book covers alpha 4) and is based upon HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Jon states in the introduction this book works best if you’re already have basic familiarity with mobile browsers, the jQuery library, and basic designing for mobile webpages. Jon provides copious screen shots and sections of code so that the reader can easily see how the package works and how to design their own apps based upon the jQuery package. The book talks you through the basics of beginning with the package to building a working application that utilizes the Twitter API to design a working jQuery Twitter client that incorporates multiple pages and UI components. My only real complaint about the book is that there's no index. But if you're using the ebook version of the book it's easy enough to search and find what you need.

Basically if this your first dive into designing and developing with jQuery you may want to supplement the book with a jQuery guide (great documentation on the web or using something like "jQuery: Novice to Ninja" or "Learning jQuery 1.3"--a bit older but still good content.) The book dives right into working with the code which is a great way to learn, especially since the author provides lots of examples of how to build the code and what it looks like on the mobile platform. The book is written in an easy to understand format and that as long as you have some knowledge of how jQuery works you’ll have no trouble following along.

I’m impressed with how well this short book is written. It’s easy to use and easy to follow along. My one note of concern (as some other reviewers have noted as well) is that the book is based upon the Alpha 4 release and we’re now into the Beta 1 release of the program. That being said I would still recommend this book as a way to get a good idea of what can be done with package.

Read more at: Book Review--jQuery Mobile
Posted: Sat, 16 Jul 2011 20:00:00 +0000

If this is the future, count me out. by JustinLibrarian

Read more at: If this is the future, count me out.
Posted: Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:25:22 +0000

Book Review--Creating a Website, the Missing Manual by

Creating a Website the missing manual, Third edition
by Matthew MacDonald
O’Reilly 2011

O’Reilly Publishing provided me access to an electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Matthew writes this book as if the reader has no previous experience with coding and even no experience with really understanding how the web works, i.e. how servers render webpages and understanding how a URL works. So if you have lots of experience with these areas then this book probably isn’t for you. If however, you’ve never designed a webpage before or it’s been a long time since you’ve coded this is the book that you want to pick up. The book is divided into five parts:

Welcome to the web--which covers the basics of how the web works, basic HTML, and uploading your webpage to the web
Building better webpages--covers how to use CSS, add images to the website, and creating pages
Connecting with your audiences
Website Frills--learning and using JavaScript for basic tasks
Appendixes

So by the end of the book the reader is able to know how a webpage works, design their own basic one (and know some good practices for doing so), and learning a little bit beyond the basics with JavaScript. The book is also accompanied by a website for future updates and an appendixes with online resources for learning more HTML and websites mentioned in the chapters for finding additional resources.

Having previous experience designing webpages I started reading and reviewing this book as a chance to find a guide that would be a handy reference or a bit of a refresher course when my mind decided to go to sleep. The good: Each chapter is written in a clear, easy to understand format that covers the basics of getting started. The bad: I did have a few problems with some of the information given and how it was worded. First is that it seems jumpy in some places, he wants you to swim before you can walk. For example, he starts off with saying create your first webpage and see how it looks in the browser before really discussing how everything is set up. I get that he wants to provide an example, but I would have told them to take a look at a simple webpage and pointed out the elements to the page first.

He also doesn’t really cover some of the basic programs well, such as FTP applications and text editors. With FTP programs he just hopes that you’re web provider lets you do it via the browser. For text editors he only highlights three free programs and misses some really popular ones, such as TextWrangler, textpad+++, or NetBeans. He also seemed to indicate that the pay ones were better if you were doing more complicated things, which just isn’t quite true. It was just a bit disappointing to me perhaps, because I come with experience with webdesign. That being said for someone that is a complete novice at webdesign the book does cover the basics well so that anyway, even a person that has just started using a computer the week before, could pick up the book and begin building a webpage.

Even though it does have a few problems, it’s still a good basic book for the beginner or a good refresher for someone that hasn’t done webpage design in a while. If you’re looking to get into depth with CSS or JavaScript I would recommend one of O’Reilly’s other books, such as CSS: The Definitive Guide or Head First JavaScript.

Read more at: Book Review--Creating a Website, the Missing Manual
Posted: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:24:00 +0000

Communities Need Libraries to Thrive by Libraryman

Entire zine/brochure available as a thank you gift for your donation to Library Renewal via this link. Entire zine/brochure available as a thank you gift for your donation to Library Renewal via this link.

Read more at: Communities Need Libraries to Thrive
Posted: Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:38:39 +0000

Google+, Google's social something by

Just this past week Google launched Google+, their much hyped/talked about answer to Facebook/Twitter/Myspace...basically every social networking site out there. And of course the web world has gone wild with either calling it absolutely brilliant, saying its too much like Facebook, its not enough like Facebook, or that it's absolute crap and rubbish.

I was lucky enough to get in (thanks Laura B) and here's what I think: It's too early to pass judgement on it. Seriously its a week old, yes there are going to be growing pains. There have already been a couple and the Google+ team has worked quickly to fix them. I'm not saying give them all time before you pass judgement, but two days after it launches in private beta is a bit early to decide where it falls in the technical world.

Personally I think we've started to judge things too quickly. We instantly want to compare everything to Facebook or Twitter and point out what the competition does and doesn't do just like them. But I think we forget that Facebook had a couple of years to build up to what it is now, I mean it was closed off to just University students when it first started. And Twitter? Let's not forget that when it first made the main stream with news networks and athletes using it, the service crashed every other day. And that was just two years ago! And yet it's still here.

If it doesn't work for you that's fine. But so far I like, I'm going to give it a shot before I make up my mind completely.

Read more at: Google+, Google's social something
Posted: Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:22:00 +0000

The rest of the year... by

Half of the year is almost over and I have trouble believing that...mostly because there are quite a few things that I thought I'd be done with by now, but aren't. But life gets in the way sometimes. But...I still want to make some changes in my life. I want to actually accomplish a few things before the year ends. And to that end I'm blogging about it. Not that it will really interest anyone, but perhaps it will help hold me accountable.

So to that end here's what I want to accomplish by the end of the year (some of the goals are actually just tweaks to my schedule, but it will help me down the line...)

I want to do at least 5 hours of coding/technical/systems things a week (and no I'm not counting work). A few weeks ago I blogged that I wanted to take my career in this direction and this will help me towards that step (I hope).
I want to devote at least one day a month to doing art. I miss doing it. I have so many things that I want to do with it...so at least one day a month I'll pull out the pencils and markers and have fun.
I want to write one article before the end of the year. I have one in mind and I just need to sit down and actually do it and stop thinking about it. No idea if it will get published, but I'll give it my best shot.
I want to start working on a graphic novel. I've had a few ideas scattered about in my head and I just need to sit down and actually do something with them instead of letting them run away. Who knows if anything will come of it, but I hope to have some fun with it.
I want to do at least 5 hours of exercise a week. I need to get in better shape and I nee to feel better about myself.
Random one: I want to get into the Amazon vine reviewers program.
And probably the most important one...I need to stop thinking about work when I leave work. I need to leave problems, solutions, and whatever else at work. I'll still do professional reading at home and what not, but I need to stop taking work "life" home with me.

So those are things that I want to work on these last 6 months of the year. Now to get started on making them happen.

Read more at: The rest of the year...
Posted: Wed, 29 Jun 2011 18:09:00 +0000

Website and Blog redesign by

If you've looked at my blog or website recently you may have noticed a few changes...because yes I've refreshed the design on both again (I think the last time I did this was about two years ago). And just as a way to share and document my thought process, I thought I'd write out why I did what I did.

Blog redesign:

When I redesigned the blog two years ago Blogger templates were...shall we say lacking? You couldn't really do much with the basic template designer they had, it was a bit of a pain to try to customize it, and you had to play with a whole heck of a lot of code to get it to do what you wanted to do. So I went outside Blogger and found a third party template that looked and worked like I wanted it too.

But over the last two years Blogger has really improved their template designer to the point where they have a lot of different options, including many that I was looking for--pages, multiple columns, columns in the footer, etc. Even better they've made it so that you don't have to mess about with the CSS to get everything that you were looking for (you can though if you need to and even better they have an option where you can add CSS without having to go in and mess up the template.) It's also a whole heck of a lot easier to change colors, backgrounds, and so many other options. So that's one reason why I switched templates and went back to the Blogger template designer.

Another reason for the switch is that as Blogger made these improvements it was becoming really complicated to use the third party template with these new options and getting them to work right. So in an effort to preserve my sanity I switched back...it will also make updating and being able to take advantage of new features easier in the future.

And a final reason for switching back, Blogger recently introduced mobile designs of the blog. Not all templates have customized ones (this one doesn't) but every template has a basic one that it will default to, which is a really nice thing to have without having to do a bunch of extra code or plugins.

I'm still tweaking it a bit, but I'm mostly happy with it.

Webpage redesign:

When I redesigned my webpage a couple of years ago it was to take advantage of creating one page and using JavaScript to switch out the divs (also because my first webpage was pretty horrible on the eyes.) And while I liked what the JavaScript could do...it was just a bit messy compared to some of the stuff that jQuery can do now. So I took advantage of some of what I've learned in the past year to use jQuery and to also spend some time cleaning up the code (it was just a wee bit messy and was hard to follow in some cases.)

One of the things that I wanted to use jQuery for was to clean up the tabs at the top and how they transitioned. I also wanted to do something about the presentation page because it was getting really long and a bit messy looking. So instead of reinventing the wheel I found some guides and tutorials online for people that had already created some tab structures with CSS that I liked. While I could have written out the code (and will in future projects) what I wanted to with the presentation page was beyond anything I've done in the past so it was important to me to look at options that were out there.

With the tabs at the top I knew the basics of what I wanted which was something similar to what I had before, but with a cleaner transition. And after looking at a few different ones I found this tutorial and code that was exactly what I was looking for, at least as far as the transitions and feel went. I had to adapt the CSS structure to do what I wanted and work within the website template that I have and I had the help of a colleague to write and if/else statement for the jQuery code so that I could have the last tab on the page and go directly to my blog (the way the code is written it just wanted to switch divs and I really wanted it to be a direct link.) It works pretty well although I still need to do some tweaking to it, but overall I'm happy.

Even more important to me though was doing something about the presentation page because that was getting nasty looking and hard to find the presentations. So I figured there had to be a way to use jQuery to have one box and a slider that would transition from one section to the next and I found this nice little tutorial that was exactly what I was looking for. Now it may not work in a couple year's time (especially if I keep adding to the number of presentations that I've done), but it works well for what I need now and I didn't really have to adapt it too much...although I may tweak it a little bit here and there.

With this redesign I also really wanted to clean up the code, especially the CSS, because I didn't do that well the last time I updated the page. I had outdated CSS from the first webpage, things that I had tried and decided not to do, I had trouble following my own divs...in short it was just messy. So I cleaned it up line by line and added some comments into the code just to make sure that I closed all of the divs and later on I can look back and see what goes where. I know there are other ways to do this, but that's the one that worked the best for me.

It was a fun project to work on and a chance to practice some new skills that I had learned..and hopefully in another couple of years I'll have even more skills to show off.

Read more at: Website and Blog redesign
Posted: Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:41:00 +0000

Musings on ebooks by

Even though I've posted a couple of times about ebooks, I'm by no means an expert. If you want one of those take a look at Librarian in Black or Andy Woodworth or Jason Griffey. Me? I just have an opinion on what I like and don't like. And really I don't like the fact that most of the publishers seem to be living in the confines of the 16th century. But instead of ranting about what publishers aren't doing I thought I'd point out the one publisher that I've noticed that is actually living in the present.

I've been doing book reviews for O'Reilly's blogger program in part because I like O'Reilly's books (one of the best computer science publishers out there in my opinion) but more than that, because of there stance on ebooks for personal use. (I make the distinction because they do have a database platform for libraries, but I'm not discussing that here)

For starters they make this statement when you look at your account:

You get lifetime access to ebooks you purchase through oreilly.com. Whenever possible we provide them to you in five DRM-free file formats — PDF, ePub, Kindle-compatible .mobi, DAISY, and Android .apk — that you can use on the devices of your choice. Our ebooks are enhanced with color images, even when the print version is black and white. They are fully searchable, and you can cut-and-paste and print them. We also alert you when we've updated your ebooks with corrections and additions.

First off notice that statement in bold. Lifetime access. No cut offs, no you can only download this x number of times and then you have to buy it again. Lifetime. Your computer crashes and burns, download the book again. Need it at work? Download it again. Need I say more?

Then notice that second statement: "Whenever possible we provide them to you in five DRM-free file formats — PDF, ePub, Kindle-compatible .mobi, DAISY, and Android .apk." Now they can't always do this, and I can look at books that I've bought and sometimes there are only two formats available (or just one) but I'm almost always finding at least the PDF format that I can take anywhere. And no DRM. None. Any device that I have that can read PDF can read the file.

And even better when you purchase a physical copy of a book they give you the option of upgrading to an ebook for $5. (I think it should be for free, but still...how many other publishers are doing this?) Think about that...for $5 more you get the physical book and the ebook. And the ebook you can have access to anywhere in the world and you don't have to worry about it being destroyed. How cool is that?

The only real compliant I have is the cost of the ebook, but...I get it they have to make a living so I won't discuss it.

Now surely this cost O'reilly a bit of extra time and a bit of extra money to do this, so why would they? And here I'm just speculating, but could it be because they realize not all of their readers are alike? Yes it's a technology company, but they publish books that anyone can use. Guides to how to use software or operating systems, the Missing Manual series, and even books on public speaking. They get that their readers are coming from all walks of life and have different ideas of how they want to access their books and they don't want to be limited to one device. They are thinking about the future and what they can do to make their customers happy so that they keep coming back again and again (and yes the quality of the book matters as well, but so doe this.)

So why won't other publishers do this? You know...I'm not really sure. Sure it might cost them a bit more, but what does it cost them in customer loyalty? What does it cost them to aggravate their users who can't read in the format they want it in or on the device they want it on? I wonder...

Read more at: Musings on ebooks
Posted: Fri, 27 May 2011 01:13:00 +0000

Gaming Can Make a Better World – Believe! by Doug

Read more at: Gaming Can Make a Better World – Believe!
Posted: Mon, 23 May 2011 16:29:48 +0000

Unconferences Presentation Recording by

Last Wednesday (5/18) I did a webinar on Unconferences for the GLA Carterette Series and just for those of you that are interested below is my slidedeck and a link to the recorded session (where you can hear just how goofy I really sound.) More than happy to answer questions so feel free to ask.

Link to recorded session.

Unconferences Carterette Webinars

View more presentations from Andrew Shuping.

You can find other sessions from the Carterette webinar series here, which includes some great presentations by Robin Fay, Sarah Steiner, Jason Puckett, Emily Almond (who did a fantastic presentation the same day I did mine), and more great presenters so go take a look...you might find one that catches your eye.

Read more at: Unconferences Presentation Recording
Posted: Mon, 23 May 2011 13:42:00 +0000

Where I want to go by

I've been reflecting on where I want to take my library career in the future and at the same time looking at what I've done in the past. So these are my musings/thoughts/ramblings/something about where I've been and where I'd like to go (or at least where I'm thinking of going.)

My career in libraries began back in undergraduate at Dacus Library, Winthrop University. I was a student assistant with something like 6 hours a week (half of which in the beginning I spent cleaning out toner bottles) my freshman year and by the time I graduated 4ish years later I was the weekend supervisor working 20 hours a week. I should have known then that the library world wouldn't let me go, but I was foolish and looked elsewhere for a MA in Art History. Even while working on that one of the Art History professor's suggested I get the MLIS...but did I listen? Nope...at least not at the time. After I abandoned the MA in Art History I decided to get a job a job back in the library world, this time as a staff person.

So I headed to Johns Hopkins University as the Weekend/Evening Support Services person...which basically meant if it was related to the stacks, building, copiers, or problem patrons I got to deal with it. And I loved the variety of the job! I got to do so many different things from dealing with building issues, to training students, to dealing with malfunctioning copiers and everything in between. I was never bored...but I hated the fact that I couldn't actually make any changes. I didn't have that piece of paper that said MLIS on it. So...after almost 2 years at Hopkins I headed to University of South Carolina to get my MLIS through their distance education program.

I worked on my MLIS at USC and worked a couple of PT jobs, including one as a reference assistant at USC Upstate. And here one of the reference librarians suggested that I focus on technology, since it was something that I seemed to enjoy so much and I was always trying out new things online. Did I listen? Nope...not really (notice a reoccurring pattern here?) I finished my MLIS in a year so I could have the shiny piece of paper and I didn't really consider what it was that I wanted to do other than be a librarian and the only thing I was sure of is that I didn't want to work in cataloging. With that grand plan in mind I secured a job working at Tarver Library, Mercer University.

I've blogged before about my job at Tarver. I've been Circulation/Interlibrary Loan Librarian, Learning Commons/Emerging Technologies/Interlibrary Loan Librarian, and my current job title Emerging Technologies & Services/Interlibrary Loan Librarian. And I like this last iteration of my job title the most. I have the most chance to play and try new things...most of the time at least. And of course there are projects that I have to get done and sometimes they end up taking more time and energy than I would like, but that's part of work right?

But...over the last few years I'm starting to think the librarian at USC Upstate had the right idea. My passion is technology. Not just the systems aspect of it (which I've gotten to do a bit of) and coding, but how patrons use it. How do they use the computers we have, where do they sit to use their laptops, what can we do to improve all of this? And this is where I want to take my career. I love some of the flexibility that I have at my current job, but I don't get to play with technology every day (and yes my job title is Emerging Technologies)...I want to take my career more towards the systems side of things or a job where I can have more of an impact with how patrons use the technology we have (and I have some of this at my current position, just not as much as I'd like.)

And even though occasionally a job pops up that I never considered before, like working at the Smithsonian or something that has nothing to do with technology, my passion really is that. I've been spending more time trying to improve my technology skills by:

doing some basic HTML/CSS coding just to keep my skills up
Improving my PHP/MySQL
Improving my Javascript/jQuery
Picking up new languages, like python and django
Figuring out how to install and use so many of the different free programs out there
Thinking of new ideas...
I'm thinking about getting a master's in computer science (or IT)...once I find fuding

and I'm keeping my eyes open for other opportunities. And that's where I am at the moment.

Read more at: Where I want to go
Posted: Mon, 23 May 2011 00:26:00 +0000

Book Review--Book of CSS3 by

Book of CSS3
by Peter Gasston
No Starch Press 2011

I was provided access by O'Reilly Publishing to an electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Peter writes the book as if you already have experience using and understanding basic CSS concepts and HTML, so if you're looking for a book to teach you CSS then you'll want a different guide. If however, you want a book that shows you some of the features of CSS3 you're in the right place. Peter has been writing about CSS3 for over 5 years and in this book he covers some features of CSS3. Each chapter covers a new feature of CSS3, how to use it in clear and easy to understand code to follow, and which browsers currently support the feature. Some of the features covered include media queries--which is useful in designing websites for both full screen and mobile use; using gradients with color backgrounds; and 3D transformation, such as having an image rotate around an axis. The book is also accompanied by a website for future updates and an appendix with online resources to use, learn, and test CSS3.

I really like how this book is written and laid out. Peter does a good job of explaining in simple, easy to understand language what's going on with the feature being discussed and how to replicate the feature using the code provided in the examples. He walks through it step by step, explaining it in simple easy to understand language--no deciphering of incomprehensible technical speak here. While he can't highlight every feature, Peter has chosen the ones that are likely to be most useful at this time (and are the most developed/accepted), such as media queries for mobile use, the transitions and animations, gradients, etc. The appendixes are also helpful as one covers what features are supported by what browsers (even though this duplicates what's at the end of the chapters it's nice to have it one place) and an appendix on various web tools that help you generate code as well as test it.

Even though not all of the features can be used at the time, its still a useful book and a handy reference to have around. Highly recommend it.

Read more at: Book Review--Book of CSS3
Posted: Sun, 22 May 2011 16:03:00 +0000

Unconference Webinar by me by

A bit late...but I'm doing a webinar on unconference's tomorrow for the GLA Carterette Series tomorrow (May 18). It's completely free and you can still register and attend. The pertinent information is listed below:

(borrowed from: http://gla.georgialibraries.org/mediawiki/index.php/Carterette_Series_Webinars)

Unconference Planning
Presented by Andrew Shuping
May 18, 2011
11:15am-12:15pm EASTERN STANDARD TIME

REGISTER FOR THIS SESSION
(Separate registration is required for each hour-long session.)

Unconference Planning: Have you heard about unconferences? No idea what they are or why they’re different from regular conferences? Are you interested in knowing more? Come find out what an unconference is, ways to organize it, and what the benefits are for having an unconference vs. a conference.

Officially, Andrew Shuping is the Emerging Technologies & Services/ILL Librarian at Jack Tarver Library, Mercer University in Macon, GA, but he is also in charge of various other things, both official and unofficial. He's been involved in libraries for over 10 years and is constantly keeping an eye out for new ways to make use of technology to serve libraries. Andrew owns two mischievous cats, orders graphic novels for the library, and is an avid reader of sci-fi. He can be found on various social networks as ashuping, and his webpage can be found at http://ashuping.net.

Read more at: Unconference Webinar by me
Posted: Tue, 17 May 2011 14:48:00 +0000

Book Review--Javascript: The Definitive Guide the 6th Edition by

Javascript: The Definitive Guide the 6th Edition
by David Flanagan
O'Reilly Press 2011

I was provided access by O'Reilly Publishing to an electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

This is an updated edition to the classic reference book on Javascript to include new information on new standards (such as HTML5 and CSS3), conventions, and frameworks. Although it is possible to learn Javascript from this book, its really meant more as a reference guide and an explanation of how and why Javascript works the way it does. For example, the 1st chapter explains in some detail how Javascript works on the client side and how each of the following chapters will relate to this. The book includes numerous examples of codes to illustrate the concepts and explains the concepts in a clear, easy to follow fashion that doesn't require a degree in astrophysics to understand.

As I said it's not really a book to learn Javascript from, for that I would recommend something like "Head First Javascript" (also by O'Reilly press.) What I do really like about this book is that it is comprehensive in what is possible with Javascript. While it may not cover the concept in depth, such as the chapter on Jquery, it does give a starting point to the concept. I know it sounds odd, but I really liked the index. It is completely through and easy to find the concept or word that I need to make something work correctly in whatever I'm writing. It's even better with the book because of the hyperlinks that take you right to the section.

My advice? Buy the ebook version, it's much easier to search and to follow to specific links vs. trying to find the stuff in the print edition. Even better, O'Reilly provides multiple formats of the book to suit your needs. Overall, it's a good handy reference to have around to answer questions and introduce new concepts.

Read more at: Book Review--Javascript: The Definitive Guide the 6th Edition
Posted: Sun, 15 May 2011 23:05:00 +0000

Perspective on reading needed by

It is the end of the semester…almost. Which means people are stressed and cranky and everyone needs a break. When I think of taking a break, it always involves reading a book. Reading is my de-stressor. But, I’m a little stressed thinking about reading these days. Since the ACRL 2011 conference I have been reading “scholarly” papers. [...]

Read more at: Perspective on reading needed
Posted: Tue, 03 May 2011 15:03:23 +0000

Use of Web Technologies = Library Success! by

You must review the report just put out by the Library Research Service (a unit of the Colorado State Library) on the use of web technologies in libraries, which tells us that only 32% of libraries in 2010 had a Facebook page, but that the libraries who were "early adopters" of social media (those who had FB pages in their 1st 2008 study, for example), showed a significant increase in all traditional measures of library success - increased circulation, library visits, & program attendance - even when you adjusted for the levels of expenditure of libraries in the study.

A nice summary appears here: http://www.lrs.org/news/2011/04/28/new-closer-look-report-u-s-public-libraries-and-the-use-of-web-technologies-2010/
The full 56-page report / PDF is at http://www.lrs.org/documents/web20/WebTech2010_CloserLookReport_Final.pdf

Read more at: Use of Web Technologies = Library Success!
Posted: 2011-04-29T07:52:00.003-04:00

The failure of the script by

I think we all use a script at some point or another in our life. We use them to help us with interviews, to help us with a certain scenario, for training purposes, or just to make sure that we give everyone the exact same information. I've given scripts to my staff before to help them in dealing with specific situations and what to say. Scripts can be really helpful, but equally important is knowing when to go off of the script.

Recently I had two poor experiences where I was dealing with a representatives from different companies and their failure to break away from the script. I have no idea why they didn't I can only speculate that they didn't know how or they weren't empowered to do so.

Here's the first situation:
I have Cox Communications as my internet provider. Recently I got the monthly bill and was shocked to find it was higher than it had been the last month. I called and spoke to a representative who was clearly working off of a script to deal with angry customers like myself. She informed me that yes it went up and yes they had sent out a notice in the previous month's bill that explained the increase. And this is where the script began failing. I told her I didn't get that notice and all she did was repeat the same statement back to me. Every statement I made after that, including where I said I'm going to start looking to take my business elsewhere, was met with a minute long pause as she tried to find some place in the script that worked. Only it didn't. She couldn't find anything that ever dealt with the statements that I was making. I didn't really expect her to solve my problem or even really offer a solution (although it would have been nice.) What I really wanted was her to sympathize or try to find someone else that could help me solve the problem or even at the very least notate somewhere that something had failed and I wasn't notified. But none of this was offered. Even when I said I was hanging up she was still trying to find a place in the script.

The second situation:
I use Amazon....a lot (no that's not really surprising, but still.) Recently I was looking at all of the purchases I've ever made on Amazon and something strange was happening. When I started getting to years where I had a number of orders their system kept returning the wrong number of results. It would tell me I had made 14 orders, but would display a lot more. Or then it would say it was 26 but when I went to the second page it would say 13 and would only show me 13 even though I knew that there was more. Clearly something was wrong and it wasn't on my end as I had the same problem on three different operating systems and four different computers. So I fired off an email to Amazon to let them know what was going on and I will openly admit I probably didn't include enough information in the initial email. But instead of asking me for me the guy emailed me back with a script...and one that didn't even fit the circumstances. Such as checking to make sure the date/time was right on my computer (don't know what difference that would make) and that I was using HTTPS to login (which didn't fit because a) I had done so and b) once I'm in it's up to Amazon's server to decide what to use.) The only suggestion that was useful was to try another browser which I had done. I ended up giving him more information and he did break off the script and said he couldn't duplicate the problem, but he'd forward it on which is all I really wanted.

I also just had another experience where again they stuck to the script and didn't read all of the email with regards to a package being delivered and the lack of...service by the delivery company. I'm waiting to see how this one plays out.

The script can work, but it has to be the right situation and you have to trust your employees to know when to go off of it to help people. And if you can't trust your employees then at least let them know to transfer the call to someone else that can help the person. Having a problem/issue/concern is bad enough, but not being able to express that concern and get an appropriate response is even worse. And yes sometimes there won't be a good response that will satisfy everyone, but there should be an attempt.

Read more at: The failure of the script
Posted: Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:43:00 +0000

Book Review--The Book of Audacity by Carla Schroder by

Another book review for the O'Reilly blogger review program

The Book of Audacity: Record, Edit, Mix, and Master with the Free Audio Editor
by Carla Schroder
no starch press 2011

This book is published by "no starch press" who normally do a pretty good job of keeping things simple and easy to understand for the average user. The book breaks out into covering what Audacity is and what it's used for. One nice thing that they mention in the introduction, briefly, is another free program, and tell readers which you use depends on what you want to do. In the first chapter they cover the basics of just how to use the program, ranging from the simple of starting a project to editing recorded tracks to the different formats that it can be saved in. Then they cover how to build your recording studio and some of the equipment that you might look for. Carla tries to give a price range for each type and what its used for so that you know whether or not it will fit your budget and need. The other chapters then cover specific projects that you might want to work on with the program, with the obvious being podcasting to the less obvious of transferring vinyl and other formats to CD. She gives clear instructions, with some technical jargon, on how to use Audacity to create the projects and other equipment that might be needed, such as for transferring records to CD. The last few chapters are about customizing audacity with plugins, making it work well with Ubuntu Linux and Windows (and yes they miss out on a specific chapter for the Mac.)

Here's my honest opinion, this book is NOT for a beginner. Other than the first chapter it really doesn't cover the basics of how to use the program or how to do basic audio editing. It's written more for people that have experience with computers, people interested in setting up their own recording studio, or those that are looking for a new hobby or career. That isn't too say its a bad book as the projects really do cover a lot of interesting ways to use Audacity and give detailed instructions on how to use Audacity for it, its just overkill for someone just starting to learn about audio editing. Also I think that the book was put together in a bit of a weird order for a basic book on a program. Me personally, I would have started with the project on the podcast or making a CD, rather than transferring records to CD since the later requires extra equipment and is a big project.

My biggest disappointment with the book, however, is the lack of the mention of copyright and where it is mentioned it isn't even located with the obvious sections of the book. For example, they don't mention copyright at all when talking about transferring vinyl records to CD and to me that's a major omission, especially since she mentions starting your own side business of doing this. While some records are out of copyright, others are not and I think its a fairly dangerous thing to leave out.

Overall the book has some good useful information and some interesting projects to do with Audacity, but it isn't for the beginner and isn't what I thought I was going to get.

Read more at: Book Review--The Book of Audacity by Carla Schroder
Posted: Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:09:00 +0000

“…a library of questions” by

http://www.mpsinsights.com/our-insights/paper-is-dead-or-long-live-paper/ Life is complex. Do I really need to say that? Yes, because this is the age of “sound bites” and complexity does not fit well into a sound bite. The book is dead…makes for a good sound bite. The Bible is dead…makes for an even better sound bite. We are witnessing the death of [...]

Read more at: “…a library of questions”
Posted: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:39:22 +0000

Book Review--Gamestorming by Dave Gray, et. al by

If you didn't know O'Reilly press, publishers of some of the best computer science books out there..and other areas as well (seriously) has this really cool program where if you agree to review the book they supply you with a free digital version of it. Here are the guidelines to join: http://oreillynet.com/oreilly/bloggers/guidelines.html Now not all of the titles are available, they only have selected ones, but still it's a good deal.

Needless to say I am taking advantage of this when I can so from time to time I'll be posting a review here. O'Reilly has only given me a free digital copy of the book and nothing else.

And just in case y'all are wondering where O'Reilly stands on the whole ebook landscape:

You get lifetime access to ebooks you purchase through oreilly.com. Whenever possible we provide them to you in five DRM-free file formats — PDF, ePub, Kindle-compatible .mobi, DAISY, and Android .apk — that you can use on the devices of your choice. Our ebooks are enhanced with color images, even when the print version is black and white. They are fully searchable, and you can cut-and-paste and print them. We also alert you when we've updated your ebooks with corrections and additions.

(from their website)
Pretty cool no?

So let's get started shall we?

Gamestorming
by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, and James Macanufo
O'Reilly Press 2010

First off...this is not a computer science book. Yes O'Reilly is a computer science press, but they also publish some pretty good business/management/other books, Confessions of a Public Speaker for example. And this book also falls into that category. The authors design games to help educate and encourage innovation in the workplace and they've found that games really help people understand the concepts. The first section begins with defining what the different types of games are, what the benefits of the types are, and different traits needed within the different types of games. They then provide over 80 game examples under different categories, such as "games for exploring" and "games for closing." Each game has a short description, a little picture of the game, what's needed, how to play it, and a strategy. The book ends with a brief chapter on how to put the games into play in the workplace.

To be honest this isn't what I thought the book would be about (my fault for not reading the description a bit better.) I was picturing something on creating video games, not using simple games at work. That being said this is still a pretty valuable book. I'd probably use it in conjunction with a few other books (like some of the authors that gave blurbs for the book, such as Tony Hsieh.) Mostly because other books will provide a framework for innovation and give some examples of how they used it or just to provide some inspiration to get started at innovating. Where this book excels is providing some hands on tools for getting innovation started at your place of work. They do a good job of breaking down how work is already like a game, and define that its the point in the middle, where the creativity lies, that gets bogged down sometimes. They get a bit longed winded in the first couple of chapters in describing the games (they really like to look in the past which at times is a bit confusing), but they provide some really good examples of games and what they can be used for. My one big complaint is that I wish that last chapter had been a bit longer.

Read more at: Book Review--Gamestorming by Dave Gray, et. al
Posted: Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:38:00 +0000

It was a hard conference…ACRL2011 by

The Association of College & Research Libraries – ACRL 2011 conference was held in Philadelphia, PA March 30- April 2. I attended most sessions with my on-the-cusp Library Administrator hat. There was not much smiling, much less guffawing, in the sessions I attended. If there was a theme – it was assessment. One presenter tried [...]

Read more at: It was a hard conference…ACRL2011
Posted: Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:47:04 +0000

The Call for Speakers for the Internet Librarian 2011 Conference Extended by Brian Hulsey

The Call for Speakers for the Internet Librarian 2011 conference (Monterey, CA, October 17-19) has been extended to April 4. Here is the announcement: ***Call for Speakers extended until April 4*** Share your Ideas and Champion New Practicesat Internet Librarian 2011 Theme: Revolutionizing the Net with Content, Connections & Conversations The deadline to submit proposals [...]

Read more at: The Call for Speakers for the Internet Librarian 2011 Conference Extended
Posted: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:09:30 +0000

Computers in Libraries Book Club by mlibrarianus

I’m sure other years when I’ve attended Computers in Libraries conference there was talk of books or books inspired presentations. How could it not being a library conference? But for some reason this year I came away with a list of new (well new to me) titles to read. Some were recommended to me by [...]

Read more at: Computers in Libraries Book Club
Posted: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:23:03 +0000

6 degrees of separation – NOT! by

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: [...]

Read more at: 6 degrees of separation – NOT!
Posted: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:11:02 +0000

On the Why Grow Coders from inside of Libraries question by

You have to take a look at this great Library Hat blog post on "Why Not Grow Coders from the Inside of Libraries?" Author Bohyun Kim's opening paragraph makes a compelling argument about the benefits of having in-house developers at libraries:

How fantastic would it be if every small library has an in-house developer? We will be all using open-source software with custom feature modules that would perfectly fit our vision and the needs of the community we serve. Libraries will then truly be the smart consumers of technology not at the mercy of clunky systems. Furthermore, it would re-position libraries as “contributors” to the technology that enables the public to access information and knowledge resources. I am sure no librarian will object to this vision. But at this time of ever-shrinking library budget, affording enough librarians itself is a challenge let alone hiring a developer.

Bohyun Kim (@bohyunkim) mentioned the difficulty of luring an IT professional into libraries. But at DrupalCon, I met several people who'd migrated into libraries from the world of "commercial web development". I know that this just anecdotal, but it reinforced other times recently when I've watched IT pros go into either libraries or state government from the commercial world. They were often pained by the pay cut, but in the current jobs environment (not to mention with the rising cost of healthcare and the outsourcing of IT), it may not be so hard to hire those IT folks after all.

On the flip side, I totally agree that those librarians who are so inclined, with enough of a technical background, could and should become developers. It would help libraries... a lot! Moreover, I think that the libraries should commit to providing resources and support for these staff. But we do, as a profession, derive a benefit from getting people from outside the library world to work with us. They give us new perspectives on the best way to do things. And there's a part of me that thinks that it may be easy for developers to come into libraries with the right skillset already in place and adapt their mindset, principles, and concepts to the library environment. Developers are used to working for all sorts of different agencies and organizations - everything from nonprofits and government to for-profit. If they're user-centered, they'll learn the library environment & be good additions to it, regardless of their background.

But what I wanted to point out most was what I feel the real issue is - a lack of vision and leadership in regards to the library's role and how technology plays into this vision. If you think that the library is nothing more than "books" (which is what most of the non-library-using world thinks it is - that's our "brand", if you will), then you wouldn't put resources into information technology. Instead, you'd expend time and create jobs (and whole departments) for aspects of handling those books.

And that's just what happened.

What we really need is to cement the vision of libraries as providing support for the community's information needs. And given that so much information is online (and, in fact, that we're putting it online) this commitment means that we need expertise in information technology. There are some library leaders who are committed to this. In some cases, they were committed enough to - like Darien Library - change the organizational structure to reflect their values. They've done away with the cataloging department and instead created a technologically-inclined user experience department. I don't mean to kill the sacred cow (and there are places where catalogers are still needed, but for most public libraries, honestly, they need to build better systems more than they need original cataloging).

But what do you think? I know it's a bit of the same old argument we've been making since (at least) the 1990s, but I think it's worth getting to the root of the issue and then establishing a way forward that will resolve that issue. To me, it means that all library directors have to buy into the need for (and complexity of) better technological support. Solutions include library directors supporting staff who want to code, integrating IT with all of the library, and hiring from the non-library world. There are a number of methods to deal with this problem. It's just that the people with the hiring power and the budget have to agree that it's a problem.

Read more at: On the Why Grow Coders from inside of Libraries question
Posted: 2011-03-17T07:50:00.005-04:00

The Unintuitive Nature of Creating Intuitive Designs - Jared Spool Keynote Day 3 - DrupalCon Chicago by

Jared Spool was funny and right on, a great final keynote speaker for DrupalCon, reminding Drupal developers about how hard it is to create “intuitive” designs, but exhorting us to use several techniques that will help us achieve such designs. This long-time human factors engineer is truly a usability guru - he knows his stuff. When Spool speaks, all web developers/designers must listen... (content developers must listen, as well...)

Jason Samuels, who I met at DrupalCon & who was a fellow tweeter at the conference, has done a great writeup on this session at: http://goingtodrupalcon.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/jared-spool-keynote-speech-notes/

Also, take a look at the DrupalCon Chicago site to view the video of the keynote (not sure if it will remain at this url, but it is currently visible at http://chicago2011.drupal.org/live. It’s definitely worth it!

I’ll just give you my raw notes, because I don’t have a lot of time to post about everything I saw and learned here at DrupalCon Chicago. Hopefully, they’ll be helpful to someone.

Avis went against understood design patterns - * next to optional (v. required) fields... to avoid a senseless waste of asterisks!
learned unintuitiveness - the asterisk (now means required)

What is an intuitive design?

AIGA website in the 90s (Am Inst. of Graphic Artists) - “they built the damn thing in Flash” - created scrollbars in Flash, to keep visual integrity in place, but scrolling didn’t work well only went up 1 line of pixels at a time

the problem was that they didn’t understand how to build a scrollbar (which is actually really complicated, as simple as it sounds, it’s hard to do. Only like 7 people are left who know how to do this, but we don’t need to build new ones - it’s a done project, take it off the list... it’s perfectly functional, as is.) But AIGA built scrollbars from scratch, nonetheless and, of course, didn’t know how to build them so they created tremendous usability issues. This took focus off of the content and instead focused the user on the site’s unintuitiveness.

Intuitive design keeps user focused on their objective

It’s not noticeable. It’s invisible.

it’s not the novelty that makes something unintuitive... could you have an unintuitive design in a simple page?

YES...
found 1 a while back at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture - Hay Net - how can you screw this up - very simple, you either need hay or have hay... but end-users didn’t know if you the link labelled “Need Hay” would give them list of people who needed hay or was for people who needed hay.

Intuitiveness has nothing to do with complexity vs. simplicity

it has to do with being invisible; if I have to take focus off what I’m trying to accomplish, I’ve lost intuitiveness

hard to put up pictures of good design - you don’t notice it

like air conditioning, only notice it if too hot or too cold

An intuitive design is personal, though, so we have to know about our users

ATM may be most intuitive thing we’ve designed; but there are confusing ones - 1 in India - 3 similar options: “Cash withdrawal”, “Fast cash”, “Ultra fast cash”
What does that mean?
could invent an unusable ATM - put everything on it, but in another language - but this is similar to this is often what we do with design

just look at anything Microsoft has ever designed - unintuitive (I think he played this one just for laughs - it worked... it was a good example from the Access 97 days, I think).

You would think after years of selling subway tickets, it would be simple to do, but as the photo of the fare card purchasing machines (& their instructions) shows, it’s not!

current knowledge is what they come to the design with

target knowledge is what they need to know to use design

so the difference between the two is called the “knowledge gap” -

only design for this gap... nothing above, nothing below

current knowledge should be = target knowledge for design to be intuitive

2 ways to fix gap:

1. train user (bring them up to target knowledge)

2. simplify design (bring design to them)

- ongoing cost option = training

options: training v. simplifying

Wang word processing machines in the late 70s - so much training required - paid $14K for A week-long course simply to load file, save file, and print file... The advanced course included italics and bold...

original Wordperfect - the little cardboard/keyboard templates to put around the function keys to show all of the features - so many features!
we go from raw technology to something with lots & lots of features (too many for most users) to simplicity... The one designed to be simple takes the prize (Microsoft Word v. Wordperfect in the early days of pcs / word processing programs)!
... then shift back to wanting more features
the same thing happens in hardware world

raw technology-->more & more features-->simplified experience

you can make the shift from features to experience

Problem with extra features is that they create a gap between current knowledge and target knowledge
users bring their own current knowledge to the table... they’re all over the map, though

multiple domains of knowledge, too... that’s what makes creating something intuitive REALLY HARD

What techniques can we use to make it easier?

used these techniques for years, very effective:

1. field visits - have the makers meet the customers (“Jane Goodall” experience)

1a. helps identify who the users are and their current knowledge

2. usability testing (not user testing, because not testing user, testing design)

3. quick tests:

- paper prototyping

- five-second tests

Handbook of Usability Testing is recommended book

paper prototyping - using their finger as a mouse (the original pointing device - "mouse classic")

shows us about flow

and if the labels that you’re thinking of are working

also recommends book Paper Prototyping, Carolyn Snyder

five-second tests (which you can do in 10 minutes) (5-seconds to memorize screen then write down all you remember about it & rate it)

just username/pwd, live chat boxes -

support cases - 8

challenge: watch users interacting with your design: at least 2 hours every 6 weeks

this is not rocket science

when upgrading to a more usable version - don’t bring the whole system down!

"Facebook has mastered the art of screwing with its users"

like your kitchen cabinets got all rearranged when you were sleeping - the usability fairies change everything - you didn’t ask for it, but they’ve decided to do it - the goal wasn’t to have a more efficient system, but to get kids off to school, which the new changes don't help with (beware of turning into the usability fairies)

destroying the users’ current knowledge

so how do we deal with this?
mitigate pain of change with bubbles, overlays to show what the new functionality is

but have to think about the process of designing for the change
design the process of change for the user base

we have to give them some control over this

- an intuitive design is invisible, personal, when the user is focused on their objective
- when current = target knowledge
- when design is focused on experience
- different users have different current knowledge
- you need to collect feedback about your users and their knowledge
- design for embraceable knowledge

spend at least 2 hours in the next 6 weeks to watch users interact with your design

Read more at: The Unintuitive Nature of Creating Intuitive Designs - Jared Spool Keynote Day 3 - DrupalCon Chicago
Posted: 2011-03-10T23:01:00.003-05:00

Clay Shirky's Keynote Presentation by

I loved Clay Shirky's keynote (see: http://chicago2011.drupal.org/live)
He reminded all of the web developers in the room that "the most valuable thing attached to a computer is the user" and covered the new "C's" in CMS (not just Content, but) Community, Convening, Culture. He believes that we're moving into Community Management Systems (vs. Content Management Systems) and, further, that these are evolving into cultural management systems. People who work in libraries, museum, and governmental agencies should be participating in movements like the open-source Drupal community, if for no other reason than that [my aside].
I know that there were those tweeting during the keynote about how this was just a rehash of the old Web2.0 paradigm that we've been hearing about for nearly a decade, but I think Shirky added some new pieces to the discussion and refocused the Drupalists on how we build our systems.
1. he challenged web developers' conception of the user
Shirky pointed out that we often develop for personas, as though people behave consistently - always good or bad, for example. He mentioned what psychologists term "the fundamental attribution error", wherein we see others' actions as though they are a distillation of everything about those people (so when they behave in destructive ways on some occasions, we imagine that they are always destructive) vs. seeing them, as we see ourselves, that is to say, behaving due to context and circumstances. (e.g., when I cut off that person in traffic, I was rushing to the hospital, but when someone else did, they were showing how selfish and narcissistic they were).
This does remind us that the use of "personas" - and our design for personas can actually have a negative flip side, in having us design systems for "people" who we imagine behave in certain ways all the time. The scenarios we put those personas in are more important. The context is crucial in figuring out how to build systems to work best for people. Which brought us to his second challenge:
2. he spoke about targeting behavior as a 1st-class object
As we build community systems, we have to build them to accommodate behaviors, not single-dimensional personas. We have to build systems that reinforce the behaviors we want and reduce the effects of behaviors we don't want. He used the example of del.icio.us and how, as the social bookmarking service was designed, there were debates over how it might be mis-used. Sure enough, many of the designers were concerned about the possibility of spammers bookmarking spam sites & gaming the system until those bookmarks were highlighted, reducing the value of the community tagging of sites. But they decided that as long as they built the system to not allow those spammy bookmarks to rise to the top, it didn't matter if spammers were using the service. If there's spam on the system, but none of the real community is affected by it, does it matter?
Through the social aspect of the bookmarking system, they actually leveraged the greater number of community members - who wanted to use the system legitimately - and used their collective input to highlight which tagged sites were valuable. In choosing this approach, they stopped themselves from designing onerous barriers to legitimate community members which they would've had to include if they were designing more heavily around the "spammers". Instead, they concentrated their efforts on a system that would enhance/highlight the legitimate behaviors of the many and reduce the effects of the illegitimate behavior of the few.
3. he talked about including users in redesigning the system as we go
This one isn't so revolutionary - you've heard it a million times nowadays. There's two parts of this statement: (1) that you include the community in building the system and (2) that you build iteratively. The bit that he added in that I personally hadn't thought of (in this way) before was about how you can't pre-design the system for the user. It's real-time use that shapes how you build. You'll never be able to fully anticipate how people are going to use what you provide, so instead of pre-designing for all of the edge cases, you need to design the system with community input and more importantly, design a system that easily enhanced/changed/redesigned in response to community demands.
Along the way, Shirky also pointed out some interesting things about organizations & organizational culture - that, for example, successful open-source movements are led by people who might be described as "benevolent dictators". In other words, they neither micromanage, nor are they simply charismatic visionaries, the leadership options we so often see in the corporate world. Instead, they are "roadblock clearers" whose commitment to the continuation of the community trumps the disputes that inevitably arise when there are so many impassioned developers involved.
He spoke about Linux's creator Linus Torvalds, who, at one point did source control by having community members send their work zipped via email to him and he redistributed it via email. He did so until he could find a technical solution that "fit" the linux community's culture. So he cleared the roadblock, kept things going until he ultimately resolved the dispute with a technology that fit into their community practices.
He also said that in such impassioned communities, what worked best was for the communities to have a space to "take it to a room" for debates, without affecting the development of the project overall. So online spaces for such communications are crucial infrastructure for open-source movements.
He pointed out the difference between what's been called "single-loop organizations" and "double-loop organizations". The former, he said, fix problems; double-loop organizations, however, fix problems and the situations that cause the problem.
He didn't say that the open source movement was definitely going to survive and persist and that it would all work out. Instead, he said that the people at DrupalCon (and active in other open source communities) represent "the experimental wing of political science".
I think that the endless feedback loop of the community with its resulting "continuous, iterative improvement", the participation of believers who are most impassioned about the project (along with the space for other folks, who may be less involved, but whose contributions may nonetheless be helpful) will ensure the continued success of the amazingly powerful, open-source Drupal project. I think Dries, and so many others who've gotten involved, are correct to emphasize the community aspect of their work.
Being here, right now, with the Drupal community, gives me a lot of hope about the future.

Read more at: Clay Shirky's Keynote Presentation
Posted: 2011-03-10T00:57:00.004-05:00

Harper Collins and some more numbers by Matt

In response to some of the criticisms I’ve seen leveled in Teleread comments and some quite inaccurate blog posts from those more sympathetic to the publisher side, I have been interested in the numbers but hadn’t made time to pull stats because that just isn’t something I work with normally– my libraries’ fantastic Collection Development [...]

Read more at: Harper Collins and some more numbers
Posted: Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:55:32 +0000

Organization of Intention by

So awhile back, I posed the question about centralization vs. decentralization when it comes to systems - which is better?

I’ve just been in a great keynote by Clay Shirky given here at DrupalCon Chicago. In it, he spoke about how those great old concepts of Web2.0 are playing themselves out and what our challenges we face as website developers moving forward. I’ll summarize it in a separate post - it’s worth a whole post. But bottom line, we have to stop considering the audience the audience, but rather as collaborators. We have to cede control of our web presence to the community of users.

So you’d think I’d be all about having everyone just do everything. But what I’ve been watching - both in the larger world and more close to home - is the political power of organizing intention. The less empowered, the less resourced you or your organization is, the more important it is for you to rely on community and to bring the community together. So, when it comes to the question of centralized, high-control systems vs. lots of little grassroots projects that don’t even know about one another, neither is ideal (in most cases). Instead, depending on context (which is key in an analysis of needs), most systems work best when they facilitate collaboration. That’s the key. It’s not whether or not the system itself is centralized or decentralized. It’s whether or not the system helps people to work together, leverages and harnesses their strengths, empowers them at an appropriate level. Importantly, those who are empowered have to work together, within certain parameters. That's the only way it all works. That's why there are legal systems and governance in complex societies.

A lot of times with library systems we make a huge mistake. We have databases, “digital collections”/archives/repository systems, a catalog, a website, some web2.0 tools. And these don’t work together. They’re under the control of different people. Each of those people is an advocate of their little world and in control of their little world. But they aren’t sharing with others. Often times, they’ll create a little blog on the side because they’re nervous about the high control folks saying no. All of those constructions can only be fractionally successful, at best. They are unsustainable without the one or two people who are behind them. They are really constructions of ego. They are built of fear. Fear of loss of control. I empathize, I really do, but I also see the negative results of diffusing our efforts. I see it in poor user experiences. If you want the end user to support your larger organization, you have to harness your efforts with the efforts of the larger organization. And if you're not supporting the larger organization, then who are you working for? On the flip side, the technology should be supporting us as staff to be empowered to innovate. And empowerment of staff can lead to great innovation. It's just that we need to harness all of this - we need to have collaboration, communication, and agreement about our overall mission.

With the many little independent projects, neither harnessed nor collaborative, there is no overall sense that we are creating what either the user or the organization needs to fulfill their goals. The scaffolding of all of these endeavors must be collaboration. The construction must be worked on together. We have too few resources - too few people and too few funds for little fiefdoms.

And yes, Drupal is a technology designed to help us harness and empower the collective staff intentions in service of users’ needs.

Read more at: Organization of Intention
Posted: 2011-03-09T11:57:00.009-05:00

Wrapup of Webform module session by

This session was a great introduction to the Webform (contributed) module for Drupal. It also showed those of us who've looked at Webform the awesomeness of Webform 3 and how well it plays with not only Drupal 6, but Drupal 7. (btw, link to the Webform project page is http://drupal.org/project/webform)

Personally, I find a few things particularly great about Webform for my library's use (not specific to Webform 3, also true of earlier versions):

webform will allow my colleagues to easily make forms and polls/surveys (of whatever complexity they want, with many possible methods for data collection) without them ever having to come close to code
webforms created using this system will be more secure than we might come up with from scratch - keeping our form creation activities from opening up new security holes on the server... also, can apply form spam blocking techniques (such as the use of CAPTCHA or Mollom modules)
that it actually offers at least as much functionality and ease-of-authoring and data collection as SurveyMonkey, but gives us a lot more flexibility

My notes are found below (BTW, some rockin' new aspects of Webform 3 are highlighted - take note!):

Webform 3
Nathan Haug
“quicksketch” on d.o. - Lullabot Consulting, Development, training

Webform
- the tool for making surveys on Drupal
- easier to use than CCK
-- no it’s not based on CCK
-- no it’s doesn’t use Entities in D7
- designed for end-users, not administrators (people who just want to make a survey)
- many-to-few method of collecting data - many fill out form, just a few receive the results/submissions
- not a data creation tool, but users can see their own submissions, if you’ve granted them that permission

New Features in Webform 3
- ability to have conditional logic - can show fields / multi-pages based on what the answer to previous questions were submitted (so many people who aren't in development have no idea how difficult this functionality can be to add in... but now anyone can do it!)
- user can now save drafts & resume later
- you can webform-enable for any content type
- basic Views module support (a good start, not fantastic/fully implemented yet)
- much better data integrity - info is stored in the db more efficiently & makes it usable by Views
- Form Builder Integration* (http://drupal.org/project/form_builder) - which will blow your mind! ;)

Holy APIs!
- module-provided components - additional fields (E.g., a grid field full of text fields in web form, similar to cck)
- more hooks (for save/insert/update/delete submission)
- hooks for pre-built select lists (heading toward Views integration for select lists)
- renderables used in forms, e-mails, and viewing submissions, even in D6

Webform 3 v. 2
- shorter node form - just title, body, all settings elsewhere - 1st save node, only then there will be a webform tab on top of node - then you can click on the Webform tab to do settings like email
-- save node 1st! then make web form in Webform 3
-- in webform tab, there’s a form components tab, an emails tab, a form settings tab
-- can send out templated email response / confirmation upon submission of webform - tokenized

Excellent tools for getting data out of Webform 3 - including basic analysis capabilities built in
- Basic analysis tools built in

- Table view of form submission data

- Downloadable form submission data
This is AWESOME! Bye bye Survey Monkey!!!

Date module & jquery ui on your D6

You can use date popup calendar ui in form

showed Webform 3 off in Drupal7 environment - still has popup calendar, doesn’t need Date module and jquery ui native to D7

Can skip page if none of the components show up in a given page - conditional logic coolness

Payment systems - combo of Pay module & Webform 3 module
can map fields to payment component - payment gateway
(of course with all cautions about implementing using HTTPS)

Form Builder
system to make it really easy for users to build and construct forms
creates kind of a wysiwyg looking interface for building webforms
drag and drop fields, then add the fields’ attributes
ability to add check boxes - by adding the Options Element module - ability to easily define lists of things

webform has basic token capabilities, so can take advantage of logged in username info, for example - e.g., %username - can do this with any core profile fields the user has...
you can hook into the webform_components from other modules webform_webform_components

how to handle form spam - CAPTCHA or Mollom modules - make sure you’re using latest versions of webform and mollom - Mollom now allows you to natively add Mollom protection to any form
NEVER expose a webform to the public if without this type of form spam protection

other cool things you can potentially do / combine with Webform:
- check out Webform integrations listed on project page
- mime mail module - to send html emails to users (so they look like my website/can embed images, for example)

can you populate select list from db table?
- can load prebuilt select list coming from some php - only way to handle this currently is to create a module that hooks into webform webform_options - but pretty simple-looking to do

is webform3 generating html5-compatible code for things like email? not currently
Elements module makes sure you have html5-compatible elements

is the arrange fields module compatible with form builder? two different interfaces, so prob should work together, but doesn’t know, hasn’t tried it

Read more at: Wrapup of Webform module session
Posted: 2011-03-08T21:45:00.004-05:00

Exhausted - Day 1 of DrupalCon Chicago by

So I’m totally toasted. Today was the first full day of DrupalCon Chicago, beginning with Dries Buytaert’s (the creator of Drupal) keynote, explaining his vision, doing a recap of what went wrong and what went right in the creation of Drupal 7 which went into full production in January (he said that Drupal 8 development begins today and set out some goals for this project in the address also). Dries reminded those who’ve been on this journey for any part of the last decade what they should be proud of the work that they've done and he welcomed those of us who are newer to the journey, and - throughout his address - he reaffirmed our choice to be involved with a project that’s not just a technological platform, but a community!

Approximately 3,000 attendees are here for DrupalCon Chicago. There are other, even more impressive numbers that were given in the keynote highlighting Drupal’s exponentially expanding influence on the web today. It looks like over a million sites - almost 2% of the entire web are now Drupal-based. The largest enterprises and governments down to the most humble not-for-profit or individual websites are built on Drupal, a testament to its flexibility and scalability. And not only has Drupal grown so much, but that growth appears to be ever-accelerating. In fact, that may be the one danger, per Dries, that the Drupal community has to grapple with most in the coming years - the growth of the community.

http://goingtodrupalcon.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/drupal-opening-keynote/. Also, a video of Dries’ keynote appears at http://chicago2011.drupal.org/live

It’s Dries' message of empowerment that so appeals to me. I want to similarly empower my colleagues. I’m trying to migrate us to a Drupal system that will allow them - brilliant as they are in their areas of subject matter expertise - to really shine. I’m building a stage, a backdrop, a sound system, and lighting. It should be a showcase for them, not a distraction. But at the same time, I know that my process hasn’t been as open and communicative as it needs to be. I need to be sitting down with my colleagues weekly to discuss the project, get input, and make sure that what I’m building is what will work for them and the people that they will be building the content for - I want to provide them with scaffolding that supports the construction of a better user experience.

In today’s library BOF (Birds of a Feather) session, I was impressed with the quality and breadth of some of the development happening in the library world. In many cases, professional developers are being hired and in some cases libraries seem to actually be fleshing out digital experience departments (including graphic designers, developers, information architects, and multimedia producers). We're so far beyond the concept of a "webmaster" in this day and age that teams are definitely a must for libraries that want to have true "digital branches". (Sadly, even at MPOW, which has more advantages and staff than the average small public library in our state, they have only one person whose time is dedicated to web work,... and I never started out as a web developer, either, so it's not like MPOW can claim to have even 1 true "developer".)

But hearing about the work happening at these other libraries gives me hope.
All libraries should be at least as far along as the people in that DrupalCon Library BOF were. Seriously. We need to identify, and - more importantly - to FIX the problems that we have with our library systems. Stop dividing up the systems - online, to the user, all of the aspects of the librarys’ digital presence are seen as “the library’s website”. That’s how we have to treat them.

If we need further help to achieve this - in the form of consultants, Drupal firms, what-have-you, we have to try and get pony up the funds to make it happen.

Just a thought from a very tired person in Chicago, whose feels extraordinarily grateful to be in on this whole Drupal thing!

Read more at: Exhausted - Day 1 of DrupalCon Chicago
Posted: 2011-03-08T21:18:00.004-05:00

Notes From "Designing for Content-Rich Websites" DrupalCon Chicago preconference by

Designing for Content-Rich Websites

Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering

Lots of folks in-house who have large, content-rich sites that have grown organically through time (drupal.org, e.g.) & are hearing from users that things aren’t as easy to find as they should be.

There’s 8 types of pages you can find on a website today. Users behave very specifically on certain types of pages vs. others, but most people don’t realize this:

1. Content
2. Gallery
3. Department
4. Store
5. Home
6. Search page
7. Search results page
8. Categories (search) page.

Finally, will talk about search & role it plays on your site.

The Best Content draws itself to the user - “it must suck” - (by which we mean the content sucks itself to the user)
* designing for “scent” is more successful than designing for navigation (theory was successfully tested that people’s behavior in searching for info is like an animal hunting for food...”scent”)
the more experience you have with a given technology the more successful you are with the technology - so assumed that anyone with a lot of web experience would have an easier time than people who were new to web, UIE tested these more experienced web people, but found that it had nothing to do with amount of experience - only with sites - some sites all people, regardless of experience, were successful; on some sites no one was successful - it had to do with scent
the scent is MOST important - the design is most important (designing for scent)
* every link gives off scent that users follow
“trigger words” were important to allowing user to find what they wanted (user didn’t even mention word “drivers”, but this was a trigger word for them for finding drivers)
* NO EVIDENCE THAT THE 3-CLICK RULE IS RIGHT!!!! In fact, many, many (30 even) clicks are fine, as long as the “scent” is good

Search Engines are scent-less
* users click on them when they don’t see a link with good scent
* they type in the words they wanted in the link
* we call them trigger words
* users are trying to make their own scent
* except they don’t know if the designers have anything that matches the trigger words
Search boxes should be labelled “BYOL” - Bring Your Own Link.
User hopes that search engine will figure out what designers missed
* Poor scent - iceberg problem - people don’t bother to scroll when they are assuming that what’s above the fold is the same as what’s below the fold

Banner ad problem - “banner blindness” - because of so many ads, people don’t even look at that top area of page where ads were so often displayed

When people search, they really search:
* >24K results - with “relevancy” which was terrible because people blocked out “lower relevancy” links

Users know how the scent is working - represented by confidence
We can’t measure “scent” directly - no good way to measure it
- have to wait until we hear someone ask about something (E.g., popcorn example)
- we can’t look at a link & say it has good scent - but we can watch users & see if they’re confident - if they have great confidence in link, shows good scent

Users do “information masking” - learn which parts of page to look at and ignore
Often the things that prevent our design = policies (vs. users’ needs)

Navigation panels are often scentless
- Scent is specific, navigation panels are not
- Amazon forces you into search (author, title search works fine for just those things, but not for many needs, such as, for a specific character’s name (within a book or series, for example) or other aspects, such as is the story scary, not so good)
- the categories, e.g., in Dr. Koop’s site - so vague, hard to choose which one to use - category “resources” completely vague/meaningless & because it was third-party bought glossary, put under “resources” because not their own stuff, but user wouldn’t know that
- (FAQ might be: what’s the deal with ejournals, “research databases”, “library catalog”, “finding aids”, “digital collections”... “what’s where? how do I find it? how do I get it?”
- Fidelity website - “Research”, “Retirement”, “Planning” - meaningless to regular people, but in financial services industry, those terms have standard understood meanings, but it’s jargon for others
- it's jargon if a small group of people have very specific meanings for usage of terminology but terms are used more broadly or differently in the general population (librarians, here’s our “database” problem... well, one of them)

Short links don’t emit scent
- average link success = 42% (so anything above 45% = excellent scent)
- best links are 7-12 words... short links don't emit scent...w/link text & associated text included - most successful links are 7-12 words in length
- trigger word not in shorter links (it’s a probability game, fewer words in link, less likely to see trigger word in it) (let’s not even talk about the “click here” link wording which is utterly meaningless -- poor usability and accessibility)
- but too many words in link text = trigger word buried
Other issues with scent
- too many similar links in Kraft Foods site navigation example, so didn’t know which to choose “recipe search” v. “recipe connection”
- CNN site - is a story “U.S.” vs. “World”? but at least putting links underneath each category - provides example / trigger words in those links, so it wasn’t the broad category, it was the examples that made the navigation work in those cases
- put links under categories to strengthen scent = good technique, works well
- interesting example of very old Pfizer site - tons of links to “financial” and to “FunZone”, hard to tell what site’s really for - not what you expect - there was a great subsite, called “Dealing with Depression”, but no easy links from Pfizer main site to get to the “Dealing with Depression” - originally, there was a link from that home page, but it was only on that page for two weeks - every two weeks, had to change homepage - corporate site policy must keep home page “links fresh” because we know most people must go to Pfizer site daily and might get bored if they don’t...

Short pages reduce scent
- users have no trouble scrolling! long pages are not necessarily a problem
- the problem with users not scrolling only relates to the design of the page - if it looks like it stops at a certain point, they won’t continue scrolling. For example:
- large margins at bottom of page = stop scrolling
- if horizontal line = stop scrolling
- you need one long column v. others, means people will keep scrolling, but if it looks like they all end at the same point, won’t scroll past that point
- copyright statement = stop scrolling

if scent gets more general, instead of more specific, user gets lost - so links should be specific, example of old etrade site link where it implied that the link would take the user directly to information about their qualifications for program, but it just took them from more specific promo page to the etrade home page, - this led to user frustration

The site map is what people click on when they’ve given up hope. “Site Map” has no scent.

Scent depends on context
* example, misinterpreted context - from Boston.com’s “The Boston Red Sox” page, link to “Sports Calendars” didn’t bring them to calendar with Red Sox games, but rather to calendars for other things.
Users don’t think in terms of sections!!! Designers think in terms of sections (re: who’s in charge of building sections)

Traditional approach to website design has been to think of home page first, then link out to individual pages, but that’s only the way you design for navigation, which is low on scent.
Instead, to design for scent, start with a target content page.
- figure out from where users will likely want to get to that page
- put links in all the places people would most likely want to find your content

DON’T START DESIGNING YOUR WEBSITE WITH HOME PAGE - IT’S THE LEAST IMPORTANT PAGE ON YOUR SITE! THE MOST IMPORTANT PAGE IS THE ONE THAT HAS THE THING THE USER’S LOOKING FOR! START DESIGNING FROM SPECIFIC CONTENT!!!

Min = 2 hours every week that you should be watching people use your design. Interview users for most important content.

Good Design = Users Have High Confidence
- every design element that makes scent stronger contributors to the user’s confidence
-- before they click, these things make them feel confident:
--- link quality, navigational graphics, information organization
-- after they click, they will have confidence if they are:
--- seeing desired info
--- or more, stronger scent

Summary:
Your Content Must Suck
- your content must give off scent
- scent is about pulling the user to the content
To make Your Content “Suck”, you need to know:
-- why users are coming to the site
-- what their trigger words are
-- where are they likely to look
- avoid search as answer
- keep links and pages long
- you can’t design great sites without testing
- spend time with users
* users need strong scent to find their content
* as users work their way through the site, they encounter different types of pages
-- each type helps them in a different way
* key user behaviors predict navigation failure
-- designers can use these behaviors to learn how to improve the site

Going Over the Different Types of Pages (and associated patterns of user behavior):

1. “Target Content” Pages
Users Seek Content
* the target content page is the most important page on the site - nothing else matters to that user at that time but that content
* all other pages are dedicated to delivering the user to the target
(v. old myth of “surfing” a site - which was just that, a myth - they don’t care about the rest of your site)
* navigation pushes users
* scent pulls users
There’s always a task.
There’s always a page that fulfills that task - it’s what we call “the target content page”
Has the info the user’s looking for. Most important page on website, dictates failure or success of user.
Getting user from home page to content page = scent issue

2. “Gallery” Pages
List of links to content pages - enough scent has to come through those links to get us to the correct gallery page.
Ecommerce sites are simple. Users want to buy something, website builders want to sell something - they both meet their goals at the same instance. So used as the “laboratory rat” of testing how to design things.
That’s why we call them “gallery pages” - because of ecommerce - display of all of the shirts, for example, at clothing store site.
But there are non-ecommerce, content-rich sites. Still, they have gallery pages.
Content Galleries
* behave same as ecommerce galleries
* content pulls users towards it

Predictors of failures of scent:
1. Forcing the Back Button (designers said, you have to go back if you’re seeing this page) - a sign of failure = back button usage
when they used back button, only succeeded 18% of time (v. 42% w/o use of back button), if user had to use the back button 2 x, their success rate drops down to 2%
The back button is the button of doom!!!
2. Pogosticking - when user bounces between levels of the info hierarchy
* pogosticking PREVENTS success - when you do that only succeed 11% of time (vs. 55% of the time w/o “pogosticking”)
3. Search
* search also prevents success - if search is used, they are only successful 30% of the time (vs. w/o using search, which = success 53% of time)
So...
a successful gallery page doesn’t force the user to use back button, to pogostick, or to search

when users tell you something is “cluttered”, it’s code for - you’ve got a lot of stuff, but none of it’s what I’m looking for...
been in many projects where adding info reduced users’ perception of clutter.

Link order is important
* random order & alphabetical order are essentially the same from the users’ perspective on almost all things:
only in specific names (e.g., of cars, states, people), is alphabetical order sensible

The length of a gallery page doesn’t matter!
Longer pages work better
(See all on one page in Lands’ End allowed more sales of items that would’ve been in the 4th, 5th, 6th pages when they didn’t have the “see all” option)
Get into trouble when there’s too many concepts/”ideas” in a gallery... it’s not that there’s too many items, it’s just that it’s hard to figure out which type of item I want

3. Department pages
Departments divide things up - reduce set of choices
have to clearly know what you want and also which categories you definitely don’t want
often put departments into navigation - but now, if have like “account management” and “bill and payment informaton”, which one of these links do you use?
Global navigation turns out to be really useless for people - we’ve trained users that global navigation is useless
People think in terms of local navigation
Very few people do second things on a website. They get the task done & leave the page.

division by audience issue - cancer site - the public read the doctors’ side & the doctors’ read the general publics’ side.
should’ve been clearer about what was meant - not “for patients” vs. “for doctors”, instead should’ve said “written in plain-language” vs. “written in doctor-speak” (or something like that) - that was the real difference between the links

For Department pages to be successful
- reduce the number of choices in galleries
-- to allow galleries to provide more detail per item
- gallery links are descriptive
-- trigger words are present
- categories need to be logical
-- users need to quickly eliminate uninteresting categories
-- users don’t mind if there’s 20 ways to get to the page they want, as long as it’s the target content that they want

Links Must be Meaningful
- marketing terminology/jargon can block scent
- context helps a lot
- also use of specific links as an example of the category

4. Store pages (400,000 pages or more - VERY LARGE websites)
- completely eliminate some aspect of site from users (like MEGA-departments)
- it’s ok to include the path to “men’s” OR the path to “shoes” to get to men’s shoes
- stores must be familiar (JCPenney, Petsmart, CNN) - and competitors all use very same words/terminology

5. Home page (is special)
- the landing page of the site
-- whether type in url or get there from Google search
- aggregates either stores or departments
- home page may simply be a gallery page, or department page
- 1 purpose & 1 purpose only, to get users to the content they want - best of all, to have that target content on the home page itself
-- primarily the category page
-- divide real estate accordingly
- home page is the LEAST important page on your website
- home page plays the smallest role

no language to describe design for everyone, terminology “information scent” is best terminology we have come up with

[Note to self: try out Instapaper - takes large sections off website & view offline / on cell phone]

Faceted search isn’t really search - categories create scent - if it works, has great scent...
Search is actually the only way to deal with the long tail of least used content
But the content used by the majority of users is where you design architecture for
Getty images doesn’t consider every picture to be equal
There is such thing as most important content - it’s contextual though, e.g., with Getty images, by season, by current events issue

User study:
Pauline - senior citizen, fell, hurt hip, recovering - needs meals delivered. Niece living in another city trying to go online to find help
Went to New York City municipal website to find out about meal delivery, but nothing to help (16 links, but none helpful) - link labelled “Online services” then “All”, then “page 6” - at very bottom of very long page - “Senior Programs Locator” (would get her 1/2way there).
Department of Aging
search results “in wonderful alphabetical order, exactly the order she needs...”
why did they build out a database like that - “to reduce number of calls” but didn’t really work out, since the records in the database didn’t answer important questions & just dead-ended the user - so they would have to call to get what they needed. Waste of resources to put a database like that online.

- search engine logs - keywords - is a list of links you should have on your website

- division of screen real estate on a page should reflect the most important / heavily sought content

on avg site home page, users:
go to search 6.8% of the time
use category links 86.8% of the time,
“featured content” links 1.3% of the time
home page link on home page 2.6% of the time
so why give so much space to “featured content” (e.g,. “hero boxes” - the giant slideshow boxes displaying what marketing/company wants to show off) vs. category links?
instead, should give 86.8% of space to category links...

Galleries: The Hardest Working Pages on Your Site
demo of cell phones gallery pages - which info is shown there
- which design works best?
Lesson #1: Provide meat - information to help people decide whether or not to pursue link further
scent of information - content ages emit scent through links
users scan pages for trigger words
Lesson #2: What makes each link different?
How will someone tell the difference between each link - this is especially a problem with fully automated gallery generation pages
don’t confuse the value of the content with the presentation of the content
Lesson #3: Support Selection
3 stages for decision making:
1. winnowing - reduce candidates to a smaller set (dept. page level)
2. selecting - (gallery level)
3. validating - (content page level)
Gallery pages are for selecting, so make pages clear
Lesson #4: Will Users Understand Individual Elements?
Lesson #5: Provide Necessary Distinguishers
Lesson #6: What do the users already know? (keep in mind that you live & breathe this content every day, so what seems like normal language to you may be jargon)
Lesson #7: Provide for Individual Needs
- e.g., sorting capabilities by various features
- gallery doesn’t have to be a list, could be presented on a map, if information is most usefully presented that way
Lesson #8: Take Advantage of Available Real Estate
Visual Design & Copy
Lesson #9: Take Advantage of Progressive Disclosure
- take advantage of available real estate
-- progressive disclosure can help for dense information
Lesson #10: Think Beyond the List-O-Links Approach
- tables are not a requirement
-- can use embedded links in paragraphs when appropriate
- good copy is essential
- design for the user’s objective
- good to show what an item does NOT have
- we want to think that we can just create the shell and hand off the content to someone else to populate it
- good design is often a team activity. You need to be able to sit in the same room and have a conversation (content folks & website admins)
Lesson #11: Will People Understand Your Terminology?
Lesson #12: Avoid Meaningless Noise Words
Lesson #13: Good Copy is Essential
Lesson #14: Design for the Specific Use
Lesson #15: Take advantage of associated text
- turn a gallery page into a content page by adding more info into the gallery page - e.g., staff directories - make users happy
- supportive info about the listing that you’ll be linking to
- NY Times has editors create summary statements, instead of computer-generated associated text - makes for better listing
Lesson #16: Humans Trump Programs
Lesson #17: Realize the Impact of Changes
Lesson #18: Order links from most likely to least likely to be wanted/related
Lesson #19: Group related links together
Lesson #20: Avoid chronological order (again, in most pages)
Lesson #21: Know when alphabetical order makes sense (usually only for specific names)

Designing Galleries for Selecting:
- ensure you understand what’s important to the users
- how will you differentiate one link from another
- how will you prevent pogosticking?
- take advantage of good copy, thoughful ordering, and matching the design to the user’s objective
Lateral Links on Content Pages:
- like “customers who bought this item also bought” on Amazon
Lesson #22: Lateral Links allow users to continue the adventure
- choice is value-added - you can get similar item with fewer or more features - give users more choices
Lesson #23: sometimes 1 choice is all you need
Lesson #24: “more” “previous” and “next” are noise
next & back or previous & next aren’t very strong info-scented, doesn’t give you a great idea of what you might get
Lesson #25: look for opportunities to provide more scent
a “curated section” - overview pages with lateral links
Lesson #26: Find Ways to Eliminate Poor Candidates
Lesson #27: Faceted Winnowing Eliminates “No Results”
Lesson #28: Look at Interactive Controls for Filtering
letting people dynamically filter (with sliders for example)
Lesson #29: A Good Demo Doesn’t Imply Usable
but you’ve got to test with users & see if it actually works with them
Don’t let Flashy Overtake Useful
Lesson #30: Don’t Forget the Basics: Selection is Key
Good Design is Delightful and Useful
It’s only a “target content” page if they find what they’re looking for... if they’re moving through multiple pages, that “content page” is really a “gallery page”

every so often, take last 4 weeks of content & do a group sort
how would NY Times have done it & talk through it?
everybody gets to play the game...
interesting discussions
another fun game - if we wanted to make this really suck what would we do?
we don’t yet have a language about what makes “good design” vs. “bad design”, so need to have these conversations
to create a language of design amongst team members
the notion of critique is missing in a lot of shops - you should do critiques like they do in art school...
2 pieces to critique:
1. sense of where you’re trying to go - what do you want page to do? what’s the call to action?
2. what did you do to do that?

Search, Scent and the happiness of pursuit
this AM, talked about how search fails users frequently
we don’t realize how bad it is because we use Amazon

Browsers vs. Searchers
we expected “natural searchers” would automatically use search across all sites - studied this. There were natural browsers, but no natural searchers across all sites. The site’s design forces users to Search.
aha moment = this is why library users were so unhappy with library catalogs.
We fronted all catalogs with web pages to talk about various books, collections, etc. or else we didn’t. And no one wanted to use straight search with no context.

Getting from Home to Content
6.8% of people prefer to use search off top to get from home page to content pages - it’s just a design phenomenon
but worse, only 7.5% of searches occur from home page
23% of search = from search results page
so people only use search when they get lost

Users search from the page where they lose the scent - already in problem recovery mode
people actually search completely different ON a site than they do AT Google - because AT the site, they expect level of specificity and context that they don’t get at Google level

Items easy to find with search:
- books by Tom Clancy
- a Canon SD1100
Items HARD to find with search:
- the 1st Tom Clancy book featuring Jack Ryan
- an inexpensive, but high quality SLR camera
success of search depends on what they’re searching for

users don’t want to search, but not all content searches equally well
User Expectations of Home Link placement (study from Wichita University) - most people expected home links at top left-hand corner (& bottom left, to much lesser degree)
expected search box somewhere in top right-hand side
none of these positions make it harder to use the search box - if it looks like a search box, they search in it (not about where it’s placed, but what the box looks like)

Type of Results
- match relevant type = has the user’s target cotnent = best
- relevant = strong scent to user’s target content = good
- irrelevant (Wacko) - unrelated to the user’s target content
-- relevance is perceived by the user
-- completely unrelated from the user’s perception
- no results - target content does not exist on the site (but it really does)
-- mistakenly given when search can’t find target content
-- faceting prevents the “no results” search outcome - hence its utility

Great search results
- avoid pogosticking
-- it’s not about choices, it’s about the right content
- make sure match relevant results are at top
- eliminate wacko results
- make sure no results are handled carefully
-- e.g., what price of Wii would be & descriptor, but immediate indicator that it’s out of stock, so they don’t get misled

Tested search engines (77) & created an agility course for them
- test searches that should be findable - copied & pasted text directly from record of inventory record into search engine & it worked for specific model of Palm
- “implementation services” phrase searched on, ok
- intentionally mistyped things - “19 LCD Montinors”, ok
- this site did great on agility course
- but new search engine - so retested, but it tested worse - the misspelling & the implementation services tests & even the model of Palm all came back badly
- they had broken search by improving it
- we don’t have good metrics on search engine performance
- so putting together benchmark tests for search engines
- officemax.com did best in their agility course
- was able to handle “shipping tape”
- worst site performance = “your search did not produce results”, try “redoing your search with other search terms”
Build your own search obstacle course
- research the commonly used search terms
-- look for variants, such as synonyms, misspellings, or types
- go to target pages on the site & pick out trigger words
-- look at the heading and important descriptive phrases

Search problems to look for
- is search returning too many results without categorization or facets
- are the top links not match relevant
- are there duplicate links? (ppl will stop if they see duplicate terms)
- do users need to click to determine the relevancy of the result
- are categories weighted equally?
-- even though there’s an obvious first choice?

Correctable Input Errors vs. Search Indexing Errors
- 43% = search indexing
- 57% = correctable input (user input)
- spelling errors
- typos
- plurals
- parsing errors (tshirt (no hyphen), 19” LCD monitors (extra quote))
- multiple words: winter slippers, maternaty clothes
YOU MUST REGULARLY LOOK THROUGH YOUR SEARCH LOGS
(the reality of the situation = we can find the problems, but we librarians can rarely resolve them because we aren’t programmers & our vendors are not responsive)
Jared Spool talks about the Endeca search engine at Eddie Bauer site. Calls someone high up at Endeca & he fixes it while Jared is on hold. A missing ; was the difference between relevant and irrelevant search results.
Each technology that was at top of list, it was also at the bottom of the list...
it was the installation and implementation of the technology!!!!!!
Google search appliance sux on the intranet, because no 1 links back to the travel expense report, so doesn’t rank highly
- site design has more effect on the user’s success than user skill
- users always scan the page for trigger words before they search
- the site’s design forces the user to search
- users search from the page where they lose the scent
- not all content searches well (most doesn’t)
- users find a search box by its visual presentation
- focus on match relevant resutls
- implementation trumps vendor choice

Breadcrumbs
“they suck”
3 types of breadcrumbs =
1. path breadcrumbs - user actually clicked to get where they’re going
2. location breadcrumbs - best path / actual hierarchy in site, best way to get there
3. facet breadcrumbs - can click on any of them and get any combo
most users think breadcrumbs = path breadcrumbs - so confusing,
but mostly users don’t pay attention to breadcrumbs
because if they got to target content, they won’t look at it.
it’s a last ditch effort like the back button, without requiring them to hit back button
it’s an attempt to treat the symptom, rather than the problem
they can never use breadcrumbs to get unlost
they don’t care about the structure of your site
the problem = when people are spending a lot of time on breadcrumbs = a waste of resources

winnowing v. selecting
what you definitely don’t want v. picking what you do want

Supporting Winnowing
- winnowing supports reducing choices in galleries
- we’re seeing new interaction techniques to support winnowing - eliminating lousy candidates

Random notes in answer to audience questions:
users tend to move their mouse only AFTER they’ve decided that they want to go somewhere else (this is the problem with drop-down menus, they require users to move their mouse to decide where to go)
what about the giant footer - most people never use it - is just used for SEO
big pictures of the administrator are terrible on government sites (no good for the user)
“subject areas” is a too-generic term (on bureau of labor statistics)
“hero box” that huge slideshow you see on the home page - not usually helpful to users

Read more at: Notes From "Designing for Content-Rich Websites" DrupalCon Chicago preconference
Posted: 2011-03-07T23:26:00.003-05:00

Countdown to DrupalCon Chicago... by

I've got just a few days until DrupalCon Chicago, but there are a couple of things I've been wanting to post about, but haven't taken the time for lately.

1. is a huge congratulations to Westport Public Library for successfully migrating their website to the Drupal web content management system! They went live toward the end of January, I believe (apologies, can you tell I'm a bit behind? ;) ) The site looks great & has lots of exciting features - highlights of events and topics of interest at their library in the form of a slideshow at the top of their homepage, for example.
Perhaps more importantly, it's extensible for any future feature additions, iterative improvements, and redesigns (that's the power of a system like Drupal). The work done for Westport has also added back into the Drupal community in the form of a LibraryThing for Libraries Drupal module. That's how the "recommended reads" are brought into their site (see their home page).
2. we're experiencing a lot of success with our in-house implementation of Acquia's Drupal Commons distribution. A member of our IT staff put it up on a Windows server he had handy, so we're using it internally. We've seen it gain a lot of traction since he put it live last week - there are 23 members of the Commons now (for us, this is a lot of staff participation). The smartest thing we did with the Commons was highlight the "most active user" section of the site, where users' "points" (they get points for participating in the community - by discussing, "shouting" (and internal twitter of sorts), by posting to blogs, wiki pages, adding events, or otherwise interacting. This has spawned a slightly competitive (yet fun!) aspect to the community. Everyone wants to be the one with the most points. (I'm usually in the top five, but not always, lately). It's a great Drupal package, ridiculously easy to get going, especially if it's for a fairly casual, internal-type communications site. You can try out its features by joining the Acquia Commons, so you can see it for yourself. Or just download the stack & run it on your local computer or server. It's amazing!
I found & added in the Flickr Rippr module for the Commons (one of the joys of Drupal is that you can just add on modules however you want), in answer to a challenge made at this AM's digital collections meeting. Sure enough, it works beautifully in harvesting the items on our Flickr stream, their descriptions, tags, (it can also do the comments, but I didn't choose to import those in), and so on. I've set ours to cache the jpegs locally, so they're actually on our Drupal server. There are lots of other modules that deal with displaying Flickr photos/sets/streams in a Drupal site (& many ways to do that in other types of sites), but I chose this module because it actually created nodes for me from our stream. That meant that all of the great metadata our digitization guru put up into our Flickr stream was brought into the Drupal site & then automatically indexed by the Drupal site search.
Very cool!

Read more at: Countdown to DrupalCon Chicago...
Posted: 2011-03-04T00:03:00.003-05:00

It Is Time To Negotiate Change by

Photo by Maggie Smith

Companies are in business to make money. I get this. If the book publishers looked to the failing, or failed, music industry they could learn a lot. They probably won’t and the most recent HarperCollins news seems to provide some evidence to support that statement.

Well, I’m sure this has been mentioned already, but I wanted to state it again because it makes sense to me. Okay, if I am reading an eBook and I am on chapter 12, then technically there are many other chapters that are not being read at that point in time. Another reader could start reading chapter 1. Another reader could have 3 pages left to read etc. It is technically possible for more than one person to read an eBook at the same time, but the publishers keep thinking “one reader/one book” and that is 20^th century thinking – maybe even 15^th century thinking.

Maybe it is time to look more closely at a Netflix-esque, Rhapsody-esque, or some other subscription model for libraries so that authors/publishers get paid per download or per view. Libraries can help distribute content! Libraries are pretty good at this actually. Publishers could make more money if they were more flexible and allowed libraries to do what they do best, which is helping connect their users to valuable information. Of course, libraries do way more than this, but this connection is significant. If an eBook is popular and, let’s say, 26 people read it, then charge the library for those “reads” by adding code to the eBook that automatically pays the publisher out of the library budget. It seems to be working for musicians – although musicians make more money if they aren’t under contract with a music label and/or distributor. Plus, an analytic reporting function could be incorporated into an eBook that lets the publisher know that a user, for example, was only browsing a particular title to determine if they wanted to read it or not and this would not count as a “full read.” I can browse books at Barnes and Noble and I am not charged for doing this. It should be the same for eBooks.

Going further, it is now affordable and convenient to download/stream music. More and more people are doing this legally because it is so much easier to have instant access to everything you want and whenever you want it, instead of illegally searching for music on torrent and file sharing web sites and taking risks with malicious software and other repercussions. For me, paying a $10 to $20 a month subscription fee to gain access to unlimited music or movies is totally worth it and I would do the same exact thing for eBooks through my library if it was possible. The funny thing, this is possible! We need to move past the “one reader/one Book” model soon. OverDrive offers “max access” subscription models and this is a step in the right direction, but this needs to benefit everyone and I am not 100% certain this is the case. If it is, please let me know.

Libraries need to step up and negotiate with these publishers, and as many librarians have already mentioned in other posts and tweets, librarians need to become strong advocates for their readers! If having access to eBooks and other eContent was in everyone’s “best” interest, including library users, then what is the problem? Why hasn’t this happened yet? Money? I would think publishers (and their authors) could get paid more money if they went this route and began to think like innovators and not like stubborn idiots. It is not my intention to insult anyone. I just want to know why we don’t have a decent model yet? I’d like to share a passage from Bob Lefsetz because it supports my initial thoughts above:

Eviscerate piracy. Make it so it’s just not worth it to steal. Hell, people may even forget how to steal… But, but, but…if we lower the price so everybody can get in, we’re going to lose that extra revenue from our best customers! Cable providers don’t care how much you watch TV, it’s just about signing up. And cell providers have unlimited plans. And both have great anti-piracy measures so there’s no direct comparison, but the point is today’s paradigm is giving a lot for a little, not being pecked to death by ducks, micro-payments of $1.29 for every track. Who could survive on a system like this? Not car companies, who sell accessories in packages. The key is to come up with a bucket of tracks, for a reasonable price. (Source: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2010/04/09/track-sales-peak/)

I agree! This is nothing new, but I do feel that it is time to rethink our library subscription models. Not just for eBooks, but we need to explore this for our databases and other eContent as well. Vendors are already figuring out ways (simple ways, in fact) to bypass libraries altogether and deal directly with their end users. This is unfortunate on so many levels. Should we simply watch this happen, or should we start negotiating, or should we boycott publishers who are not “library friendly?” These are tough questions that need answers. This recent HarperCollins announcement is ridiculous at best and libraries need to respond intelligently. A couple of good places to start:

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights

Library Renewal: Pioneering Electronic Content Delivery for Libraries

HarperCollins Puts 26 Loan Cap on Ebook Circulations

Search/use #hcod hashtag on Twitter.
There will be an “eBook Trends and Practices” track at the 2011 Computers in Libraries conference.

Read more at: It Is Time To Negotiate Change
Posted: Mon, 28 Feb 2011 17:59:20 PST

Mobile library website fits in your pocket! by

Although the SPC Library website has been optimized for mobile users, the time has come to utilize innovative technologies for the new generation of touch screen mobile devices.

SPC Librarian Chad Mairn designed the library’s new mobile-optimized “touch” website interface to act much like an application for an iPhone or other mobile devices. But unlike most applications, the website is entirely web-based and no downloads or updates are required.

“The trend is moving more toward mobile, and once students know that a website is mobile-optimized, they’ll be using it more,” Mairn said. “If a site doesn’t look well on my mobil device, I just won’t use it.”

The new mobile-optimized website, designed for on-the-go users, includes:

Library locations with one-touch access to Google Maps, library telephone numbers and hours of operation

Access to mobile research databases and the library catalog, making it quick and easy to find articles, books and other information

New library releases, resources and services such as Ask-a-Librarian

Selected research tools for a variety of operating systems, including Android, Blackberry, iOS (Apple’s iPhone), WebOS, Symbian and Windows

External links to the library’s full website

To access the mobile library, visit www.spcollege.edu/central/libonline/touch on your mobile device or scan this QR code to gain instant access.

For more information or to provide comments, please contact Chad Mairn. Special thanks to Yuka Takayama for helping code the mobile redirect script.

Read more at: Mobile library website fits in your pocket!
Posted: Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:24:00 PST

Recommendations for your library's web presence: open-source web content management by

Drupal is a powerful, open-source web content management system. As many of you know, I've been working (for a very long time) on learning it well enough to do a single-handed migration of my library's large (3,200 page+) static html website to Drupal.

So I often get questions for others in the Connecticut library community about what to do with their own websites. I can definitely say that there is no library website that should remain on the old static html webpage built in Dreamweaver/Microsoft Expression Web/Other HTML editor. In other words, you definitely need a web content management system to run a website in the 21st-century. There are a lot of deep reasons for that. Probably the easiest one for me to explain is that it allows many people to easily work together on / contribute to the website. It also makes it easier for you to output the information you're providing on your website to your users in a way that they want to use it (for example, on their mobile phones vs. on a computer screen).

There's a whole array of options for web content management systems. The commercial, heavy-duty (often dubbed "enterprise-level") web CMS', can be extraordinarily expensive. I won't even bother talking about them for libraries.

There's also an array of options for open-source web CMS'. Many of them don't require you to commit to any licensing fees - in other words, using them doesn't cost you anything for the software. What you end up paying for, in comparison, is for human resources - the people to take the time to put into making the open-source system work. You may use your in-house webmaster/systems librarian or, more likely, you'll seek out a consultant with expertise in setting up one of these solutions for your library.

Often the documentation on open-source projects is less than ideal. On the other hand, at least you can Google for answers to your open-source problems (contrast this to seeking Google-ing for solutions to errors in proprietary commercial products like many Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, or SUN-based products - these companies tend to keep their troubleshooting tips behind a login/password-customer-only system so that the competition can't learn about their weaknesses). Someone somewhere's blogged about the issues they've faced with open-source products. It's part of the open source spirit to contribute your work back into the community. Publishing online about the problems you faced & how you overcame them is an easy way to do this.

So what are your options & what are their relative advantages & disadvantages? I'll go over only the ones that I have more than a passing familiarity with:

Wordpress - though it was initially conceived of as a blogging solution, it can now easily be used as a regular website content management system.
Drupal

Others would include Joomla, Silverstripe, and there are others that I may have only heard of in passing - just google open source web content management and you should find a listing of the latest.

Wordpress can be used in its fully hosted/3rd-party managed form at www.wordpress.com. It's free to set up an account, but you can also use (for a really small added annual fee - used to be $25/year) an account add-on that allows you to point your library's domain name to that site. You can also use a web hosting provider's hosted Wordpress installation (in many cases, you'll have to keep the Wordpress software updated yourself, but some web hosts even handle this for you) or a Wordpress installation that you run on your own server. You can download the Wordpress software & run it for free on your own web server (you'll also need to run PHP & MySQL on that server - get the download & how-tos from www.wordpress.org). Though it's slightly easier to run Wordpress (& other open-source web software) on an Apache web server than an IIS server, you can run it on either. Apache is easier to deal with and can run on a server that has Mac, Windows, or Linux operating systems.

Drupal can be used in several ways. It used to be that there wasn't really a wordpress.com-type option for Drupal, but recently, sites like Drupal Gardens sprang up to make it easy for anyone to quickly get up and running with a fresh site on Drupal (yes, migrating existing sites is always WAY harder than starting with a blank slate, but don't forget to do some information architecture/sketching/planning before you begin - identify your site's goals, what content you'll have & figure out how users will move through that content before just building willy-nilly if you want to ensure a decent website). Besides that, you can use a web hosting provider to run your Drupal site (ideally find one that other Drupal folks have recommended - because Drupal has needs that some web hosting providers don't serve well without a serious investment - e.g., getting at least a virtual private server, which can be very expensive). Or run Drupal on your own web server. It, too, requires PHP & MySQL and runs best on the Apache web server (though it can, with work, be made to function on IIS). Drupal tends to prefer a Linux (or Mac-based) operating system though - again, depending on how much of its functionality you want to leverage and how much work you want to do - you can make it work on the Windows operating system.

Side-by-side comparison of installed (not hosted) versions of these web content management systems: Wordpress offers more user-friendly functionality out of the box. Drupal 7 just went live and improves the out-of-the-box Drupal experience (compared to Drupal 6, which has been the standard for several years), but still lacks both the immediate elegance and user-friendliness (e.g., for editing content with a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editor) of a Wordpress install. But the moment you want to start integrating web resources at any deeper level, the advantage goes to Drupal. Wordpress goes from 60 to 0 at this point. You have to get deeply into PHP if there isn't already a plugin created for the system integration you're seeking in Wordpress (admittedly, though, there are lots of great Wordpress plugins now - you can only use those plugins with your own Wordpress install, not with the hosted Wordpress.com version of your site/blog). Additionally, Drupal can be implemented in some really flexible ways, accommodating lots of different needs - more so than Wordpress. But you really need a web professional for this type of Drupal usage. Custom themes in Drupal require someone who's comfortable with Drupal at what I would call a pretty deep level. The flip side of this challenge is that Drupal will "professionalize" your library systems/web people in that it can take them deeper and deeper into the core technologies driving the web today. You could "get by" without a web pro for Wordpress though, again, if you want to deeply customize the template that alters the way your information and navigation is provided, you'll need to get into the PHP (which, of course, you can't do on Wordpress.com). PHP itself is not a ridiculous challenge for a library systems person to take on - however if you're intimidated by html code, you'll find PHP almost impossible (at first). I should also reiterate that if you just need a quickly-put together, highly templated site (like a "website tonight" type thing), you can use either Wordpress.com or Drupal Gardens.

A final option for dealing with your libraries' web presence: you could go the "small pieces, loosely joined" route & cobble together a web presence using some combination of your:

blog (for example, at Blogger.com or Wordpress.com)
Facebook page
Catalog
Other web2.0 tools - like Slideshare for presentations/tutorials, Scribd for documents, Flickr or Picasa for photos & so on
You will need to point a domain name to a specific web-based page that will pull everything together - most likely that would be your blog page, but it could also be a Google Pages page or something else

If you go the route listed above, you will have to think about these downsides:

3rd-party free Web2.0 tools / social sites like Facebook, Slideshare, Flickr, Scribd may compromise your commitment to privacy for your patrons. They can also change their terms at any time and you may or may not learn about the changes enough ahead of time to migrate your content elsewhere (think about Yahoo's decision to rid itself of del.icio.us after years of its seemingly stable existence). Remember, when you rely on these types of tools exclusively instead of running your own site, your content is not 100% under your control, nor are the interactions people have with your site. This may or may not work out for your organization, but recognize that it's the reality. I usually recommend that organizations use Web2.0 tools to redirect users back into web-based resources that they actually control - like their own website/blog.
Brand consistency. It may be sacrificed by use of many disparate tools.
Ease of management. Having to log into many different sites to do different things with your web presence can become a burden. Make sure that you have at least a couple of people who work for your library who know what all of those sites (& their logins) are.
Advertising. Another issue that can come up when you're using another organization's technology is that they may underwrite your "free" access to their service by offering up ads alongside your content. In many cases, you won't have a choice about this.

So there we are. There are other options and a lot more depth that I can get into, this is the basic information I give folks who ask for my recommendation on what to do with their library websites...

Read more at: Recommendations for your library's web presence: open-source web content management
Posted: 2011-01-23T09:22:00.005-05:00

Testing my new ShareSquare QR code by

Read more at: Testing my new ShareSquare QR code
Posted: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 13:22:07 PST

Just How Dead is YOUR RSS Feed? by

There has been another incarnation of the "RSS is dead" meme in the past weeks, with posts at TechCrunch and GigaOM debating the point. The conclusion of these posts seems to be that RSS is continuing its gradual evolution from being perceived as an end-user tool to being viewed as plumbing. And this is probably a good thing. While I still consume most of my "blog-like" news and commentary via an aggregator, I rely more on recommendations through my social networks for learning what's new. Perhaps that's because I've become lazy about actively following lots of sources, and prefer the crowd to do the filtering for me. Perhaps its because the blogs and news sources I follow are less frequently updated (I know this blog falls in that category). Whatever the reason, I know my consumption patterns have changed. And I'll wager that most people feel too busy to sift through everything published in every publication they like, and prefer instead to find like-minded individuals who share things of interest. Again, much like I do. Still, if you're curious to learn how your feed is consumed (and don't use Feedburner or the equivalent), take a look at RSS4Lib's YourStats log file analysis program. If you upload your publication's log files and tell it what your RSS feed URL is, it will show you where your RSS feed is consumed -- providing a good guess at your RSS readership. You may find the numbers surprising (high or low).

Read more at: Just How Dead is YOUR RSS Feed?
Posted: Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:14:00 -0500

Abandon Ownership! by

An interesting Wired article regarding the "rentership society" got me thinking about libraries. Libraries have been in the "rental" business for a long time and it seems to be working, right? In the article, Suellentrop states that ownership is "for suckers" and I see his point. He goes on to say that ownership can be a burden and I know this feeling fairly well too (especially the last few years) since I do own my own home. Hopefully, the investment will pay off in the long run, but we'll have to wait and see.

Getting back to the point, I used to own thousands of CDs/DVDs/books and I still do, but I haven't bought a CD, DVD, or book for personal use in years because I simply can't find space for this stuff anymore. Conveniently, I now stream and/or download all my music and moving pictures. Occasionally, I will have Netflix mail me a blu-ray disc, but for the most part I have instant access to entertainment. The point is, I don't mind paying a monthly fee to have unlimited entertainment. I access content (e.g., music, film, documentaries, etc.) whenever and wherever I want, but I don't have this option right now with eBooks! I personally won't pay $10 for a single eBook EVER! Finally, Suellentrop wrote something that hit me hard in that "the winner of the ebook sweepstakes will be the bookseller who becomes a book renter." Wow, doesn't this sound like a perfect fit for libraries or is it just me? Having a library Netflix model for books in any format would be fantastic, wouldn't it?

Read more at: Abandon Ownership!
Posted: Wed, 17 Nov 2010 07:52:53 PST

Handheld Librarian 4 Online Conference: Call for Program Proposals! by

TAP Information Services and LearningTimes invite librarians, library staff, vendors, graduate students, and developers to submit program proposals related to the topic of mobile library services for the online Handheld Librarian 4 conference to be held online February 23 and 24, 2011.

The Handheld Librarian 4 (HHLib4) conference will feature interactive, live online sessions and links to recorded events following the conference. HHLib4 is interested in a broad range of submissions that highlight current, evolving, and future issues in mobile library services. This year, HHLib4 will feature a program track with presentations by graduate library students. These include but are not limited to the following program tracks:

ebooks
location-based social networking
augmented reality
twitter
apps
device and OS trends
QR codes
reference
mobile trend spotting
mobile technologies impacting society
web/app development best practices

Proposal Submissions:
Submit your proposal by completing the webform at http://www.handheldlibrarian.org/submissions-form by December 1, 2010. Online presentations may be conducted in one of four formats:

a 45-minute live online session (i.e. synchronous webcast)
a 15 minute student presentation ***
a 10 minute live online session or
a pre-recorded presentation (i.e. narrated web tour or slides).

You will be notified by January 15, 2011 if your proposal has been accepted. Conference registration fees are waived for speakers. Presenters Are Expected To:

Conduct your session using Adobe Connect (computer, Internet, mic required)
Provide a digital photo of yourself for the conference website
Respond to questions from attendees
Attend an online 30-60 minute training on Adobe Connect prior to the conference

Thank you for considering submitting a proposal. If you have questions, please contact:

Lori Bell, lbell927@gmail.com
Tom Peters, TAP Information Services, tpeters@tapinformation.com
Susan Manning, LearningTimes, susan@ltgreenroom.org

Read more at: Handheld Librarian 4 Online Conference: Call for Program Proposals!
Posted: Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:57:11 PST

Social Media Quick Guide by

I am talking about social media and I wanted to show how easy it is to publish to a blog. Here is a link to the Social Media Quick Guide.

Read more at: Social Media Quick Guide
Posted: Fri, 12 Nov 2010 07:58:05 PST

Why don't libraries...? by

It's simple, I could expound on these for hours, but here's the thing. Why don't libraries?

allow patrons who are searching for a great new book (e.g., they heard an interview with the author on the news) to see if it's already on order at their public library
allow patrons to buy the book for 1st themselves, then to contribute into their local public library's collection when there's a hot new title (set it up through Amazon, for example, & then, in fact, also have Amazon give a percentage of the sales profit to the library)? People buy new books when their libraries don't have them & they just want the book instantaneously, but then when they're done, what do they do with them? This solves all of those issues, gives the library a better collection, & gives them some $, and makes the patron feel good about themselves. In fact, patrons participating in that program should be featured (if they desire) as special-level VIP/contributing member type patrons - perhaps publicly acknowledged on the website (it's like being an NPR supporter)
just do a mailing service to get materials to and from patrons - initiated online, a la Netflix
offer a couple of types of membership (1 the traditional way of being a patron, with fines, etc., 2 a premium membership that allows them a netflix-style arrangement wherein they don't incur fines & guilt/shame, but don't get a new item until the old item has been returned)
become community exchange centers for bookswaps (& exchange of other materials, as well), setting up an online system like a BookMooch (maybe ask LibraryThing's help or hire professional web developers to put a system together - it wouldn't be all that hard)
fix the ebook problem. Work with ebook content providers to setup online buying & exchanging cooperative accounts. Work out the licensing issues. Everyone in OCLC & ALA should stop working on ANYTHING else, DROP EVERYTHING, & get this underway NOWWWWWWW!!!!!!! IT SHOULDN'T TAKE MORE THAN A YEAR IF WE ALL APPLY PRESSURE TO THE INDUSTRY TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. WE DO NEED MORE BOOTS ON THE GROUND THOUGH. THIS IS A WAR FOR THE SURVIVAL OF LIBRARIES!!! I'M NOT KIDDING.

There are a million ways we could move forward into the 21st-century. But we'd all have to acknowledge the crisis we're in & address it. ASAP.

I mean, I'm not worried, I'll always keep digitally up-to-date enough that my skills will find a home/job/consultancy elsewhere. I have no doubt. But I'd like libraries to survive. This isn't about my job, per se, this is about the value of a community space for education, entertainment, connection & bridging the increasing digital & social divide in our great nation - in fact, in preserving democracy. A democracy requires its participants to be educated & it should be a basic right in America that everyone have access (throughout their lives) to educational materials, such as books, ebooks, databases, articles, journals, magazines, online versions of all of those things, videos, audio books, and so on. The library currently serves that function. Why? Because, overall, taking care of all levels of the community is not a big moneymaker, so the free market system will not rise to the occasion. They'll only take on the aspects of that problem when & where they can find a line of profit.

Read more at: Why don't libraries...?
Posted: 2010-11-05T08:38:00.003-04:00

Centralization vs. innovation? by

I've worked for:

a large library automation consortium
a county library IT department
a state library

Recently, I've been working with committees for:

a library automation consortium
a statewide portal for state agencies/egovernment

Something that's ALWAYS bothered me, that I mull a lot, is the power of centralized vs. decentralized when building systems. When I worked for a library automation consortium, I was convinced that increasing the amount of centralization would enhance services. When I began working for a county system that ran its own automation platform, I began to notice how much more quickly we could react to the changes in technology than could a large consortium.

As Web2.0 became the trend, I noticed how some of the smallest, least assuming libraries managed to extend services or create more sophisticated web experiences than the big libraries. I wondered if the innovation happened closest to the ground, where the people building the systems were directly in touch with the experiences of the end users, good or bad.

I know that the architecture of the web is an enshrinement of the principle that decentralization ensures progress, innovation, and sustainability. Should a search engine create a better algorithm, the other search engines will try to improve on it. Should a node go out, that's fine, the net routes around it. There is no single point of failure. With Web2.0 the number of communication channels have increased. News often travels most quickly online via social networking sites - Twitter & Facebook, for example. So this argues for the power of a seemingly organic method of growing systems.

Governments build things in a more official, hierarchical, and centralized way. As a result, innovation is often stifled.

On the other hand, without centralization, we are constantly reinventing the wheel and duplicating efforts, are we not? Aren't there economies of scale in having everyone pool their money and bargain with the big vendors for the best possible setup that would cover all of the members of a project (whether we're talking about groups of governmental agencies or library consortia)? Wouldn't it be great if there were standards that users of multiple libraries or governmental agencies could count on when dealing with those entities?

An additional foil to a more tightly regulated, centralized system being the answer for library or governmental systems is the concept of monopolies of power. If the system is fully centralized, the power lies all in one place. There are no competitors. There is no ability to seek alternatives to the Dept. of Revenue Services, for example. In time, the relationships between the agency or library system and the customer grow strained. The customer has no options, no way out if the agency or library system isn't giving them satisfaction. It creates a very standardized experience, but not a user-centered experience.

But maybe that's part of the issue. If we could just center on the users' needs, maybe we would know how to build systems and services more effectively. The greatest successes happen where the maker's vision intersects with the users' needs & desires. That's where both libraries and governmental agencies want to go.

I'm open to your responses to this question of centralization vs. decentralization of systems and services. I've been wanting to post it for a long time and every time I envisioned writing about the issue, I was much more eloquent than this. But it's time to stop worrying about that and just get the discussion going.

Read more at: Centralization vs. innovation?
Posted: 2010-10-27T10:24:00.004-04:00

Collaborative Content Teams by

So we've done quite a few things to prepare for our content migration (from a static html site to a Drupal-based site).

I've had decent luck with a test run of the Import HTML Drupal module (though I could only test it on one of my laptop-based stacks because it has some PHP prerequisites that precluded running it elsewhere (on hosted sites), such as the HTML Tidy PHP library & XML/XSL support). I also had to first detach our dynamic web templates & get rid of the header & footer include file statements to ensure that I wasn't getting extra junk...

We've defined a high-level taxonomy that were turned into content teams. The taxonomy was gleaned from the hard work of our taxonomy team (with the much-appreciated help of volunteer card sorters who took the top 100 pages of our current site & sorted them into categories they felt were appropriate, then gave those categories labels. BTW, though I didn't run stats as to how much difference there was, the card sort exercises did clearly demonstrate how much deeper (than non-librarian card sorters) the librarians wanted to go into categorization. Not a big surprise, I suppose, but I think it helps us to see how our navigation schemes have gotten so convoluted.)

The content teams are now assigned with telling me which pages in their areas can just be imported in (vs. those that have to be rewritten or rethought).

I tried to exclude from the teams' lists the content pages which would lend themselves to the creation of new content types (using the CCK module) & the use of the Views module to assemble that segmented content in what will appear to the end-user as a page, but I've probably missed a few.

Currently, I'm trying out the Links Package module in response to a discussion that came up in the first of our content team meetings. I feel like the all of the discussion and feedback from our content teams is already helping us to hone our migration strategy. The product will be better tomorrow because of our debates and decisions today. And that's a key benefit of collaborative work.

Read more at: Collaborative Content Teams
Posted: 2010-10-18T16:50:00.004-04:00

The Centralization Conundrum by

I've been thinking about this issue since I started working with library systems at a library automation consortium in 1998. The question is - which type of architecture works better and under which circumstances - one hierarchically dictated, centralized, large-scale system that provides for many different organizations - or a decentralized architecture, with each organization having its own individual system that meets local business needs.

The centralized system sounds like it would offer economies of scale. However, in many cases the centralized system is at such a scale that it costs exponentially more. The key advantage a centralized system really offers is the advantage that comes with centralized training and troubleshooting. One knowledgebase required, one set of experts who can solve all of its issues. So that's the real advantage.

The downside is that the centralized system wasn't necessarily built in a way that meets the needs of the individual organizations who've been sucked into it. The alternative - many little systems, one for each organization - allow that organization to customize things to meet their "on the ground" needs, to do real user-centered design. That's a level of flexibility and adaptability that centralized systems just don't offer. But it requires greater technological fluency on the part of each organization. The good news is that we're all more technologically fluent than we used to be and as new players enter the workforce, we grow still more fluent.

Then there is the issue of point of failure - a centralized system offers one. That's why the internet was built the way it was - decentralized. So it could continue functioning at some level no matter what.

I think about this issue of centralization v. decentralization a lot in terms of e-government. In an era when the technology for web-based services is so easy and cheap (or free), why can't agencies offer web-based services and information that are more usable and accessible? Take a look at this great article on e-government & you'll find a blueprint for how we could make government more technologically adept and user-friendly.

The old command and control model is hierarchical, centralized, and NOT web-speed. There needs to be a new model. It needs to focus on creating frameworks that allow the individual entities to do what they need to do to succeed with their customers. It needs to focus on ensuring collaboration, education, communication, interorganizational-compatibility, and usability for all stakeholders.

Read more at: The Centralization Conundrum
Posted: 2010-10-06T14:23:00.003-04:00

Putting Citizens First by

I’ve been watching the #gov20 Twitter stream since the Government2.0 summit last month (the few times I actually feel like I have a moment to look at Twitter, that is!) Through the stream, I learned about a great white paper called “Putting Citizens First: Transforming Online Government” (PDF) that was put together by the Federal Web Managers council.

What struck me about it most was that you could pretty much exchange the terms "government" and "agencies" with "library" and "libraries" and the paper would often be right on the mark.

A case in point:

… promise the American people that when they need [library] information and services online, they will be able to:

Easily find relevant, accurate, and up-to-date information;
Understand information the first time they read it;
Complete common tasks efficiently;
Get the same answer whether they use the web, phone, email, live chat, read a brochure, or visit in-person;
Provide feedback and ideas and hear what the government will do with them;
Access critical information if they have a disability or aren’t proficient in English.

Further:

Establish Web Communications as a core [library] function

One of the biggest problems we face in improving [library] websites is that many [libraries] still view their website as an IT project rather than as a core business function. Many [library] websites lack a dedicated budget. Only a minority of [libraries] have developed strong web policies and management controls. Some have … “legacy” websites with outdated or irrelevant content. With limited resources, many find it difficult to solicit regular customer input and take quick action to improve their sites. While there are many effective [library] websites, most web teams are struggling to manage ...

...[Libraries] should be required to fund their “virtual” [community] space as part of their critical infrastructure, in the same way they fund their “bricks and mortar” [community] space.

[Libraries] should be required to appoint an editor-in-chief for every website they maintain, as do the top commercial websites. This person should be given appropriate funding and authority to develop and enforce web policies and publishing standards, including ensuring that prime real estate on [library] websites is dedicated to helping people find the information they need.

[Library management] should develop standard job descriptions and core training requirements so [libraries] can hire and retain highly qualified experts in web content and new media—not just IT specialists.

And there are other points as salient for libraries as they are for other governmental agencies, such as these report sections/headings:

Help the public complete common [library] tasks efficiently
Clean up the clutter so people can find what they need online
Engage the public in a dialogue to improve our customer service
Ensure underserved populations can access critical information online

The whole report is worth reading (and it's pretty quick to do so, at just 4 pages), so I won't elaborate on those sections here. Overall, it left me feeling that we (governmental agencies and libraries) ALL have a lot of work to do.

Read more at: Putting Citizens First
Posted: 2010-10-04T12:08:00.004-04:00

sorry it's been so long... by

Wow, can you believe it's practically October? That's crazy - well, we still have a day left of September... OK, so what've I been doing... well, the stuff I can talk about (I know, I know. I'm a big advocate of transparency, but until the system changes, given the type of larger environment I operate in, I really can't say too much. sigh):

User eXperience Roundtable (the roundtables are efforts to bring libraries together to share information - coordinated by the Ct. Library Consortium) - we had a meeting down at lovely Darien Public Library, where we toured the amazing facilities and listened to Associate Director of User Experience, John Blyberg, explain their user-centered design (of both the physical and digital aspects of their library, which are intertwined)
DrupalCampCT - volunteered there & attended as presentations as possible anyway... plus, I attend most of the Central CT Drupal Meetups (many thanks to our organizer, who ensures that we have regular and very productive meetings every month)
DrupalCamp NYPL - attended both days of this great event, put on by the New York Public Library, who recently switched over to a gorgeous Drupal-based website. We're all so grateful that they shared their expertise and experiences. I hope that one day my organization can give back to the community, much as they have.

Probably the most powerful thing I've learned in the past 5 weeks is how amazing the Drupal community is for help, training, support, troubleshooting. There is a passion among Drupal users to help lift one another up. So they do this, sans reward (for free). But in repayment, you just have to know that you owe it to community to give back when, where, and how -ever you can. I can't wait until I can give back!

Read more at: sorry it's been so long...
Posted: 2010-09-30T05:23:00.002-04:00

Hello Android! by

Hello Android!

Well, I finally made my decision to move away from Blackberry and to start using Android. My Blackberry was great the first year, but it really started to have issues the second year. For example, it would drop calls unpredictably and became pathetically slow even after multiple reinstalls. Regardless, I won’t dwell on my Blackberry woes because, for the most part, it was a good phone.

So, let’s rewind two weeks. I started exploring other cell phone carriers and then started reviewing the overwhelming world of smart phones. My wife and I looked at the 3 main carriers: Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. T-Mobile had the best deal for us (we have 5 phones on our plan) and we both were able to upgrade to Samsung Vibrant (Galaxy S) phones with the Android 2.1 operating system (Kernel version: 2.6.29). Playing with this phone in the store sold me instantly. I was, quite frankly, blown away by the speed, intuitive interface, the crisp high-definition screen that was flawlessly playing the preloaded ‘Avatar’ movie. Oh, and Swype texting is awesome. I don’t need a keyboard anymore. Okay, so I won’t go into all the technical specifications, but if you are interested visit http://galaxy-s.t-mobile.com/samsung-android-galaxy-phone for more information.

I did play with an iPhone and loved it too, but the Samsung phone seemed much smoother and quicker to me. Plus the screen is way better in my opinion.

So, I have had my Samsung phone for a little over 2 weeks and I am still in love. Here are some of my favorite apps so far:

A Online Radio – online radio plays MP3/M3U/PLS/AAC channels, shoutcast/icecast etc.
Aldiko – eBook Reader.
Barcode Scanner - scan product barcodes, Data Matrix and QR Codes. Also share your contacts, apps, and bookmarks via QR Code.
Congress – keep up with new legislation, contact info for legislators etc.
Dolphin Browser HD – an excellent browser that offers tabs, add-ons, and much more. My favorite add-on is the Dolphin Reader, which provides an “interference-free reading environment.”
Evernote – create notes, tag them, and sync from anywhere.
Fring – free video calls.
Google (Talk, Voice, Maps with Latitude, Google Goggles so you can use pictures to search the web).
Kindle – eBook reader.
Kobo - eBook reader.
Laputa – eBook reader.
Layar – Augmented reality with multiple layers.
mSpot – send 2 GBs of your music to the “cloud” and listen from your phone or any other connected device.
NetQFree – manage your Netflix queue and read reviews etc.
Nook – eBook Reader
News apps (NPR News, NYTimes, TechNews)
Pandora – free personalized radio.
PocketCloud – remotely access your desktop.
Rhapsody – listen to a huge collection of music anytime and from anywhere.
TaskOS – task manager.
TweetCaster – Twitter application.
TweetDeck – Twitter application.
YouTube – for mobile!

Read more at: Hello Android!
Posted: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:13:49 PDT

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The time is now for digital textbooks, http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/oreilly/radar/atom/~3/7fTVWn9thKI/punctuated-equilibrium-httpbit.html

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Posted: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:01:02 PDT

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Brave New World With Such Google Transparency In It, http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/3LI84nxBWcQ/

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Posted: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 05:03:34 PDT

Farewell, Bloglines, It's Been Swell by

Bloglines, the venerable RSS reader that I -- and tens of thousands of others -- have used since 2005 is shutting down on October 1, 2010. Bloglines is making it easy to continue your feedreading habit elsewhere, replacing their front page with the 3 simple steps to export your folders and subscriptions in OPML format:

Exporting Bloglines subscriptions into OPML (click for larger version)

The inevitability of this, in retrospect, seems enormous, and I'm surprised my fondness for Bloglines' simplicity has made me put up with its quirky behavior. (Quirky, of course, means almost constant brief outages on their perpetual beta version.) Bloglines' move into selling advertisements on its front page (see Bloglines Succumbs to Advertising from September 2008) was obviously not enough to bring in the revenue needed to keep the service. When your only serious competitor is Google, I suspect almost nothing can save you. In the blog post announcing the shut down, the trend behind the news is made clear:

The real-time information RSS was so astute at delivering (primarily, blog feeds) is now gained through conversations, and consuming this information has become a social experience. As Steve Gillmor pointed out in TechCrunch last year, being locked in an RSS reader makes less and less sense to people as Twitter and Facebook dominate real-time information flow. Today RSS is the enabling technology - the infrastructure, the delivery system. RSS is a means to an end, not a consumer experience in and of itself. As a result, RSS aggregator usage has slowed significantly, and Bloglines isn't the only service to feel the impact. The writing is on the wall.

I made a similar point about the phase change in RSS from being a commodity in itself to being a transport mechanism in September 2009. Just as soundbite reporting in television and radio news changed that medium, so has 'textbite' exchange of information on the Internet. The overwhelming force of the conversation in Twitter and Facebook -- where the granularity of information exchange is much smaller and seems to permeate the Internet with greater fluidity -- has changed the game. I'm not giving up on my RSS feeds (from blogs, news services, and other sources), but I'm switching to the only other game in town: Google Reader.

Read more at: Farewell, Bloglines, It's Been Swell
Posted: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:19:27 -0500

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http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/google-verizon-fcc-war-over-internets-future/19605776/

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Posted: Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:35:31 PDT

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http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/09/08/google-engineer-on-adding-social-to-google-instant-stay-tuned/

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Posted: Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:21:39 PDT

Mashable Shared Story by

Google's Music Service to Launch by Christmas [REPORT]: http://bit.ly/9eHeSS

Sent from my iPod

Read more at: Mashable Shared Story
Posted: Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:56:26 PDT

5 Useful Facebook Trend and Search Services (Source: Mashable) by

As the world's largest social network, Facebook is a fascinating place to find out what's hot, what's news, and discover the latest meme.

Despite recent improvements, Facebook's in-site search doesn't necessarily offer the best way to see such data. However, there are various services that provide a dedicated way to either search Facebook's 500 million-strong data stream (at least what's made public), or see what's "trending" on the site in a way that's similar to Twitter.

While we can't overlook the fact that search engines like Google and Bing have begun offering "social search," we think the five services listed below offer a more useful way to find out what people are saying about a particular topic, or even find out what's being "Liked" in your social circle.
---------------

1. Kurrently
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Kurrently is a dedicated search engine for both Twitter and Facebook, but you can narrow down the options to see results from one service or the other.

Kurrently's great selling point is that the search results continue to refresh after you've looked up a word or phrase, so you can experience the kind of auto-updating hashtag search we're already familiar with on Twitter.

Kurrently's programmer Gilbert Leung said he started the site because he wanted to get a sense of the global sentiment on a certain issue.

"Twitter Search was the obvious tool at the time," says Leung, "but my immediate question was, What about Facebook?' Why am I searching through a community of around 60 million when a network of around 500 million exists?'"
---------------

2. It's Trending
---------------

Right now It's Trending offers a non-searchable, real-time feed of the most shared content across Facebook, which is useful for anyone who wants a snapshot glimpse of the social web's current zeitgeist in an incredibly simple and uncomplicated way.

Giving you a new way to see hot topics across categories (video, news, sports, tech, gaming, comedy, etc) and across popular sites (Cracked, YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, TechCrunch, Huffington Post, NY Times, CNN and yes, Mashable) it's a good-looking service that has big plans for the future so definitely one to watch.
---------------

3. Openbook
---------------

While many of you may already be familiar with Openbook, it's worthy of a place on this list for how simple it is to search, or see what others are searching for.

Also worth mentioning for marketeers or researchers is Openbook's unique ability to see search results from just male or female Facebookers something that's an incredibly useful tool if you need to narrow down data on a gender basis.
---------------

4. Booshaka
---------------

Recent startup Booshaka offers a real-time look at what's trending on Facebook based on open search keywords, as well as via topic if you're interested in more a general browse.

Main channel topics include news, music, sports, politics, gossip, TV, fashion, movies, deals, travel, brands and games (with each broken down into further sub-topics). Clicking on one of these will give you a stream of updates from relevant accounts.

Once you've carried out a topic search, you can see how many "Likes" and comments a Facebook post has received, and narrow down the results by what's trending now, what's most popular, what's most recent, and what has the biggest "buzz."

These further options could potentially help identify up-and-coming trends, as well as find out what folks are saying about established ones.
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5. Facepinch
---------------

Facepinch promises to let you know popular "Likes" (as well as create your own "Like"), view hot trending topics, and see what's being sought after on Facebook with its top 100 most popular searches list. There is also the option to see recent searches if you're more interested in what's happening right now.

While there's no data to be gleaned from it, you can also browse recently updated profile pics with a gallery of random Facebook users' names and thumbnails. The site's default is the U.S., but you can select specific countries if you've an interest in a particular geographical area.

The service's creator, London-based Andrew Webb, states that besides the more obvious voyeuristic uses, he sees value in the site for brands:

"[C]ompanies and marketing professionals [can] see an unfiltered glimpse of how their products are being really perceived by the public."
---------------

BONUS: Like Button
---------------

More aimed at finding out what's hot in your own social circle, Like Button shows you "what people you know like on the Internet right now."

If you're signed in via Facebook, you can see what your buddies have "Liked" on popular pre-loaded sites such as YouTube, CNN, The Huffington Post, etc, and via categories including news, social media, tech, Apple, etc. But there is the infinitely useful option to add sites of your choosing too, making the Like Button site a personalized social window on the web.

You can also click to view a brief overview of what's hot on Facebook with the nine top trends displayed and refreshed every 15 minutes.

In addition, and on the fun side of things, Like Button lets you create your very own "Like" and "Dislike" buttons, the former of which looks like this when posted to your Facebook wall:

---------------

More Facebook Resources from Mashable:
---------------

- 10 Fascinating Facebook Facts
- 10 Cool Facebook Status Tips and Tricks
- How News Consumption is Shifting to the Personalized Social News Stream
- How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook's Open Graph
- 10 Fun Facebook Accessories

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sodafish

More About: booshaka, facebook, facebook apps, facebook tools, facepinch, It's Trending, Kurrently, like button, List, Lists, openbook, Search, search engines, trends, web apps

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Read more at: 5 Useful Facebook Trend and Search Services (Source: Mashable)
Posted: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:34:06 PDT

Mobile Users Prefer Coupons to Checkins [REPORT] (Source: Mashable) by

As mobile users become more acclimated to sharing their whereabouts via mobile devices, findings from JiWire's Mobile Audience Insights Report prove that they're also becoming more open to receiving ads and mobile coupons relevant to where they are.

In fact, more than 50% of respondents indicated that they wanted to receive location-specific advertising, with mobile coupons a more appealing incentive than checkins.

In the report, mobile media company JiWire examines market trends around audience data over public Wi-Fi during the second quarter of 2010. The survey portion of the study focused on location-based mobile services and queried respondents on their location-sharing habits and attitudes.

Men showed more interest in sharing their location than women, and those in the 25-34 and 35-44 age categories indicated more openness than younger and older age groups. Responses also showed that mobile users are nearly as likely to use location-based services in their homes as they are while on the go.

JiWire also looked at the most popular LBS applications, and the functionalities and features that are most appealing to users. GPS and applications such as Google Maps ranked highest. Google, Yelp, Facebook and Foursquare round out the top five in sequential order. Interestingly enough, coupons and discounts placed second only to maps, and out-ranked reviews, status updates and checkins when users ranked the most valuable features of location-based applications.

The data is extremely telling and could point to a future where discount-oriented, location-sharing apps à la Shopkick make a major impact on mainstream mobile shopping behaviors. With Facebook set to make a big location announcement later today, it's also interesting to note that in the eyes of mobile users, the behemoth social network already out ranks Foursquare in location utility.

The full report is available as a free PDF and includes interesting data on the increase in free public Wi-Fi and the most popular Wi-Fi mobile devices.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Thomas_EyeDesign

More About: checkins, foursquare, geolocation, jiwire, location based advertising, location sharing, Mobile 2.0, mobile coupons, study

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Read more at: Mobile Users Prefer Coupons to Checkins [REPORT] (Source: Mashable)
Posted: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:26:57 PDT

How Mobile is Affecting the Way We E-mail (Source: Mashable) by

This series is brought to you by the new BlackBerry Torch, the touch screen BlackBerry complete with social feeds, improved internet browsing, and much more.

As smartphone and mobile web usage continues to soar, users are spending more and more time on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. But how is the mobile web impacting the oldest form of Internet communication, e-mail?

For desktop Internet users, e-mail may be playing second-fiddle to the likes of Facebook and social games like FarmVille, but on mobile devices, e-mail is still number one.

In fact, new research from The Nielsen Company suggests that e-mail represents 41.6% of mobile Internet time for users in the United States.

Putting that in perspective, if all mobile Internet time was condensed into one hour of usage, e-mail would represent 25 minutes of time spent.

In fact, mobile e-mail usage continues to grow, even as social media continues to become a bigger and bigger part of the mobile experience. Last fall, ExactTarget commissioned a study on smartphone Internet usage and found that the rise in social media adoption has lead to an increase in how much we e-mail from our mobile devices, and not the decrease many analysts were predicting.
---------------

Mobile E-mail is NOT Just for Business
---------------

It's easy to conflate mobile e-mail with business users, after all, this was the demographic that first fully embraced the ability to send and receive messages from their mobile devices.

Over the years, however, e-mail usage on mobile devices has become less about business and more about staying in touch with personal contacts. According to ExactTarget's research, 71% of business professionals with smartphones said that they send more personal e-mails than work-related missives from their mobile devices.

Don't let the business suit fool you next time you see a smartly dressed corporate type tapping away on their phone, chances are, they are probably e-mailing with friends.

Part of the reason we're seeing an increase in personal e-mail communication devices is because of the nature of mobile. Users are always connected to their inbox and thus, can always receive a message.
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E-Mail for Breakfast and After Sex
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As we noted earlier this summer, more than 50% of U.S. online users check their e-mail before doing anything else online.

When you consider that peak Internet usage often takes place around 7 a.m., it's not a stretch to say that many of us check our e-mail on our mobile phones before, well, stretching and getting out of bed.

It's not just when we wake up that we check e-mail; studies indicate that more and more individuals check e-mail in the middle of the night and even after sex.

Again, the always-connected nature and location-ambivalence of mobile devices makes it easier for users to check their message or jot off a quick note, whether it's the most appropriate time or not. I think we've all seen "that guy" at a solemn event like a funeral desperately trying to refrain from checking his BlackBerry during the service. Heck, some of us may even be that guy.
---------------

Is Social Media Eroding E-mail Usage?
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Last year, Nielsen looked into what impact social media is having on e-mail usage. The results showed that there is a strong correlation between those who are frequent e-mail users and users that are also active across social media.

In fact, the study basically showed that social media makes users consume more e-mail, not less. Part of this is an effect of the e-mail nature of many social networks. Facebook, for instance, sends you an e-mail when you get a new wall post or someone sends you a message. Likewise, Twitter and Foursquare send you follower updates, and Twitter sends out direct message notifications.

Many blog comment systems can notify users when someone has responded to an article online, and services like Google Buzz bring commenting on social statuses or shared Google Reader items to the inbox.

We should note, however, that more and more users are starting to treat services like Facebook as replacements for an e-mail inbox. E-mail is still more versatile, but for users that have a heavily populated social graph, sometimes social networking services can offer a more convenient messaging experience.

Have your e-mail habits changed since buying a smartphone? Let us know in the comments!
---------------
Series supported by BlackBerry Torch
---------------

Discover the new BlackBerry Torch. With a touch screen, a slide out keyboard, and the new BlackBerry 6 OS not to mention BlackBerry Messenger, integrated social feeds and improved web browsing the BlackBerry Torch helps you do what you love. Join the BlackBerry Facebook Community and stay up-to-date with all the latest BlackBerry news.
---------------

More Mobile Resources from Mashable:
---------------

- Top 16 Unusual Foursquare Badges
- 5 iPhone Apps to Help You Learn to Dance
- A Look Back at the Last 5 Years in Mobile
- Top 5 Mobile Commerce Trends for 2010
- Why QR Codes Are Poised to Hit the Mainstream

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, graphixel
---------------
Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Google Buzz, Google Reader, Internet, Twitter, iStockphoto

More About: e-mail, mobile web, stats, web usage

For more Mobile coverage:
Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter
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Read more at: How Mobile is Affecting the Way We E-mail (Source: Mashable)
Posted: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:30:30 PDT

Survey Report on Librarians' Use of Online Tools by

A recent survey of WebJunction users showed some interesting statistics on use of various online tools by librarians (the write-up is at at "Library Staff Report Their Use of Online Tools"). The trend from the survey indicates that social media (such as Facebook) is making inroads on email as a communication tool. Of particular interest to me is the finding that RSS feeds are used daily or weekly by only 24% of respondents and used never by 50%. Blogs are used daily or weekly by only 27%, and never by 40%. I know I spend much less time reading blogs (and, as those of you who read RSS4Lib in its native blog for or via RSS might notice, writing for one). I do wonder how much RSS usage is un-noticed or un-recognized by respondents; as RSS (and XML in general) become the way data move, do its consumers care how the data appear where they're consumed? The survey results highlight differences between academic and public librarians (academic librarians are more likely to use online tools than their public counterparts) and a series of interesting differences between urban and rural librarians.

Read more at: Survey Report on Librarians' Use of Online Tools
Posted: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:49:18 -0500

RIP Google Wave (Source: Mashable) by

Google Wave, a product once heralded by many as a massively disruptive communication tool (heck, invites were even selling for $70 on eBay), is no more.

In a blog post this afternoon, Google says they "don't plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product," though the code for it will remain available as open source.

The move isn't much of a surprise; adoption never seemed to materialize for Google Wave even after it dropped its invite-only status as users struggled to find meaningful use cases for the service (though we found a few).

What's most interesting about Wave, perhaps, is the spectacular rate of its rise and fall. It was easily one of the most hyped products of 2009, but within months of its launch, the buzz had almost completely disappeared.

The product might've been more successful had it been integrated into Gmail (basic e-mail notifications weren't even part of the launch), though Google hasn't had much success with Buzz in that department either.

In any event, Wave represents another disappointment in Google's long line of attempts at social, an area in which the company is now reportedly eyeing a completely new approach. Shutting down Wave, it would seem, is a logical step in moving on.

[img credit: Vaguleartisti]

More About: Google, Google Wave, trending

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Read more at: RIP Google Wave (Source: Mashable)
Posted: Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:20:25 PDT

RIP Google Wave by

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/Uv3gBl_YaDw/

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Posted: Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:19:22 PDT

Facebook Taking Gaming Seriously, Hiring Head of Games Partnerships (Source: TechCrunch) by

(Schools should pay attention to this job description to better prepare students for opportunities like this in the future!)

If there was any doubt before, it's clear now that Facebook is embracing the fact that games are a core part of its experience, and it's taking its relationship with gaming companies very seriously. The company has recently posted a job listing for a Head of Games Partnerships, who will be asked to "develop and enhance successful partnerships and influence internal and external partners and industry stakeholders in the Gaming industry." Facebook exec Dan Rose, who used to head the company's global business development and is now VP of Partnerships and Platform Marketing, posted a link to the listing twelve hours ago.

Gaming has been very popular on Facebook for quite a while, but the social network has created a strained relationship with some developers as it's changed the rules on the fly by cutting off the viral notifications channel and pressuring developers to use official Facebook Credits (which Facebook gets a 30% cut of).

But now the battle over games and developers is heating up: Google is preparing to launch a new social strategy with a social network rumored to be called Google Me, and gaming will play a big part in that. Google has already forged an alliance with Zynga, which has long been a major source of Facebook traffic and advertising dollars.

The news also comes just a week after a Nielsen report found that in the US, online gaming was beating email in terms of time spent online, with half of Americans playing online games like FarmVille.
The full job listing:

Facebook is seeking a leader for our Strategic Partner Development team to build and manage a high performance team, develop and enhance successful partnerships and influence internal and external partners and industry stakeholders in the Gaming industry. This job requires high levels of creativity and strategic thinking, as you'll be called upon to help both large, incumbent gaming companies as well as venture-backed gaming start-ups develop innovative social gaming experiences building on Facebook Platform. This team is the face of Facebook to our external gaming partner relationships and serves as the primary point of contact for both internal and external stakeholders. You should be as comfortable pitching and negotiating deals with partners as working cross-functionally with colleagues in Product, Engineering, Sales, Operations, Finance, Marketing, and Legal to create new social experiences that meet the strategic objectives of partners and Facebook. You should also expect to handle day-to-day operations and partnership management with many of our most important gaming partners, develop and execute on strategic partner initiatives and advocate internally and externally for our social gaming partners.

Responsibilities: •Build, train, manage and grow a high-performing team of talented and motivated partner-facing individuals •Develop and drive our gaming partner strategy to support the continued growth and success of our partners and social gaming on Facebook •Scale our gaming Partner Development team by hiring highly talented and motivated individuals • Initiate, structure, negotiate, and maintain high impact strategic gaming partnerships. •Support new partners through launch process and liaise with Facebook product and technical support. •Track, analyze, and communicate key quantitative metrics and develop and execute against partner account plans. •Become the primary point of contact for and maintain strong direct relationships with Facebook's key gaming partners • Be an internal and external advocate for our gaming partners.
Requirements
Requirements: •BA/BS degree with outstanding academic performance. MBA a plus. •10+ years experience, including 5 years of related partner or partner facing experience •Extensive experience in the gaming industry • Business development experience negotiating complex media or Internet deals preferred. •Deep passion for Facebook products and social gaming • Strong management and coaching skills •Proven track record of initiating and successfully driving new business opportunities. •Excellent project management experience, with the ability to lead and execute multiple time-sensitive projects •Exceptional communication and presentation skills, and the ability to clarify and summarize complex issues • Demonstrated ability to think strategically about complex issues, leading to thoughtful recommendations and action plans.

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Read more at: Facebook Taking Gaming Seriously, Hiring Head of Games Partnerships (Source: TechCrunch)
Posted: Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:31:59 PDT

Not Just Roving Reference, Roving Circulation?! by

I spent part of my morning at the wildly successful (so crowded, there was a line of people in front of the "Genius Bar" at 9:30 in the AM ... and they don't officially open until 10!) Apple store in the Westfarms Mall (West Hartford, CT).

Last time I'd been there, there was a traditional checkout counter toward the front of the store and the Genius bar in back. Now, there was nothing in front but more desktop/display space with more Apple products that could be tried out by the passing customers. If you wanted to line up (as apparently, we did, given how instinctively we created a queue at the back of the store), you had to head to the Genius bar. Now, mind you, the store wasn't open until 10. Before 10, however, a person came out to deal with the line, triaging & figuring out where/when/whom people needed to work with to get done what they wanted to get done (there are also preset appointments with "Apple geniuses" that the store recommends you set up online ahead of time). Suddenly, the line wasn't a problem. We all felt like we were being helped.

The person who helped me - the "Business Specialist" - had a little device on him that looked like an iPhone. Only it wasn't. It was a bit thicker than an iPhone. AND... he was able to do my whole transaction with that device - he rang me up, swiped my credit card on one side of the machine, even created a discount to deal with my tax exempt situation, and emailed the receipt to me. The only part that required him to leave my side was the printing of a physical receipt, which he quickly returned with. And voila, I was done, adapter cable purchased.

SOoooo - I was asking him how people liked the lack of the checkout desk & he said that even the users were thrilled with it. There was no longer a bottleneck in that area, he said.

I'd noticed, however, that the new setup really required a lot of clearly identified Apple store employees (they all wear blue shirts & a lanyard & I think an id) who were PROACTIVE in helping the customers, so no one felt too lost without the central checkout stand. There was also a high number of employees out there to handle the crowd.

But as we talked, he mentioned that he would add me to the list of people who might be interested in learning when this mobile cash register device was made available to everyone. Apparently, it's only available to Apple stores, but Apple is planning on production of these things. It's a FAN-TASTIC idea!

So imagine what this means for libraries. The next big thing won't just be roving reference, but roving circulation! We'd better limber up & get used to being proactive in our customer service skills, introducing ourselves and offering to help.

Read more at: Not Just Roving Reference, Roving Circulation?!
Posted: 2010-08-04T10:50:00.002-04:00

Library of Congress Gets a Mobile App by

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Posted: Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:23:03 PDT

Blackberry Aims For the KIN Generation, But Is It Too Late? (Source: TechCrunch) by

Want to know why Blackberry launches are so exciting to so many? Because it means those chained to RIM because of their IT departments dependence on Blackberry mail services will get new phones. So what is this inexplicable Blackberry Torch and what does it mean for the brave folks in RIMs Canadian mountain fortress? First off, office drones, don't expect to get the Torch with all its security breaching social media razzmatazz. You'll probably get a toned down version with much of the functionality locked down. That's the first problem.

The second problem, as Matt noted before, RIM isn't very good at consumer grade products. While I'll agree that Blackberries are, bar none, the best email devices out there, they have all the sexiness of a road accident.

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Posted: Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:22:24 PDT

My Audio Ebook Mis-Adventures: A Lesson in UX Fail! by

[Warning: this is a total rant. There's a lot of "WTF" and other inappropriate language...]
Basically, I’m going to walk you through a process that might leave you saying - geez, can’t believe she didn’t know how to do that. But the moment you think that, I want you to stop. Because I’ve been involved with computers since I was in middle school. I’ve been a systems librarian effectively since 1998. Before that, I was the informal dorm expert on everyone’s computer setup. They sought me out because I could figure it out. It’s possible that I’ve lost iq points over the years, or just lost patience. But - put it this way - I can GUARANTEE that if I’M HAVING THIS PROBLEM, OTHERS ARE TOO!

But they’re voting with their feet. You aren’t hearing from them because they - like my brother-in-law (who is, yes, only interested in audio books & videos & having gone through his local public library’s collection & not being allowed to get a broader set of options through ILL, refuses to go back to the library - feeling that there’s nothing there for him). That’s right. He literally feels that his public library (which is a pretty progressive and moderately well-funded public library) HAS NOTHING FOR HIM. THE LIBRARY IS FOR SOMEONE ELSE. Is HE going to stand up and fight to pay more taxes to support his library? I think not.

But Webhead, you say, my statistics show that people ARE USING OVERDRIVE!!!!!! LOTS OF PEOPLE!!!! OK, NO. The answer is - according to Overdrive - I now have 5 (with a limit of 5 possible) titles out. I can’t listen to 4 of the 5 and the 5th I can listen to on the Mac Mini, but NOT ON MY IPHONE WHICH WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE PROJECT. YOUR STATISTICS LIE! PEOPLE TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT FRUSTRATION. (As an aside, the deal is this - people have enough frustration, fears, anxieties, and issues in their lives that they HAVE to deal with, that’s why they whine about the little things that don't work when they should.)

Ok, so here’s how the whole thing went down. I finally decided to return to my local library. I had garden and pool work I wanted to do this afternoon & an audio book sounded like it would fit the bill - I’d get to learn something & get the mundane tasks completed, simultaneously. Perfect. I went to the audio books section. It was lean. Not much in the way of new titles. I’d pretty much listened to the tapes and CDs that were there or else they weren’t of interest at all. But there was a big sign telling me about their Overdrive audio ebook section. Go online, it told me.

Now, I’d tried doing this exact thing before a trip in May. I’d banged my head against the Overdrive audio ebook wall for over an hour that go ‘round. Then I decided, screw it, I had to go to bed, and that was that.

But I figured - today I’m under less pressure, not packing to go away or anything, and I have this new higher-speed cable broadband. I also have my new wireless-N router to test out. So I went online to my local public library website. I saw the graphical link to Overdrive in the right-hand column, so I clicked on it. And voila! I’m at the local library’s automation network’s “Downloadable eMedia Catalog”. The welcome screen promises:

“Download digital media 24/7 to your PC, Mac or portable device. Now your library never closes!”

Wow! That sounds awesome, I think. I immediately want to search & see if the titles I want are available (& in the format that works for my iPhone). I can do a really basic search, but there's no easy way to specify that one of my search parameters is that I want the title to be an audio book & to be in iPhone-compatible foramt. That's a huge fail. (Yes, you can do this in Advanced Search if you (a) can find it; (b) understand the difference between these 3 options: "Adobe EPUB ebook"; "Overdrive MP3 AudioBook"; "Overdrive WMA Audiobook". Don't make the person search by these "formats", instead have them narrow their search by the intended use - something more like: "Read the ebook (Adobe EPUB)"; "Listen to the ebook on any device (iPod, Mac, other)"; "Listen to the ebook on a PC/Windows device")

Instead, the content that catches my eye are the streams of book jackets that show me what categories I can browse. There are 6:

1. Recent Additions: eBooks
2. Recent Additions: Audiobooks
3. iPod®-compatible Audiobooks!
4. Top 100 Titles
5. Just Returned
6. Language Instruction

Now, what’s the difference between #2 & #3? If you aren’t a librarian who’d heard about the big audio ebook nightmares that have been going on (since at least 2004, as I recall!) you would just assume that #2 IS playable on an iPod. And honestly, if the reason you’d ended up at this Overdrive site was because you got referred to it from the library’s physical audio books section, you might even be confused by #1 - you might assume that they’re ALL audio books.
But whatever. That’s being a bit picky about the ux.

So I focused in on “Hot, Flat & Crowded” - I really wanted to hear that one. But I forgot it wasn’t under stream #3, which is what I really wanted, because what I really wanted was something for my iPhone. I clicked on the title & got into an item record. Under the book jacket & description, there are little icons that were supposed to show me whether or not the title is something I can use. I see that this one has the following icons not greyed out: PC, WMA, & iPod. So I want the iPod one, I think. I click on the iPod icon. It does nothing. I look for a download link. There is none. I see two links up near the title: “Add to My List" and "Add to Wish List". (BTW, on some titles, there's only "Place a hold" and "Add to Wish List", so I'm GUESSING that you can tell if the title has an available copy w/o going all the way into the item record & looking at the #s of available copies, by seeing if it has an "Add to My List" option. If it does, it means a copy's available right now. Otherwise, you can place a hold or you're out of luck.)

I’m only scanning for a download link, so I don’t notice that it also says - across from these links - “OverDrive WMA Audiobook”. It’s a meaningless distinction anyway, since I don’t know what “OverDrive WMA Audiobook” really means (though what it’s warning me of is that it’s only usable in an OverDrive console and that it’s in Windows Media format). So don’t expect to just download it and play it (of course not!) More problematically, our home computer is a Mac. I got a Mac so I could reduce the amount of personal tech support I do and still get my husband online as easily & quickly as possible. If I were to buy a machine for my mom, I’d do the same thing - I’d stick with Mac. And you’d think that - if this is iPod-friendly - it would be Apple-friendly. But it’s not.

I finally decide that - even though it practically hurts me to do it, since it SEEMS wrong - I hit “Add to My List”. (BTW, WTF is supposed to be the difference between “Add to My List” and “Add to Wish List”? just sayin’...) Ok, now what?

It shows a “My List” screen now with the title & lets me choose to either “Continue Browsing” or “Proceed to Checkout”. Now those are phrases that make good sense to me. I hit “proceed to checkout”.

Oh, son-uva-gun. I can’t tell you with 100% certainty what happens next. You know why? I’ve tried so many goddarned times that I’ve exceeded my 5 title limit. Even though I can’t actually get any of them on my iPhone. And no, apparently, there’s no way for me to return them without downloading them, even though I can’t use them. Ugghhh....

And yes, I downloaded, the damn iPhone app for Overdrive & tried downloading directly through my iPhone, which is a PAINFUL, AWFUL, TERRIBLE process that moves you into the Safari browser, then requires you to go through session authentication by choosing - 1st your home library - then entering your 14-digit library barcode # (which of course is not remembered by your iPhone browser... WTF does the Overdrive app not store this account info - iTunes does & I would've expected that to be the key piece of an iPhone app for Overdrive. And there's a whole world of other fails on the Overdrive iPhone app. It doesn't let you search your library's collection of Overdrive books - or any collection of Overdrive books for that matter - unless they're already downloaded onto your phone.)

Once authenticated (yes, you're totally in the Safari browser on your iPhone now), you can check your account & see what titles you've already "checked out" then hit a button that says "download". But even though I'd only "checked out" titles that were supposedly iPod-friendly, when I hit the "download" button, after the screen switched to the Overdrive app again where it was supposedly downloading the file to, an error 600: format (that it's a WMA file... no kidding!) popped up on the screen. I called the library automation network's help desk and they said that while you couldn't play the WMA's, even through the OD app, on a Mac, supposedly the WMA s that appear in the list of iPod-friendly titles can be played on the OD app for the iPhone. WTF?! Makes absolutely NO sense.

I tried downloading a title onto my Mac & then moving it over to my iPhone, but I could see no way to do that, but that wouldn't have eliminated the WMA format issue, anyway. I then tried just to get an audio ebook title to work on my Mac. The only combo that seemed to work was to go through the list of audio ebook titles, see if the icon for Mac was lit up (& it seemed like there were maybe just a few titles that fit that bill, but I couldn't really tell & was tired of paging through the list - there wasn't a search on that format option that I was able to find), then not only download that, but do so after having 1st downloaded an application from Overdrive for the Mac to play the MP3 title that was Mac-friendly.

And, BTW, despite the promises of the "iPod-friendly" titles that were in WMA, tthe only title I was ever ultimately able to get onto my iPhone was the one that I was able to get on the Mac mini - the Mp3 file. I haven't tried playing it yet. The whole afternoon was lost.

So much fail. Thanks a lot, local library. Thanks a lot, Overdrive. And no, I won’t vote with my feet. I’m a friggin’ librarian. I love my local library. I know that their heart is in the right place. I know it’s not them. I know it’s not the library automation network they get this through. I know that every organization I mentioned here is trying to get us into the 21st-century and keep our libraries relevant (I'm including Overdrive in this).

But honest to god, colleagues, if we aren’t going to offer a REAL, GOOD, USER-TESTED, USER-FRIENDLY SERVICE, let’s not offer the service at all. Because it’s worse to offer something that doesn’t work than to say - no, we’re not capable of doing this, so we only offer the old school services that we do know how to offer.

BETTER STILL, let's just work on making it better. Because it IS a service we need to offer. It's just that we need to do so effectively.

Read more at: My Audio Ebook Mis-Adventures: A Lesson in UX Fail!
Posted: 2010-07-09T16:12:00.003-04:00

Roadmap to Digitization notes from ALA by

On Saturday afternoon, I attended this session which - while billed as "a roadmap for digitization for smaller institutions" still taught me a lot. The speaker was Jacob Nadal, the Preservation Officer at the UCLA library.

There was a lot of background information on file formats & metadata. The parts that seemed most pertinent to our current questions/concerns about digital collections at the State Library included the following recommendations/best practices (though there is no specific order here):

1. Digitization efforts require considerable technical expertise from an IT perspective, so it should be managed by an IT professional
2. Avoid organizing your files by the online presentation or by projects (because digital objects will be reused in ways you cannot yet anticipate)
3. Avoid naming with filenames - use a numeric pattern/accession # (or if it's materials from archives, if there is a collection #/ serial #, use that and you can tack onto the end _Master.tif). If you NAME files, you are adding descriptive metadata into the naming scheme for the file, which is a bad idea (see again the note on digital objects being reused in ways you cannot yet anticipate).
4. Use XML for metadata (because it is a stable format for digital preservation) - can be any schema - but this is what added the essential piece for digital library functionality; you should include metadata specialists from the outset of a digitization project
5. VRA is a good XML schema for digital objects with visual characteristics.
6. Good enough is better than highly detailed/perfectionistic approach to object and its metadata
7. There are certification requirements that "trusted" digital repositories should meet (see OAIS - RLG prepared the certification criteria) & that repositories should meet even if they are not officially certified as "trusted". OCLC's digital archives, and a number of other digital repositories are certified)
8. For digital preservation, many grassroot groups form their own private, local LOCKSS networks - the software is free
9. Digital asset management is probably overkill (& added complexity) for most libraries. It would include managing metadata & materials, but it adds considerably more functionality than that. Digital asset management systems are used by advertising companies, for example, who have to monetize digital assets & control them more strictly for IP & versioning purposes. (I specifically asked about this due to our interest in this type of system and that he hadn't mentioned it in the presentation).
10. Public access to digitized materials isn't the same as digital preservation. He uses Wordpress for the site he runs to offer people public access to digital collections. (Greenstone & Omeka were also mentioned for presentation layer, but he didn't go deeply into this area).
11. For color calibration, you should buy a spectrometer - it's just a couple hundred $ and lasts several years. Trying to get color calibration by eye is a huge mistake. In fact, a study showed that color gets worse the more an "expert" in imaging looks at it - so use the device, it's impartial. Calibrate at least 1 x / week.

His presentation is now up on his site at http://www.jacobnadal.com/84.
A key resource he pointed people to was PREMIS - http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/ - (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies).

Read more at: Roadmap to Digitization notes from ALA
Posted: 2010-06-29T13:17:00.003-04:00

Libraries Wanted: Dead or Alive? Notes from ALA by

In an ALA session Sunday called “Libraries: Wanted Dead or Alive?”, the director of the world’s most modern library – Eppo van Nispen tot Sevenaer of the DOK Library Concept Center in Delft, Netherlands - gave librarians the inspiration and motivation to make changes in order to ensure the survival of the library through the 21st-century and beyond.

Eppo pointed out in a variety of ways, including “man on the street” videos he’d recorded since arriving in the DC area, that libraries are increasingly irrelevant to many people’s lives and that it is our job to preserve the role of the library in communities.

First Eppo asked a number of people (from different age groups and ethnic backgrounds) whom he encountered- whether or not they wanted to become a librarian. No one said “yes”. Instead, we watched them as they said things like:

“I love books, but I don’t like the library.”

“How do I put this… I don’t mean to be harsh, but being a librarian today is like being a caveman.”

He noted that librarians have traditionally been more interested in collections of books than in connections to people. He pointed out the absurdity of a no food or drink around the books in the library rule when the same libraries send the books home with people for 2-3 weeks at a time. Who’s to say there’s no food and drink around them when they’re loaned out – do librarians show up at the patrons’ homes to audit their use? But for all that librarians have focused their efforts on the collection of books and protecting those collections, books don’t protest when libraries close. Only library users can advocate for the library. It’s the strength of the connection between the library and its user community that prevents a loss of funding.

Eppo also pointed out some of the uncomfortable realities of our field and the implications of those realities. For example, librarians generally haven’t been involved in pop culture or creating technological innovation. Without having seen what 90% of our users have seen, he points out in his references to Avatar (which, for the record, I have not seen either… the stereotype fit), how can we participate in conversations with them? How can we understand the forces shaping them (e.g., expectations of graphical stimulation)? He also said that future learners will be visual and tactile, but much less text-based. Still, most librarians learn by reading. They don’t understand/don’t respect the visual and tactile world as well as the population they are serving does.

What does that mean to us on the ground in library land? Well, our websites and catalogs don’t even meet users’ core expectations – they don't establish visual credibility.

Another theme Eppo touched on was that of the rules that libraries traditionally have set for patrons & the seriousness with which librarians approach life. These two aspects of traditional library culture have created spaces where people feel unwelcome, constrained, and unhappy. But people don’t want to have that type of experience. They want to laugh, play, feel creative and empowered. So what are we, as librarians, doing to meet those needs?

Then he reminded us that we COULD make the changes that need to be made; that libraries are counting on us; that we will be challenged, that some of our efforts will fail or will fail at first. All we need, he told us, is more courage to do what must be done – to make deep changes in the culture of library that will allow us to connect with our library’s users. That connection is the only way libraries will continue to exist in the post-Google world.

Read more at: Libraries Wanted: Dead or Alive? Notes from ALA
Posted: 2010-06-29T11:28:00.002-04:00

Brains, Behavior & Design by

I just discovered the IIT Institute of Design's toolkit highlighting the key findings of behavioral economics as they apply to design work (see their website on Brains, Behavior & Design - very cool!) The "tools" include beautifully-designed posters, worksheets, and reference cards (downloadable / printable PDFs) describing common motivators (and demotivators) and how designers can leverage those patterns of behavior. As designers of our patrons' experience with the library, we also need to be aware of these concepts.

Read more at: Brains, Behavior & Design
Posted: 2010-06-07T14:35:00.002-04:00

Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do… by

I’m so impressed by my colleagues in the Connecticut library community. I can’t say it enough. Beyond providing an inordinate number of “movers & shakers” (per capita), they demonstrated enough interest in the cutting edge (for libraries) topic of “user experience design” (uxd) that we had approximately 30 CT librarians in attendance at our new User Experience Roundtable.

We started with a meet-and-greet, then had 2 excellent speakers:
1. Michael Rawlins, President of the Connecticut Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association, Certified Usability Analyst, and professor at Manchester Community College
2. John Blyberg, Assistant Director for Innovation and User Experience at Darien Library. In December 2008, he formed the User Experience department to completely redefine how customer service and interaction is handled and delivered to library staff and users.

Michael Rawlins presented an introduction to “Why Usability Matters” from his perspective as a certified usability professional who’s worked at a number of Fortune 100 companies (major insurance firms have been among his employers) as a usability professional (and information architect) for more than twenty years. He’s the Director of Marketing and User Experience for the Open Solutions software firm in Glastonbury, Connecticut, which builds banking software solutions. He is also a certified usability professional who teaches the topic at Manchester Community College, where they are trying to build a certification program (hoping that this program starts around the time I find funding for it – I definitely want to sign up).

He also characterized himself as the typical “Baby Boomer” & identified how most people in this key demographic look at and feel about technology. He reminded us to think about the many different audiences we serve and to consider the features of such demographic groups as the Millennials, Gen Xers, Baby Boomers, and Traditionalists.

Michael gave us a definition of usability:
· Effectiveness – can users achieve their goals?
· Ease of learning – how fast do they learn the interface or system construct?
· Efficiency of use – how fast users complete tasks
· Memorability – short & long term memory leveraged
· Error prevention – is there “forgiveness”?
· User satisfaction – do users like the application?

Michael talked about "mental models" - how users expect things to work a certain way. When we break our user’s mental model, they respond negatively. He explained that usability professionals use scientific findings from the fields of social psychology and neuroscience to help designers build more effective interfaces.

In a time of ever-fewer resources, Michael pointed out that we need to be more strategic in our decision-making. He talked about the “value proposition” of doing user experience design / usability testing – that every dollar invested in Usability returns $10-$100.

Bigger than the financial rewards, however, are the benefits that derive from engaging in a better process – a human–centered process. The human-centered process – “people before systems… experience before systems” (cited from Nate Bolt of Bolt | Peters) – allows an organization to develop the deeper relationships with users that will ensure its longevity in a rapidly-changing world.

Additionally, Michael pointed out what many of us Library2.0 advocates have been trying to say, but perhaps because it was coming from a 3rd-party the argument seemed to have more resonance - that libraries need to reinvent themselves in order to survive.

I’m going to paraphrase here, because I didn’t write down an exact quote, but in talking about the disruptive forces that libraries are facing (& thus the impetus for a new emphasis on user experience):
1. Our competition is fierce & doing a better job than we are of providing the kind of user experiences that people go out of the way to have: (B&N – he had the following quote on one of his slides: )
From a baby boomer, about Barnes & Noble, he quoted: “It’s pretty easy to find what you want… The lighting is good – and it provides cozy areas to sit relax and read. The information desk is in the middle of the store – it’s the first thing you see when you come in…”
From a millennial, he quoted “I wish there was like a Netflix for books. Like you can just order whatever you want and then when you’re done you can just give it back and take out another one” (cited from Nate Bolt of Bolt | Peters)
He told us about speaking to science & technology magnet school (high school) students the previous day and asking the students about their impression of libraries. Their immediate reaction was the image of the “shushing” librarian…
So that tells you something. We haven’t rebuilt our libraries successfully enough – the experience hasn’t changed consistently enough across libraries that we can rebrand ourselves. You can put the p.r. out there all you want, if the users’ experience on the ground disproves that their library has changed and is now all about them, the p.r. won’t resonate.
The Darien Library’s of the world – the libraries with welcome desks, that build all of their services around what their community wants rather than around what librarians think they “should do” or how they think that a library patron should behave – are outliers at this point.
We need to get everyone else there – and to do so before libraries, like newspapers, are seen as relics of another era, no longer meaningful in the lives of most members of the community (no longer relevant = $0 funding).
All of these points about reinvention were bolstered by Michael’s admission that – despite being an intellectually curious, successful, community-oriented person who used to frequent libraries in both his youth & college years – he hasn’t been into his local public library in three years.
2. He also noted that mobile devices, like the iPhone and the iPad have become the library for many people like himself and that this trend will continue and accelerate.
I know that I’m going to forget really important pieces of what he had to say – more importantly, was how he explained it, so if you ever get a chance to attend one of his classes or presentations, I recommend that you do so.

He gave us 4 recommended actions to take away from the presentation:
1. Watch 5 people use your website
2. Watch 5 people navigate your library
3. Build something using a social networking tool
4. Think from the users’ point of view

He also gave us a list of books to look at:
1. Don Norman. The Design of Everyday Things
2. Jesse James Garrett. The Elements of User Experience
3. Subject to Change
4. Steve Krug. Don’t Make Me Think
5. Mental Models

Next came John Blyberg, the Assistant Director of Innovation and User Experience (love the title & what it says about about the Darien Library’s organizational focus). Because what Darien is doing in the realm of user experience is so broad, he took one slice to talk about – the digital slice – the development of the latest version of SOPAC 2 (take a look at an earlier presentation he did on SOPAC2).

I don’t want you to block everything that comes next out because I used that acronym. Forget SOPAC. Remember the mission – the open source software that John has developed aims to:
1. Integrate the users’ experience of the library’s website and the catalog. The catalog is the most important aspect of the online library experience, but it’s usually a whole different system which looks, feels, and functions differently than the website. Worse still, the catalog systems that our vendors supply are so completely inadequate for our communities’ needs that they create a “usability nightmare” for patrons and staff
2. Allow the users to be engaged with the catalog, the library, and each other through the integrated web presence
3. Support social networking – allow the community to form its own groups organically around the topics of interest to them.

SOPAC takes the catalog and puts it into the context of the Drupal content management system, allowing an additional layer of data to be created and invoked – the social layer – such as reader’s reviews, ratings, and tags for items in the catalog. Staff members themselves take advantage of SOPAC to assemble reading lists using specific tags, such as staff favorites or other tags that show which items have been discussed in book talks or books that meet a teacher’s reading list criteria. Community-built reader’s advisory grows using SOPAC. Some of the Darien Public Library’s patrons have even developed followings by other patrons who follow their recommendations religiously. SOPAC also uses data from the catalog to provide lists, such as “hot fiction” (heavily circulated items).

SOPAC - "Social OPAC" - is built on Drupal and is structured to allow it to integrate with any Integrated Library System (currently mostly III implementations, 1 consortial Sirsi implementation coming up - SAILS network in Massachusettts).

I’m not giving it adequate space or even a complete picture of what SOPAC does here. John’s work on SOPAC really deserves its own post/posts, but I have to wrap up and get on to working on my own library’s user experience issues.

To see SOPAC in action, search at the Darien Library’s website/catalog. You can even try books that are hard to search for in traditional catalog interfaces, such as Stephen King’s “It” and you’ll find that the search algorithm and tagging options work together to pull up the appropriate title. Amazing! (gee, it’s the way it should work, thinks the patron… but for those of us used to the vendor-supplied catalog interfaces, it seems like a miracle…)

The whole reason I'd wanted to get this User Experience Roundtable off the ground was that I was learning so much from the world of professional web development about how to build our site from a user-centered design perspective but none of the people I was speaking with from local libraries seemed to be hearing this information (nor did they have time to discover it on their own – webmastering is one tiny fraction of what they do). Plus, I know that our libraries – while wonderful treasures – often fail on the user experience front.

It’s a paradigm shift to move from building library services around what we– the expert librarians – think the users need (or what library school or years of library work have taught us to build) to opening up to the users and letting them tell us what they want us to build (e.g., how about community-driven collection development? What about that Netflix model for library circulation or an option to have either Netflix style circ or the traditional, fine-based circulation?)

I noticed that there were so many things in library-land that could be improved upon, but that we weren’t getting together to share information with one another on these larger questions of improving the users' experience. We can move faster and farther together, I thought. What if I could – face to face – share what I’m seeing in doing task-based user tests of our website, what I’m learning about card sorts, and so on – with other library people, so that they wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel? What if I could learn from them, what if I could get ideas about what we could/should do at my library to improve our users’ experience?

The great news is that my colleagues have also showed an interest in the User Experience roundtable as a venue to:
· Work on usability / user experience design for users of their library’s web presence (website redesign projects, for example…. Better still, deployment of SOPAC as part of such projects!)
· Talk about usability improvements for on-the-ground library users (e.g., why do we need to send them to more than 1 staff member to get the help that they need? What type of signage is both effective and welcoming?)
· Discuss of methods for information-sharing among staff and improving efficiencies (e.g., only 1 person has the study room schedule so the librarian who doesn’t have it has to send them over to that other person? In an era of Google docs, should this even be an issue –maybe not, but sometimes it takes throwing the problem out to a group for brainstorming… granted part 2 is that the UX rt member has to go back to their library & convince the others at their library to put a new process in place, but maybe sharing ideas on how to do that is also a good idea…)
· Sharing about initiatives that improved users’ experience with the library
· Sharing “fail stories” - initiatives/innovations that didn’t improve users’ experience

Next time, we’ll meet at Darien Library (probably late July? Join the CLC User Experience Roundtable forum to keep up with the latest discussions – we’ll also post on CONNtech listserv before the next event). John Blyberg graciously offered the roundtable the chance to come down & visit their facility, see many of the “on the ground” innovations they’re trying out to improve their library users’ experience, and have the next big discussion about user experience design in libraries.

A huge thanks to Shawn Fields, Branch Director of the Huntington Branch Library, who has volunteered to take on the role of co-chair of the roundtable & to Kirsten Kilbourne, of the Connecticut Library Consortium who worked out the roundtable logistics…

Finally, thank you to our speakers – Michael Rawlins and John Blyberg, to Manchester Community College staff members (especially Bruce Manning, Janet Alampi, Paula Cooke) and to all of the people who came & explained what user experiences they wanted to improve at their libraries.

Yup, sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is to connect people with one another …

Read more at: Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do…
Posted: 2010-05-26T13:14:00.008-04:00

Google Chrome Out of Beta sans RSS by

Google Chrome for Mac came out of beta today (see "Google Chrome for Mac: Ready, beta, now stable!") with many new features, but not with built-in RSS support. Even my first-generation iPhone can do better than that (granted, with a redirect through an Apple server to parse the XML of the feed into something intelligible). An RSS feed still displays as a jumble of text:

Click for large image of Google Chrome's RSS Display

Not that I spend a lot of time reading RSS feeds in my browser, but if I click on one (intentionally or otherwise), I really ought not get gibberish. If Google intends Chrome to be a serious competitor in a marketplace of choice for Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari, it really ought not leave users in the lurch. This is very un-Google-like behavior. This is just the most recent in my series of rants about Google Chrome and RSS here, here, and here.

Read more at: Google Chrome Out of Beta sans RSS
Posted: Tue, 25 May 2010 16:04:51 -0500

RSS Replay: Read a Blog Archive at your Leisure by

Found a new-to-you blog that you want to read, but you don't want to get sucked into it for the next few hours? RSS Replay looks like the tool for you. Give it an RSS feed and how often you want it to give you a new post, and it will do the rest. You can specify a new item from the backfile every day, every few days, or other intervals. You can also set a PageRank filter so you only see posts that have PageRanks above a specific threshold (all, good, great, or best). This brings "slow reading" to a much different level!

Read more at: RSS Replay: Read a Blog Archive at your Leisure
Posted: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:41:06 -0500

the power of open source by

I'm pretty overwhelmed now that I've returned from my annual Computers In Libraries conference trip. I've got a lot to do & little time to do it in, like everyone. But, I wanted to get this out there - the thought I've had for so long about the power of open source (reiterated further when I listened to the DrupalCon SF keynote being livestreamed yesterday afternoon & heard from the President's new media guru, who was behind the use of Drupal as a CMS for whitehouse.gov and is SO into "open government" that the Whitehouse.gov team has contributed modules of their own back into the Drupal community).

Open source is not free. We all know that. But it shifts the economic benefit from one of vendor profits to one of staff development - the building of human capital. From that investment in the development of, say, in-house Drupal expertise, the returns you get are things like:

the ability to customize the system to your specific users' needs and your specific business' needs (instead of being bound to a set of system features that are implemented by a vendor on the basis of how profitable those features would be in the larger market)
improved competence among IT staff
higher morale among staff dealing with the systems they're implementing. People are intrinsically motivated by the ability to create and to have some control over their own destinies. That's an even more powerful factor in the happiness and productivity of employees than higher salaries.
a sense of social good - of contributing to a larger community - a sense of purpose

There are doubtless many more benefits the community can come up with re: open source - feel free to add in your thoughts or correct me if you think I'm off-base. But I truly, truly think that the shift of investment from giving more $ to 3rd-party vendors whose only motive is $ to spending that money on training and building staff is a positive thing for people, communities, and the economy in general.

So, to all of the businesses, nonprofits, and governmental organizations who are headed in the direction of open-source implementation - congratulations - I think your investment will be well-worth it. (I know Evergreen (open source ILS) is having its users' group right now and I'm sure a lot of wonderful new developments will be coming out of that!)

Read more at: the power of open source
Posted: 2010-04-22T09:24:00.003-04:00

FreeMyFeed: A Really (Poor) Clever Idea by

Have you even wanted to subscribe to an RSS feed in Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Bloglines or Google Reader (or anywhere else, for that matter), but discover that the feed is inconveniently served from behind a login-protected server? We all have, I think. Well, now a free web service allows you to do just that. As convenient as it is, this is a spectacularly poor idea. FreeMyFeed handily takes care of those pesky login problems. You give it your feed URL, your login, and your password. It then gives you an alternate URL at FreeMyFeed that contains your login information in an encoded way. FreeMyFeed then acts as a proxy, grabbing the feed without storing your login credentials on its own server, and passing it along to your reader:

So I created a COMPLETELY FAKE login for this blog's feed. The login does not exist, does not work, and is (of course) not a real login to anything: username rss4lib and password temp1234. The FreeMyFeed link that encodes this is:
http://freemyfeed.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5yc3M0bGliLmNvbS9pbmRleC54bWw6OnJzczRsaWI6OkxzUGcwWHRrRktDUytJdkFrUTFMN0RvNk5BPT0= Well, it is encrypted, but there's usually a good reason that a feed is behind a login. This takes those feeds and puts them out in the public, where any search engine find them, index them, and expose your organization's secure information. End runs around reasonable security are poor choices. I would recommend that, if your organization has RSS behind a login, that you work with your technical group to block FreeMyFeed from accessing your site. To their credit, there is a fairly explicit disclaimer of the risks on the FreeMyFeed front page, that includes a warning to be careful and not to share your personalized URL with anyone (other than the feed readers, of course). So if you must use this tool, use it only on your own browser, not on an aggregator to minimize the sharing of an all-access URL to your feed. Don't be tempted.

Read more at: FreeMyFeed: A Really (Poor) Clever Idea
Posted: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:47:45 -0500

Upgrade Complete by

Looks like the upgrade went smoothly. Please let me know in the comments or by email to rss4lib@gmail.com if you see anything wonky that you want to report.

Read more at: Upgrade Complete
Posted: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:57:13 -0500

Upgrading RSS4Lib by

I'm doing a long-overdue upgrade of Movable Type tonight. Back, I hope, soon.

Read more at: Upgrading RSS4Lib
Posted: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:05:13 -0500

Farewell to Full-Text Feeds? by

I've noticed over time that the number of people who 'consume' RSS4Lib on RSS4Lib.com has declined steadily over the years. Yet the number of feed subscribers is still steadily increasing (see today's subscriber report and has recently broken 2000). At the same time, few articles I post are read on RSS4Lib.com more than 100 times the day they are published, and most are viewed only a few times a day after that. (Selected items in the backfile, thanks to Google and Bing, get more traffic than recently published items once the new posts have aged a few days.) I suspect this trend holds true across many blogs, whether they're produced for love or money. (This one, to be clear, is not produced as a moneymaking venture.) Some are suggesting that the days of full-text feeds are numbered (see "Say Bye Bye to Full RSS Feeds and RSS: What's the Deal in 2010?," as examples). I'm curious to know if these commercial prognosticators are correct -- will bloggers tend to pull people toward the richness of their sites, even if there is no particularly strong monetary incentive to do so? Or will full-text feeds continue to be the way to go? I suspect a trend toward full text feeds (for blogs that are works of avocation) and snippet feeds (for those that are more vocational). And I'll wager that this will break down (to oversimplify greatly) into an academic/commercial divide.

Read more at: Farewell to Full-Text Feeds?
Posted: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:31:50 -0500

RSS Readers Not Dead Yet by

ReadWriteWeb says, "5 Reasons Why RSS Readers Still Rock." To summarize the post, here are the five reasons RSS readers are still relevant, according to RWW:

Control over Information Flow
Evolving User Interfaces
Tracking Twitter
Mobile News
Categorized News

This post is in response to an earlier RWW post, "RSS Reader Market in Disarray, Continues to Decline," which engendered a lively discussion in the comments. Dave Winer, a pioneer of RSS, noted in the comments to the more recent post that RSS readers get one thing fundamentally wrong: they treat feeds like email by telling you how many unread messages you have and encouraging you to read each one. (I'm one of those weirdos who cannot stand having messages, especially unread ones, hanging around in my inbox. Having a growing tally of unread RSS items pushes me right over the edge and is the main reason I stopped consuming my feeds in my mail application.) A number of automated tools offer filters for RSS feeds (many have been reviewed or discussed here). Most of them rely on explicit, user-defined keywords. Others, like Twitter, rely on one's peers to identify the interesting stuff. However, I have yet to find a tool that offers the best of keyword filtering (letting through articles on topics that are of likely interest) while still surprising and delighting me with nearly, but not quite, on-topic posts. That's an incredibly delicate, arbitrary, and undefinable balance to strike.

Read more at: RSS Readers Not Dead Yet
Posted: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:54:55 -0500

RSS to Twitter Tools by

Twitter makes it easy for you to post updates to your followers, or the world at large. It's well suited for quick updates, but less for "bloggy" content. How do you get your blog into Twitter without any particular effort? There are a variety of tools to help you do this. Here's a quick overview of some of these tools. Use one I don't mention? Let me know in the comments -- I'll update the post as needed. All of these tools post on your behalf, which means that they use your Twitter account login and password behind the scenes. You provide the tool with your Twitter account login and password. You may wish to set up a separate Twitter account just for your blog if you're concerned about sharing your Twitter login with a 3rd party.

FeedNest

FeedNest. This tool asks you for a bit more information about your feed than do others, so that users can search FeedNest and find your blog's content. It asks you to describe your blog's content and give the name of the site.

RSS Twitter

RSS Twitter. A simple interface -- your Twitter account and your blog's RSS feed.

TwitterFeed

TwitterFeed. I've used this tool for this blog in the past. It offers some statistics tracking for how your posts are read (by redirecting the links from Twitter tweets through its own server).

Twitter Tools

Twitter Tools (WordPress plugin). If you publish your blog with WordPress, there's a plugin that will automatically send a tweet to Twitter when you publish your blog post.

Missing your Favorite?

Leave a comment and let me know which tool you use.

Read more at: RSS to Twitter Tools
Posted: Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:18:25 -0500

Google Chrome Beta for Mac and RSS by

Another version of Google Chrome (version 4.0), on a new platform (now for Mac OS 10.5 and up) and the same old news about RSS: support isn't there in the browser. Both RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds display inline in the browser as a huge jumble of text. (Get Chrome for Mac.)

(Click image for full size version)

I've railed about the lack of RSS support for either rational inline display or for live bookmarks since the earliest versions of Chrome here and here. Otherwise, a quick test of the new Chrome beta for Mac shows that it's fast and efficient, as I've come to expect from Chrome's Windows betas. I'm not sure I'll trade over from either Safari or Firefox, even when Chrome does get RSS support, but Chrome is coming along.

Read more at: Google Chrome Beta for Mac and RSS
Posted: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:34:44 -0500

Spectives: A Nice Tool that Abuses Intellectual Property by

I found a new tool (via a review at ReadWriteWeb) that offers a visual presentation of changing RSS feeds: Spectives, a "search for visual news." Conceptually, it's quite interesting. Its use of intellectual property is unfortunate. Spectives is focused on visual content. It ignores plain text entries on a blog, highlighting those posts with images. I created a collection called RSS and added this blog's feed to it; Spectives pulled in the most recent posts that included images:

Interestingly, Spectives ignores posts with embedded video (at least, the UStream feed embedded in a recent post on this blog). Spectives' front page offers a one-minute tutorial right up front -- probably because the point of the tool is a bit vague, if intriguing -- and then lists popular and featured collections. The "Nature Photography" collection (under featured) offers pictures from five photography feeds; the "Celebrities" collection pulls in feeds from 15 gossip/tabloid sites. While the tool is interesting, its mechanism for getting users to the source content is highly annoying. Each collection (and search) comes with its own RSS feed that includes all the items in the source's feed, not restricting it to images. Clicking to the full text of an item in the RSS feed takes you to the original site, which makes sense. However, Spectives puts a translucent toolbar across the bottom of the page with a link "Back to Spectives" and a link to share the post on Twitter -- with a Spectives URL built in. Here's a sample of my previous post, in its entirety, with a Spectives URL and my Creative Commons license, along with the Spectives toolbar.

Spectives Toolbar Superimposed on RSS4Lib (screenshot)

(Click image for full size version)

At the moment, this is probably in technical compliance with the Creative Commons license -- however, as the "advertise" link on the bottom of every Spectives web page indicates, the site is clearly trying to monetize other peoples' content. In my opinion, Spectives' reproduction of my entire web site separated from my URL crosses an ethical, if not legal, line. I am not a fan.

Read more at: Spectives: A Nice Tool that Abuses Intellectual Property
Posted: Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:42:03 -0500

WebSite Improvement Faceoff by

Faceoff

Read more at: WebSite Improvement Faceoff
Posted: 2009-10-27T13:18:00.000-06:00

Web Manager's Academy - Mind map of topics by

Just a quick map of what topics are of the most interest.

mind map of web manager's topics

Created with bubbl.us.

Tags: il2009
| web manager
| internet librarian

Read more at: Web Manager's Academy - Mind map of topics
Posted: 2009-10-25T12:11:00.004-06:00

Web Manager's Academy Word Cloud - Internet Librarian 2009 by

What do participants want to know?

created at TagCrowd.com

Read more at: Web Manager's Academy Word Cloud - Internet Librarian 2009
Posted: 2009-10-25T10:42:00.003-06:00

Friday Funny Videos - Comic Sans to the Rescue by

Enjoy!

Warm Up Acts:

"Font Conference
This video wasn't long enough, so we made it double-spaced."

Leave it to the Onion - Extra-Slanty Italics Introduced For Extremely Important Words

Watch Font Conference and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

Related Funny Video Posts

Tags: comedian |Dawe and Clarke |Eddie Izzard | funny pic | funny video

Read more at: Friday Funny Videos - Comic Sans to the Rescue
Posted: 2009-05-01T10:55:00.002-06:00

CIL Tweet Cloud for April 1: Mining the Conversations by

The Raw Truth*

24 hours
50 tweets per page x ~ 25 pages = ~ 1250 tweets
3,472 paragraphs
30,944 words
*standard pagination and navigation / twitter links stripped where possible, posting client not stripped

Photo by Brian Sawyer via Flickr

Here's a tag cloud showing the tweets for the 24 hours for the last day of Computers in Libraries.

ahumber anna anyone app apr around atwitter avatar best better binkylush blackboard cfboeninger change cil09 cil2009 citegeist class cms code commons community confbaldgeek conference content create data dcpl dead defaultuserryt different digital drupal dsc00625 e-learning elearning etc everyone expand fed federated fichter flickr free fun future getting girl give going google group head help hiddenpeanuts home images info information infowidget instruction interesting iphone jdhead joomla justnathan keynote kinggoji knowledge laurasolomon lct learning librarians library lisacarlucci looking lorireed lot lyndamk magname meet mlibrarianus mobile mojo msauers needs normal org patrons people phone photo pic3 plan point presentation profile project rcooper really reformalogonew reformanet resources rodzvilla rt search session share shawnfielding site skills slides slideshare smithsonian social solutions space staff start strnglibrarian support talk tech techfun technology thanks things think tinyurl today tools track training tuxinboots tweetdeck tweetie twitter twitterfon twitterfox txt usability used users val video web wk08c work www year

created at TagCrowd.com

Read more at: CIL Tweet Cloud for April 1: Mining the Conversations
Posted: 2009-04-01T23:44:00.010-06:00

Librarians Rule! Dead Tech Presentation showcased by Slideshare by

Hurrah - this email was not an April Fool's prank. Had to check that before I was fooled in front of many many folks.

Check it out on the Slideshare Tech page -- have a couple of laughs -- don't forget to eat some chocolate or drink some beer for some of the more dire predictions. Warning ... cataloguers - this presentation may be hazardous to your career ;-).

Oh and if you like it please pass it along.

Screen snapshot via Flickr

First this email:

Hi fichter!
Your presentation Dead & Innovative Technology: Moving & Shaking in the Information World is currently being showcased on the 'Technology' page by our editorial team.

It's likely to remain there for the next 16-20 hours...

And boy does Slideshare know how to flatter folks (LOL). Their second email calls you a rockstar. Sharing this because of how they are promoting the use of social media for promotion and doing a workshop on that tomorrow.

You're a SlideShare RockStar

Hi fichter,

We've noticed that your slideshow on SlideShare has been getting a LOT of views in the last 24 hours. Great job ... you must be doing something right. ;-)

Why don't you tweet or blog this? Use the hashtag #bestofslideshare so we can track the conversation.

Congratulations,
-SlideShare Team

Tags: Tags: | cil2009 | dead tech | slideshare | bestofslideshare

Read more at: Librarians Rule! Dead Tech Presentation showcased by Slideshare
Posted: 2009-04-01T09:55:00.006-06:00

Dead Tech and Cool Tools Presentations at Computers in Libraries 2009 by

Here are the slides from the Cool Tools presentation that Frank Cervone and I did at Computers in Libraries 2009 served up by Slideshare.net (a cool tool)

I have also posted the slides from the Dead and Innovative Technology Panel on Tuesday evening.

Dead & Innovative Technology: Moving & Shaking in the Information World

View more presentations from Darlene Fichter.

40 Plus Cool Tools for Library Webmasters

View more presentations from Darlene Fichter.

Read more at: Dead Tech and Cool Tools Presentations at Computers in Libraries 2009
Posted: 2009-04-01T00:15:00.002-06:00

What do 2009 CIL Web Manager Academy participants want to know? by

Here's what they'd like to find out today:

created at TagCrowd.com

Read more at: What do 2009 CIL Web Manager Academy participants want to know?
Posted: 2009-03-29T07:40:00.004-06:00

Ada Lovelace Day and I'd Like to Recognize Canada's Valerie Steeves by

A few weeks ago Suw Charman-Anderson pledged to blog on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same. I guess you've figured out that I signed up and so did more 1500 other people to do a blog posts, podcast, and other online media.

Read the comments and headlines about the posts that have been uploaded all day.

Who was Ada?

"Ada Lovelace was one of the world's first computer programmers, and one of the first people to see computers as more than just a machine for doing sums. She wrote programmes for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, a general-purpose computing machine, despite the fact that it was never built. She also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software."

Who is Valerie Steeves?

Valerie's main area of research is about human rights and technology issues. I have been fortunate to hear Valerie speak about privacy issues and cyberspace a couple of times.

The new wave of technologies creates new opportunities for good effects and harmful effects on privacy, identity theft, confidential communications, security and safety. It's important to have someone like Valerie looking at the intersection of human rights, privacy, new technologies, and the law.

Valerie works on so many fronts from being a privacy activist helping forge policies to designing interactive games that are used by children to protect their privacy and security in cyberspace to being a Special Advisor to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Rights where she sought public input into the meaning of privacy as a human right and helped draft the Committee's report, Where Do we Draw the Line?

Valerie Steeves is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada.

Thanks Valerie for all the great work!

Tags: Tags: | ALD09 | Ada Lovelace | IT | privacy | technology | women | Valerie Steeves

Read more at: Ada Lovelace Day and I'd Like to Recognize Canada's Valerie Steeves
Posted: 2009-03-24T23:28:00.000-06:00

Lovely Charts - Create Flowcharts, Wireframes, Organization Charts, and Network Diagrams by

Screen snapshot via Flickr

Read more at: Lovely Charts - Create Flowcharts, Wireframes, Organization Charts, and Network Diagrams
Posted: 2009-02-11T00:01:00.003-06:00

David Lee King - What Special Things Can We Do at Digital Branch? by

Photo by chotda via Flickr

David has a neat blog thread going about crafting the library experience and Doing Stuff at the Library’s Website. He's followed it up with a new post, Doing Unique Things at the Digital Branch based on a comment I had made.

I left this comment on the David's post but thought I'd share it here too.

I guess I'm a bit of a "what if" thinker. I see so many possibilities - some silly and some with merit (I hope) for digital library services. There's so much to be tapped into online and we've just started. Here's a few of the ideas that come to mind.

Doing It Online with a Twist
First, some libraries are already doing similar things with an unique twist. For example, we offer reference in the branch but online if we want to do it 24x7 it makes sense to partner with others so that's a bit of twist. It's not your "local" librarian who answers and it's round the clock.

User Contributed Books
User contributed content is a hot trend online and what if we could marry the real world and digital world to do more for our communities. I wonder if any libraries are doing this yet? Letting users "tag" - "I own this book too and I would lend it"? This would really help with the bestseller lineups. Or add items they have the library doesn't. Imagine your book and magazine collection. A community library added to by the community.

It'd be hard to do this in the real library -- a) you'd run out of room b) end up with 5000 duplicates etc etc. Virtually it could be done and for "user contributed books", it could have software to generate a "request" to borrow that would email the book owner. A fancy system would print out a "Community Contributed Book Slip" that could be dropped off with the book at the nearest branch. This _COULD_ be done in way that the Lender and the Recipient remain anonymous or not depending on what is preferred.

Organization Contributed Content

If the thought of users contributed book holdings is mind boggling, what about other organizations? What if organizations in your community that have special libraries around autism, cancer, etc. could add their collections to the library catalogue and people could request items to be picked up at a branch close to them?

Visualizing, Merchandising, Clustering and Packaging

Libraries could also create unique visualizations - coverflow of the new books or the items on the return cart or last 50 items checked out. These mimic the real world but we could literally have hundreds online and all kinds of them. There's literally hundreds of different ways to visualize books/collections.
-Coverflow - new knitting books
-Coverflow - last returned mysteries

Data Mining to Create New Services/Content

University of Pittsburgh library does this with Yahoo Pipes, a mashup too. They parse some of the licensed article databases to identify new articles by their "faculty" and then show that as ticker on the site. Yes you can see it in the building if you're using the web site. But it's something we can do online much easier than in the physical library. But what if we also built a page of cover art - books published by our faculty that showed up all year. For public libraries - books published by authors from our community or that are set in our community (from there you of course leap to a Google Map Mashup and from there to a Community Walk - book/walking tour)

Or what if we alerted our faculty every time we discover one of their works in a licensed db and say this is available now via our library in our "licensed" collection. Academic libraries are looking for ways to inform users that we pay for the licensed databases that they use, so this could be service and educational moment.

Take a Chunk of our Library with You to Remix and Publish

What if we allowed our users to take a chunk of the library to their own sites -- post this feed on their site or a segment our collection on it - the sociology reading room... Amazon let 100,000 web sites rebundle their content and covers starting about 10 years ago.

Redesign the Library
Has anyone let people re-arrange / redesign their library like those decorating tools? Much easier digitally? Submit a new floor plan.

Here's one student who write about at Tropical Paradise at the Library.

Photo by blhphotography via Flickr

I'm sure there are libraries that had users participate in designing Second Life spaces and in a virtual world many many things are possible that one could never do in a real library. After all reading in a water fountain doesn't turn out too well.

Some libraries let you "rearrange" the library web site by offering personalize options - that's a bit tricky to do in a physical branch - some have areas where you can move the furniture but not most don't let you shift a lot of things around and share your ideas.

Sometimes, the Simplest Ideas Work Best

Sometimes simplest ideas work best. Let your library users take a photo of their library and share it on the site. Let folks vote for their favourite ones. They do garden tours in the summer for gardening enthusiasts - not so easy to tour people's homes and see their libraries. Book lovers love to see other book rooms.

What other "what ifs" can you think of?

Please feel free to comment here and leave new ideas at David's post.

Tags: digital branch | library | library 2.0 | library experience | library mashup | mashup

Read more at: David Lee King - What Special Things Can We Do at Digital Branch?
Posted: 2009-02-08T13:02:00.003-06:00

List of Top 10 Tech Lists 2008 by

Invisibility Cloak by Acid Zebra via Flickr

Tis the time of the year for lists for technology and gadgets. Here's a few - please add your lists to the comments.

Top 10 Most Brilliant Gadgets of the Year - Popular mechanics: Great list this year - particularly want the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen | $149
Top Twitter Tools to Check Out in 2009 by the Social Guy: Like Twellow Hood for finding other local folks that twitter
2009 Web Predictions - ReadWriteWeb
Gartner: 2009 Top 10 Strategic Technologies - yes they posted this in October: Cloud computing is set to grow a lot

Tags: technology | tech trends | trends

Read more at: List of Top 10 Tech Lists 2008
Posted: 2009-01-05T11:03:00.002-06:00

Brain Food Week 5: The Unexpected, The Practical and The Frivolous by

Photo by quiltingmick / michelle via Flickr

On the unexpected side of the fence, Aussie Supreme Court serves documents on Facebook.

On the practical side Kristina Halvorson looks at web content straight in the eyes and makes a compelling case for having a content strategy (wonderful and fun illustration by the way). I particularly like the breakdown of content related components that need to be addressed:

Editorial strategy + Web writing + Metadata strategy + Search engine optimization + Content management strategy + Content channel distribution strategy

To ponder the diversity of the world and its peoples, browse through the Newseum with the front pages of 688 newspapers in 64 countries.

Aegisub blog answers the question, "If programming languages were religions...". PHP is a lazy Christian, hmmm and Python is Humanism.

For more the ridiculous, check out why the recession wasn't just caused by greed but by the way we humans think described in eBay and the Brain: What Psychology Teaches Us about the Economic Downturn or . It seems we're hard wired to be optimistic even in the face of contrary evidence, we have limited will power and we're not that great with numbers. But no worries. According to Peter Ubell, professor of medicine and psychology at the University of Michigan, "None of us is perfect. We will all make a boatload of mistakes before our lives are done." LOL - what a relief! I thought it was just me. Oh he does offer some practical advice - check it out.

Related Posts

Tags: content strategy | newseum | psychology | thinking

Read more at: Brain Food Week 5: The Unexpected, The Practical and The Frivolous
Posted: 2008-12-19T02:26:00.007-06:00

Marketing on a Tight Budget - Social Networking to the Rescue? by

(cc) Most talked about brands - 2008 by Will Lion.

Here are some quick notes from "Why social media is your best marketing strategy in a recession" with Josh Bernoff from Forrester. The webcast was sponsored by Awareness social media marketing.

Slides and Recording Available on Thursday December 11, 2008

Why I Attended

I was particularly interested in this talk because I hoped to gain some insights into measuring ROI for social networking, an area that I've been writing about and looking at.

Great Take Aways

Josh Bernoff, from Forrester, had some great ideas. First he pointed out that marketers need to view social media as asset that grows over time, not just a campaign.

In the Q&A, it was pointed out that some award winners used social media for effective campaign based efforts so it can work both ways. Interestingly some of the campaigns, were continued and became ongoing. It partly depends on your purpose I think which will work.

Josh also pointed out that the effectiveness of social networking tools, especially communities, increases over time and the cost decreases. An example of falling costs is Dell's support forum that started with 30 moderators and then over time experts volunteered to be a monitor so they just have 5 staff moderators. It's interesting to think of virtual communities based around bulletin boards and forums as "social media" -- they are and in many ways they were the first major social networks but they were here long before the terms social networking and media were coined.

Josh also emphasized that it's important to measure what matters - who refers, who signs up, who buys - not just traffic. They surveyed and found that people are measuring primarily volume of activity not ROI metrics.

One slide (check the presentation which will be posted tomorrow) showed the average cost spent by companies on social networking - ballpark was $45 thousand range for blog and $150,000 for a customer community and less than $150,000 for an open community. The bottom line - social networking is inexpensive compared to other marketing.

What Matters - What Should We Measure

Josh gave some examples of what to measure in terms of things that matter, not just volume of activity.

Facebook: Number of messages passed along
Rating/Reviews: Sales
Communities: Purpose is research, then research value; Referrals - how many new members referred, key to sales in many niches; Avoided support costs; Idea community, value of idea generated
Blogs: Leads; Awareness, press coverage, search rank; (Caveat - Blogs from companies get the lowest form of trust of any activities by a company -- see just released findings on this)
Videos, Podcasts: Tracking back to company with URL
Widgets: Build in tracking
Twitter: Depends on strategy; Dell sells remainder equipment, Comcast - customer satisfaction

Examples of Successful Uses of Social Networking from the Entrants from Groundswell Awards

There were thousands of entrants and you can browse through neat write ups of the winner and others on the site. This is a great place to start for examples of "what works" with social networking if you're just starting out.

1. Young and Free Alberta - Winner (Talking)
- Winner in Talk about it category
- Created by a small community credit union who were targeting new accounts by young people. They held a contest for spokesperson and chose someone named Melissa did a blog and videos and was on Facebook
- She got a lot more young people - 2,000 new accounts, $4 million deposits Canadian

2. Acuvue Australia - Finalist (Talking)
- Raised awareness and sales of their one day contact lenses via a Facebook "Wink" app
- 1 day contact lenses
- 65,000 Winks
- 165,000 winks sent
- 17% sales in increase after this campaign concluded

Xanadu - Finalist (Talking)
- Trying to get a Tony for the Cubby Bernstein
- Did not win the Tony but won the New York Times poll for who should with 56% of the votes

Hershey's Bliss - Winner (Energizing)
-Asked people to hold a house party to introduce chocolates, share photos of the event etc. Invites to the parties were sent online
- 10,000 house parties held
- Parties generated 129,000 invitations
- They reached 7 million people
- Key measurement - they polled people who attended and most had never heard and over 90% after the party and recommend them after the party

EA'a Gamers - Finalist (Energizing)
- Market a skateboarding game. You have the option to record and share your ride
- 3 million visits, spent to 9 minutes per visit
- One video over 900,000 views
- Way to exposed customer created content to others

Natural Instruments Winner -Winner (Supporting)
- Makes instruments of scientists and engineers
- Created Lab View community - "the nerd network"
- 46% questions answered by the other community members

Starbucks - Winner (Embracing)
They created My Starbucks Idea
- 175,000 ideas and 30 that have been implemented
- 500,000 votes registered on the ideas
- Generates positive energy and ideas

Starbucks was prepared to moderate and take down hate and obscenity comments. In this particular community they only had to take down 10 comments. This will vary but it was less than expected.

In the Motherhood Video Site Sponsored by Suave and Sprint
- Videos about the challenges of being a mom - write the script
- People submitted scripts, and they hired professional actors to act them out
- 547 million impressions
- 16.9 million visits
- Suave saw their market share while the promotion was running

Related Links:

Josh's Blog Post with Screen Snapshots of Groundswell Winners
How social is your Web site? Top five tips for social media optimization by Darlene Fichter, Online Magazine May/June 2007. Available free online at AllBusiness
Your Users are Talking - Are You Listening?
How Social is Your Web Site? - Presentation at Saskatoon BarCamp 2008, written on the fly
Seven Strategies for Marketing in a Web 2.0 World by Darlene Fichter, Online Magazine March/April 2007 Available free online
Social Media Metrics: Making the Case for Making the Effort by Darlene Fichter and Jeff Wisniewski, Online Magazine, November/December 2008. Part 2 Metrics will be in the January/February 2009 issue
Social Media Metrics Slides from IL 2008 by Jeff Wisniewski
Global Blogging Study: Bloggers are influential and action oriented

Read more at: Marketing on a Tight Budget - Social Networking to the Rescue?
Posted: 2008-12-10T13:19:00.006-06:00

Get Ready for the Holidays with Google Doc Holiday Templates by

This is a fun way to explore and learn about Google Docs templates and how they can save you time and money.

Check out the Holiday Templates directly by logging into Google Docs and going to File -> New -> From Template to see the main template gallery or check out the overview with the announcement on the blog.

Here's a peak at what they have:

1. Email friends, colleagues or customers this survey form to update your mailing list...
2. ...and then send them a holiday postcard.
3. Use fun mailing labels to save time when sending packages...
4. ...and these festive gift tags to personalize gifts.
5. email a video card to send friends and colleagues

Read more at: Get Ready for the Holidays with Google Doc Holiday Templates
Posted: 2008-12-08T13:33:00.003-06:00

Mashup Myths, Blunders and a Top Ten Technology for 2009 by

(cc) Mashup the Enterprise by photoAtlas.

There's a buzz about mashups again and the topic is heating up.

Analysts at Gartner Inc. included enterprise mashups in their top ten technologies list for 2009.

Here's their top 10:

Virtualization
Cloud Computing
Servers — Beyond Blades
Web-Oriented Architectures
Enterprise Mashups
Specialized Systems
Social Software and Social Networking
Unified Communications
Business Intelligence
Green IT

Chris Warner describes 5 mashup myths over at Fast Company to help cut through the hype:

The ‘Fall for the Buzz’ Mistake
The Self-Serve Mistake
The SOA Mistake
The Silo Mistake
The ”Oops” Mistake

Looks like Zen Internet, an ISP, has bumped into a big "oops" already. They apologized for including a link in its latest newsletter to a website hosting a "find your nearest BNP member" search box. BNP stand for British National Party and the BNP membership list and personal information was leaked online two weeks ago.

Tags: data catalog | enterprise mashups | Gartner | Google Apps | mashup | mashup registry | myths | security

Read more at: Mashup Myths, Blunders and a Top Ten Technology for 2009
Posted: 2008-12-07T13:57:00.005-06:00

Give the Creative Commons Survey on "Non-Commercial" Use a Whirl by

I think the study exploring "non-commercial use" that Creative Commons is doing a great idea.

There are different views on non-commercial floating around and getting clarity on this issue is good for everyone and will only strengthen Creative Commons and the community. You know when to ask and when to use and when not to. It'll be obvious how to color inside the lines for the users of content and creators will be happier to share when it's clear.

Heads Up: The comments on the blog post announcing the survey almost scared me off which would have been too bad. I went through the survey smoothly and without a hitch in about 10 minutes.

Is the survey perfect? No, most aren't. A bit more pretesting would be useful.Never hurts to add an other option in a few places, or box for comments. Then if someone is exceptional there's room to explain.

Definitely looking forward to the conversation that we'll have as a community about this issue.

What do you think makes something commercial? Do the survey, read the comments on the Creative Commons blog, and feel free to leave a comment here about your experience and thoughts on non-commercial use.

Related Posts

To Scan or Not Scan? Ted's E-Book Quandary Over an Out of Print Book
Video - The Truth about Copyright: Told Using Clips from Disney Movies - Stanford's Fair(y) Use Tale
Video - Cory Doctorow Speaks Out on Piracy, Copyright Reform and the Futility of DRM
Music is for Fans - Laws Not Technologies Should Protect Music Copyright - Canadian Music Creators Coalition
Video - GOOD COPY BAD COPY - Documentary Film, Denmark 2007

Tags: copyright creative commons medium | out-of-print| non-commerical | rights

Read more at: Give the Creative Commons Survey on "Non-Commercial" Use a Whirl
Posted: 2008-12-05T00:58:00.003-06:00

And the Most Dangerous Animal Is? by

Check out this 404 page on a site that offers climbing gear for an LOL.

At Internet Librarian 2008 conference, I encouraged the attendees to build a creative 404 page for their library. Ellen Dubinsky did just that for the Bernard Becker Medical library. Check out her creative and effective 404 page.

She came up with a few candidates. Maybe these can inspire you?

Mockup of 404 Page created by Ellen Dubinsky

I love the first mockup - I can see changing it seasonally - snowflakes in winter, green for spring and St. Patrick's Day ...

Related Posts:
A Great Opportunity to Engage, Entertain and Communicate: 404 Pages

Tags: 404 | humour | library | web design

Read more at: And the Most Dangerous Animal Is?
Posted: 2008-12-03T10:19:00.003-06:00

To Scan or Not Scan? Ted's E-Book Quandary Over an Out of Print Book by

Ethical Dilemma: File Sharing: File Sharing or Illegal Downloads?

Photo by Pesky Library via Flickr

In his blog post, Ted describes his strong preference for reading e-books and the fact that the book that he would like read is no longer in print and will not be reprinted. There is a pirated digital copy in circulation.

Ted lists 5 courses of action actions with ethical e-book dilemma and asks his blog readers to share what they would do and identify plus identify what generation they're from - Gen X, Gen Y, baby boomers etc.

The feedback is interesting and informative. Tipping the author may pose ethical dilemmas for them and that was the preferred option of many.

But the "mystery" book has a twist to the tale. The writer no longer writing about these characters because of death threats received. It seems to be that the writer no longer wants this book in circulation. Does it change what you do or not?

I think this points to the strong need to overhaul the copyright system for orphan works and "alternate" consumption methods. If I have the record do I need to buy the CD? If I have the CD do I need to buy the MP3? If I have the MP3 but it's licensed through Zune or some DRM system, do I buy a new version when their "locking/authorization" system fails. When is a copy of a work - the work, not the medium?

Related Posts

Video - The Truth about Copyright: Told Using Clips from Disney Movies - Stanford's Fair(y) Use Tale
Video - Cory Doctorow Speaks Out on Piracy, Copyright Reform and the Futility of DRM
Music is for Fans - Laws Not Technologies Should Protect Music Copyright - Canadian Music Creators Coalition
Video - GOOD COPY BAD COPY - Documentary Film, Denmark 2007

Read more at: To Scan or Not Scan? Ted's E-Book Quandary Over an Out of Print Book
Posted: 2008-11-30T02:00:00.007-06:00

Bumper Crop of Apps from Open Access to Municipal Government Information by

Apps for Democracy: An Innovation Content

There's lots of buzzing about Vivek Kundra, head of the Office of Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) for the District of Columbia.. His visionary leadership has helped create more transparent access to municipal government information for everyone - people who live in DC, visitors and people who work there -- the municipal government employees.

The OCTO decided to use Google Apps as their platform for collaboration across agencies and employees. What they can do is pretty amazing and I would argue necessary -- they can merge their information with Google Earth. For example, the Fire Department can zoom into see if the fire hydrant is open, see the critical facilities nearby, and look up phone numbers to start calling agencies to arrange for EMS support or relocation of citizens. They're just one of the first municipal governments empowering their employees to be able to really put their data to work. Watch this video to find out more about their decision to choose Google Apps.

District of Columbia Data Catalog from OCTO

Under Kundra's leadership, the OCTO has an impressive data catalog with information delivered in the following formats as appropriate: XML, Text/CSV, Atom (GeoRSS support), and KML/ESRI Shapefile. This catalog is available online for people to mashup.

This fall, the OCTC, iStrategyLabs and Mashable sponsored an Apps For Democracy contest. iStrategyLabs submitted a proposal and brought this site to live in 6 days because they could build on the rich data catalog. Then they invited everyone to join and build applications and compete for prizes. 30 days later there are 49 applications that serve residents and visitors of DC including:

iLiveAt - enter an address and get info from nearby shopping to crime rate
DC Historic Tours is a Google Maps mashup "that combines custom walking tour creation with Flickr photo feeds and Wikipedia entries".
PARKITDC - Enter a location to find parking nearby and whether meters are need to paid, where you can park and where its resident only. There's feed of recent auto crimes near the area, meters acting up and addresses recently searched

Check out all the award winners, the application directory, and more about the next round of the contest.

(Link via Bob Gourley, CTO Vision blog)

Tags: data catalog | Google Apps | government | municipal | mashups

Read more at: Bumper Crop of Apps from Open Access to Municipal Government Information
Posted: 2008-11-28T01:18:00.003-06:00

Mashup of Newspaper Job Losses - Paper Cuts by

Paper Cuts Mashup of Newspaper Job Losses

Small Screen Snapshot via Flickr from Paper Cuts

I'm turning my attention back to mashups, particularly enterprise and library ones. In that process I'm stumbling across some interesting and illuminating examples.

Paper Cuts is a Google mashup that tracks and shows layoffs and buyouts at US newspapers for 2007 and 2008. So far this year it's been 13,748+ jobs. Ouch.

(Link via Paul Vereijken on the NEXT web_

Tags: buyout | journalists | layoff | map | mashups

Read more at: Mashup of Newspaper Job Losses - Paper Cuts
Posted: 2008-11-28T00:45:00.003-06:00

7 Data Visualizations You Probably Have Never Seen by

Visualization of a large social network created with a tool called Walrus

Stan Schroeder has written about 7 Beautiful Data Visualizations on Mashable. Stan has included video clips that show these interactive visualizations in motion. Many of these were new to me.

Some are just beautiful and others are amazing in terms of features or their ability to illuminate large data stores.

Skyrails - uses a interactive graph of interconnected nodes to display multiple dimensions. Menus, colours and chart type is customizable. The beta-version of skyrails is only available for non-commercial purpose. Skyrails is amazing - but the most amazing part is the developer worked on this for his *undergraduate* software engineering degree. Great work Yose Widjaja!

Fidg’t Visualizer displays your social network and some of their actions. It offers some sweet visual filtering features.

Tags: | data | data visualization visualization

Read more at: 7 Data Visualizations You Probably Have Never Seen
Posted: 2008-11-25T00:39:00.003-06:00

Prize Winners Announced at 2008 Mashup Camp by

Mashup Camp, the unconference for the uncomputer, is in just wrapped up its sixth year in Mountain View, CA.

Dean Mao won the prize for the best mashup for his Empowerment Addon to Firefox, a context sensitive mashup hat permits you to annotate all webpages and uses natural language parsing. This add-on is too new to be approved so you'll need to register for a Mozilla account, to download it.

Mike Grishaver won the best Social Justice Mashup prize sponsored by the Elfenworks Foundation or his Social Site Badge-Builder & Poverty Awareness Badge. Anyone can anyone create a custom feed widget to embed on a website.

The Poverty Awareness Badge contains pre-selected blog entries from leading anti-poverty organizations, related Twitters, Diggs, Delicious bookmarks, Flickr photos, MyBlogLog visitors, and YouTube videos. Add this badge or build your own. The site is in private alpha beta so request an invitation or wait a few weeks till it rolls out.

Check out the other prize winners.

Tags: contest | empowerment addon| mashup | poverty badge | prize | social+justice | socialsite

Read more at: Prize Winners Announced at 2008 Mashup Camp
Posted: 2008-11-22T00:31:00.005-06:00

Measuring Link Popularity: Comparison of Free Backlink Checking Tools by

[ Jump to Comparison Table ]
Having your site rank high in the search engine for the topics that it focuses on is a sure way to have lots of traffic. Backlinks are one factor in ranking high in some search engines. Google's PageRank algorithm factors in backlinks.

What's a backlink? A backlink is a link from another site to one of your pages. There are lots of sites that can report your PageRank as well as toolbars. Don't know your site's PageRank? Just do a quick search for "check PageRank" and dozens of tools will pop up.

How do backlinks work? Without getting too detailed, here is a general overview of how it works. If your site has backlinks from high ranking sites that helps raise your site's PageRank. Other factors do come into play. If the backlink from a site has a "no follow" tag that is telling the search engines not to count it. So that's a useful feature to have in a backlink report. The "no follow" convention developed to thwart comment and discussion board spammers who would try to get 1000's of backlinks by leaving spam entries with a link to their site. The benefit of a backlink can also be effected by whether or not the linking site is in the same IP C class.

The anchor text (words that are hyperlinked) are also very important to your search engine ranking. If you want to rank high for "dog" and everyone links to you with the word "canine" then this won't help your ranking for "dog".

Recently I stumbled across some free backlink services and I wondered how effective they were at reporting the features described above. Although Yahoo and Google also have site tools that provide backlink reports, they don't necessarily include all the features mentioned. Also it would be useful to have a consolidated report of backlinks.

I ran my new non-commercial blog site, "Don't Have a Cow, Give a Cow Instead", through each of the services to compare results. This is a subarea of my main site allowing me to test if the reports handled "domain level" or "subdirectories" as well. My cow project site is relatively new and has only a handful of backlinks making it perfect for a quick and easy comparison of result numbers and features. I captured screen shots of the form and result pages from each site and will make a slideshow (shortly) and add it here. In the meantime you can click the thumbnails to view them.

Comparison of Free Backlink Checking Tools
Site Name			Tool URL		Form Page	Result Page
Number	PageRank	Top and Subarea	Anchor Text	No Follow	Embed	Pro $$
iWebTool			www.iwebtool.com/backlink_checker
25	broken	Both	x	x	x	maybe
Backlink Watch			www.backlinkwatch.com
26	x, OBL*	Both	Yes	Yes	x	x
Build Reciprocal Links			www.build-reciprocal-links.com
8, internal	maybe	Both	x	x	Yes	x
SEOAnalytics			http://seoanalytic.com/tools/backlink_checker
102, internal	Yes	Both	x	x	x	x
AddMe!			www.addme.com/popularity.htm
Yes by engine	?	Both	?	?	x	x
Valid Rank			www.validrank.com/pages/backlinks-checker.php
16,764	Yes	Domain	x	Yes	x	x
SmartPageRank			www.smartpagerank.com/pagerank-backlinks.php
26	broken	Both	Yes	Yes	x	x

* OBL - quantity of outbound links from referring site
** Reports Maximum of 100

Is This Sort of Comparison Helpful? What Else Would You Like to See?

Let me know what you think? Should I do more posts like this for webmaster tools?

Did I Miss a Backlink Tool?

Read more at: Measuring Link Popularity: Comparison of Free Backlink Checking Tools
Posted: 2008-11-10T00:31:00.012-06:00

The list above was created via a Yahoo! Pipe. The content is pulled from the OPML file we maintain of feeds for the blogs run by Bloggers@CIL2010 You can use this Pipe at http://pipes.yahoo.com/techfun/bloggersatcil2010 to create a blog widget, an iGoogle or My Yahoo! gadget, or just an ordinarly RSS feed to add to your feed reader.